Understanding Food Labels

This week I wanted to talk to you about the importance of reading food labels. Have you ever seen the words Enriched or Fortified on a cereal box, a loaf of bread or flour and stopped to wonder what that means?

Enriched foods - You’ll see the label "enriched" most commonly on flour, breads, cereal and pasta. This means that during the refining process, valuable nutrients have been stripped away. Food manufacturers strip the wheat grain (bran) away in the refining process, resulting in white flour and the loss of valuable nutrients. Then, B Vitamins are "enriched" into the flour because they were stripped away when the flour was made.

Fortified foods - Foods like dairy products, orange juice, cereals and juices have additional vitamins and minerals added to increase their nutritional value. Food manufacturers plaster on a "fortified with essential vitamins and minerals" labels in an effort to get you to purchase their product. Most often this is a code covering up that there is a significant amount of high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar in product; and don't be fooled by the "whole grain" label on cereal boxes. Just because they are using whole grains, doesn’t make it a healthier option. Check the sugar content.

If your diet consists of a lot of packaged and processed foods, or if you’re shopping down the isles of the grocery store instead of on the outside of the store — where the fruits, vegetables and lean meats are located — you’re missing out on valuable nutrition from your diet and are likely on toxic overload.

Food for thought. A diet high in processed foods can result in a list of health symptoms: Allergies, Headaches, Blood sugar imbalances, ADD/ADHD type of symptoms, Digestion problems, Fatigue, Joint pain, Sleep problems and Stress.

When in doubt about choosing the healthiest foods for you, remember the golden rule: If it comes in a bag or a box and you got it from the isles of the grocery store, chances are that it’s processed and has little value to sustain your health. Remember to shop on the perimeter of the grocery store and if you do need to get a few things within the aisles of the grocery store, be sure you’re reading your food labels!