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Does The Label On The Front Of The Food Package Tell You The Whole Truth?

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I was recently helping a client learn how to interpret nutrition and ingredients labels of food products.  He clearly wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of spending the extra time to read labels.

It does take time.  But, you don’t have to do it for everything.  It’s particularly important to get a feeling for products that might have a laundry list of ingredients.

It’s also really important if something screams “healthy,” “loaded with fiber,”  “reduced calorie,”  “contains a day’s worth of nutrients,” and a whole host of other “you’ve got to buy me because I’m great for your health” claims.

 

Does The Front Of The Box Tell You The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth?

There just might be a kernel of truth surrounded by a great big blob of calories, sugar, chemicals and other stuff.

My client pulled out an Oats and Chocolate Fiber One Chewy Bar that his wife had bought for him.   She thought that with140 calories per bar and a label emblazoned with “35% daily value of fiber,” it must be a good snack.

The Facts

According to the nutrition label, each bar has 140 calories, 4 grams of fat (1.5 grams are saturated fat), no cholesterol, 95mg of sodium, 29 grams of total carbohydrates (9 grams of which are dietary fiber and 10 grams are sugars), and 2 grams of protein.

The calorie count isn’t bad, there isn’t too much sodium, there are 9 grams of fiber, but there are also 1.5 grams of saturated fat and only 2 grams of protein.

The ingredients label:  chicory root extract, semisweet chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor), whole grain oats, high maltose corn syrup, rice flour, barley flakes, sugar, canola oil, glycerin, maltodextrin, honey, tricalcium phosphate, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, salt, nonfat milk, fructose, malt extract, cocoa processed with alkali, baking soda, caramel color, natural flavor, mixed tocopherols added to retain freshness.

Hmmm:  It seems that eight ingredients are sugars or forms of sugar:   # 2 (semisweet chocolate chips), 4 (high maltose corn syrup, 7 (sugar), 9 (glycerin), 10 (maltodextrin), 11 (honey), 17 (fructose), 18 (malt extract).

Not only are there a whole lot of ingredients for a 140 calorie bar, there sure is a whole lot of sugar.  Nine grams of fiber may be 35% of the daily recommended amount of fiber, but this bar is filled with sugar – 8 of its ingredients are sugar and this measly140 calories is using up a full 10% of the recommended daily value of sugar for a 2000 calorie diet.

 

What Do You Think?

The 35% of your daily fiber label on the front of the package is true – BUT – with this much sugar, 1.5 grams of saturated fat and only 2 grams of protein, is this a healthy food?

 

 

How To Figure Out The Carbs On Nutrition Labels

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Trying to interpret the carbohydrates on nutrition facts labels can be downright confusing.  There’s a number for total carbohydrates but then there are subheadings for dietary fiber, sugars, and sometimes insoluble fiber, sugar alcohols, and other carbohydrates.

What Does Everything Mean?

  • Total Carbohydrate, shown in grams, is first. It gives you the total number of usable carbs per serving. This number includes starches, complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, added sugars, and non-digestible additives.
  • The subheadings under Total Carbohydrate are Dietary Fiber, sometimes broken down into Soluble and Insoluble Fiber; Sugars; and sometimes categories for Sugar Alcohols and/or Other Sugars. The sum of these numbers will not always equal the total carbs because starches (types of carbs often used as binders or thickeners) aren’t required to be listed on food labels.
  • Dietary Fiber, shown in grams, gives you the amount of fiber per serving. Dietary fiber is indigestible, usually passes through the intestinal tract without being absorbed, doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels, and slows down the impact of the other carbs in a meal. Subtracting the non-impact carbs – the ones that don’t affect blood sugar (fiber and sugar alcohols) from the total carbs gives you the number of net (also called usable or impact) carbs – the ones that do affect your blood sugar.
  • Sugars gives you the total amount of carbohydrate, in grams, from naturally occurring sugars like lactose (milk sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) PLUS any added sugars like high fructose corn syrup, brown and white sugar, cane juice, etc. Added sugars are the sugars and syrups added to foods during processing or preparation.  They add calories but little or no nutrients.
  • You can determine if there are a lot of added sugars by checking the product’s ingredients label. Ingredients are listed in order of quantity so if added sugars (white/brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.) are listed in the top three or four ingredients you can guess that the bulk of the sugars are added, not naturally occurring.
  • Some products, although not all, separately list Sugar Alcohols. You might see mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, erythritol, and others on the ingredients label. If the package says the product is “sugar-free” or has “no sugar added” it must list the sugar alcohols in the ingredients. If more than one type of sugar alcohol is listed, there must be a line for sugar alcohol grams on the nutrition label.
  • Other Carbohydrates shows the number of digestible complex carbohydrates not considered a sugar (natural or added) and includes additives like stabilizers and starchy thickening agents.

They don’t make it easy, do they?

Too Few Veggies — You’re Not Alone!

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Despite a couple of years of public health initiatives, an explosion in farmers markets, bagged salads, and a White House garden, Americans still don’t eat enough vegetables.

Only 23% of meals include a vegetable (fries don’t count but lettuce on a burger does) and only 17% of dinners prepared at home include a salad (down from 22% in 1994).  Salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner in restaurants dropped to 5% (10% in 1989).

Only 26% of America’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day (not including French fries) according to a study recently released by the CDC, way short of the government’s health objectives set a decade ago, and less than half of what public health officials had hoped.

2010 Dietary Guidelines

The just released 2010 Dietary Guidelines (yes, 2010 released in 2011) recommends that as part of a healthy eating pattern we should increase the amount of vegetables and fruit we eat.

That means filling half your plate with fruit and vegetables.  They should be colorful and include a variety of dark green, red, and orange veggies, including beans and peas.

