Posted 9:33 pm Sunday, December 23, 2012
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What is really in what we are eating?
By COSHANDRA DILLARD
cdillard@tylerpaper.com
Can we really know too much about what you put in our bodies? Part of that knowledge is reading and understanding food labels.
cdillard@tylerpaper.com
Can we really know too much about what you put in our bodies? Part of that knowledge is reading and understanding food labels.
I’m working to significantly reduce my consumption of fast food and most of the processed foods found on the inner aisles of a grocery store. I’ve challenged myself to stay away from such foods. It’s not just about losing weight. I’m also concerned about things that are added to foods that could be harmful if eaten consistently over a long period.
I’ve found that not being prepared leads to poor diet choices. In a quest to avoid picking up fast food after failing to pack my lunch, I stopped at a grocery store. I opted for tomato soup. I usually don’t buy canned soups because they’re loaded with sodium. I selected one anyway with the least amount of salt and diluted it just a little bit to cut the salt more.
The label boasted “heart healthy” encircled by a green heart. It also read, “While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease.” At the bottom, it said “120 calories per one container.” The American Heart Association has its stamp of approval on the package.
I walked out of the store without reading the ingredients or nutrition facts beyond the sodium part.
It had 17 grams of sugar — that’s 3.4 teaspoons. Tomatoes contain some sugar, but this soup also had high fructose corn syrup as its fourth ingredient. (I could have just had a cookie.)
Lessons I learned: Be prepared and take the time to read labels. It didn’t kill me to have one high-sugar, high-sodium entree, but the idea is to get into the habit of cooking and preparing food. It can become easy to grab something quick and cheap on the fly, but just a few meals like that every week could lead to old bad habits.
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, watching your intake of sodium, sugar or saturated fat, it’s important to plan. Without proper planning or an adjustment for when you can’t plan, there’s too much room for error.
Tip: To avoid unhealthy snack attacks while at work, keep fresh fruit, a bottle of water, nuts and seeds at your desk or work area.
The label boasted “heart healthy” encircled by a green heart. It also read, “While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of this disease.” At the bottom, it said “120 calories per one container.” The American Heart Association has its stamp of approval on the package.
I walked out of the store without reading the ingredients or nutrition facts beyond the sodium part.
It had 17 grams of sugar — that’s 3.4 teaspoons. Tomatoes contain some sugar, but this soup also had high fructose corn syrup as its fourth ingredient. (I could have just had a cookie.)
Lessons I learned: Be prepared and take the time to read labels. It didn’t kill me to have one high-sugar, high-sodium entree, but the idea is to get into the habit of cooking and preparing food. It can become easy to grab something quick and cheap on the fly, but just a few meals like that every week could lead to old bad habits.
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, watching your intake of sodium, sugar or saturated fat, it’s important to plan. Without proper planning or an adjustment for when you can’t plan, there’s too much room for error.
Tip: To avoid unhealthy snack attacks while at work, keep fresh fruit, a bottle of water, nuts and seeds at your desk or work area.
