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Nutrition Labels |October 27, 2007 |
Introduction
There's something that every food you buy has in common: The nutrition label. Do you read it? We have come to expect certain brands or types of foods to just be healthy without paying any attention to whatever they are actually made from. Just skimming through the percent daily values (%DV) is not enough to truely tell how good or bad that food may be for you. If a food has a small enough quantity of a nutrient, you will see it listed as 0 grams. But if there really is just the small of an amount, then surely it is not significant and might as well be zero, right? Consider this: What if everything you ate throughout the entire day had 0.1g of trans fat. It will not be long before you have accumulated a much larger quantity. Furthermore, your body is affected by even the smallest amount. The affect will be correlated with the amount you consume, but considering the trans fat example again, if you live by the "a little bit won't hurt me" principle, then you are probably consuming more than "a little bit."
In this content section you can read about how to identify the different kinds of fats as good or bad. Then see first hand examples of how "healthy" foods can sneak in minimal amounts of some pretty bad stuff in Health Foods that Really Aren't (some the ingredients actually counteract the ways the product claims to be good for you).
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Articles
Understanding Nutrition Labels: Fats
by Ken Schweickert
Labels started to get a bit confusing when they added trans, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats into the mix. Read this to get an idea of what fats you should eat.
Health Foods that Really Aren't
by Ken Schweickert
You may be surprised when you dig down into the actual nutrition of some foods you once thought were good for you.
Guides
Nutrition
Instant Pancakes
Get some of those good saturated fats from peanut butter in an instant with microwave pancakes. -Printable Directions
Extended Resources
Need help with some of the concepts or terminology in this segment?
Related items from the Learning Base: Fat
Help build our newest Learning Base category: Physiology
by Ken Aug 09, 2008 06:41:32 PM
The answer is because the label is allowed to call it "hydrogenated oil" even if it actually is "partially hydrogenated oil." A partially hydrogenated oil is still hydrogenated, so that's why this is okay for the company to do (even if it's purpose is not appreciated). In most cases I have seen, labels that just say "hydrogenated oil" still have trans fat. However, some labels will state "fully hydrogenated oil" and in that case it is not a trans fat. So you have to be extra careful with these labels.