Give Me A Reason I Should Eat More Veggies

Vegetable haters might ask, “Why should I”? There are some really good reasons:

  • They’re low in calories
  • They’re rich in the nutrients we often lack (folate, magnesium, dietary fiber, Vitamins A, C, and K)
  • They may help prevent some chronic diseases
  • They’re linked to lower risks for heart attacks, strokes, and some kinds of cancers.

Why We Don’t Eat Them

Just telling people to eat more vegetables obviously isn’t working. People know veggies are good for you but lots of us don’t want to admit that we don’t eat them or even like them.

Honestly, veggies can be a lot of work. How often do you get home, open your fridge, look at the veggies (if they’re in there) and just admit you’re too tired to cook them?  Cooking fresh stuff does require time and a commitment. And, unfortunately, poorly cooked vegetables can taste terrible – and, especially for out of season or organic, can be costly.  We basically want low cost, tasty, and convenient.

What To Do

  • Change your mindset.  Eating vegetables needs to become a habit – the go to, the default, instead of chips, or cookies, or fries.
  • Think visually:  make one half of your plate a color palate of vegetables.
  • Don’t be intimidated by them.  Learn about them and how to cook them.
  • Experiment with ways to make them taste good (hold off on gobs of butter, cheese, and cream, however, or you’re somewhat defeating your total healthy diet purpose). Try cooking with herbs, broth, and big flavor producers like onions, garlic, and peppers.
  • Check out the way the food industry is making vegetables easier:  fresh cut up vegetables ready to cook; already prepared vegetables to take-out; washed and bagged salad varieties; frozen vegetables ready to pop into the microwave.
  • Expose children’s palates to vegetables.  Make them the norm.  Students who gardened in Berkeley’s “edible schoolyard” program ate one and a half more servings of fruits and vegetables a day than kids who weren’t in the program.
  • Work to make vegetables more affordable and available.  Support farmers’ markets (some markets allow food stamps to be used), rooftop and urban gardens. Get fresh veggies into schools.
  • Plant your own garden or just a pot on the stoop or windowsill.
  • Do what you can to make vegetables an easy choice.

Is Your Wheat Bread Whole Grain?

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Confused?  You’re not alone.  “How do I tell if it’s whole grain?” is a question I get asked all of the time. Whole grains are the place we really fall short.  According to the government’s new dietary guidelines, the average American is getting, on average, only about 15% of the amount that we need.

According to the FDA, whole grains are “cereal grains that consist of the intact and unrefined, ground, cracked or flaked fruit of the grains whose principal components — the starchy endosperm, germ and bran — are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact grain.” Examples include barley, buckwheat, bulgur, corn, millet, rice, rye, oats, sorghum, wheat and wild rice.

Got that???  In other words, whole grains are intact grains: they haven’t had their bran and germ removed through the milling process. This makes them good sources of fiber and keeps the naturally occurring vitamins and minerals from being removed.

What Is Refined Grain and Flour?

Refined grains have been processed to remove the bran and germ.  Flour made from refined grains produces baked goods with a softer texture and a longer shelf life.  But fiber, iron, vitamins, and minerals have also been removed during the milling process.

White flour, which is made from a refined grain, has had both the bran and germ removed. To make it enriched flour, which you find quite frequently, nutrients are added back in to make up for the ones lost in processing.  The amount of nutrients are regulated by the FDA.  Because flour is enriched does not mean that it is whole grain.

How To Tell If Your Bread Is Whole Grain

  • Always check the ingredients label, not just the front of the package
  • Look for the word “whole” as in “whole grain,” “whole meal,” or “100% whole wheat”
  • Check that whole grains are included in the first items in the ingredient list
  • Aim for products with at least 3 grams of dietary fiber per serving
  • Descriptive words like stone-ground, multi-grain, 100% wheat, or added bran don’t necessarily mean whole grain

Love Eggs? Worried About Cholesterol? Some News!

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Cholesterol. We all have it in our bodies. It’s used to form cell membranes, some hormones, and for other functions. But, too high a level in your blood can be a major risk factor for coronary heart disease.

You get cholesterol in two ways. Your body (mainly your liver) usually makes about 1,000 milligrams a day. You also get it by eating certain foods that contain cholesterol. Animal foods — especially egg yolks, meat, poultry, shellfish, and whole and reduced fat dairy products — contain it. Plant foods don’t.

Your body can usually make all the cholesterol it needs so it’s not necessary to eat it (the liver helps remove some of the excess). Still, the average American man consumes about 337 milligrams of cholesterol daily; the average woman, 217 milligrams.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting your average daily cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams; less than 200 milligrams If you have heart disease.

Eggs Used To Be Cholesterol No-Nos

New nutrition data from the USDA’s research service shows that eggs are lower in cholesterol than when they were last analyzed in 2002. The average amount of cholesterol in one large egg is 185 mg, or 14 % less. Vitamin D levels have increased 64% with a large egg containing 41 International Units (IU). Some things have stayed the same:  each large egg is 70 calories and has 6 grams of protein, or 12% of the Recommended Daily Value (RDA).

You can keep within the cholesterol guidelines even eating an egg a day, especially if you choose other low cholesterol foods. The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that eating one whole egg per day does not result in increased blood cholesterol levels but they, too, recommend consuming, on average, less than 300 mg of cholesterol per day.

Why The Change In The Incredible Edible Egg?

Researchers are speculating that it is probably because of changes in the hens’ feed. Hens are now being fed a high quality, nutritionally balanced diet of mostly corn, soybean meal, vitamins and minerals. Research is being done to check this out.

You should start seeing revised nutrition information on egg cartons soon.