Are You Reading Food Labels WRONG? The mistake most people make + How to spot if a product is good for you in 5 seconds or less.
When you read a food label, what’s the first thing you look for? If you’re like most people you’re looking top to bottom, scanning for calories, fat content, and then going down to carbs, sugar, protein, maybe looking at the vitamins and minerals.
This is ass backwards.
Diet culture probably taught you that calories are what matter, but as a holistic nutritionist, when I pick up a product, calories are the LAST thing I look at (if I look at it at all).
The first thing I check is the ingredients list.
Because if the product is full of garbage ingredients, I don’t care how high the protein is, how low the calories are, or how much fibre they added. If the ingredients are poor, it’s poor quality food (and I ain’t gonna eat it).
The ingredients list tells us way more about the product (and the company) than any fancy packaging or bold health claims it shows on the front.
Things to look for on the ingredients list:
Sugars and all their different names (cane sugar, brown rice syrup, glucose-fructose, corn syrup, maltodextrin, dextrose, sucrose, fructose, agave syrup, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrates, etc) If sugar shows up multiple times under different names, that’s usually a red flag.
Seed oils (canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil blends). This is like my #1. If seed oils are in the product, I know this company doesn’t truly value nutritional quality.
Artificial ingredients and preservatives (artificial flavours, artificial colours, Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1, sodium benzoate, BHT, BHA, potassium sorbate, nitrates/nitrites, MSG, sucralose, aspartame)
Fillers, gums, and binders (carrageenan, xanthan gum, guar gum, cellulose gum, modified corn starch, soy protein isolate, maltodextrin.) These are often added to improve texture, shelf life, or lower production costs.
Ingredients that sound more like a chemistry lab than actual food. If the ingredients list is extremely long and packed with words you don’t recognize, it’s probably far from its natural form.
Overall, the ingredient list shouldn’t need to be super long and confusing. You should know the ingredients, it should be things you could buy yourself, and the list should be short and sweet. If it passes that test, then you’re onto step two.
The Nutrition Facts section
Where I’m looking for
Protein
Fibre
Sugar
Also, the ratio of fibre to carbs/sugars (which gives us an idea of how it will impact blood sugar)
From there, I may glance at the fats, calories, and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) but at this point, I usually know if it’s something I would eat or would not want to put in my body.
Finally, I look at the serving size. How much of this product am I eating to get this nutritional value?
Moral of the story, the ingredients list tells you more of if this product is something that will be healthful for you. Focusing on what ingredients they use to make it not just the macronutrient breakdown, is key!
Check out my latest YouTube video for an example of how I read food labels when I’m shopping.
My general rules when I’m shopping:
If it has seed oils, I’m 99% of the time gonna put it back. It tells me this company isn’t using high quality ingredients and that it will be inflammatory to my body.
If it has fillers If it has a lot of ‘extra’ ingredients on the list that I wouldn’t buy myself, then it’s not a high-quality product.
If it has too much sugar. I’m not someone who is gonna say we can’t have sugar, but if sugar is the first ingredient or there is a lot of it, I’m gonna put it back. My blood sugar doesn't need that nor does my gut.
