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What you should look for on the label of a food to take home the healthiest
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At times like Christmas, the nutritional information of a product can help us choose the healthiest option and avoid excesses
Even if you are one of the staunch defenders of healthy food, you pursue a healthy diet every day and strive not to fall into the temptation of ultra-processed foods, there are times of the year when everything is a bit more difficult. And Christmas is one of them. But not because the holidays arrive and we see all kinds of sweets, alcoholic beverages and succulent dishes to enjoy feasts, we have to think that all our efforts are going to fall on deaf ears.
It is true that Christmas is a time of nutritional excesses, but even if we give ourselves a few whims, it is not necessary to “throw the house out the window.” To obtain
a minimum of coherence and self-control food labels they can be great allies. Or rather, learning to “read food labels” may well become a great ally to continue taking care of ourselves. Behind an attractive packaging and hidden between the figures and letters of the nutrient and ingredient tables are the keys to determine if a food is worth it (nutritionally speaking), or not.
What to look at on the label
To begin with, it is important to differentiate between the two main parts of a food label: the list of ingredients, and its table of nutritional components. Regarding the list of ingredients, we must look at three things when looking at it.
First of all, it is important to consider the order in which the ingredients are presented: they are always placed from the largest to the smallest quantity of the product. For example, explains Laura Isabel Arranz, doctor in nutrition, pharmacist and dietician-nutritionist, in a product that has added sugars, it is not the same that sugar appears first or fourth. This can be very important to choose Christmas products that, in themselves, have a lot of sugars, such as hot chocolates, or sweets such as nougat.
On the other hand, along with some ingredients we will also find the porcentaje that it supposes in front of the total. «This is only mandatory for those key ingredients to value the product, for example, in some cereals with chocolate the percentage of this will be indicated, or in some cookies with sesame », points out the nutritionist. The key is that, if we know those percentages, we can get an idea of what they mean compared to the rest of the ingredients once we also check the order in which they appear in the ingredient list.
Lastly alright analyze the additives in a product. These can be indicated with the “typical” numerical code that follows an “E”, or with its name, such as: preservative, stabilizer, sweetener, or antioxidant. “They are safe, but the less the better!”, Warns the professional.
How to read the table of nutritional values
On the other hand, it is important to carefully analyze the table of nutritional values of a food to know what we are buying. In this table, which usually appears in the form of a box, we are given information on the amount of energy and nutrients in the product. The first thing we are going to find is the energy value of the product, that is: how many calories it has. However, according to Arranz, this is a fact that we should always look at in a relative way, “and only to compare between some processed foods, since there are very caloric foods that are healthy, such as nuts or virgin olive oil.”
Also, we must look at sugars. The nutritional information indicates the amount of sugars, both natural and added. If a product does not have added sugars, we will find this in the nutritional table, but not in the list of ingredients.
This table also provides information regarding the saturated. The nutritionist says that it is important to pay attention to this point, since “saturated fats are the ones that we must reduce in our diet to avoid the risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases or gaining weight.”
Finally, we must look at the amount of salt indicated. As with sugar, both the added and the one that is naturally present in the food in the form of sodium must be taken into account.