Decoding Food Labels

Taking the time to read labels while you’re running through the aisles at the grocery store may be difficult, especially when you have your kids with you (a good reason to shop alone!), but the benefits to you and your family can be enormous. And once you find good products that suit your taste and health buds, shopping will begin to go faster again.

Reading the label is really the only way to know for sure what's in the food you are eating. Many food manufacturers will put marketing claims in bold in an effort to entice buyers such as ‘high in…’, ‘low fat’… and more. While their claims are often true, reading the label itself will give you a fuller picture of what the product really has to offer.

For instance, some products will claim they contain no trans fats in bold letters while ignoring other less healthy attributes like their sodium or saturated fat content. So you must read beyond the marketing.

Some marketing labels are tricky, as well. For example, a food product can label itself as ‘natural’ as long as it started as a natural product. A chicken can be labeled ‘natural’ even if it was raised using hormones and antibiotics.  When a chicken is labeled ’all natural’, it means that there are also no additives like hormones or antibiotics. So you can see how just knowing a few simple guidelines can make you a more informed shopper.

“Low”
Low is a term used to describe many attributes like, low saturated fat, low fat, low cholesterol, low calorie and low sodium. While these foods are better than their higher fat or sodium content equivalents, low may not be low enough. To qualify as a low sodium product, the item must contain no more than 140 milligrams of sodium per serving. If you need to be on a low sodium diet, look at the labels of comparable items. You very well might find a similar product that doesn’t tout low sodium, but has less than the 140 milligrams of other product.

Fats
Trans fats should be avoided at all costs. Saturated fats turn to cholesterol in your body, clogging arteries, so you want to minimize your intake.

Sugars
Once you start reading food labels, you’ll notice that lots of products that don’t seem to need sweetening contain sugar nevertheless. Pasta sauces vary widely in sugar content, for instance. Why buy one with lots of sugar when you don’t have to? Remember more sugar means more empty calories.

High Fructose Corn Syrup
Almost all nutritionists will agree that high fructose corn syrup in one of the biggest culprits in the nation’s obesity crisis. Food manufacturers use high fructose corn syrup because it is an inexpensive ingredient. A single 12-ounce can of soda has as much as 13 teaspoons of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Even a low fat fruit flavored yogurt can have a significant quantity of high fructose corn syrup.

Sodium
The average daily intake of salt is recommended at less than 2300 mg per day for adults – less for children. If you buy a lot of prepared or frozen foods, canned soups or snack foods, your sodium intake could run too high.

So you can begin to see that reading labels at the supermarket is more an imperative for good health. It might seem hard to find products that fit the bill for all of the above, but once you start reading, you’ll find that good choices do remain. And the more consumers reach for those good choices, the more change we’ll see on those shelves. We can vote with our dollars!