People buy food every day without realising that the packaging contains everything that they need to know about what the food contains, how many calories and fat it has, and how much of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals it has, it any. Many may be confused at just what the information on the side means – how to read it, and how to work out what it all means once you have read it.
There are two kinds of labels on packaging. The first is known as the ‘Front label’, and is basically extra advertising space for the product. It might say ‘Healthy’ or ‘added vitamins’ – things which the modern consumer wants to hear. There are a few things which you should look out for on the front label which should make you turn right over to the back for the truth.
*Fortified, added, plus. Words like this mean that the important minerals and other fibres have been taken away during the processing, and vitamins have been added. A label with the goods still in will say ‘100% ….’, or ‘high fibre’
*Fruit drink. This will never have even seen a fruit, let alone have any in. This will be made up of flavours and sugar. Drinks with real fruit in will say ‘100% fruit’ on them.
*Wheat or multigrain. Many people thing that multigrain means whole grain. This is not the case. Any product with whole grain in will say so clearly.
*Sugar free. This does not mean that the product is low fat. Many manufacturers will try and compensate for the lack of sugar with man-made ingredients, or artificial sweeteners which aren’t good for the body. Low fat products will frequently have little fat, but contain masses and masses of sugar. They may have less fat, but their calorie count is sky-high.
Now you’ve looked quickly at the front label, you need to look at the back. Begin with the ‘serving size’, which will be near the nutrition box. An essential part of long-term weight management is controlling the size of the portion. Read this information carefully: if a package says one serving is 600g, and you have a 750g package, you will need to adjust your calorie amount to take this into consideration.
Once you have worked out how much of a serving you are eating at each sitting, look at the nutrition box, and find the calories. Be sure that you know what the calories are referring to. You may find yourself reading a calorie column, and thinking that the item contains 1000 calories…though this is for a kilogram of the food. Once you have worked out exactly how much of the calorie box relates to the serving you are eating, then you can do the sums and learn the amount of calories you’re eating, and how much of that is fat.
While you are looking at the back, check out the ingredients label. This is a detail overlooked by even the most devout of calorie counters. If you are eating a health food bar, where does the ‘sugar’ come in the list? The ingredient which is most present in the food appears first, and it is in descending order until the end. Therefore, if ‘sugar’ appears before wholegrains or fruit, then you may well not want to eat. In addition, if there are only a few recognizable ingredients, such as ‘sugar’ and ‘flour’, and the rest are three-syllables long and not understandable: put it back. You may also want to choose another food if you see the words ‘partially hydrogenated’ – this is often a euphemism for trans fats, which has been linked to rises in ‘bad’ cholesterol.
