Ingredient List Just as Important as Nutrition Facts
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Most people check the nutrition facts on a food, and make their decision whether to eat it or not based on that. But just as important as calories and fat, are the ingredients inside your food. Here’s what some of those ingredients are and what they mean for your food.
Hidden Sugars:Sugar isn’t the only word to look out for. Ingredients that end in the word “ose” (Dextrose, Fructose, Sucrose, etc.) are all forms of sugar, as are honey and corn sweeteners. Extra sugars can not only pack on the pounds, they also affect your blood sugar, causing it to spike, then drop leaving you hungry only a few hours later
Trans Fat: Partially hydrogenated oils are the primary source of trans fats, which have been shown to be potentially more harmful than saturated fat.
Foods can call themselves “trans-fat free” even if they contain up to half a gram of trans fats per serving- this is why only looking at the label can be dangerous. Look on the ingredients list. If a food contains partially hydrogenated oils, it contains trans fats.
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): Added to foods to enhance flavor, MSG has not been shown to pose a health risk, despite popular concerns about it causing cancer. But some people do experience an unpleasant reaction, known as MSG symptom complex, which includes headache, sweating, fluttering heartbeat, and shortness of breath.
Whole Grains:a lot of labels claim a food to be whole grain, but the only way to know if sure is if the very first word on the ingredient list is “whole.” Not enriched, not wheat- the very first word must be whole. Most fo the time, if you really look, it says “made with whole grains” which just means there are a few whole grains and the rest are processed.
All those words you can’t pronounce: If it looks like it’s a foreign language, its not good for you. Chemicals are pumped into highly processed foods to pre3serve them so they last longer. If the ingredient list is unreadable, or a mile long, you know that food is highly processed and not a healthy choice.
The order the ingredients appear is also important. They are listed by the amount of each ingredient found in the product in order from most to least. So if the first ingredient is water, the product contains more water than anything else.
Use the ingredient list to find out exactly what you are eating, you might be surprised by what is actually in there.