ARTICLES

READING FOOD LABELS

Food labels contain a wealth of information about the healthiness of a product if you know how to interpret them. The main purpose of packaging is to sell the product and it doesn’t tell you anything about how healthy the product is inside. Packaging only tells you what the manufacturer wants you to think about the product. Even buying a product in the health food store doesn’t necessarily mean it is guaranteed to be healthy food.

Lately, it seems as though everyone is coming out with a so-called “healthy logo” program that adorns the front of packaging to help consumers choose a healthier product. It is helpful when walking down the aisle to quickly see a “healthy” product, but it has recently come to light that some of these healthy logos are actually for sale and the standards they meet are quite lax. It’s a buyer-beware world and completely trusting the “healthy logo” listed on products is not always the wisest thing to do. Make sure to read the ingredients and nutrition facts on the back to make an informed decision.

The general rule to follow is if the list of ingredients is long, there are probably a lot of additives in the product. If the list of ingredients is short, it may or may not have harmful ingredients in it so read the ingredients carefully. Ingredients on the label are listed in the order of largest quantity first and smallest quantity last.   Because consumers are starting to be savvy, manufacturers have started to “tweak” their list of ingredients. One way of shifting products down the list of ingredients is by using different names for the same ingredient. For instance, there are many different names used for sugar.   Sugar can be called glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, dextrose, corn syrup solids, corn sweeteners, hydrolyzed corn starch, brown sugar, dextrin, honey, maltodextrin or molasses.  There is nothing wrong with having sugar in the product, but it is the amount of sugar that needs to be monitored since too much sugar promotes tooth decay and can lead to obesity.

If you are trying to avoid Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) be aware that it can also be called yeast extract, yeast nutrient, yeast food, autolyzed yeast, Monopotassium glutamate, hydrolyzed protein, gelatine, calcium caseinate or glutamate. Virtually all hydrolyzed or autolyzed names contain some amount of MSG.

Sodium is also an important ingredient to look at since many packaged products contain a lot of sodium. Too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure and increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. Sodium can also be listed as different names such as salt, MSG, sodium chloride, disodium phosphate, sodium nitrate, or sodium gluconate.

Looking at the Nutrition Facts table will definitely help make an informed decision when comparing two similar products.  The nutritional values are based on a specific amount of the product which is listed in the upper left hand corner of the table. Make sure the amount listed is actually the amount you would eat. The % Daily Value is very important to look at. It gives you a quick overview of how much nutrition each product contains and can be quickly compared to the next product. Keeping calories, fats - saturated fats and Trans fats, cholesterol, sodium and sugars to a minimum is always a good idea.

For a more detailed explanation of the Nutrition Facts Label, please visit the Health Canada website at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/cons/inl_main_e.html#1.