About a year ago, before i had learnt how to understand and read a food label, i would look at that nutritional information and all that i could see was numbers, numbers, confusing numbers, long words, words i couldn't pronounce, and yes, MORE NUMBERS! Well there is good news people!!! I am going to try and help you with the BASICS of how to desypher these labels in the SIMPLEST way that i can. I suggest you grab a label now to refer to as we go through this! Also, im not claiming to be a nutritionist! Just simply pointing out the basics!
Lets start with the ingredient list. Firstly, on all packaging, ingredients are listed in order of quantity within the product. Whatever is listed first in the panel has the MOST volume in the food and simililarly, whatever is listed last has the least volume. Obviously if sugar or salt are one of the first ingredients listed, we would try to steer clear and make a better choice. We should also take into consideration the amount of ingredients listed. If something has a never ending story of ingredients, chances are its been highly processed and again, you may want to make a better choice. My last point is that if there are a whole lot of chemicals and words listed which you can barely read let alone pronounce most nutritionists would tell you to steer clear. We should aim to be eating foods as close to their natural form as possible!
Serving size. Alot of the time there is more than one serving in packaged goods. So simply check the servings per container/package or the size of the serving so that you can measure what you are consuming and be aware of this before you are six servings deep into a bag of potato chips!
Sugar. There are approximately 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon. So next time you read a label saying a product contains for example 20g of sugar, just be aware and picture in your head that this is actually equating to 5 teaspoons of sugar. Some foods containing fruits will be high in sugar however they will be rich in many other healthy things so do not always avoid sugars. Sometimes they are good!
Sodium. We should be trying to keep our sodium levels below roughly 2000mg a day. If a food has an extremely high sodium content it is more than likely that combined with the rest of your diet for that day, you will be far over that healthy guideline.
Carbohydrate and Protein. Like i said i am trying to keep this simple, but carbs and protiens are both macronutrients which contain 4 calories per gram. Therefore when you are reading how many grams of carbs/protein on a package, you can multiply each by 4 to see exactly how many calories are coming from each source compared to the total amount of calories in the food. Everyones diet is different, but if you are a person who eats a high protien diet you would obviously choose foods where most of the calories are coming from protein.
Calories. Calories are not evil!!! They are a unit of energy! Love them, learn about them and use them correctly to nourish and fuel your body every day. Everybodies daily caloric intake and needs are different and specific so i won't expand too much here. I will just say steer away from foods which are super high in calories leaving you with not many calories for the rest of the day. We want to spread our calories out evenly throughout the day to ensure sustained, even energy! Again, by multiplying grams of carbs and protien by 4, and grams of fat by 9, we can see where most of the calories in the food are coming from and make better choices.
Fats. Last but not least is fat! Listed will be total grams of fat. Multiply this number by 9 to see how many calories in the food are coming from fat. (9 calories per gram of fat). 25-35% of our diet each day should be made up of HEALTHY fats. The label will then list what types of fats the product contain being either monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated or trans fats. If the product is mainly trans fat then it is highly processed and your body is going to have a really hard time processing this type of fat. It is the worst so put it down. Expect to see saturated fat in all animal products from dairy to meat to eggs. Polyunsaturated (walnuts,flaxseed,fish oil,salmon) and monounsaturated (avocado,almonds,olive oil) are seen as good fats and are ESSENTIAL in your diet. Fat can be your friend too!
Basically a good guide is to try and eat foods which are as natural as possible. The less preservatives and extra additives the better! I hope that this has helped you. Like i said i have tried to keep this to basics and as SIMPLE as i can. I hope you feel more confident in reading a label and making aq more informed and better decision for your body! You only get one body so respect it and take care of it as much as you can. Happy eating!!!
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