I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately on random health sites on the topic of ‘how to read nutrition labels’…….
This is a big subject, there are a lot of additives, preservatives, colorings, and a lot more that are added to the typical boxed food. There was a whole section of one of my university nutrition courses devoted to how we are supposed to read these complicated things.
It’s no secret, you need to be an EXPERT to decipher these things. Everything is hidden in the food labels, monosodium glutamate (MSG) is known by over ten different names……..Just to disguise it from YOU!
So…..What do I do about nutrition labels when I’m at the grocery store?……In three words?
Simple;
“DONT READ THEM”
Think about this one for a minute…….If your studying food labels, you’re missing the point entirely.
The real question is…….Why are you buying food with labels on it?
Does an orange have a label? Does a piece of halibut have a label?
Look Ma! No labels!
While everyone else is nitpicking about which kind of cheerios is going to lower their blood pressure more, I just forego the whole thing, and shop in the produce section and the meat counter.
If you want a Master Degree in nutrition, then fine, go nuts with the food labels……learn the chemical names of all the forms of toxins, calculate the percentages of RDA values of each nutrient and vitamin………Just know that it can be much easier, and much simpler.
If you look through my cupboard, you will find a few things that are in packages, that have labels on ‘em. They’re mostly condiments. Stuff like;
Honey
- Ingredients; Honey
Ketchup
- Ingredients; Tomato, vinegar, salt
Lemon Juice
- Ingredients; Lemon Juice
Thick sarcasm aside…….It’s pretty simple stuff. If there’s two hundred ingredients on the label, just ditch the product altogether and find something that’s only made of the necessary ingredients.
Some hard and fast rules;
- “If you can’t pronounce it, your liver won’t like it”
- “If is has a shelf life, it doesn’t have a self life”……incalculably cheesy I know, but you’ll remember it
