Reading Nutrition Labels 101

August 21, 2017 by Burton Nutrition

Few people have the time or desire to pore over every last food label before placing an item in their cart. However, familiarizing yourself with how the labels work and what information to look for can mean that a quick glance can give you a lot of information. And once you’ve started the habit of reading labels, you’ll soon learn which brands or foods to choose and which to avoid.

Here are some TIPS to help take some of the mystery out of reading nutrition fact labels.

Pay Attention to Serving Sizes

Many believe that the serving size reflects the amount a person typically eats of a given food, but in certain cases, this is far from true. Also, often the ingredients shown on the panel could equal 2 SERVING SIZES when most people may thinks it’s 1 SERVING, so pay attention. Take ice cream as an example. The serving size is listed as a half cup, but have you ever witnessed someone eat only a half scoop of ice cream? It’s more likely that the average person enjoys roughly 3 times the serving size.

A similar thing can be said of snack foods such as chips and crackers. A serving size of tortilla chips is 9 chips but do you know anyone who sits down and eats only 9 chips? I think not.

It’s a good discipline to take the time to measure your food every now and then, instead of always just eyeballing it, to see how your typical portion compares to the serving size on the package.

Beware of Vague Marketing Claims

Manufacturers often make ambiguous claims on the front of their packages that don’t always add up to what’s listed on the nutrition facts label. Here are some examples:

Even when a food claims to be a “fruit drink,” it may contain very little real fruit or juice.

“Fortified, enriched” often means that a food was so highly-processed and so stripped of its native vitamins, minerals, and fiber, that some had to be added back in.

“Made with multi-grains” does not mean whole grains. Check ingredients for a 100% whole-grain product.

“Natural or no artificial ingredients” can still be over-processed and unhealthy.

“Fat-Free” is often your cue that this food contains high amounts of sugar, salt, or artificial flavors to compensate for the fact that removing all fat leaves food tasteless.

"Sugar-Free" is just another marketing claim with a variety of meanings. Sometimes sugar-free products are free from cane sugar but still use ingredients like maple syrup, honey, or molasses. Other times, sugar-free products are full of chemicals and artificial sweeteners that can lead to a variety of health problems. Some sugar alcohols, such as maltitol and xylitol used in many sugar-free candies, are now known to be partially absorbed and can still raise blood sugar. Many sugar-free foods are not lower in calories than the alternative and can cause significant digestive issues.

Scan the Ingredient List

If the list of ingredients is several lines long and filled with words you couldn’t begin to pronounce, that’s your clue that this food is over-processed and filled with chemicals and preservatives.

Ingredients are listed in order from greatest to least by weight, but some tricks can be thrown in. For instance, there was a client who wanted to attempt to cut all industrial seed oils (soybean, cottonseed, Canola, and corn oil) from her diet because of their inflammatory effects and she recently picked up a bottle of name-brand mayo which advertised itself as being “Avocado Oil Mayo.” But when she read the ingredients she saw that although avocado oil was the first ingredient listed after water, the next two oils were canola oil and soybean oil. By using 2 separate cheap and unhealthy oils, they can list them after the avocado oil, even though it’s very likely that the 2 together far outweigh the avocado oil. This means that more than half the product is made from unhealthy, inflammatory industrial seed oils, despite what the front label seems to imply. (Chosen Foods makes both a 100% olive oil and avocado oil mayo.)

This same trick can be used with sugar!

Often, if only one type of sugar were used, it would be the first ingredient on the list. But by using multiple types of sugar, such as high-fructose corn syrup, cane sugar, barley malt, molasses, and honey, they can separately appear further down on the ingredients. To spot sugars masquerading under complicated names, look for anything ending in “-ose:” sucrose, dextrose, glucose, fructose, lactose, and maltose. Also look for anything with the words "cane," "nectar," or "syrup."

Your best tip for eating healthy is to shop the perimeter of the grocery store for fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy. Although we will all buy a few packaged items, keep in mind that the healthiest foods come with no nutrition label at all.

Check out our Burton Nutrition plan to a healthier lifestyle! People have made incredible transformations with our high quality products and our GET STARTED PDF. This PDF includes: how to get started, workouts, grocery lists, sample meal plans and more! www.burtonnutrition.com