Heather Bedard, C.H.E.
The first thing we are going to look at on our nutrition facts label is the ingredient list. Technically this is usually found under the nutrition facts box which we’ll get to in the next article. Your goal should be to be able to actually read the ingredients and it should have as few ingredients as possible. If your ingredient list is 2" long, put it down and run. You want something as simple as possible. Your children should be able to pronounce the ingredients in your food.
Like I mentioned in the previous article, ingredients are listed in order of weight. This is a good way to determine how much nutrition is in the product you are eating – even more so than the nutrition label. The percentages on the label can be manipulated so this isn’t the best example of what is actually in the product. As also previously mentioned, watch for the divide-and-conquer strategy. This often happens with sugars by naming them different names and putting many different kinds of sugars on the list. Names you want to watch out for are dextrose, sucrose, sucralose, barley malt, corn syrup, mannose, and maltodextrin. Plus at least 60 others! One of the reasons so much sugar is added to foods is that sugars release opiates in the brain that cause you to crave the product and to eat more. There are few surprising places that they hide sugar and that includes ketchup, salad dressing, bread, tortillas, and even “healthy” beverages such as juice.
The same divide-and-conquer concept goes for oils. Hmmm the two things they know you don’t want sugar and oil. There are many different kinds of oils you’ll see on ingredient lists. These go by the names of safflower oil, canola oil, peanut oil, coconut oil, palm oil etc… You can tell the source of the fat content of the product by seeing what oils or fats are included in the ingredient list. You would want to avoid products that add oil, and in which oil is the main source of the fat in the food. A better option would be fats that come from nuts or seeds. This would be less processed most of the time. One oil or fat, in particular, that you want to avoid, are trans-fats. Trans-fats can occur naturally in nature in very small amounts or they can be created by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils. The naturally occurring trans-fats are created in the guts of some animals and in foods manufactured from them such as beef and milk. One more reason why eliminating or greatly reducing the consumption of these foods is beneficial.
The reason that manufacturers use trans-fats is because it takes a naturally liquid fat and allows it harden at room temperature. This makes products last longer and become more shelf stable as well as improves the texture and taste of the food. Trans fats raise inflammation in the body and raise cholesterol contributing to heart disease. If there is up to 0.5 grams in the product, they don’t have to put it in the nutrition facts. So, in the ingredient list, you want to look for any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. As of January 2020, companies are no longer allowed to add partially hydrogenated oils to foods but it is still important that you check the ingredient lists because the FDA admits some foods will still contain some. At the same time, avoid all added oils if you can. All oils are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids and contribute to inflammation and many diseases such as heart disease. We want to lower our intake of these as much as possible.
Other things to look for your ingredient list are additives. These things are added to improve the consistency, color, and stability of your food but aren’t necessarily the best for you. They can increase the load on your kidneys and liver and some, such as Diacetyl, can even cross the blood/brain barrier resulting in decreased or impaired cognitive function.
Bread is one food item where you will find an abundance of additives. Mostly because in the processing of the grains most of the nutrients are destroyed. Anytime you see enriched or unbleached enriched flour you know that the flour has had the nutrients stripped from it. Wheat is made up of the endosperm, bran, and germ. Often in processing it is cheaper to separate these parts and then just fortify the bread later with vitamins and fiber. White flour, which is made from the endosperm, usually contains additives and has been bleached with benzoyl peroxide or chlorine to make it appear whiter. Not only that, but manufacturers often add “improvers” such as potassium bromate, chlorine dioxide, and azodicarbonamide to cause the flour to bake. Let's keep in mind, that with white bread you are missing the vitamins and minerals in the brand and germ as well. Again, through the processing, many of the B vitamins and minerals are lost. You want to look for bread that is whole wheat and sprouted is even better. Brands like Ezekiel Bread are great options when looking for sprouted, whole grain breads and they have a lot of different products that are of great quality. As you’ve probably guessed whole grain or whole wheat means that the whole wheat berry has been used. But wait, it’s not that simple…of course. Your label must say whole wheat and list a grain as the first ingredient. If it says, “Wheat bread,” “wheat flour” or “100% wheat”, it doesn’t mean much because all white flour is made from…wheat. This includes products that say, “made with whole wheat”.
If you are gluten free, watch for brands that claim to be gluten free but use all sorts of fillers and preservatives to make up for it. Often good gluten free bread needs to be frozen or refrigerated to keep it shelf stable. For those of you that are not medically gluten free, sourdough bread has a very low gluten level because of the way the yeast eats up the gluten in fermentation. Combined with other grains such as kamut you can have a very delicious, healthy, practically gluten free bread product. Keep in mind though that you should look for any additives or preservatives and preferably organic when it comes to any wheat product – even sourdough.
I think in researching all of this, what I have discovered, is that almost all of this information is unnecessary the more we can move toward whole, plant-based foods. But I know It’s not always practical to eat this way. Sometimes we’re traveling, sometimes we’re trying to bring our families along for the ride, and sometimes we’re just doing the best with what we have so there’s no guilt involved. As we've talked about, there are ways to make the most health promoting decisions we can, and hopefully this information will help you in making them.
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