Contents
Learning to shop: the first step to eating healthy
Tags
From the moment we make the shopping list we are planting the foundations of the diet that we will follow for several days
Healthy eating starts from the moment we prepare our Shopping list. As we walk through the aisles of the supermarket we are deciding what our food will be for the next few days and, as much as we want to eat well, if we do not buy healthy products, it becomes an impossible task.
One of the problems we find is the routines we have, which lead us to think little about our meals, and opt for precooked and highly processed foods. Therefore, it is easy, when looking at a shopping cart, to see more processed foods than fresh, although it is the latter that really make up a healthy diet.
The key to starting to eat well is to buy well, and for this it is very important to know how to correctly ‘read’ the labels of the products that we are going to take home. “The normal thing is that we hardly spend time looking at what we are really buying,” says Pilar Puértolas, a nutritionist at the Virtus Group. So, it is important to learn to recognize what the information that the label gives us means to say. The list of ingredients it is the first thing to look at. «These are placed in a decreasing direction depending on the amount present in the product. For example, if in the ‘chocolate-flavored powder’ the first ingredient that appears is sugar, it means that this product contains more sugar than cocoa, ”says the nutrition expert.
What the Nutrition Facts Say
Also, another very important element is the nutritional information table since it offers us information on the energy value of the food and certain nutrients such as fats, carbohydrates, sugar, protein and salt. “What we must bear in mind is that what makes a food healthy is not a specific nutrient, but rather all of them. For example, even if the packaging says ‘rich in fiber’, if the product has a high content of saturated fat and salt, it is not healthy ”, explains Puértolas.
Beyond looking at the labels, the key to buying well is opting mostly for fresh food and also, that they are seasonal and local products. “You have to buy raw materials, what allows us to prepare dishes,” says the nutritionist. It refers to foods such as vegetables, fruits, onion, garlic, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, meat, dairy or extra virgin olive oil. Likewise, it is important to limit as much as possible the consumption of ultra-processed foods with refined flours, industrially processed fats, high in sugar and salt.
NutriScore, a reality
In order to facilitate the understanding of the information on the labels, the system will be implemented in Spain during the first four months of this year. NutriScore. This is a logo that uses an algorithm that assesses the positive and negative nutritional contributions per 100g of food and is assigned a color and a letter depending on the result. Thus, from ‘A’ to ‘E’, foods are divided into groups from more to less healthy.
This algorithm and its implementation are not without controversy, since there are many nutritionists and food experts who point out that it presents several flaws. «The system does not take into account additives, pesticides or degree of transformation of the food», Explains Pilar Puértolas. He continues and comments that including additives would be a very complex process due to the diversity of existing studies with different results. He also says that another problem is that the classification does not differentiate whole foods from refined foods. “Some inconsistencies have also been found in sugary cereals for children, such as that they obtain C classification, that is, neither good nor bad, and yet we know that they are not healthy,” he recalls. Even so, the nutritionist believes that, although it is clear that NutriScore is not perfect, it is subject to constant studies and attempts are made to make changes to overcome its limitations.
How NutriScore Can Help
One of the ways NutriScore can be most helpful is to be able to compare products of the same category. “For example, it doesn’t make sense to use NutriScore to compare between a pizza and a fried tomato, as they have different uses. The ‘traffic light’ would be useful if we compare different brands of fried tomato or different sauces and it helps us choose the option with the best nutritional quality ”, says the nutritionist. Also, it talks about its usefulness to compare foods in different categories but consumed in the same circumstances: for example to choose a food for breakfast we could compare between sliced bread, cereals or cookies.
“Thanks to NutriScore, it will be possible for those people who consume processed foods to improve somewhat the nutritional quality of their shopping cart since when they see the red color of the traffic light they will probably think about it”, points out Pilar Puértolas, adding to the end that you are welcome NutriScore serves if you continue to choose cookies over fruit. “The implementation of this logo should be supported by other campaigns that make it clear that natural and fresh foods are really healthy,” he concludes.