Finding Positives on Food Labels

It's been said before, but it needs to be said again.

It has shown in research that those who read food labels (facts and ingredients) eat healthier and maintain a healthier lifestyle. It makes sense people! Paying attention to the details is super important.

When you read a food label, what are you looking at? Calories? Fat? Sugar? You should look at these three things to make sure they are not dominating the item. But what else should you look at? When it comes to positives look here:

• Protein - eating protein along side of carbohydrates has shown to curb your hunger for a longer time, thus causing you to eat less Calories and keep the weight down. Also, for recovering purposes, protein in the ratio of 3:1 carbs:protein will help you recover faster.
• Mono and Poly unsaturated fats - a lot of labels can be misleading. It can be super high in fat so the Calories and Fat from Calories will be high, but the benefits from these fats is still great. When buying high fat items (oils, nuts, some meats) look not only at total fat, see what fats they are. These fats help with heart health, skin health, and vitamin absorption.
• Fiber - many of you probably already look here. Keep the fiber content high. And remember, fruit and veggies are still the best option on where to get your fiber.
• Serving Size or Serving Per Container - this one is REALLY important. All of the other stuff you look at will be thrown completely out of proportion if you don't look here at all. See how much one serving size is. If you can't imagine how many that is for you, try to split it by the serving per container. And then be realistic. When you will use the product, how much will you use?

There are definitely more things to look at. How about those ingredients? People like to avoid high fructose corn sugar, enriched grains, MSG, weird chemicals, and more. All of that is ok, but there are other things to keep in mind. Remember that the list of ingredients goes in order by its weight inside the product. So if something is towards the beginning, theres a lot of it. If it is at the end there is much much less. Here are two good things to look for:

• Recognizable items - Peanuts, apples, milk, eggs, salt, etc. All of these things are ingredients you've seen or know of and are things you'd eat. Making sure that there are not too many unpronouncable or unfamiliar ingredients will increase the wholeness of the product and the nutritional value of the product.
• Less items - Less is better. If you are reading a whole book of ingredients in something as simple as bread, you may want to look elsewhere. That is some super processed food. Not only is your body not always happy about the amount of processed food that goes through, but it loses a ton of its nutritional value when processed too much.

Finally, make sure you are checking the dates. I want you guys being safe with those perishables.

Don't get thrown off by the front label. Look at that nice black and white nutrition facts label and ingredients before throwing it in the cart. Simply by reading, you will be on the way to healthier eating! The more you knoooooow...