How to Read Nutrition Labels
Knowing how to read nutrition labels can be really challenging when products are making inciting health claims all over the packaging.
When I was in university my roommates and I thought we were eating healthy. We were carefully buying products that had great messaging like “low fat”, “no sugar” and “all natural”.
But let me tell you a secret, the packaging doesn’t tell the whole truth!
The best way to know if a product is healthy is to pick up the box and read the ingredients and nutrition label on the back.
Here are 3 tips that will teach you how to read nutrition labels so you don’t make the same mistakes we did in university. You can also check out my segment from Downright Domestic which aired on Rogers TV April 2015 to learn how I shop for some of the most common pantry items.
1. Read the ingredients
How many ingredients are there? Do some sound more like a chemistry experiment than a food? Chances are if you can’t pronounce the ingredient then your body probably can’t digest it.
2. Check the sugar content
You can find the sugar content in grams on the nutrition label and read the ingredients to see where the sugar is hiding. Sugar is usually listed under many different ingredients that end with “ose” like fructose or glucose.
You should also watch out for artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, neotame and saccharin that can cause weight gain, brain tumors, bladder cancer.
3. Keep an eye out for MSG (Monosodium glutamate)
MSG can cause headaches, sweating, numbness, chest pain and nausea. It is disguised in your food as yeast extract, glutemate, glutanic acid, flavour enhancer, textured vegetable proteinor hydrolyzed protein.
Want to learn more about how to read nutrition labels?
During my latest segment on Downright Domestic which aired on Rogers TV April 2015, I tested how snack savvy the host Rebecca was in a game of Guess The Ingredients. Watch the video below to learn what is hiding in your favourite foods and how you can become a savvy shopper.
At the end of the segment I also show you easy it is to make salsa, you can find the recipe for my Tango Mango Salsa here.
If you like this video please give it a thumbs up and share it with someone who loves to learn more about the food they eat!
Those things that you mentioned are part of the meaningless terms like a supplement may say “pharmaceutical grade.” That is meaningless. “Cleaner than a baby’s behind” is also meaningless. “Endorsed by the tooth fairy” is also meaningless. “Endorsed by 25 medical doctors to be nutritional” is meaningless.
The healthiest foods are non-processed foods. How can you tell it is not processed? It does not have an ingredient list. For example something that says spinach is not processed since that is not a list. If it says spinach, salt then that is a processed food and salt is a chemical not a food. If you put 4 ounces of salt in a quart of water and drink it, you will be dead in an hour. WebMD has an article that says that you can be healthier and live longer if you start smoking (not a typo) and quit consuming salt! In other words consuming salt is worse for your health than smoking.