How to Identify and Buy Healthy Food Products

By Cook | Mar 16, 2008

Over the course of the past few years, the food manufacturers realized that a product sells much better if it’s package screams “I’m healthy”. That’s the reason why we get all those endless health assurances on the packaging. There are a few basic things you should check before deciding to buy a food product, based on those assurances:

1. “Healthy!”- But contains high Sodium levels

Many types of foods self proclaimed as healthy, don’t mention next to the health assurances the fact that they are full of
Sodium - or as we know it: Salt. The salt is one of health’s biggest enemies, because it makes blood pressure go way up, as it does for the chance of heart and vascular disease to occure. In the past it was advised that a normal diet should contain up to 2.5. grams (0.09 oz) of sodium a day. Today dietitians talk about 1.5 grams (0.05) a day. So if you find out that the healthy snack they’re trying to sell you has 0.5 grams (0.02 oz) of salt in it - which is a third of the recomanded daily intake - you should reconsider the purchase…

2. “Cholesterol free!” - But contains Trans fats

Trans fat is vegetable oil, that during an industrial process becomes a partially hardened fat. During the years it was discovered that this kind of fat causes high cholesterol levels in the blood, lowers the level of “good cholesterol” (HDL) and raises the risk of heart disease. Over the past few years it was taken out of margarine but is still being widely used is pastries, cakes and cookies. Since the nutritional facts labels in some of the countries don’t mention trans fat content, you should try and find the partially hardened fat instead (hydrogenated fat), and try to avoid it…

3. “Sugar free!” - But contains sugar alcohols

When one is looking for a sugar low food product, he’s actually looking for a product low in carbohydrates. That’s why you should actually check the carbohydrate content in the nutritional facts label that’s on the package. Additionally, you should be aware that there are 2 kinds of sugar replacements: the first kind has a very low calorie value and no carbohydrates at all. The second kind is known as sugar alcohols. This kind acts similarly to the way carbohydrates act in your body, and although it contains half the calories carbs would, it wasn’t proved that using it improves blood sugar levels. Sorbitol, Mannitol, Xylitol- these are the ingredients you should avoid, or at least know they’re very similar to carbs in some ways.

4. “Cholesterol free!” - But contains tropical vegetable fats

Saturated fats, which mostly came from foods from animals, increase blood cholesterol levels (in addition to trans fat). In nature, there are only 2 examples of vegetable oils that contain a high level of saturated fat: coconut oil and palm oil - often called tropical oils. In a food product that contains tropical oils, it would be Ok for it to say “cholesterol free” and “vegetable oils” (since vegetable oils don’t contain cholesterol). The thing you should be looking for on the nutritional facts label is the numbers on saturated fat, because it’s possible for a product to contain tropical vegetable fats, rich in saturated fats, although it is cholesterol free…

5. “Diet” or “Light” - But contains lots of calories

According to the health department regulations (which vary from one country to another), a food product can be described as “light” when it’s been reduced to two thirds of the calories a similar non light product would have. In other words, if a regular product contains 300 calories per serving, the similar “light” product must contain no more than 200 calories per serving - which is still an amount of calories a person on a diet must think about before happily consuming… You should always check the nutritional facts label for the exact calorie amount and not rely on those tempting titles.

Happy shopping everyone,

Nitzan

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