To make sure your family eats healthy, read the labels. It’s that simple. Here are tricks of the trade you’ll want to look for.
More is less. The more ingredients, the less likely it is to be healthy. In most cases, the ideal label will contain no more than five or six ingredients. Less can be more. Some manufacturers love to shrink the size of their servings per package in order to reduce the calories per serving. The product may not be as healthy as it appears if its serving size is unrealistically small. Can you use it in a sentence? Food additives usually come with long complex names, or are called things like “sodium benzoate.” If the label is filled with words you’d expect to find on a chemistry test, the product is probably loaded with food additives. Grains, Fibers & Sodium. Beware of labels with ingredients like “rice.” If the grain is truly unprocessed, it’s likely to reflect that in its description. High fiber counts in the nutrition section is a good sign. It means the product is likely to be using higher levels of real fruits, veggies or grains. Conversely, high sodium levels are a tip off of highly processed food that require artificial flavoring to satisfy their consumers.
Experience Life can help you become a great label detective here.