What to Look for in Nutrition Labels
Is anyone else a recovering calorie counter? I used to pick up every food item, flip it over, read the calories & serving size, and go from there.
I still look at nutrition labels, but now I look for very different things. Instead of looking at the calorie content, I look at the ingredients.
How we eat affects our health & wellness. Processed food additives can cause digestive upset, inflammation, anxiety, and are often carcinogenic. In all fairness, not all additives are as bad as others. Here is a brief overview of what you should look for in ingredient labels to make healthy shopping decisions.
Note: this list is not intended to scare you or give you food fears. it is merely designed to be educational & give you power and information over your health. if there is something you absolutely love & really want to eat, I always say go for it. just aim to have the vast majority of your diet come from real food — food that does not contain this stuff. an occasional treat will not kill you, but making the basis of your diet foods that contains additives, chemical solvents, and preservatives can have tremendous health consequences.
Sodium Nitrate & Sodium Nitrate
these chemicals are used to preserve meat & give it a vibrant color. they are linked to an increased risk of cancer— the World Cancer Research Fund revealed eating processed meat increases your risk of cancer by 20%
BHA & BHT
Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT) are two preservatives commonly found in cereals, sausages, hot dogs, gum, chips, beer, butter, shortening, candy, and more. they can be tremendously harmful to your hormones, and are considered potentially carcinogenic to humans.
Potassium Bromate
often found in commercial breads, this preservative is an endocrine disruptor & has been shown to cause cancer in animals. it may also go by the names bromic acid, potassium salt, bromated flour, or “enriched flour”
Artificial Food Coloring
artificial food coloring can be found in a shocking amount of products— everything from fruit juices, salad dressings, cocktail mixes, and ice cream, to fish and meat. it has been linked to various cancers, chromosomal damage, and severe ADHD/ADD. anecdotally, it seems to increase anxiety. other names to look for:
Blue 1
Blue 2
E102
E110
E133
Green 3
Red 3
Red 40
Yellow 6
yellow tartrazine
rBGH & rBST
Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST) are growth hormones given to dairy cows to boost milk production. rBGH and rBST are linked to breast, colon, and prostate cancers. also, they are NOT listed in ingredients labels, so all dairy that does not explicitly state otherwise contains them. frankly, there is really no reason why an adult human should be consuming milk that is designed for a baby cow, but if you insist, at least look for a product that is labeled “no rBGH or rBST).
Artificial Sweeteners
there is a wide range of artificial sweeteners. the more harmful ones, like aspartame, are likely to be carcinogenic, cause severe headaches, and digestive distress. however, there are many artificial sweeteners that “health food” products embrace- things like monk fruit, stevia, and xylitol. regardless of the type of artificial sweetener, they cause metabolism & insulin problems: the sweet taste tricks your brain into thinking you are consuming more calories (aka energy) than you actually are. your brain secretes insulin as though you just ate that many calories, but what you consumed does not line up with what you tastes. not only is this terrible for your blood sugar levels, but it also causes overeating because your body is yearning for the calories it thinks it should have gotten.
here are some artificial sweeteners to look out for:
aspartame
equal
erythritol
monkfruit
nutrasweet
sorbitol
sucralose
splenda
sacchrin
stevia
sweet n low
xylitol
Sugar
added sugar is bad for your endocrine system, your cardiovascular health, your blood sugar, and it's highly inflammatory. it can masquerade under the following pseudonyms:
agave
cane sugar
coconut nectar
coconut sugar
corn syrup
dextrose
fructose
fruit juice concentrate
glucose
grape juice concentrate
honey
high-fructose corn syrup
juice
juice concentrate
maltodextrin
maltose
malt syrup
maple syrup
raw sugar
rice syrup
sucrose
tapioca syrup
Artificial Flavors
artificial flavors are chemical compounds derived from petroleum (yes, you read that right!!) that add flavor to foods, and often make them more addictive.
Natural Flavors
tbh, “natural flavors” are not much better. the most common ingredient in food labels, natural flavors can describe almost anything. like artificial flavors, natural flavors are designed to be addictive, and mainly comprised of chemical solvents and preservatives.
Vegetable Oils
vegetable oils are a common additive in foods, particularly in plant-based milks because they give a creamy texture. the problem is they are extracted using toxic solvents, and often from heavily-sprayed GMO crops. they can trigger inflammation & awful for cardiovascular health. seed oils are particularly harmful
Gums
xantham gum & guar gums are popular emulsifiers, often found in plant milks and many other products. they are great at stabilizing and thickening plant milks, but not great for your body. they are hard to digest, inflammatory, and may harm your gut ecosystem
Carrageenan
carrageenan is one of the most popular additives in almond milk, carrageenan does a great job at making plant milk creamy. it can be really hard to digest, cause gastrointenstinal issues, and be highly inflammatory to the body
Citric Acid
Citric acid is probably the least harmful preservative out there, so I wouldn’t freak out too much over this, but it’s still not an ideal thing to ingest in mass quantities
Better Packaged Foods
One of my favorite brands, Ulu Hye, is free from all of these. Listen to my interview with the founder, Heidi Peuten, on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts.
