Want to Eat Healthy? Learn How to Read Labels

If you’re spending more time in the grocery store these days, it may be because the information you have to “digest” before picking out something to eat has increased, along with the confusion over the terms and symbols used to profile foods.

Don’t let your emotions get the best of you when you see claims like “earth friendly” or a triple star rating on a label. Use the nutrition facts below to help you make the right choice.

ORGANICALLY GROWN

All food, whether of plant or animal origin, is “organic” since the term denotes the presence of carbon, and all life forms contain carbon. A more accurate designation when talking about the foods we buy is whether are organically grown (or produced) versus conventionally grown. That said, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has regulations that must be adhered to for any food making an “organic” claim.
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The “USDA Organic” seal means the food was produced without:

• Synthetic pesticides (man-made bug killers)
• Chemical fertilizers (man-made soil enrichment)
• Growth hormones (drugs that speed growth and maturity in animals)
• Synthetic preservatives (man-made ingredients used to keep food fresh longer)
• Additives (things that enhance color, flavor)
• Bioengineering (genetic modification)
• Irradiation (process that prolongs shelf life)

Foods containing more than one ingredient can be identified based on what percentage of their ingredients conform to the organic definition using the criteria below:

• “100% Organic” means everything in the product is organically produced.
• “Organic” means 95-100% of the ingredients are organically produced.
• “Made with Organic Ingredients” means at least 70% of the ingredients are organically produced.
• Foods with less than 70% organically produced ingredients may not make a claim on the front of the package, but may indicate on the side panel any specific ingredient that was organically produced.

PROS & CONS:

The most important consideration when selecting produce is whether you are able to consume the recommended 9 servings (4-5 cups) of fruits and vegetable every day. If not, it doesn’t really matter how it was grown, your diet is deficient and that’s not good.

Organically grown generally costs more, is harder to find and offers less variety, while conventional is abundant and appetizing year round at affordable prices. There is little significant nutritional difference and both can be shipped from the far corners of the earth which is not good for the environment.

BEST BET:

Eat what’s in season and locally or regionally grown whenever possible.

Wash edible surfaces of all fruits and vegetables before eating.

FREE-LIVING ANIMALS AND FISH

• Chickens and turkeys can be sold as “free-range” as long as they had access to the outdoors. The claim does not control how long they were outside, the air quality, pen size nor population density, so there’s no guarantee the animals were more humanely treated.
• The claim “cage-free” can be used when poultry is not raised in traditional cages, but it does not mean they were allowed to roam free or had outside pens. It can mean they lived on the floor of a barn.
• Beef labeled as “grass fed” or ”pasture raised” has spent some time roaming around a field eating what grows in it, however there’s no way to know for how long or how often.
• Both “wild” and “farm raised” fish can be labeled organic, but there is no guarantee that they are free from mercury or other industrial contaminants, like PCBs.

PROS & CONS:

The biggest mistake most people make when it comes to the meat and fish they eat is that their serving sizes are too large. Women between the ages of 19-30 only need about 5.5 ounces of meat (or its alternates) daily. A half-pound grass fed beef burger or deep fried free range chicken wings are both high in fat, regardless of their origins.

BEST BETS:

Select lean cuts of meat and poultry, prepare them without added fats and take the right portion size, then it won’t matter where the animal lived before it arrived on your plate.

NATURAL FOODS

There is no legal or official definition of the term “natural.” Pretty much any food can make that claim.

BEST BETS:

Try to buy foods as close to their original form as possible, or minimally processed and packaged.

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Robyn Flipse, MS, RD

Author, Fighting the Freshman Fifteen

Available at www.FreshmanFifteenBook.com