Here’s a great post on food labels by Renegade Dietitian Alex Black…Check out the daily challenge at the end and share your thoughts!

Understanding Food Labels

Food labels can be confusing. There’s a lot of information in a small space, and a sometimes lengthy and confusing ingredients list. Sometimes it feels like you need a well-honed set of detective skills and a chemistry textbook to decide whether or not something is a healthy choice. This week the Huffington Post published an article on “Gross Ingredients in Processed Foods” (read it here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/11/gross-ingredients-processed-foods_n_1510516.html) and it got me thinking about all the crazy stuff that can end up in our food. Just a few weeks ago I challenged some Renegades to guess the identity of a food given the nutrition information and ingredients, and they were surprised to see how many ingredients could be added to something as simple as peanut butter. The beauty of eating whole foods (fruits, vegetables, meat, nuts and seeds, etc) is that you don’t have to worry about a confusing label! But hey, sometimes packaged food happens, so below are some general guidelines for reading a nutrition label and some information about a few of the more commonly added ingredients.

The Nutrition Label

You don’t have to inspect every piece of information on the label if you pay attention to a few key numbers…

The first thing you want to look for is the serving size and servings per container so you know what type of portion you are working with. Pay extra attention to servings per container if you’re buying an individually packaged food (like nuts or trail mix from a convenience store), as they are often 2-4 servings per package.

Next look at calories. For the most part, try to limit foods that are high in calories but small in serving size. For example, ¼ cup of Naked Granola, or about 1 large handful, is 150 calories. That’s the same amount of calories in a banana and 1 tablespoon of nut butter. Which one sounds more filling? Note that whole nuts are the exception to this rule, as while they are energy dense, they also contribute to satiety and provide healthy fats, protein, and vitamins.

Now look at fat. Avoid packaged foods high in saturated fat and anything containing trans fat. If you’re looking for a snack to eat less than 2 hours before a workout, choose something lower in total fat, as a higher fat snack close to a workout could cause stomach pain and discomfort.

Finally, check the carbohydrate, sugar, and fiber content.  Ideally you want a food that is lower in sugar and higher in dietary fiber. Try to pick foods with less than 5-7 grams of sugar per serving. And if you are eating within 1-2 hours of a workout, choose something a little lower in fiber (less than 5 grams total) as this can, along with fat, cause stomach discomfort during the workout.

Also worth noting are the vitamins and percent daily values (DV). Percent Daily Values are based on the requirements for an adult consuming a 2,000 calorie diet. Even if you are eating less or more than that, they are still useful as an indicator that a food is high or low in a certain nutrient. If a food contains less than 5% of the DV it is low in that nutrient and if it contains greater than 20% DV it is high in that nutrient. Look for foods that are high in vitamins and minerals and low in sodium and cholesterol. There are no daily values for trans fat or sugar.

Ingredients 

It is also important to look at the ingredients list when comparing foods, as oftentimes there are “hidden” ingredients that you wouldn’t think to look for, like when there is added cane sugar, salt, and hydrogenated oil in your “natural” peanut butter. Foods are listed on the ingredients list in order of percentage by weight, so pay attention to the first few ingredients, as they usually make up the bulk of the food. You may also see “contains less than 2% of” followed by a list of items, and these are usually preservatives or additives to improve the texture and shelf life of the food. Here are a few things you will frequently see on ingredients lists:

High Fructose Corn Syrup, also known as HFCS, is made when corn is reacted with certain enzymes to convert some of the glucose to fructose. Over the past 30 years it has been added to a wide variety of processed foods in place of table sugar, known as sucrose. HFCS only contains 5% more fructose than sucrose and proponents of HFCS claim that the body cannot tell the difference, stating that no research can prove HFCS directly causes obesity. However, HFCS is typically associated with food products high in sugar, saturated fat, and empty calories, and since its addition to food production, obesity rates have skyrocketed. For the most part, HFCS and the foods that contain it should be limited.  

Soy Lecithin is extracted from soybeans and is a byproduct of soybean oil production. It is used in foods as an emulsifier, or something that keeps oil and water based ingredients from separating. Most often it is used in candy bars to keep cocoa and cocoa butter and in baked goods to help dough rise and make it less sticky. It is typically less than 1% of the food by weight and does not appear to have negative effects. In fact, it is high in choline, a nutrient also found in egg yolks and thought to improve brain and heart development. Some people use it as a supplement. While this ingredient is not inherently unhealthy, it is often found in baked goods, which are high in processed sugar and low in other nutrients.

Mono and di glycerides are fats from oils and are used as emulsifiers in foods like potatoes, chewing gum, and margarine. They are also used in baked goods to keep them from getting stale and extend the shelf life of food products. Mono and di glycerides may also contain trans fats.

Xantham Gum is a polysaccharide, this time formed from fermentation of bacteria (the same bacteria that causes vegetables to rot). It is used as a thickener in salad dressings and dairy products, helps keep crystals from forming in ice cream, and simulates a “fat feel” in some low-fat or nonfat dairy products.

Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol found naturally in some fruits (apples, peaches, prunes) but is also an artificial sweetener added to foods to improve sweetness and preserve shelf life. It can be found in many diabetic friendly foods, sugarless gum, and “low sugar” or “sugar free” items. Sorbitol is absorbed very slowly, and only some of it actually gets digested. Although it is found naturally in some foods, be careful with sorbitol, as it has a laxative effect if consumed in excess.

The most important thing to remember is that when it comes to food, simpler is always better! When comparing similar foods, pick the one with the shorter ingredients list.

This brings me to today’s challenge – NAME THAT FOOD.

Daily Challenge 5/18:

Name the following food!

Given the following nutrition label and ingredients list, can you tell us what food item this is? Post your answers to the comments, and I’ll give you the answer at the end of the day. The first person to comment the correct answer, or whoever gets the closest by the day’s end, gets a bonus point and a fist bump from coach Pat.

Nutrition Facts (for 1 serving)

Calories   100

Total fat   3 g

            Saturated fat   1 g

            Trans fat   0 g

Cholesterol   0 mg

Sodium   75 mg

Total Carbohydrates   17 g

            Sugar  7 g

            Dietary Fiber   1 g

Protein   2 g

Ingredients

GRANOLA (WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, BROWNSUGAR, CRISP RICE [RICE FLOUR, SUGAR, SALT, MALTED BARLEY EXTRACT],WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED WHEAT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED COCONUT, WHOLE WHEATFLOUR, SODIUM BICARBONATE, SOY LECITHIN, CARAMEL COLOR, NONFAT DRYMILK), SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, COCOABUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLA EXTRACT), CORN SYRUP, BROWN RICE CRISP(WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE, SUGAR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, SALT), INVERTSUGAR, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, GLYCERIN, SOYBEAN OIL. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF SORBITOL,CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, WATER, SOY LECITHIN, MOLASSES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BHT (PRESERVATIVE), CITRIC ACID.

*****Answer******

Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bar