As I wandered down the aisles of my local HEB with my hubby this morning, I realized that it is EXTREMELY confusing to read food labels. I don’t know if it was my husband asking me after every product he picked up, “Is this good?” Or if it was all the millions of ingredients that made me dizzy just trying to decipher. So I did a little bit of research on some general guidelines you can follow, as well as some ingredients you should avoid at all costs.
A few things to remember when looking at a nutrition label:
The more ingredients you can’t pronounce, the more you should avoid them.
The ingredients are listed by percent. Meaning, if whole wheat flour is the first ingredient, than it probably makes up the majority of the product. If you have never heard of the ingredient, the likelihood that the ingredient is a chemical, is high. I’ve put together a quick list of ingredients you should look for.
Some key words to look for:
- Hydrogenated – This is the process of making an oil hot, and this causes bubbles to run through it. When the bubbles run through it, the fat get some hydrogen added, making the oil or fat into a solid. This means Trans Fat. Trans fats do all kinds of terrible things to your body like clog your arteries, and raise your cholesterol. The further up this is on your ingredients list, the more trans fat the product contains.
- High Fructrose Corn Syrup – it is the most common sweetener in processed foods. Commonly linked with weight gain, insulin resistance and high blood pressure. A study done shows that the type of fat that high fructose corn syrup causes is belly fat as well as a fatty liver.
- Artificial Colors – cause allergies, fatigue, asthma, skin rashes, hyperactivity and headaches.
- Artificial Flavors – causes allergic reactions, eczema, dermatitis, and can affect your thyroid (meaning it affects your metabolism meaning it can cause you to gain weight).
- Artificial Sugars (Aspartame, Succralose, Saccharin, Sorbitol, Maltodextrin, ends with “ose” or “itol” means its a sugar. – causes CANCER dizziness, hallucinations and headaches.
- MSG – Monosodium Glutamate (yeast extract, glutamate, soy protein isolate, barley malt, malt extract)– increases your appetite (i.e. gain weight), headaches, nausea, change in heart rate
- Potassium Bromate (bromic acid, potassium salt) – has been shown to cause cancer in animals.
Hopefully this will give you a better idea the next time you are sitting in the middle of the pasta aisle looking completely confused at the 3 million boxes of pasta :)
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