Live Better Series: Understanding Food Labels
Jan 18, 2018
Do you get overwhelmed when you walk in the grocery store? Should you trust the health claims that are on many food products? Do you need to worry about ingredients that you don’t recognize? Nutrition and ingredient labels can be misleading and downright confusing. Here are a few tips to help you choose what’s best for you and your family.
- Watch out for misleading health claims and nutrient content claims: Health claims suggest a correlation between a food and a health-related condition, like, “calcium may reduce the risk of osteoporosis” or “heart healthy”. Although these claims have to meet a certain FDA requirement to be put on the product, this doesn’t always mean it’s a good choice. For example, a regular can of chicken noodle has 690 mg of sodium per serving while a “low sodium” version has 460 mg of sodium per serving. This is almost half the sodium as the regular, but it's still fairly high in sodium when you consider your suggested intake is no more than 2300 mg per day. Don’t just trust the wording on the front of a product; check out the nutrition label and ingredient list too.
- What’s important when looking at a nutrition label: First, look at the serving size; many foods or drinks can be finished at one time, but are listed as 2 or 3 servings instead of 1. Next, look at grams of sugar, which includes natural sugars found in milk, fruit, and grains. Starting July 2018, companies will be required to print new nutrition labels that will provide a more realistic look at what you're eating. This new label will have an “Added Sugars” section, so you know what you are getting. Aim for 5 grams or less of sugar per serving in most products. Here is a picture of the current label next to the new label due to come out July 2018.
While you should always look at the nutrition label, it doesn’t usually paint the whole picture, so look at the ingredient label. And, of course, know that much of your nutrients will come from fresh foods that don’t have a label at all. - Know what to look for when reading your ingredient label: Many packaged foods have added sugar that is disguised as something you might not recognize. Always look for hidden sugars like brown rice syrup, molasses, fruit juice concentrate, etc.
Did you know that nutrition labels list ingredient from what weighs the most to what weighs the least? Here is the ingredient label for planters honey roasted peanuts: PEANUTS, SUGAR, HONEY, CORN SYRUP, PEANUT AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL, SALT, FRUCTOSE, CORNSTARCH, XANTHAN GUM
It appears that there are more peanuts than sugar, but honey, corn syrup, and fructose are all sugars that, added up, total more sugar than any other ingredient listed.The same goes for Kind Cinnamon Oat Clusters with Flax Seeds. While whole grain blend is the first ingredient, you'll also fine dried cane syrup, molasses, and brown rice syrup among the list of ingredients. This could likely mean that there, again, is more sugar than whole grain in this product.