Feeling Lost In The Food Label World?

Nutrition labels: Deciphering health claims

If you're like most shoppers, you're confused by the plethora of health claims on food packages. Be savvy and look past the hype.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store for two hours.  Yes, you read that right.  TWO HOURS.  And no, I did not have any small children in tow to blame for the length of my shopping trip.  In fact, anytime I go to the store, it usually takes me about that long to get what I need.  Why?  Because I read the back of every single item to see what is in the ingredients list. And you should too.
So how do you read the label you ask?  I by no means am an expert, but I do have a few simple guidelines I follow:
- Read the ingredients before looking at calories, fat grams, sugars, etc.  It is more important to know what the product is made of vs what nutrients are in it.  The reason I say that is because just like anything, there are good calories, and bad.  Good fats and bad.  Etc. Etc. Etc.  It is more important to eat simple, clean, whole foods than a strict 1400 calorie diet made up of nothing other than chemically altered ingredients that your body cannot process.
-When it comes to a ingredient labels, keep the list short.  If you turn an item over to read the ingredients and there is an exuberant list of ingredients, put it back.  Less ingredients is usually more nutrition.  For instance, I have two different loaves of bread in front of me right now.  Both claiming to be healthy.  But the labels don't lie so lets check out what each of them really contain:

Loaf #1: Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients (in order):

stone ground whole wheat flower (good)

water (no biggie)

brown sugar (questionable for a 3rd ingredient)

yeast (of course)

wheat gluten (hmmm what exactly is that?)

and then it contains 2% or less of the following:

(insert 18 ingredients/chemicals I cannot spell nor pronounce yet they expect me to feed it to my body)

No thank you.

Nutrition facts per slice:

50 calories

1g fat

115mg sodium

10g carbs

2g fiber (somewhat low for a "natural" bread)

4g protein (not too bad)

Loaf #2: Alpine Valley Breads 9 Grain

Ingredients (in order):

wheat flour (good)

organic whole grain wheat flour (great)

water (normal)

honey (better sweetener option over sugar)

rye flakes (good)

barley (good)

vital wheat gluten (again ???)

cracked wheat (good)

corn rye (not too educated on this one)

millett (good)

flaxseed (good)

cultured wheat (ok)

vinegar (not too bad)

sea salt (better option than table salt)

yeast (of course)

Nutrition:

70 calories

1g fat

108mg sodium

15g carbs

3g fiber

3g sugar

7g protein

yes please!

So you may be asking yourself why would I choose the bread that has more calories in it?  It is simple.  Because I know all the ingredients that make up the bread.  I know that my body can process those ingredients in loaf #2 instead of holding onto the chemicals that make up the loaf #1, resulting in 50 stored calories in loaf #1 vs. 70 burnable calories in loaf #2.  And THAT is why it is so important to eat correctly while working out in order to see results.  working out and proper nutrition go hand in hand.

-another tip when looking at labels is to not completely ignore the nutrition aspect of the label, but to pay most attention to ingredients.  When looking at and comparing labels, look for high fiber and protein.  And low saturated fats (unhealthy fats), cholesterol, and sodium.

To put it in a nutshell: if you cant pronounce the name of the ingredient, its probably not good for you.  If it has more than a handful of ingredients, its probably not a clean and whole food.  And if there is no protein or fiber, you can probably pass on it and be okay.