How to Read a Food Label

Education is your best weapon in the fight for health.  Isn't it weird that I called it a fight for health, but in this day and age with a lot of sneaky food companies, lots of mass production and manufacturing, you have to fight to stay healthy.  The best way you can do that is to educate yourself.

"The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."
Proverbs 18:15

You are what you eat.  That is one of the most true statements my grandparents ever told me.  There is a lot of controversy going on currently over what is being put in and / or sprayed on our foods.  There are studies being done, political battles being fought, and demands on people and doctors to educate us on what food companies / manufacturers are putting in our foods and to give warnings about the effects those items may have on our bodies.  One very serious debate going on at present is over sugar.  Recent studies on pediatrics have shown a tremendous increase in diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, heart disease (yes...5 year olds with high cholesterol).  The culprit...sugar.  Table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, organic sugar, raw sugar, it doesn't really matter what you call it..it is empty calories with no nutritional value.  It causes a decrease in the health of all of us both young and old.  There are currently doctors trying to get laws passed with warnings of sugar being toxic to the body and they have the data to prove it.  It causes our livers to metabolize in a different way and is actually been found to cause heart problems with high cholesterol, not fat. 

So why am I telling you all this?  Because you need to know what is in your food.  How do you start?  First of all, you do not need a guide to tell you what is in the food God makes.  You can find a calorie count for meat, fruit, and veggies in many resources, but your won't see a label on them.  God made them perfectly and it has just what your body needs.  Where the worry comes in is the packaged foods.

So, I am going to teach you the rules and how to read a nutritional label.  There is a lot of information on there, so what is important??  Let's take a look at two labels...

1. When you read the label, first look down in the ingredients list.  If it has words you can't pronounce, words a second grader can not read or some chemical name then do not buy it.  Look around the shelves at each brand and find the one with the fewest ingredients and those that you can pronounce.  The Kellogg's Frosted Flakes label looks pretty long and rather non-nutritional.
2. Look for "sugar" in the ingredients list.  Companies add sugar in all types of items..from lemon pepper to tomato sauce.  They are rather sneaky and it is in everything, check around for the brand with no sugar in the ingredients list.  Sugar naturally occurs in lots of items like fruits and vegetables, but look and see if they added some extra sugar in the ingredients list before you buy.
3. Look at the calories and serving size to see how many calories are in each serving and to see how large a serving actually is based on the nutritional label.
4. Look at the fiber content.  Foods that are high in fiber generally make for healthy options.
5. Look at the sodium (salt) content.  Many / most processed foods are very high in sodium.

Here is a concept to think about as you consider nutritional labels, I didn't really talk about fat grams, did I?  In processed foods, low fat is a problem, when you take the fat out of a food in a process, then you have to add something back as a filler in it's place.  These unnatural fillers and additives are what cause big problems to your health.  Notice I said in processed foods, as an example lower in fat meats are a wonderful choice.  If you are ever confused about an ingredient I would suggest to look it up.  I thought lecithin sounded bad when I read it on a nutritional label and found that it is just soy beans, so when in doubt look it up.

 

Being educated on what is in our food is a wonderful tool to have.  I ask for a nutrition guide every time I eat at a new place.  I want to know what is in my food.  I emailed a new yogurt place this week because their store didn't have the information available.  I care about what I put into God's temple that He has given to me and I really care about what I am putting in to my little temples that God has given me to care for (my little boys) and the best way I know how to do this is to keep on educating myself everyday.

~ Submitted by Brandy Kisner

   ISBC Women's Ministry

   Health & Wellness Coordinator