5 Tips To Become A Healthy Food Shopper

If you read my last post “Are you being fooled by deceptive food product labeling?” then you know just how sneaky food companies can be. Companies know you associate “whole wheat” or “organic” or “all natural” to healthy so what do they do? Slap these words on the front of their box as a brilliant marketing technique to get you to buy their product! But the problem with this is that they mislead you to think a product is 100% healthy, when in reality it might not be.

I’m not going to lie, these guys are good. But the good news is, there are ways to beat them! It all starts with knowing what to look for in the ingredients. Even before looking at a nutrition label I head right to the ingredient list! I want to share with you 5 of my full proof tips for becoming the healthiest food shopper and for beating the system of misleading food product labeling.

You ready?! Here they are:

1. Beware of the following phrases on the front of food packages. They can easily be empty words that do not equal healthy. How? Because the FDA has no official definition for these words. That means the food company decides what these phrases mean. For example, “helps support immunity” could mean there is just a speckle of vitamin c in it. You C?

• 
"All Natural"
• "No artificial ingredients"
• "Natural Fruit Flavors"
• "100% juice" 
• "Multigrain"
• "Helps support immunity"
• "Smart Choice"

2. When you see hot health phrases like “organic”, “vegan”, or “gluten-free” on the front of food packages, don’t assume the food is low in sodium, calories, fat, sugar, carbs, ect. A vegan cupcake is still a cupcake. Now if you’re going to eat the cupcake enjoy the heck out of it! But just be aware of the calories, serving size, ect.

3. When opting out of white flour and looking for products that are whole wheat, whole grain, or sprouted grains:

• Look for "whole" as the first ingredient on the ingredient list or look for 100% whole wheat or 100% whole grain on the front.
• Also remember to look for "whole wheat flour" and not just "wheat flour" (don't be fooled they are not the same!)
• Enriched wheat flour is white flour with some whole wheat added to it. Another trick term to watch out for.

4. You want to know what ingredients to steer clear of when investigating your food ingredient labels. Here are the top most harmful food additives that do not belong in your body and have been tied by research to an array of health problems!!!

• Partially Hydrogenated Oils
• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)
• Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) and Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT)
• Potassium Bromate
• Sodium Nitrate
• Brominated Vegetable Oil
• Food Dyes- Blue #1, Blue #2, Yellow #5, Yellow #6, Red #40
• Artificial Sweeteners-Aspartame (includes Equal), Sucralose( includes Splenda), Saccharin (includes Sweet' N Low)

5. Golden rule:  Buy packaged foods with the least amount of ingredients and ingredients that your great grandmother would recognize.

*Bonus Tip: Remember that ingredients are listed by what the food has the most of. If you are buying a whole grain bar, whole grains should be the first on the list not sugar or anything else!

I hope this post along with my last post will help you know what to look out for when buying any packaged foods. You deserve to know what foods exactly you are putting in your body because it's YOUR BODY. And no one messes with that! Please share this information with any family or friends who you think could benefit from these tips!

Have a H&H day!

Lauren

Cited Articles:

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/lifestyle/food-drink/how-decode-food-packaging?page=5

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/identifying-whole-grain-products