Nutrition Labels
The ability to read nutrition labels properly is very important skill that people must learn how to do if you plan on following specific nutrition guidelines. It surprises me to this day how many people do not know how to do this correctly. It is especially of importance when you are trying to lose weight. You always want to make sure you know what you are eating!
Their are various aspects of the label that I will go over and teach you how to read correctly. The first thing to go over is what is actually in the ingredients. If a product has ingredients that you have never heard of, or you can’t even pronounce you can bet your bottom dollar that they are not good for you. More often then not it is some type of preservative to increase the shelf life of the food. Also, look for sugar and “hidden sugars” such as fructose, glucose, dextrose, etc. Basically anything that ends in -ose is a sugar.
Next look at the actual serving size that they give the calorie and nutrient breakdown for. Foods that are high in calories, sugar, and fat are notorious for making the serving size extremely small (less than what the average person would eat) to fool the person that the product is not that bad for them.
After that you can look at the calories and macronutrient breakdown of the food. This will be very important in deciding if the product is suited to you goals. If a person is on a low carb diet they will want to make sure that there is no hidden sugar and that the carb content is low.
People who have to restrict sodium intake for medical reasons will want to keep an eye on the sodium levels in certain foods.
VERY IMPORTANT- always check out the labels for trans fats. Trans fats are toxic and known to cause cancer and various diseases. The problem with trans fats is that your body does not know how to handle them properly. These fats are found in chips, pastries, etc. By law trans fats must be listed if they are in a product. For more information check out my nutrition questions page.
