Read Nutrition Labels for Better Health
It can be overwhelming when grocery shopping and trying to decide what is the right choice for me and my goals towards a happier and healthier lifestyle. Not to worry I’m going to make this a lot easier for you! :)
Before I get started, thank you to my lovely mother for teaching me from an early age to read the labels. Whenever I went grocery shopping with my mom as a kid and to this day she consistently reads the labels of food items that peaked her interest. As a kid I never really knew what she was doing, I thought she was just infatuated with the packaging to be quite honest.
LOOK FOR MINIMAL INGREDIENTS: Lets say you have a special place in your heart for peanut butter. If you’re going to purchase a jar of peanut butter be sure that the only thing you're consuming is peanuts. You can spot this by looking at the ingredients list below the nutrition facts. Peanut butter brands such as Peter Pan will add sugar, salt, oils and other ingredients that sound like they came off the periodic table.
CHECK CARBOHYDRATES: Carbs want to be your friend and you should let them but we need to be careful about where these carbs are coming from. When we consume carbohydrates they’re broken down into blood sugars (glucose), which doesn’t aid in your satiety levels as good as proteins or fats do. This does not mean to avoid carbs like your high school ex. If you’re an elite athlete or a very active individual we need them to keep us moving; they should be making up 40-60% of our total daily calories. It’s IMPORTANT to note that these carbs are divided into TWO CATEGORIES.
•Dietary Fiber - Foods that are high in dietary fiber will provide us with a stronger satiated feeling. Your caloric intake will reduce and aid you in maintaining a healthy weight. You can find the dietary fiber on the nutrition facts, if the product has over 3 grams that’s considered to be good. We should aim to consume a minimum of 14 grams of dietary fiber per 1,000 calories consumed.
•Sugar - Added sugar is okay to be consumed in small amounts. Don’t be afraid of sugar that comes from whole foods such as fruits unless you’re eating endless bags of blueberries or grapes which I highly doubt any of us do. Food and drinks that are generally high in added sugar tend to be higher in calories and are associated with negative health issues. Some foods such as yogurt or canned fruits like peach slices will have natural sugars, those sugars that you see on the back of the nutrition facts will be highlighted as ‘sugars’. However, food companies will add sugar to the products and thankfully they have them labeled below the word ‘inlcudes # of added sugars’. I’ll never understand why you need to add sugars to canned fruits or canned vegetables but hey I guess ‘Make America Healthy Again’.
% of Daily Value: Percentage of daily value is the number of food and beverage labels that presents how much of a nutrient in a serving contributes to a total daily diet.
• A %DV of 5% or less is considered to be low - Remember we don’t just eat for hedonistic purposes, we should eat to feed ourselves good energy and provide us with a healthy heart. You should aim for these low percentages when it comes to sodium, saturated fats, and sugars.
• A %DV of 20 or higher is considered to be high - Use this number for foods that provide our bodies with good energy! When looking at healthy foods it’s a good habit to look at foods that are high in %DV for nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, calcium, etc.
CHECK SERVING SIZE: The first thing you see on the top of the table of the nutrition facts is the serving size. It will either be measured in cups, grams, ounces, or a simple unit like “1 cookie”. Don’t make the mistake in thinking that the whole package is a single serving, the serving size on the nutritional facts applies to ONE SERVING, NOT THE ENTIRE PACKAGE.
• As an example lets take a look at the share size servings of my childhood favorite peanut M&M’s. As you can see from the nutrition label, the word ‘calories’ and the number of calories is boldly highlighted. One might assume that the entire package is 160 calories (I know I did when I was younger), the word ‘serving size’ and ‘3 servings per container’ is strategically and significantly smaller than the rest of the font. Be cautious and aware of these minuscule details that we often overlook. Serving sizes is not a recommendation for people to eat, think of it as reference point for your caloric intake.
• BONUS - Lastly I want to cover briefly a food item that you commonly find that are labeled as healthy or foods we think are healthy but in reality they provide very little benefit.
GATORADE - You might think you’re being ‘healthy’ because you’re consuming a sports drink but in reality those sports drinks contain a lot of garbage like your local University frat house. Regular gatorades contain over 30 grams of sugar which is the same amount found in a coca-cola. If you’re going to buy ANY sports drink be sure that it contains zero sugar.
NATURE VALLEY PROTEIN GRANOLA: I cannot lie to you, but this granola had a chokehold on me back in high school like Nike elite socks. It was delectable, delicious, chocolatey, and it’s ‘healthy’ because it’s Nature Valley and the word PROTEIN is boldly labeled! What’s the harm?? Well per serving, this granola offers 290 calories with 18 grams of sugar and only 13 grams of protein. 18 grams of sugar is more than half of your daily value! The American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day for women and 36 grams for men. Even those numbers are still too high in my humble opinion.
• Moral of the story don’t let the name of these brands get the best of you and get in the habit of reading labels so that you can live a healthier and more prosperous life.
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