Reading Food Labels

There are many ways to advocate for your health. Some of the most simple ways involve no interaction with anyone other than the person checking you out at the grocery store. I am talking about reading food labels. Being aware of the foods you put in your body goes a long way towards keeping you healthy. And what better way to advocate for your health is there than to find ways to prevent you from having health issues in the first place?

I have to admit that I didn't used to read food labels very often, if at all, prior to a few years ago. I mean if I was going to buy a bag of chips or a box of cookies, I knew how much I wanted to eat and already knew it wasn't good for me. I certainly didn't need to read the label to know exactly how many calories I was consuming. But, as I got older, it became more important for the sake of my weight and health to be aware of exactly what was in the products I was eating. And as I read and read, I became depressed, disgusted and disappointed with the number of products that had high fructose corn syrup and other additives that really didn't need to be in there. I mean seriously if the applesauce a company produces needs to add high fructose corn syrup, there's probably something wrong with the apples they are using (as an example).

So I read and I researched, and learned that there were lots of alternatives to products I loved that were healthier and tasted just as good right next to the products I used to buy. Other than just looking at the ingredients I began looking at serving size and calories and was amazed at what some companies considered a single serving seemingly to make the calories seem lower. Generally, those are the two sections I look at - ingredients, and calories/serving size. Reading food labels doesn't have to be cumbersome as I understand that when you're in a rush who has time for that. But if you don't have time to do it every time you shop, then if you typically buy the same products It just takes one time to take minute to read the label and make a choice. And with all the misleading advertising it really is important to read the label and not just assume because a product says something like "all natural" that it is healthy, as I have made the mistake of doing a few times only to discover "all natural" usually includes tons of added sugar. 

Some of the best sites to help guide you on what to look for when reading food labels are the FDA site here and the Mayo Clinic site here. The more aware you are, the more in control of your health you will be.