Nutrition 101: How to Figure Out What the Heck You're Eating

People don't like to go grocery shopping with me. Not only am I an obsessive bargain hunter (meaning that my brain stores an impressive catalog of the typical price for a given item and I have to spend at least 30 seconds comparing the price of said item to its counterparts, therefore ensuring that I'm getting the best deal), but I also take the time to figure out what I'm putting in my body. I could not in good conscience buy a loaf of bread without giving the nutrition facts a once-over. Also, I really like food, so I enjoy spending time in grocery stores (I know it's weird, but I could happily frolic up-and-down the isles of a good store for upwards of two hours). 

My hometown market, where I accidentally almost bought something called "galanga root"

 Whenever I invite my roommates to accompany me to the market, the always thoroughly weigh the pros and cons. I ask if they want to come with me, and a thoughtful "Hm..." escapes their lips when really they're thinking, "Do I really need more milk? I don't know if I want to spend an hour at Macey's watching Ariel spend five minutes picking out yogurt while she critiques every item I put in my cart".

I know it's annoying, and I don't purposefully make my friends suffer, but in the end I do think there is a great deal of merit to it. Not only have I become adept at getting the best price, but I'm also getting the most nutritional bang for my buck. Which, after what I now realize is an extensive introduction, leads me to the focus of this post: reading a nutrition label. I know it seems basic, but I think that you may be surprised by how little thought you've given it.

For starters, there is a little something called "nutrient density". Basically, it's how much good stuff, such as vitamins, minerals, and fiber, you're getting for a certain number of calories. For example, if you're eating a piece of apple pie (mm...pie) you get all of the good stuff from the apple, but you also get lots of simple carbs (like sugar) and fats from the crust and filling. Compare a 100-calorie sliver of pie to a 100-calorie fresh apple. Which do you think is more nutrient-dense? Which has more vitamins and minerals? More fiber? Spoiler alert - it's the apple. This concept is true of any food, and when you're eating, you want to get the greatest nutrient-density possible.

I like the way Homer thinks

 The first things I look for when I'm inspecting a nutrition label are sodium, sugar, type of fat, protein, and fiber. Protein and fiber are good because they keep you feeling fuller longer, and fiber keeps a clean colon (nobody wants to develop diverticulum). Sugar, some fats, and sodium are bad, sugar more so that sodium. Just trust me on the sugar thing. In excess, it causes too many problems to list. For the fat, the amount really doesn't matter - it's the type that counts. Unsaturated is good, saturated is not-so-good, and trans is badbadbad.

Now how do you figure out how much or how little is good? The best advice I can give is to compare it to the things around it. Thinking about buying those Chewy bars? Try taking a look at a granola bar that's mostly nuts, or one that looks like it has a bunch of weird seeds and stuff. Compare the labels and see how they stack up. Then think about whether you will actually eat it or not and whether it's in your price range. If you need to eat four Chewy bars to take the edge off of your hunger, then it may be worth it to buy the more expensive snack that you only need to eat one of. 

In regards to sodium (and pretty much everything else on the label) a simple glance at % Daily Value that tells you how much you should consume in a day. Take a look at the anonymous label below and see what you think.

Low sugar, high protein and fiber: looks good

 *This is a side-note for fiber. Fiber is not considered "significant" unless it is in amounts greater than 5 grams. The American Diabetics Association recommends basing insulin doses off of grams of carbs consumed (carbs are not fiber). When there is more than 5 grams of fiber, the fiber acts as negative carbs and the number of grams of fiber can be subtracted from the number of carbs. For example, say a slice of bread has 30 g of carbs and 6 g of fiber. A diabetic would subtract 6 from 30 and dose their insulin for 24 g of carbs. That's how those flour tortillas can be advertised as "low carb".

Next on my mental checklist of things to look at is the ingredient list. Ingredients are listed in order of greatest weight to least. The classic ingredient dupe that can be avoided by glancing at the ingredients is whole wheat goods. Often times, "whole wheat bread" is really mostly white flour with a little bit of whole wheat sprinkled in for color, which entirely negates the benefits of eating whole wheat in the first place.

This label is, admittedly, a little vague, but notice how the flour is a mixture of whole wheat and wheat mixed together aka not actually 100% whole wheat. Sometimes they will try and get tricky by just putting "wheat flour". If it doesn't say "whole wheat", it's not whole wheat.

I also scan the list for things like hydrogenated oils. These are oils that are naturally liquid at room temperature, but have been altered to be solids. This prolongs shelf life and clogs your arteries. I also keep my eyes peeled for high-fructose corn syrup and other processed sweeteners like fructose along with any ingredient that I can't easily pronounced. These flavorings, stabilizers, and preservatives are unnatural and a sign of a lot of processing.  

So lets say you found these really good cookies and they look pretty healthy and you think that they will be a good option to help turn your cookie addiction around. Before you leave the store with enough to live off of for four months, make sure to look at the serving size. It may turn out that one serving size (and the amount that the nutrition facts describe) is actually 1/4 of a cookie, or the cookies might be really really small (this happened to me once). This is a classic example of serving size deception:

It's advertized as fat free. Well, how can it be when the main ingredient is canola oil? If you look closely, you can see that the serving size is a 1/3 second spray. The amount of oil in a 1/3 second spray is so small that according to guidelines, it is considered negligible and does not need to be listed on the nutrition label. So you buy this spray thinking that it's fat free when in reality it is anything but. Tricky tricky PAM. 

Congratulations if you actually read this whole thing. I know it is a little rambling, but really it comes down to three things:

1. Nutrient density
2. Ingredients
3. Serving size

Simple enough. 

I would like to point out that no where in here do I recommend counting calories. I do believe that most things are good in moderation, and I also believe that we should be informed and knowledgeable in regards to what we eat and how it affects our bodies, but I do not believe in diets. Diets are degrading to the soul and they often consist of recommendations for unsustainable behaviors. If you feel that you are not healthy in regards to what you eat and what you do, research changes that you can make that you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life like exercising for 30 minutes a day. No one can live to be a happy, active 100-year-old by eating 500 calories a day, so pick something better.

I do believe that you will become a healthier person as you make an effort to be more aware of what you are putting in your body. I also believe that as you do this and treat your body well, you will gain more respect for what is truly a magnificent piece of biological machinery. 

To feel grateful for what you have been given, read this.