Reading a Food Label

Reading a Food Label

Picture this, you’re at the grocery store and you can’t move your cart full of unhealthy food because someone is looking at the ingredients and label on a box of crackers or something like that. Yes, it can seem annoying but maybe we should all be looking at the food label and seeing what’s really in our food like that person in the store. “For my clients eating cereal, reading the label would have saved them about 200 calories at breakfast (and a potential weight gain of about 20 pounds in one year)” (Stollman 75). This shows that maybe that person knows what they’re eating and is especially helpful when trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy or healthier lifestyle like I’m trying to do.

Here we have a picture of everyone’s favorite sugary cereal with a leprechaun mascot. Looks innocent right? Kids eat this so it must be healthy. Well that’s a wrong assumption, Lucky Charms is not a cereal that should be eaten every day for breakfast based on the food label.

You can learn so much more about the food you’re eating by reading the label. The book mentioned all the different nutrients you’ll find the specific amounts for like fiber, sugar, sodium, fat and more (Stollman 75). Knowing these things could make us all more mindful eaters and allow all of us to know what we’re actually putting in our bodies instead of eating unknown substances. Also knowing the ingredients and how much of each nutrient you’re eating can help you eat healthier which I know I will be using to help me start eating better.

Lastly we’re going to talk about ingredient lists on food. We all should know what we should look out for in our foods. “You may also want to avoid products with harmful colorings, additives and preservatives” (Stollman 79). This section of text is flat out saying ingredients you don’t want in your foods. Another thing to look out for is in the past I was taught to avoid foods that contain ingredients you can’t pronounce the names of. Now we can all be more mindful while eating and know what we’re really eating. 

What’s your favorite cereal? Is that cereal considered a food to avoid?

MLA Citation:

Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.