When reading the labels on some foods, you could be forgiven for thinking they are written in another language. Many food additives are simply numbers, others are represented by letters from the Greek alphabet.
Food labeling helps you to make informed choices about the food you and your family eat, so it's important to understand them.
What's on the Label?
Nearly all packaged food will contain a label containing information that tells the exact ingredients it contains, and also nutritional information regarding energy content (how many kilojoules it contains), fat content in grams, including the type of fat (saturated, trans, polyunsaturated, omegas for example), the carbohydrate content, the sugar content and the salt content.
Each ingredient is listed in descending order – the first ingredient listed contributed the largest amount to the food item; the last ingredient listed contributed the smallest amount. If an ingredient makes up less than five percent of a food, it doesn't need to be listed, unless it is an additive (think colours or preservatives, often indicated by numbers) or something that can cause allergies.
Be careful to look at serving sizes as well. A label generally lists the nutritional information for a "serving size" and for 100g or 100ml for liquids. Check what the label states is the serving size, as it could be smaller or larger than what you may think.
If eating healthily is your concern – and let's face it, we should all be eating for health as well as for flavour, you should take care to avoid foods that are high in salt (often listed as sodium) or sugar (often listed as sucrose, fructose or corn syrup). Additives or preservatives may extend a food's shelf life but may not contribute to a food's nutritional value.
How Much is Too Much?
Most foods, even fruit and vegetables, will contain an amount of fat, sugar, or salt. But if you are looking at a label, how do you know how much is too much?
Many packaged foods make nutritional claims, such as low in fat, high in fibre, or low in cholesterol. It's wise to be extra vigilant when a company makes claims such as these – for instance "light" or "lite" may not necessarily mean they are low in fat or energy, but that they have a light texture or taste. ‘No added sugar' doesn't mean the product doesn't contain sugar at all – it could occur naturally in the ingredients.
If a label claims that something is 80 percent fat-free, that means it still has 20 percent fat, which is a lot (note these claims are made on 100g or 100ml servings). You will also need to think about whether the fat content is "good" fat or "bad" fat. "Bad" fat – saturated or trans fat – contributes to high cholesterol, while "good" fat such as omega 3 found in salmon and some nuts and seeds actually contributes to your health.
Many of the healthiest foods are unlabelled – think fresh, unprocessed "whole" foods. After all, a banana contains only banana, a bean is a bean.
As Michael Pollan says in his best-selling book, In Defence of Food, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." By this he means, eat whole, fresh foods – food that your grandmother would recognise. And this usually means unpackaged, natural foods rather than food products.
Of course, treating yourself to the occasional ice cream isn't going to hurt, but armed with the knowledge of how to read the labels will go a long way towards making good food choices.
Originally published on Feb 18, 2011
