Are The Branded Products You Consume Really Healthy? Here’s A Quick Guide To Read Food

More often consumers tend to trust brands based on their lucrative labels, but those can often be misleading. While choosing the right product based on your requirements, it is important to differentiate between mislabeled food and healthy foods. Nutritionist Malavika Siddharth has provided a quick introductory guide to understanding food labels and help you eat better. The expert explained that the only purpose of the front label is to capture the attention of customers and “can sometimes be highly misleading.” She suggests flipping the cover to read the details.

The nutritionist stated that ingredients are listed in order of quantity, from highest to lowest. Look for products with whole foods as the first or first three components, and avoid those with too many ingredients. Moreover, the serving sizes mentioned on the package are solely for reference and are often unrealistic. It is significantly smaller than what most people consume in one sitting. She stated that one should remember, “So when serving sizes increase, calories of other things also increase.”

Light items can be further processed to reduce calories and fat. Some can also be watered down, so check to see if they added anything more to suit palates like sugar or other substitutes.

Low fat on the label indicates that calories have been decreased at the expense of “possibly” introducing other components, typically sugar. Multi-grain basically denotes that the product contains more than one grain. It might be best to search for any whole grains listed. She added, “Check the ingredients to see if whole grains are listed in the first three ingredients and if it isn’t then the amount is negligible.”

Moving on, if the label reads natural, it does not mean that the product resembles any natural substance. She mentioned, “It simply indicates that at one point, the manufacturer worked with a natural source (derived from a natural source).” Again, organic on the label does not imply it’s healthy.

Further, certain goods contain a lot of sugar by nature. The fact that there is no added sugar is a plus, but other less healthy substitutes may have been added. Low calorie label items must have one-third fewer calories than the brand’s original product; however, one brand’s low calorie version may have similar calories to another brand’s original.

Many highly processed foods can be labelled as low carb, yet they may still include unhealthy elements. Fortified or enriched on the label suggests that it is crucial to consume these items. However, delve deeper because something enriched with Vitamin D as a catchphrase does not imply that all of the other ingredients are particularly good. Next, high protein or protein rich foods do not suggest that other nutrients should be ignored.