Labels can be so incredibly misleading in so many different ways, making it hard for anyone to get to the bottom of what is really going on inside the package.
When it comes down to it, the main thing I tell every client is to read the ingredients, not the nutritional information.
While nutritional information can be helpful, it's really not the information we need when it comes to choosing a product.
So here are my top tips for choosing the healthiest foods for you and your fam-damily:
1) Ingredients are listed in the order of their proportion in the product. The more there is, the closer to the top it is. This makes the first few ingredients the most important.
2) Read label claims, but DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.
a) Claims like "All Natural" mean absolutely nothing. You must look past this, and onto certifications
b) Do not purchase anything that is made of a fatty food, but states "low fat"
c) Just because something is organic, doesn't mean it's healthy
d) Those "health check" labels? They are purchased. And can be found on things like KD and terrible breakfast cereals. Unfortunately, politics play a huge part in food and what we are lead to believe is healthy.
3) Ignore nutrition facts. This provides little to no insight on the actual nutrition of the product. They are pretty much always guesstimations, and barely give you any real information. The only thing that I will sometimes check here is the sugar content.
4) Find the ingredient list. Here is where you will find all the real information for the product.
a) Find where sugar falls on the list. It should not be within the first few ingredients.
b) Look for other names and forms of sugar. Other names to look for:
Glucose Fructose Maltose Maple Syrup Agave Caramel Galactose
Dextrose High Fructose Corn Syrup Glucose Solids Cane Juice Dextran
Brown Sugar Sugar Honey Turbinado Florida Crystals Muscovado Treacle Molasses Fruit Concentrate Starch Barley Malt Beet Sugar Rice Syrup
c) Make sure nothing is "enriched". This means that is has first been stripped of all it's nutrients in processing, then has had artificial nutrients added back in. These "nutrients" are often from GMO and are barely (if at all) absorbable by the body.
d) Look for common GMO ingredients. These are mostly corn, soy, and canola, and all ingredients derived from these (corn starch, corn flour, soy flour, canola oil, soy protein, etc.)
i) other common GMO ingredients can be hidden under different names:
Amino Acids Sodium Ascorbate Vitamin C Citric Acid Ethanol Lactic Acid
Natural and Artifical Flavours Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein Maltodextrin
Monosodium Glutamate Yeast Extract Textured Vegetable Protein Xanthan Gum
ii) Look for the Certified Non-GMO label if the product you are looking at contains any of these ingredients
iii) A organic certification also means that the product has to be non-GMO
5) Look for any words that are not recognizable as a food product, or names that you cannot pronounce. Artifical colours, preservatives, and fillers are often toxic and carcinogenic. On top of that, preservatives and colours specifically and have been proven over and over again to at least partly play a role in things like ADD, ADHD, and other behavioural disorders.
If you have any other questions, or if I missed something, please let me know! These labels can be incredibly confusing and I'm more than happy to help you pick the right products for you and your family.
Stay informed!
Jaime
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