Dear Dad,
Literacy rates are declining. I’m not sure about actual reading, I’m referring to reading nutrition labels.
The FDA mandates that all food products contain a “nutrition label.” Each label must include: total calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, total sugar, added sugars, protein, vitamin D, calcium, iron, potassium, nutrient amounts and % daily value, ingredients list, allergen information, total weight of product, and manufacturing information.
Below is a sample label from a frozen lasagna:1
Knowledge is power, right! Well, of course, only if you know what to do with it.
Many readers look straight to total calories, carbohydrates, protein, and/or fat. Either nutrient seems a reasonable place to start but I suggest not the best place. It’s no secret that in past decades public sentiment has waged war on each of these categories. Low carbs! Low Fat! High Fat (Keto)! High Protein! Zero Calories!
When your first instinct is to check the calories, carbs, protein, or fat in a product you are also most susceptible to marketing schemes. For example, if protein is your nutrient of choice, “high protein” granola will seem like a great find. Though, you will likely miss the 14 g of added sugar per 1/2 cup serving.
Not to mention the ingredient list includes whole grain oats, sugar, soy protein isolate, semisweet chocolate chips, canola oil, refiner’s syrup, tapioca syrup, corn starch, soy lecithin, salt, baking soda, natural flavor, corn starch. Why so many ingredients in granola when we already know granola can be made delicious with very few ingredients.
It’s this reason, that I believe any reading of the nutrient label should start with the list of ingredients. Unless it is obvious by the product (like a bag of apples or potatoes) all labels must contain an itemized list of ingredients, in the order of most to least measured by weight. This list will illuminate every substance within the item you are anbout to eat and provide a good picture of the quality of the food.
Think of the differences between a jar of Jiff Peanut Butter (Ingredients: roasted peanuts, sugar, molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils [rapeseed and soybean], mono-glycerides, di-glycerides, salt) versus a fully Natural Peanut Butter (ingredients: dry roasted peanuts).
Yikes, quite a difference even though both items have nearly the same number of calories, carbs, protein, and fat per serving! The natural peanut butter could be part of a healthy diet, while the Jiff should be thought more as a processed peanut flavored spread.
Looking first to ingredient labels will also help to identify marketing schemes. My favorite example comes from KIND a company whose website reads, “we believe you shouldn’t have to choose between what tastes good and what’s good for you.”2
Let’s evaluate.
Here is a picture taken from the side of a Kind peanut granola bar.
An educated ingredient reader should see this health claim and think, “hmm. that’s good that peanuts are the #1 ingredient, tell me more about 2 through 5.” Well… that’s where Kind falls of the rails. Here is a picture of the back of the box from the same product.
Darn. Good marketing KIND, but I’ll pass.
Apply these three tips as a rule of thumb when reading ingredient lists and making corresponding food choices:
Eat whole foods! A “whole food” would be a single ingredient, you should aim or limit food products that you eat to fewer than 5 ingredients.
Keep sugar out of the top three! If sugar or a sugar substitute appears near the beginning of the ingredient list keep away. The earlier an item appears in the ingredient list the more of it that is contained in the product.
Can you pronounce the ingredient? Eat only items that you can pronounce or items that you can picture in your head. Foreign looking chemical compounds are a short-hand notification of ultra processing and are not your friends.
Readers are leaders.
With Love,
JSR
https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label
https://www.kindsnacks.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqQDwIVdqFunNnKdpf2EAzAkLzk93QdT-VEANolO2j9pRUNHU_w