Labels, Labels, LABELS!!!

I can’t help but get that song “Signs, Signs” stuck in my head as I wrote that title.  You know the one done in 1990 by Tesla (listen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklM1AiZX0s)?  Okay, originally done in 1971 by Five Man Electrical Band but hey I am a girl of the 80’s and 90’s and full of whimsy when it comes to BIG HAIR ROCK BANDS!  I bet you never read those words together before!  Bah hahaha!

Oh I digress! 

Labels!  I recently read an article/Q&A from Tosca Reno (love her!) about the easiest and best way to read food labels.  Sadly, I have to admit, I am not a rocket scientist and I swear you need to be one of these to read, pronounce and understand the %’s and #’s listed on an ever so informative “Nutrition Facts” table.  I mean really, is it truly informative if you can’t understand it?  It’s like a foreign language and I am from Canada where we have 2 national languages!  BTW, I don’t understand the French side either! 

Here’s what I have survived doing in the past.

1. Observe the suggested serving size (God help me if they only have it in grams).
2. Observe the calories.  If the calories look reasonable then I immediately take a look at the…
3. Sodium amount.  My body and salt do not mix well (story for another time).  If it’s within my parameters, then my eyes head to…
4. Fibre and Sugars.  I’m a fibre girl so it’s important that it have a high # and %.  FYI, 4g of sugar is equal to 1 packet of sugar (you know the size you find at your table).  So I start adding those up in my head and again, go with the serving size to see if that’s okay too. 
5. Last but not least, I then take a look at the ingredients.  Why you ask did I not look at this first?  Yeah, I dunno. 

I did mention that this was my way of doing things in the “past”.  Truly, there is room for improvement.

Tosca Reno’s article in March 2012’s edition of Clean Eating sums things up perfectly.  “If there is a long list of ingredients and you can’t read all of them, put it down and walk over to the produce aisle”

Now I am sure there is a time and place where it’s incredibly fun and hilarious to stand there trying to wrap your tongue around these wonderful phonetically challenged words (I won’t feel put out if you choose not to invite me to one of these parties!), but really, who has the time?   Add kids shopping with you into the mix and 4-GET-IT!

So when you do find a label that has ingredients that you can pronounce, what do you do next?  Well without going into the ins and outs of Fats, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrates etc., #yawn, here’s what else I figured out:

Check the portion size (“per” found at the top).  The Nutrition Facts table is based on a certain amount or portion of the food.  Be careful.  Some packages like pop and juice may have nutritional information based on a smaller amount than what’s inside its “convenient” size packaging!

Calories!  I rarely pay attention to this.  Crazy huh?  Yup!  I know.  Here’s my rational.  I eat healthy and I watch my portion sizes to ensure no over eating.  I only eat fresh, unprocessed, natural foods (Yes, I do indulge on occasion!).  When you do this, you don’t need to count calories.  Not only that but not all calories are the same! 

If you are a calorie counter then I bow to your expertise!  I have driven myself mad to exhaustion trying to do that over the last 20 years without any success!

% Daily Value (or % DV).  “The % DV is a tool to help you see if a specific amount of food has a little or a lot of a nutrient.”  As an example:  1 cup of cereal has 1.5g of Fat or a % DV of 2% (no milk).  So of that 1 cup of cereal, only 2% of it is fat.   If you are trying to eat low fat, then the lower the % DV the better!

For years I’ve thought that this meant the “Total % for the Day” but that is wrong!  According to Health Canada (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/index-eng.php), “The % DV is not meant to track your nutrient intake for the day.”  Use the % DV to help guide you in eating and choosing foods that you wish to either eat more of or less of. 

The above is the same for Sodium, Carbohydrates, Protein, Fibre and Sugar. 

If you are wanting to increase protein look for a %DV of 15 or higher.  Trying to lower sodium intake?  Look for a %DV of 5 or lower.

Holy Hannah!  I AM A ROCKET SCIENTIST and you can be one too!  If you send me a self addressed stamped envelope…  Haha!

Now go on, get out there and get reading those labels, feel free to engage unsuspecting people in the grocery aisles.  Hell, go a head and try it as a pick up line, just make sure to share with the rest of us if that line works!