Did you know that every food that comes from your grocery store, except for whole fruits and vegetables, comes with nutrition facts and an ingredients label? The FDA requires it. That means no matter how healthy a product seems, the truth is on the back label. It might look difficult to decipher at first, but it's quite simple.
Take a look at this Naked smoothie:
It's all natural, has no sugar added, packs in almost a day's worth of protein, and must have lots of pineapple, oranges, and coconut blended in, right? But look at the ingredients:
Ingredients are listed by weight. It's mainly juice! That's a lot of sugar and no fiber from whole fruits. Then, to reach the 30 grams of protein labeled on the front, they add a bunch of processed "protein" concoctions. Be sure to look at the serving size. One serving is 8 fluid ounces, and there are two servings in a bottle. That's 440 calories and 56 grams of sugar per 16-ounce bottle! Wow. You're much better off making your own smoothie made of real fruit, a little juice, and some yogurt to add protein.
I was blown away by this one:
Aw.. it looks so comforting and delicious! The box is small, so this little meal can't be that bad.....
Holy !!!! The chicken pot pie, which couldn't have been bigger than 4 inches in diameter, packs 660 calories, 50% of your fat, 70% of your saturated fat, and 44% of your sodium that you can consume in one day, based on the average 2,000 calorie diet! And you probably won't even be full after you eat this! Not to mention an ingredients label so extensive that it would only fit on the side:
White meat chicken should consist of white meat chicken, shouldn't it? Their cooked white meat chicken consists of "white meat chicken, water, modified rice starch, chicken flavor, dehydrated chicken broth, chicken powder, flavoring."
Do you flavor your chicken with chicken flavor? How about polysorbate 80, sodium benzoate, or lard in your chicken pot pie?
Next exhibit: Chocolate chip cookies!!! Wait, chocolate chip (flavored) cookies?
I can't believe these are even called cookies. They don't contain real chocolate chips, just sugary oil globs flavored with cocoa. It contains artificial flavor, and these cookies are loaded with trans fats. Trans fat is fat that is commercially processed to extend the shelf life of processed foods, such as baked goods. It's made for the benefit of the food companies, not you! Consuming trans fat (and saturated fat) increases bad cholesterol and your risk for heart disease.
Be aware that foods can be listed as "trans fat free" as long as it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Those 0.5 grams can add up. The only way to be sure it contains no trans fat is to look in the ingredients list. Trans fat hides under the name "partially hydrogenated oil."
Finally, a food growing in popularity lately -- yogurt. Plain yogurt is healthy. It regulates your digestive system and is a good source of protein and calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. The only ingredients are cultured milk and pectin. But when things get fancy, read carefully:
What originally contained 2 ingredients now has 15, including high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, aspartame, and artificial coloring! Try a healthier treat: plain nonfat/lowfat yogurt sweetened with honey or agave nectar, add some fresh fruit and sliced almonds or a couple teaspoons of granola. It tastes a lot better than this artificial diet yogurt!
Be sure to look at the nutrition facts and ingredients list on every food you buy. In general, the shorter and simpler the ingredients list, the better. Think, would I use these ingredients if I were making this from scratch? Look out for artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and anything you can't pronounce. On the nutrition facts, the most important part is the serving size.
Health claims on foods are designed to trick you. Know what you're eating by reading the facts. Or better yet, make food from scratch so you know exactly what goes into your body.
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10 comments:
Good post! I need to work on looking at the labels more closely.
Question regarding the naked juice: I agree it's deceptive and overpriced, but I was wondering how a homemade fruit smoothie is better for you than one made with juices and "whey protein concentrate" etc.? As a novice at reading these, that sounds natural enough to me.
Thanks for the comments David! That's a really good question. It's healthier to eat an orange than to drink orange juice because it has the fiber that juice doesn't. This fiber helps you feel fuller and regulates your body's absorption of sugar, avoiding the spike in blood sugar and the subsequent crash in energy. Also, a cup of orange juice has about 112 calories and 21 grams of sugar, versus a medium sized orange which has 60 calories and 12 grams of sugar. So making a smoothie made of all juice and no real fruit equals a lot of sugar and calories, and no fiber. Sometimes if I feel like getting Jamba Juice, I ask for mostly fruit and less juice!
As for the whey protein concentrate.. I try to advocate a diet with minimally processed foods. You don't need your entire day's protein in a drink, since you probably will be eating enough protein throughout the day. I believe you should be getting your nutrients like protein, vitamins, and antioxidants from whole foods, rather than powders and supplements.
Hi, Organic Lisssaaaaaaaa!!!!
Where do these pictures come from? Did you take them? If so, what are Pillsbury Chocolate (flavored) Cookies doing at Organic Lissssaaaa's house?? They look super good by the way. If I want to make chocolate chip cookies but do not want to buy a whole bag of flower, sugar, vanilla, etc... what should I use? I have found that you can get a bag of cookie mix w/ chocolate chips and then you just add butter + 1 egg, and it is tasty. What is the best option, though?
Lastly, when Naked Juice says "10 apples, 2 bananas, 30 blueberries... in the bottle!" what does that mean? Are those the fruits requried to make the juice that they add?
Thanks for writing!
Hi Ryan! I went on a field trip to Vons! I was sneaking around taking pictures, haha. Hm, for instant mixes, I would suggest checking out Whole Foods. It might be more processed than making them from scratch, but you can at least be assured there are no artificial ingredients and preservatives. They even have organic mixes, I think.
I didn't see the "10 apples...etc" label on the Naked Juice, but they probably took those things and juiced them, which still means scant fiber sadly. If you used the real fruit and blended them, it wouldn't fit inside a little bottle!
hi lisa, I am going to read the ingredients more carefully. But they are in such small print, it's hard for old people to see what they say! maybe that's just a trick. I don't buy much processed foods anyway! Good post though, thanks!
Wow - that's really crazy - I guess calories can really sneak up on you... but now I'm so hungry! This is probably could fill a whole other post - but are there any ready-made snacks you'd recommend?
great blog :))) i facebook messaged you some questions for future topics. in re: to this post, you should post some recipes for healthier smoothies and homemade yogurt. that would be awesome!
Hi Lisa, anything thats processed and mainly cookies got the "hidden" trans fat. I believe the simpler the ingredeitn list, the better. I mean, i usually stay away from anything that contains some type of chemical term I cant even pronouce. Thats already a "IF-ie". But i stopped eating anything with Hydrogenated oil and those pillsbury ones are a NO-NO. they got the sugar and fat coating mainly on those chocolate chips and cacao oil and such. also i know that yoplait light(even though it is light) uses the other chemically made sugar substance and i believe that anything "Light" product can have up to 1% fat content or something....so its not exactly all 100% fat free. easy way, is Simpler the list, better (more real) the food. =)
to djallgood concern about the smoothies, about the homemade yogurt, there is a yogurt making kit and i used to grow my own yogurt. so this would be way natural since u know yer using the non-fat milk and not need extra fat contents that your bones cannot absorb as calcium. Some extra fat in the dairy products only gets coated around yer bones and stuff i learned, so thats why its better to have non fat or reduced fat milk.
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