Low fat, low calorie, wholegrain, it’s amazing how many healthy items there are in the supermarket right? Sorry babes, hate to burst your bubble but food label claims aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. That’s why we’ve listed our top tips to help you babes navigate those pesky food labels and ingredients lists!
Never trust a snack by its label!
Claims made on the front of packaging often try and lure you into buying them, by making claims that don’t even have to be 100% true. Flip that low fat/light/natural yogurt over and make sure you’re looking at more than just the health claim on the front (yes even on our packaging) (but when you do you’ll see it’s all true).
Serves 4, not all 4 me!
I know babe, sorry to spoil your fun, but that entire bag of popcorn/chips/lollies actually ISN’T what they’re talking about when they said ‘serving size: 1’ on the nutrition label. Make sure when you’re looking at the nutrition label you check the serving size and multiply accordingly (or dividing. But let’s be real here). Alternatively, if you’re comparing two products always go by the per 100g section! That way you know you’re comparing the same amount of food.
Read, read, read that ingredients list!
No babes, don’t worry, we’re not telling you that you have to know what crystal dextrose is (but if it’s on the ingredients list maybe don’t eat it!). We’re simply saying to have a little scan of the first three ingredients, and avoid any products that list refined grains, oils, or preservatives as the top 3! Another top tip is that if the ingredients list is longer than 2-3 lines you can guess that it’s going to be super processed. Don’t know what a GOOD ingredients list looks like? Click here.
Health stars don’t mean gold stars!
You know that handy little rating out of 5 stars on the front of your favourite cereals/flavoured milks at the supermarket? If you’re not careful, trusting those 5 little stars will have you eating sugar, additives, and who knows what else! The Health Star Rating system actually only compares products in categories (like flavoured milks), so just because that sugar loaded iced coffee has 5/5 (true fact, WE KNOW RIGHT), doesn’t mean you should be drinking it daily.
Above all babes, remember that whatever a package says on the front, should be echoed on the back in the ingredients list and nutrition labels! If you need a good example of that, click here, here or here…
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