23 Jun What Does Processed Food Mean? Online Registered Dietitian Explains How to Read Food Labels
Numerous studies have shown that ultra-processed foods can lead to weight gain and shorten lifespan. Unfortunately, convenience has increasingly taken precedence over nutritious choices in recent years. Urban areas in the US now have more convenience stores than supermarkets and farmer’s markets, and the sugar industry has misled consumers for generations. As a result, people are paying a high price for these lifestyle changes and bad information in terms of their health. (Sugar is the number one cause of chronic disease and cancer in the United States.)
However, it’s important to note that not all processed foods are unhealthy. Processed simply means that a food has been altered from its natural state. Even everyday foods like applesauce, pasteurized milk, canned vegetables, and feta cheese (unless you’re raising goats in your backyard) are considered processed.
So how can we learn to understand what we’re putting in our bodies?
1. Being label literate is crucial to making healthy choices. Reading nutrition labels is the first step.
- Start with the serving size: Check how much is considered one serving and compare it to the amount you typically consume.
- Check the calories: Look at the total calories per serving and consider if it fits within your daily calorie needs.
- Look for key nutrients: Focus on getting more of the nutrients that are good for you like fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and less of the ones that are not, like saturated and trans fats, sodium, and added sugars.
- Pay attention to the % Daily Value: This shows how much of each nutrient one serving of the food provides in relation to the total amount you need for the day. Aim to choose foods that have higher % DVs of nutrients you need and lower % DVs of those you don’t.
- Watch out for added sugars: Check the ingredients list for sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other sweeteners. The higher up on the list, the more added sugar the product contains. Americans consume too much sugar. Know your sugar names: brown sugar, corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, honey, molasses, and syrup, among others. The American Heart Association recommends no more than six added teaspoons of sugar per day for women and nine for men. (That translates to 24 and 36 grams of sugar, respectively).
- So many ingredients? The ingredients list is organized from most predominant to least predominant. The more ingredients, the more processed the food.
- Avoid highly processed foods: Choose foods with ingredients you can recognize and pronounce, and avoid foods with a long list of artificial ingredients and preservatives.
- Check for allergens: If you have food allergies or intolerances, be sure to check the label for any potential allergens or cross-contamination warnings.
It’s time to retrain our taste buds as a family and step away from highly processed foods that are oftentimes jam-packed with sugar and salt.
- Sugar and salt are great flavor maskers, and unhealthy. Spices things up with rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, etc. to enhance flavors in foods. Incorporate those Mediterranean flavors in your meals.
- Summer is the perfect time to kick bad eating habits. Fruits and vegetables are in abundance. Keep them cut up and ready to go with yummy yogurt dips or hummus.
- The kids’ menu is often filled with fried foods. Get your kids to be adventurous with food by trying new flavors and textures.
Watch out for those beverages! Summertime means indulging in frappuccinos, mochaccinos, and other sweet coffee drinks. But be careful – if you’re not sipping on black coffee with ice, your body could be in for a sugar overload. In fact, some coffee drinks contain as much as 2 1/2 days’ worth of sugar for women, even if you don’t consume any other added sugar throughout the day (which is rare).
- A Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino beverage has 31 grams of sugar. (7 grams over recommended DAILY consumption).
- A 16oz. vanilla Frappuccino has 67 grams of sugar (the light version has 39).
- A bottle of chocolate milk has 26 grams of sugar.
Think before you drink! It can be difficult to fully grasp the amount of added sugars in our favorite beverages. But here’s a trick to help you visualize it: for every gram of added sugar, add four teaspoons to a glass or cup. Mix it with water and try to drink it. Take a sip of your favorite soda, such as Coca-Cola, and see how the manufacturer alters the product to make it palatable for our taste buds. While your teeth may ache from the sweetness, this exercise is a powerful way to understand how much sugar is entering your body. So next time you reach for a sugary drink, think about the impact it will have on your body and consider choosing a healthier alternative.
Simply knowing what we’re eating will make a huge difference in how we shop, and what we choose to put on our plates and in our bodies. Educating ourselves is the first step to health.