From Highly Processed Foods to Simple Foods: A Lesson in Label-Reading
When I first decided I wanted to start eating healthier food, I thought that processed “diet” foods were the way to go. I bought 100-calorie packs of various snacks, low calorie and low fat cereal, and TV dinners. At the grocery store, I looked at nutrition labels, but mostly only to see the caloric content. I thought that I was being a smart consumer.
I was completely wrong.
Not only did processed foods leave me feeling unsatisfied, but I hate to think of all the artificial ingredients and chemicals they put into my body, too. I soon realized that if I wanted to REALLY get healthy, I needed to read nutrition labels… but in a completely different way from before.
To put it simply: simple is better. Now, I focus my main shopping efforts on the outside corners of the store where the fresh foods reside. When I go into the center aisles, I don’t buy anything that has a long list of ingredients of anything that I can’t pronounce or don’t understand. This is one of the reasons I immediately loved Attune Foods and their products – the simple ingredient lists! Check out the ingredient list on the Uncle Sam original cereal: whole wheat kernels, whole flaxseed, salt, barley malt.
It’s so nice to see only a few ingredients listed – and all things I understand!
In addition to all the scary chemical additives, another reason to avoid processed foods is sodium content. Processed foods contain a lot of sodium. It’s recommended to stay below 2,300 mg of sodium per day (less than 1,500 mg per day if you’re 51 years or older), but many processed foods, like soup, can easily contain over half of your daily sodium value in just one small can. For example, consider the label below from a can of soup. It states that there are 690 mg of sodium per serving of soup, but wait – look closer! The serving size is only half the can! Who actually eats half a can of soup? Therefore, someone eating this soup would likely end up consuming nearly 1400 mg of sodium from a bowl of soup alone.
Also, even something labeled “lower/reduced sodium” may still be high in sodium. Lower/reduced sodium just indicates that it’s lower in sodium that the original product, which may have been really high to start with! This is often the case with reduced sodium soy sauce and soup. A better thing to look for is “low sodium.” To be labeled low sodium, a product has to be 140 mg or less of sodium per serving. Much better! But it’s still better to try to make the food yourself (homemade soup is really easy – try my Easy Homemade Vegetable Minestrone Soup recipe!) or find a less processed version of the product, if possible.
Are you an ingredient label reader? What do you look for in a product? Has what you look for changed over the years, like it has for me?
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Sep 20, 2011 @ 07:45:21
To be honest, I’ve read labels my whole life, but it wasn’t until 10 years ago that I started reading the ingredients, which is all I read now!
The study that came out recently on sodium is interesting, they’ve found no link to heart disease. You reminded me that I need to read more on this!
Sep 20, 2011 @ 12:12:29
I was like you, only reading labels for the calorie and fat content. But now, I skip right over that section and head straight to the ingredient list. I avoid anything scary and chemically sounding, and I also try to avoid products where sugar is towards the top of the list. Thanks for the tips!
A Lesson in Label Reading | fANNEtastic food
Sep 20, 2011 @ 18:06:24
[...] popping in to say please check out my latest Attune Foods guest post about my journey from highly processed diet foods to simple, whole [...]
Sep 20, 2011 @ 18:14:24
I’ve always been a label reader, but it just to be just for calories. Now I know it’s SO much more than that! I also check for protein, fiber and most importantly, ingredients! I try not to eat anything with weird ingredients that I don’t understand I feel so much better eating whole foods!
Sep 21, 2011 @ 02:55:52
Great post Anne. When I read labels and see words that look Greek to me, I put it back on the shelf. When I am in a hurry, I do eat things that I know I shouldn’t. Since I am caring for 3 of my grand kids, temporarily and a daughter-in-law, I have started cooking our meals on the week-end and freezing them. It has helped me so much in planning healthy meals for me and my family. Planning is the key.
Sep 21, 2011 @ 05:06:44
I was a ‘sort of’ label reader too. However last year my fiance was finally correctly diagnosed with Celiac’s so now I have become an expert label reader due to having to avoid products with wheat and for him also dairy and sugar content. We buy very little pre-processed/packaged food now and I cook a lot from scratch since its 1) easier to control what goes is it and 2) more cost effective as a GF label tends to mean it costs twice as much as its ‘gluten full’ counterpart.
Sep 21, 2011 @ 07:41:41
The article is great because I was able to relate to what Ann experienced in the past. Until I read this article, my focuses on food labels had been calories, fat, and fiber to be healthy, but now I realized that that my habits were wrong. Lower calories processed food do not necessary mean a good thing. I need to pay attentions to much more important nutritious information on food labels! Thank you for very informative article.
Sep 21, 2011 @ 08:12:16
Glad to hear you guys are reading labels in smarter ways nowadays, too!
Sep 21, 2011 @ 10:13:00
Preach it, girl! Nothing worse than seeing a “dieter” deprived and grumpy because their body is starving for REAL food. Definitely sharing this post with others.