People ask me all the time if a certain food product is good.  The first thing they say in defense of their product is……. “It only has “x” calories”, “only “x grams of fat”.  But they fail to look at what is most important.

So what should you look at when reading food labels?

What kind of snacks are you feeding your kids?  Do you read the nutrition labels on the snacks you give your kids?

What is the most important thing to consider when you read a nutrition label?

I would have to say it’s the SERVING SIZE. Because the rest of the numbers only make sense when you know how big a serving size is.  Most people don’t read the serving size and will eat a bag of chips thinking it only has 5 grams of fat, failing to read that the bag has 4.5 servings which is almost 23 grams of fat.  YIKES!

Another fact that is important to note, is the list of INGREDIENTS.  Ingredients are listed in descending order according to volume. So the first ingredient, is the most abundant in the product.

When was the last time you read the ingredients from your kids yogurt?  That you are probably thinking is so healthy.  Most people think they are giving their kids “fruit” in the yogurt, but if you read most of the yogurts, the first ingredients are milk and sugar.  Fruit is usually one of the last ingredients.

You are better off giving them the actual fruit.  Then they get all the benefits of the vitamins and fiber without the added sugar.  I am not saying, you should never give them yogurt again.  Just please understand you are not giving them (or yourself) fruit!

Same thing with products like cooking spray which say 0 calories 0 fat, yet the first ingredient is CANOLA OIL!  Yikes!   The serving size is 1/3 of a second of a spray. There are whole-wheat products, whose first ingredient is enriched semolina, YIKES!  Whole durum wheat is toward the middle to last of the ingredients.

I can go on and on and on!  So bottom line is, before you purchase or eat a product or feed your kids, READ THE NUTRITION LABELS and look for serving size and ingredients.  And don’t get stuck on the CALORIES AND FAT!

By the way, stay tuned, as I will soon discuss my thoughts on children and their eating habits, and how you can help them develop better eating habits.

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