How On Earth Do We Read Nutrition Labels?

Reading nutrition labels can be extremely confusing! Try to stick to mostly whole foods and those that are fresh and not packaged, but taking the time to read those labels when you need can be super helpful in your long- term health and improving your nutrition.

Hopefully these few tips will help you on your way to understanding them:

Should we be focusing on health claims?

No, as these can often be used as a marketing tool. They can be misleading and sometimes false! Reading the ingredients list and the nutrition label will be a better indication of how healthy the product really is.

How do we read the ingredients list?

They appear in order of volume so the first ingredient is the one with the most contribution to the product. If there is also lots of ingredients, and looks like a massive list, then you can assume the product is highly processed.

Different names:

· Salt can also be called- sodium, MSG, yeast extracts as examples

· Fat can also be called- lard, milk solids, monoglycerides, margarine, diglycerides

· Sugar can also be called- words that end in -ose such as sucrose, fructose, dextrose, maltose, glucose, lactose but also fruit juice concentrate, syrup, organic raw sugar and cane juice extract

Suggested serving size:

Usually allow for a little more than the suggested servings size and sometimes they even place 1 serving as ½ a cookie! No one eats just half a cookie….

Should we look at kilojoules/ calories?

This can be important if you are trying to lose weight as you need to consume less calories than you are burning. However, if you are just looking to improve your general health, something higher in calories/ kilojoules may actually be better for you and have higher quality ingredients.

How much sugar is good?

Sugars are labelled under carbohydrates. A good rule is looking for sugars around 5g of sugar per 100g. Under 5g is good! 4g of sugar= 1tsp. It is recommended that men consume no more than 9tsp and women no more than 6tsp of added sugar per day.

It can be scary and hard to get your head around this but after a while of taking the time to read labels, you’ll be a pro and on your way to being a healthier being who eats less processed foods!