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The order in which you must read a label to know if a product is healthy
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The order of the ingredients (and the possible percentages) is the key to understanding the information on a package
A priori seems simple, but many times “Decipher” the label of a food is very difficult. And, although there is a lot of information on the labeling of a product, many times the way in which it is arranged, or the overinformation, can make the end difficult: know if a food is healthy and suitable for our diet or not.
The first thing to keep in mind, says Laura Isabel Arranz, a doctor in nutrition, pharmacist and dietician-nutritionist, is the two most important parts of a label: nutritional information and ingredient list. In the first, what we find is the amount of nutrients that food has per 1 grams. In the second, the ingredients that are part of the composition. «The most important of the ingredient lists is that, the first are the majority and the last the minority, but we will not know the amount of each one “, says the professional and makes another warning about the Nutrition Facts: “Here the whole is counted so that if the food has natural sugars and also added sugars, we will see the amount of both together, but we will never know how much sugar has been added.”
Analyze the sugar in a product
If we return to the order of the food list, the nutritionist reiterates the importance of the order in which the ingredients appear. «This means, following the example of sugars, that if we see« sugar »in the first positions, the product has enough added sugar compared to the rest of the ingredients that come later, ”he explains and gives an example of an almond cream. If when looking at its ingredients, the sugar appears before the almonds, it means that this is its main ingredient. Another factor to take into account is when an ingredient has a percentage indicated. The professional continues with a practical example: “If the almond cream has, along with” almonds “, 40% indicated, that will mean that it has more than that percentage of sugar, as it appeared before”. “For all this, the order and the percentages of some ingredients can guide us when buying,” he says.
How to “read” nutrition information correctly?
The nutritional information tells us how much the food has of each nutrient and that refers to the total of the product. «The ideal is look at this information as it is presented to us», Recommends Laura Isabel Arranz, doctor in nutrition, pharmacist and dietician-nutritionist.
The first thing we find is the energy content in calories and kilojoules. Then the total fats and, within these, we will have the detail of saturated fats. “These should be in the least amount possible to protect our health,” says the nutritionist. Next, there will be the carbohydrates and within them we will always find the sugars (all are counted, the added ones and those present naturally). Also, we will find the information regarding the amount of proteins and salt that has the product. “As for salt, it should be said that it is like in the case of sugars, both the added and the naturally present in the food in the form of sodium are counted”, he adds.
Additionally, we can see in some products that the amount of fiber, polyols, starch, of some types of fats such as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated or the amount of vitamins and minerals. “In the latter case we will have to find the% of those vitamins and minerals that the product provides with respect to the reference values for daily consumption, so we can assess whether they contribute a lot or a little”, says the professional.
Although the true information of the product is, mainly in the list of ingredients and nutritional information, but we can also find other key elements such as the name or description of the product (“not the trademark, but what tells us what the product is, for example, “Rice flakes with honey”, explains the nutritionist), the expiration date, the origin, how to use it, etc.
Also, the professional warns about advertising messages that attract our attention “but do not give true information.” “Advertising is all the big messages that we will see in the product. We can value them, but always minimally analyzing the information in the ingredient list and nutritional information ”, he explains and concludes:“ A product can be 0% fat but have more sugar than a conventional product: not everything is what it seems ”.