What you eat is important, and you may think you’re getting one thing out of the products you’re buying, but you don’t want the nutrition label to sabotage your effort. It’s important to be a conscious consumer and have an understanding of the ingredients in your food. Let’s dive into what I mean…

5 Helpful Tips

• Don’t let the claims on the front fool you! One of the best tips may be to completely ignore claims on the front of the packaging. Manufacturers are often dishonest in the way they use these labels. They tend to use health claims that are misleading and in some cases downright false.

• Study the ingredients list. Product ingredients are listed by quantity — from highest to lowest amount. This means that the first ingredient is what the manufacturer used the most. A good rule of thumb is to scan the first three ingredients, as they make up the largest part of what you’re eating. If the first ingredients include refined grains, a type of sugar, or hydrogenated oils, you can assume that the product is unhealthy.

• Watch out for serving sizes. Nutrition labels state how many calories and nutrients are in a standard amount of the product — often a suggested single serving. However, these serving sizes are frequently much smaller than what people consume in one sitting. For example, one serving may be half a can of soda, a quarter of a cookie, half a chocolate bar, or a few chips.

• Beware of the different names for sugar. Sugar goes by countless names — many of which you may not recognize. 

• If an ingredient is found in your cleaning products, don’t buy it! I bought a popular brand of worcestershire sauce and found it has propylene glycol which is in cleaning fluid.

Bottom line is to take a minute and actually read the back of a nutrition label!

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