Read Your Labels

Nothing pains me more than seeing people get tricked into weight loss products. There are many companies that have done their job well and have pulled the proverbial "wool" over the eyes of your everyday consumer. Some of these products include diet sodas, vitamin water (Check out my post Drinking Fat Is Gross), slim fast and the list continues. 

How can we escape the traps set for us by very clever marketing departments?

The Answer...

READ YOUR LABELS

As I have become more educated I have begun reading labels much more frequently. I have been shocked. The amount of foods that have chemicals in them and the amount of sugar just astounds me. So, today's mission is to make sure you are not a gullible consumer. Let's learn how to read our labels and UNDERSTAND what we are looking at.

Let's start by taking a look at the ingredients list for a Slim Fast product.

(click to enlarge the image)

When looking at the nutritional value of a product I immediately skip down to the ingredients section on the bottom. It is too easy to manipulate the nutrition facts of a product based on serving size. However, more importantly the ingredients section will tell you exactly what is IN the product.

When we look at the ingredients for Slim Fast, do we really believe it's going to make us slim? Our first ingredient is fat free milk. I haven't written on this topic yet, but I believe it is important to avoid "fat free" products because to make a product "fat free" typically the product is modified and there are additives in them. Our next most present ingredient is water--no problem with that. The third ingredient is sugar. Now, it is important to note that ingredients are listed in the order from most present to least present. Meaning that besides milk at water, sugar is the third most predominate element in this drink. I don't believe drinking milk, sugar water is going to have a slimming effect on your body. I think we can all agree on that.

However, this is not were the problem stops. There are 43 ingredients (I think I counted right) in this Slim Fast shake. In my post The Many Names Of Sugar, I show 50 names of sugar you may not know. Among many ingredients I can't pronounce, I see a few different names for sugar--one of which is high fructose corn syrup, one of the worst forms of sugar/sweetener you can consume.

Here are four keys to becoming an efficient label reader overnight: 

1. Skip the nutrition facts and look at the ingredient list
2. The shorter the ingredient list, the better
3. Look for hidden sugars--sucrose, fructose, syrups (cane, corn, high fructose, etc.), fruit juice concentrates etc. (see my post The Many Names Of Sugar for a full list)
4. If you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't eat it

Reading and understanding labels doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need to understand everything that is on a label. Just know, that if it has a weird name it is probably made by chemists in a food lab.Your body won't be able to break it down and digest it as easily and efficiently as it should. Additionally, it probably doesn't have any nutritional value. 

Next time you are in the grocery story, pick up some of your favorite products and read the labels. You might be shocked by what you find! :)

Until Next Time,

Hope

xoxo