You are welcome to the Radiant Health Corner, Today I will be telling you some key points you need to prioritize when you go shopping for groceries. How to read your food labels, I bet you want to know this right, here you go.
HOW TO READ FOOD LABEL
First thing you should note when you are about to buy a product is that many have been fooled by the claims on the front. One of the best thing you can do for yourself is to totally ignore the labels on the front of the packaging, they are mostly deceptive and are there to attract customers, it’s simply an advertising technique.
The front label lure you by making health claims and of course you know how good it is to eat healthy so many consumers assumes that is all there is to it but you need to pay closer attention to details. See what you suppose to see and not what they want you to see, refuse to be deceived.
These manufacturer’s are entrepreneur and they will go out of their way to get their target market to buy their products, the market is a competitive one therefore everyone will be seeking for ways to make them appear better than other company’s product, they tell you theirs is the best health wise and that your health is their concern but how much of the information on the advertisements are true?
We have them making claims in the adverts while in reality it is not totally true or everything could be false and a good example includes many high-sugar breakfast cereals, they are not healthy but the manufacturers make it seem so and this leaves the consumers in a dilemma on what to buy that will benefit them health wise.
These are some simple tips on how to read food label.
1. Look at the Ingredients list
Most of the time, products ingredients are listed by quantity, from the highest to the lowest of amount, that is to say, the manufacturer used more of the first item listed in making the product. A good rule is to take note of the first three ingredients because they are the largest percentage of what the product contains
If the first ingredients contain more of refined grains, sugars or hydrogenated oils, you can be pretty sure the item is unhealthy.
Therefore when making your choice, choose items that have whole foods as the first three on the ingredients list.
Another interesting tip you will not hear in the advert is that if you noticed that the ingredients is getting longer than three lines, it shows that it is a highly processed food, you know what that means, it’s unhealthy and if that is all you feed on, you are at a greater risk of getting exposed to sicknesses you did not bargain for.
2. Watch out for Serving Sizes
At the back of the nutrition labels, they state how many calories and nutrients are in a single serving of the product. However, unknown to many consumers, this serving sizes are in more smaller proportion from what is obtainable. The manufacturers deceive people into thinking the food has less calories but in reality, many people just assume that the entire container is a single serving, little do they know it consist of two or more servings. Therefore, if you are interested in knowing the nutritional value of what you are eating, multiply the serving given on the label by the number of servings you consumed.
The rule is simple when you know the amount of calories you consume per pack; you can quickly tell how much you will be adding when you consume more than one.
3. Watch out for misleading words when reading food label
There are many words manufacturers use which is always misunderstood by consumers to mean the products are healthy. Some are just words but here lies the underlying truth, words like:
• Natural: This does not in any way mean the product resembles anything natural, probably at some point they had to use some material that has a natural source to work with, so beware.
• No added sugar: Some products have such on their label and the consumer is made to believe it is safe. Well there are no guarantees seeing that there are many names for sugar and many types of sugar, some unhealthy sugar must have been added and this is enough to make it unhealthy.
• Low fat: This label most times means that the fat has been reduced but it is at the cost of adding more sugar and you know sugar is unhealthy, you should be careful to read the ingredients at the back so you are not misled.
• Made with low grain: Like I said earlier, the manufacturers are smart and are profit oriented, the product might have so little to do with low grain, you can justify the claim by seeing if whole grain is one of the first three on the ingredient list.
• Fruit flavored: Many processed foods have a name that refers to a natural flavor, we have many orange juice, strawberry flavored drinks etc. These products are not necessarily made from the natural fruit as a matter of fact, they may not have used any fruit but there are chemicals, flavors that are made to taste like real fruits and most times they are unhealthy.
• Zero trans-fat: This means “less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.” But you know the serving sizes are most times ridiculously small, you might be consuming more trans-fat if you consume more of the product.
Having said all these, let us note that there are many healthy foods too that are whole grain, natural or with low fat or calorie but it does not mean that once they are stated on the product the claims are true. Go extra mile and check for yourself, don’t get carried away by the adverts.
Truth be told, the best way to avoid being deceived by food labels is by staying clear processed foods. However, if you decide to still go for packaged foods, ensure you go for those with higher quality and sort out the junks. Whole foods are the best and note that whole foods don’t need a list of ingredient because they are the ingredient in themselves.
For more health tips, keep reading the Radiant Pheobe’s blog, happy weekend people
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