Understanding food labels can help you make wise choices, if you know what to look for.
If you've ever looked on the back of a food label, there are tons of ingredients in there that you may not even recognize, or know how to pronounce.
What are some tips to decipher food labels?
- If there's any oil in the ingredient list that has been "hydrogenated," run in the other direction: it's full of trans fats, even if the label says "trans-fat-free."
- Below 0.4g per servings of trans fat doesn't need to be stated, so if you enjoy multiple servings of something, you might be eating a lot of trans fat without realizing it.
- When it comes to grains (breads, pastas, etc.), make sure to choose a product with at least 3g of fiber per serving—this will help to mitigate the blood sugar response.
- Beware of the various words used to disguise added sugar: sucanat, evaporated cane syrup, dextran, barley malt... the list goes on. There are close to 60 different names for sugars and sweeteners. If you are hungering for something sweet, look for natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, or coconut.
- If you see the word "enriched" before a grain (ex: enriched wheat flour), it signals that it's been refined. Avoid that—aim for products that list whole grains as ingredients.
Listen in as Jillian Tuchman, MS, RD, shares the top tips to decipher food labels.
Jillian Tuchman is ALOHA's in-house nutritionist/dietitian. Her passion for nutrition stems from experiencing its healing power first hand: after years of debilitating symptoms and illness, she regained her health after changing what she was eating.