Consumers Beware: Read Food Labels

This week a post at The Sweet Beet enlightened me about a food choice that was not so healthy. Occasionally, I buy those veggie stick snacks. While they are a tasty option, I learned it is no better than a bag of potato chips or Doritos. The post is titled, 13 “Health Foods” That Aren’t.

It is important to read and understand nutrition labels on the foods you buy. Otherwise, you run the risk of making purchases that undermine your goal to live and eat healthy. As you have read, this happens to me. To minimize unintentional bad choices, I buy all-natural as much as my budget allows. I prefer to know what I am feeding my body, my family and my dinner guests. My research for this post also included talking with a  friend who has a son with allergies to many foods — including peanuts — and substances. She directed me to the following Youtube video from the Healthy Child Healthy World. I realize I have much to learn about food ingredients as well as other substances my family and I are exposed to everyday; and I consider myself to be informed about green matters.

Another reason I read nutrition labels is to control portion sizes. In combination with a food scale, nutrition labels are helpful in knowing “how much” is in one serving of the foods I select to eat. I don’t consider this dangerous or obsessive because I am not successful at eye-balling my portion sizes. This is especially true when I portion breakfast cereal, ice cream, yogurt, pasta, rice, or cookies. Portion size knowledge keeps treats I love in my diet such as Hershey's special dark chocolate bars. Half a bar equals just 90 calories, 6g fat, and 10.5g sugar.

Want a funny story about food label mishaps? One night after completing my workout, I decided to watch Fight Club. Before starting the film, I popped one mini-bag of Act II popcorn. The packaging on the box promotes each mini-bag as having just 100 calories. As it popped, the smell made my stomach rumble. I examined the nutrition label a bit more closely than I did at the store. The serving information read one cup popped. There were six cups in the bag, which meant I was about to consume 600 calories for one mini-bag of popcorn. Talk about a showstopper. Wistfully, I measured one cup from the six I popped and e-mailed Conagra Foods, the company responsible for making ACT II. Come to find out the serving information on the box was printed incorrectly. Instead of being printed one cup popped, it should have read one BAG popped. What the cuss? I never purchased Act II popcorn again.