- Many of the foods come packaged, so they are processed products and some are even ultra-processed.
- In 2020, a new food and beverage labeling was approved in Mexico with explicit notices about the content of each product.
- Obesity remains one of the main public health problems in the world and is a risk factor for the development of more than 100 diseases and conditions.
Food labels have always been a matter of discussion. Although each product contains indications about its content, the biggest problem is that not all of them are easy to read. In fact most of the times they are quite confusing even for health professionals. Therefore, they are very complicated to understand if they are really healthy foods or if they contain added ingredients or additives that are harmful.
“The more we can get people to read labels and understand them, the better. The nutritional needs of each person will always vary, but there are foods that we should all limit, no matter who is reading the label, “explains Angela Snyder, nutritionist of the wellness of the Houston Methodist Hospital.
Based on the above, the expert shares some basic tips for reading food labels correctly. The goal is to identify red spots in food to avoid those that are unnecessary to the body.
Red Flag #1: Added sugars
The added sugars They are a refined form of sugar that is added during food processing to enhance flavor. The problem is that they only provide empty calories that we don’t need.
On the other hand, the sugars found naturally in food are accompanied by other vital nutrients such as fiber, vitamins and minerals, which are essential for health. You can find, for example, natural sugars in foods like fruits and some milk derivatives. These are the good.
On the other hand, in addition to the empty calories that added sugars provide and potentially contribute to weight gain, they can also negatively impact your health when consumed for years.
Due to its negative health consequences, food manufacturers are now required to specify the amount of added sugars on their product labels. You can find “added sugar” under the “total carbohydrates” section on the label.
These recommendations will keep you in line with the health guidelines of the American Heart Associationwhich indicate limiting added sugars to no more than 24 grams per day (women) and 36 grams per day (men).
Red Flag #2: Sodium
We know the obvious symptoms of eating high amounts of salt, but another aspect to consider is the long-term negative implications of eating excessive amounts of sodium.
“The most serious thing about consuming a lot of salt is the increase in blood pressure over time. Therefore, the recommendation for most people is to limit sodium to no more than 2,300 milligrams a day.”
Believe it or not, it’s extremely easy to exceed that number, even if you don’t touch the salt shaker at all. In fact, more than 70% of the sodium we consume daily in the diet comes from food manufacturing processes, since a large amount of salt is added to them.
To combat excessive salt intake, Snyder recommends limiting sodium to 500 milligrams per meal or having less than 150 mg of sodium per serving in the foods we eat.
For foods that are notoriously high in salt, such as canned soups, look for products that say “reduced sodium,” “low sodium,” or better yet, “very low sodium.”
Red Flag #3: Saturated Fats
Fats are probably one of the most controversial nutrients out there. But there is one fact that you must take into account with absolute certainty: we must always limit saturated fats and we must completely eliminate trans fats.
Saturated fats, on the other hand, are still very abundant. They are also found naturally in many foods of animal origin such as: red meat, chicken, etc.
“Not all fats are bad, but what we do know from a scientific standpoint is that saturated fats contribute to raising cholesterol levels, particularly LDL cholesterol, which are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.” .
LDL stands for low-density lipoproteins and is sometimes referred to as the “bad cholesterol” since it accumulates on the walls of blood vessels and, over time, leads to cardiovascular disease. The higher your LDL cholesterol levels are, the greater health problems you could develop”, says the specialist, adding that “it is best to try to limit saturated fats to only 12-16 grams per day. This is avoiding as much as possible foods that contain more than 5 grams of saturated fat per serving.”
Since fats are an essential part of our diet, Snyder recommends exchanging any excess saturated fats for healthier fats such as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated (olive oil, fish such as salmon, nuts and seeds, etc.).
Red Flag #4: Exaggeratedly large portions
Even if your packaged foods meet nutritionist Snyder’s recommendations, you still need to review the the size of the portions you consume. Many times you can assume that some products are packaged as a single serving, when in reality there are many more. Others may be too small portions and confuse us.
“Read the serving size carefully because if you eat a double portion of any product and don’t realize it, you will be consuming twice as much saturated fat, added sugar and sodium as you had planned.”
Red Flag #5: Long ingredient lists
It is always a good idea to take a quick look at the list of ingredients of any product that we are going to buy. And in this sense, the fewer ingredients, the better. This means that that particular food is less processed than others.
“If a bag of chips is made of 25 ingredients, better not buy it because it tells us about a highly processed product, in contrast to a bag of chips that has only 3 ingredients: corn, oil and salt. When talking about French fries, the best option would be the latter”.
However, this is not an inflexible rule since sometimes a long list of ingredients does not necessarily mean that the product is ultra-processed. There are some foods that contain a lot of spices and herbs, so you have to be very careful when applying this and all the recommendations that you have learned here about reading labels.
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