de·code (dikod) v. Convert (a coded message) into intelligible language.
Decoding the food label to actually make sense of what you’re reading could easily be one of the most frustrating parts of eating right.
About a year ago, my blood sugar started to run in the mid 200s. For someone who considers herself to be a healthy person, this did not sit well with me. Although, month after month, my numbers were coming back high, I did nothing about it to change it.
I’ve always been a very active person. I enjoy staying busy, being outside, running, walking, cleaning, and doing anything to keep me moving. Since I tend to be this way, it’s easier for me to eat however I want. For the longest, I have considered myself to be “skinny fat,” meaning I was skinny, yes, but my body was full of fat. I’d take down Starbucks, candy bars and anything sweet constantly without thinking anything about it. Months of blood sugar tests revealed a dark secret of mine. Not only did I eat way too many sweets, my diet was consumed with them. I would drink a Chai Tea for breakfast, eat sweets throughout the day, and then eat a regular dinner that I cooked at night. This was my only true meal. I have lived like this for quite a few years now and it’s most likely the reason I always feel so tired. Once I hit ten months of high blood sugar readings, my doctor made me aware that I had two more months to get serious and get my numbers down or I’d be on medicine. Since I’m about to be 30 and already take blood thinners, this was not something I wanted to entertain. To add to that I have a mother in her low 60s on only vitamins and a grandmother in her 80s on only vitamins. I prefer this life much more. Finally, I decided to get serious about my health. As I said before, I have the exercise part down pat, so I knew my focus needed to be in eating better. To start this off, I would actually need to know what to look for when looking for food at the grocery store. I didn’t have to worry about my dinners, as I knew they were healthy. My focus was on the first three-fourths of the day.
Wow! I had no clue how to read a food label. I was lost in the grocery store for the first time. I thought when it says “wheat” that it means “whole wheat.” Yeah, that’s not the case. I also thought when it says “sugar free” that it means it had no sugar products in it. Once again, I was sad to learn this is not the case. Therefore, if you are like many people who want to lose weight, then your first step needs to be learning how to read a food label. Here are some of the most important facts I learned when reading a food label:
Fat free: Basically, when something says it’s fat free, then it means the food or drink product contains less than 0.5 grams of fat. Obviously, just because something says it’s fat free doesn’t mean it’s healthy for you. We all love candy right? Two of my favorites are jellybeans and Lemonheads, both of which boast the words “fat free” on the box. Well, yes they might be fat free, but they’re loaded with sugar. Not a good thing. Make sure you look at the serving size as well; typically, it’s going to be less than what you’d normally eat. Once you double that serving size, it might not be fat free anymore. Fruits and vegetables are eliminated from needing a nutrition label because they are all essentially fat free and very nutritious for you. Lastly, we need good fats, so make sure you’re not eliminating those from your diet.
Sugar free, or low in sugar: Sugars occur naturally in almost all the foods we eat, especially fruits, but they’re added to almost any processed food you buy as well. This one was somewhat tricky for me to learn. Sugars are a carbohydrate that are sometimes called a “simple carbohydrate.” When looking at a package label, you need to be educated on all the words that can mean sugar. Trust me; there are many words on the list I would have never known. Words like: agave nectar, barley malt syrup, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, brown sugar cane crystals (or, even better, cane juice crystals), cane sugar, coconut sugar (or coconut palm sugar), corn sweetener, corn syrup (or corn syrup solids), dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, palm sugar, raw sugar, rice syrup, saccharose, sorghum (or sorghum syrup), sucrose, syrup, treacle, turbinado sugar, and xylose. As you can see, there are many different names for sugar, many of which people are unaware. Companies are great at disguising and renaming sugars to be able to label that product “sugar free,” or, “low in sugar.” In addition, when you’re looking at “low in sugar,” make sure it doesn’t contain sugar alcohols, which would be labeled as “maltitol,” or “orbitol.” Being educated on sugars alone can help your glycemic index a whole heap of a lot!
Whole grain, or whole wheat: This was another ingredient on which I was not educated at all. Although many people don’t know what to look for when looking for whole wheat or whole grain products, it’s much simpler to learn what to look for. Basically, food labels must list each ingredient by weight, but any other word beyond “whole” in front of it is not going to be a whole grain. For example, if you see enriched whole wheat, then the product is going to be made of mostly white flour. Tricky, huh? The first words you want to look for when buying whole grain or whole wheat products are: brown rice, buckwheat, bulgur, cracked wheat, millet, oatmeal, quinoa, rolled oats, whole grain barley, whole grain corn, whole grain sorghum, whole grain triticale, whole oats, whole rye, whole wheat, and wild rice.
For me, these were the three main problems I had when learning to read food labels. They seem to have so many different names or sneaky ways to bring in the ingredients you’re working hard to avoid. I think it’s a great idea for anyone trying to lose weight or even to maintain weight to know what’s going in your body. You can exercise all day long but if you’re not fueling your body properly, none of it matters. Hopefully, the next time you head to the grocery store, you can look at an ingredient list and know what to and what not to put in your temple. As for my temple, I learned about ingredients, started eating five small meals a day, and put down my beloved sweets. This worked like a charm in bringing down my blood sugar. I officially have normal blood sugar levels as of last week, and I lost around 10 pounds in the process. That’s not a bad trade off!
Sources: About.com, “Low Card Diets”; Whole Grains Council, “Identifying whole grain products”