How Food Labels Could Be Misleading You
There are things you need to know about what’s missing or misleading on a food label that could be affecting your health. Knowing what to look for in a nutriton label and carefully comparing products that look similar but are very different will help you make informed choices to protect yourself and your family.
Slippery Sodium
Health Canada estimates that 88% of our salt intake comes from packaged foods so simply putting away the salt shaker isn’t the solution. Packages contain a “% Daily Value” amount that is too high so it obscures the facts. Most health care professionals recommend around 1500 mg per day as a maximum. Nutrition labels allow 2400 mg per day (because the Canadian average is around 3300). Be sure that this is a percentage that you stay well below. There are ways to reduce your sodium [1], but in the meantime, read every package, add up your sources for a day and do not go above 75% of the “% DV.”
There are only 13 “important nutrients” that must be listed on a label
But of course, a healthy diet contains much, much more. If a piece of fruit listed all of its nutrients, the label would wrap around it many times over. Most of your nutrients will actually be coming from whole foods...Be Sure that this is also where most of your calories come from and you will be right on track.
Theresa Albert, a yummymummyclub alum is a foodie who happens to be a nutritionist and not the other way around. She loves to explore food and the culture of food and all of the human love/hate rituals that surround it. Her new book Ace Your Health: 52 Ways to Stack Your Deck (McClelland & Stewart) is a fun, practical guide to making tasty, changes for improved health using morsels of information and delicious, healthy recipes. Her television show "Just One Bite" aired on the Food Network for over two years in a daily time slot and still appears on BBC kids, it introduced her energetic style to millions. She is also the author of Cook Once a Week, Eat Well Every Day.
Definitely not a finger wagger, as a registered nutritionist, Theresa Albert, DHN, RNCP, has a passion for simple, honest solutions to today's lifestyle choices. In addition to her private practice at the Toronto Clinic, she has provided content and comment for every major Canadian broadcaster and is forever pushing the bologna out of lunchboxes and out of the news media. As an avid social media user, blogger/writer and as a parent, she understands the struggles of balancing priorities in real life. In print newspapers and magazines, you will often see her quoted when an issue needs common sense clarification.
She prepares a free weekly newsletter to make you laugh, eat well and be inspired. It can be found at myfriendinfood.com [17].