Health Blog

Last Wednesday we discussed the Nutrition Facts portion of the label on foods.  This week, I thought we could take a look at the list of ingredients. Reviewing the ingredients is important for nutrition and can be even more important if you are on a special diet or if you have food allergies.

Ingredients are listed in descending order, so the first ingredient listed makes up the majority of the food. Read all the ingredients listed and make note of sugars, fats, artificial flavorings or additives. As a general rule, make sure the first five ingredients are healthy ingredients that you want to eat.

The ingredient list can also help you find foods made with whole grains, which are healthier and are preferred to refined grains. Whole grain foods should have one of the following whole grain ingredients listed as their first ingredient:

·        whole wheat

·        whole oats

·        brown rice

·        bulgar

·        graham flour

·        oatmeal

·        whole grain corn

·        whole rye

·        wild rice

On the other hand, a food is not made with whole grains if it is labeled with the words multi-grain, 100% wheat, seven-grain, stone-ground, bran, or cracked wheat.

The ingredient list can also help identify 'hidden' ingredients, like added sugars (bad) and trans fats (bad). Foods with added sugars will list corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, honey, molasses, etc. on their ingredient list. Other names for added sugars can include:

·        brown sugar

·        corn sweetener

·        dextrose

·        fructose

·        glucose

·        high-fructose corn syrup

·        invert sugar

·        lactose

·        maltose

·        malt syrup

·        raw sugar

·        sucrose

·        sugar

·        sugar alcohols – sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol

Lastly, it is important to pay attention to trans fats in the ingredient list. They can be identified in the ingredient list as hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated oils. Keep in mind the food label (like the label below) can read 0 grams of trans fat (if it is less than .5 grams the label can put 0), but the product can still have trans fat. So always look in the ingredient list before buying. The dietary guideline for trans fat is 0 grams per day so even a little is too much.

Next Wednesday we’ll continue our label review series by taking a look at fats.

Rebecca