Reading Labels: A Simple Habit for a Healthier You
I felt this was important to write about because I know that there are folks who don't pay attention to it. Reading labels is a super simple but extremely important habit you can integrate into your life to help you make healthier choices.
The Importance of Reading Labels
What you put in and on your body and what you use in your environment affects your health and wellness. Our bodies are designed to need certain fuel to function at its best, just like a car. You wouldn’t push your car without gas (I hope) or put diesel in your car when you know it requires regular, right? So we need to pay the same attention (even more) when it comes to our body! This is the only body and real home that you have. You can protect it with your life using this simple habit.
A Quick Activity
Let’s try a quick activity. Go grab a food or beverage product from your pantry or fridge right now, and take a look at the label. What do you notice? What do you know about the info that's there? I'm going to run you through a few of the easiest and most important things on the label to pay attention to. Let’s start with the ingredients.
Understanding Ingredients
The ingredients are what the product is made up of. Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight or from most potent to least potent. How many of the ingredients listed are you familiar with? How many are you not so familiar with? How many do you have no clue how to pronounce? If you have no idea what some of those ingredients are, let me tell you that your gut likely doesn’t know either. Many of the products that we buy are full of thickeners, emulsifiers, fragrance, colorings, binders, pesticides, bioengineered, GMO's, chemicals and more that are detrimental to our health. I could bet that these things are part of the reason why we are in a health crisis! We are not eating enough real foods! I will leave you with this simple rule of thumb. If you don’t know what it is (make sure you do some research) or can’t pronounce it, try your best to leave it alone. I heard someone say that if you can’t make the product in a kitchen with those ingredients yourself, then you don’t need to be eating it. You may also want to aim for products with 5 or less ingredients.
Understanding Nutrition Labels
The Nutrition Facts label is another source of important information. The first important piece of information there is the amount of servings per container. This tells us the size of a single serving and the total number of servings per container. The serving size is important because lets say the serving size for this product is one cup and you usually eat two cups. That means you are consuming twice the amount of calories and other nutrients that are listed on the label.
The amount of calories per serving tells us how many calories are in a single serving. You can look at the number of servings you consume to determine how many calories you eat and compare this to your total calorie allowance if you’re into that.
The next part of the label tells us the amount of nutrients in the product. You want to pay attention to this to make sure you are limiting certain nutrients and getting enough of the key nutrients your body needs. The % Daily Value (%DV) tells us how much of each nutrient is in a single serving, as a percentage, based on the recommended daily diet of 2,000 calories. So if you are looking to limit a specific nutrient (such as sodium, trans fats or sugar) look for the product with a lower %DV of those nutrients. If you want to consume more of a nutrient (such as fiber) look for the product with a higher %DV of that nutrient. This is usually how I choose between different brands. As a general guide: 5%DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low and 20%DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high (US Food & Drug Administration).
Recommendations from Yours Truly
There is so much more to labels that I could share. This is just a quick basic introduction to get you started on your journey to label reading! I’ll leave you with a few recommendations and some additional resources below.
Use the labels to help you compare and choose products that are higher in the nutrients you want to get more of and lower in the nutrients you want to get less of.
Educate yourself about where your food comes from and how its produced.
Aim to shop on the outer perimeter of the grocery stores (this is typically where the least processed foods are).
Strive to eat local, eat organic, and aspire to grow your own shitss.
Just because its in a health food store doesn’t mean its healthy - read the damn labels.
Don’t stress too much over any of this, life is all about balance. I just want you to be as informed as possible about what you choose to consume. If you need additional support, that’’s what I’m here for, book a free info session using my booking link.
Resources to Learn More
Interactive Nutrition Facts Label - US Food & Drug Administration
How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label - US Food & Drug Administration
Making the Most of Nutrition Facts Label Infographic - American Heart Association
Food Labels - Center for Disease and Control Prevention
As always, feel free to share your insights! What will you start doing to help you make healthier eating choices? Follow me on IG for inspiration, tips, reminders, or to stay updated on my journey.
If you don’t know what you’re putting in your mouth you won’t know what its doing to your health!
💚 Trev