We've all heard it's important to read food labels. But with so much information out there, it can be hard to know what's good and what's not. What are we actually reading and looking for? Ingredients, sugar, calories, etc.?
This week I had a lesson in reading labels. Normally, I read labels when choosing foods but I'll admit that there are times when I just don't have the time to for one reason or another. Life get's in the way as I'm sure it does for most people. So sometimes I'm guilty of falling for the trap and buying something that claims it's healthy instead of confirming it for myself.
It's kind of scary if you think about it - we live in a place where we can't trust the food we are buying. Foods claim to be good for us when they aren't. So being prepared and knowing how to read labels really become important in choosing the best quality of foods for our families.
If you had to choose between both pictures below, which would you think is the healthier choice: the greek yogurt or the ice cream?
At first glance, my choice was the greek yogurt. We all know ice cream is bad for us and greek yogurt is good for us. Seems like an easy choice, right? Let's take a closer look at the labels to see. The first label is for the ice cream and the second is for the yogurt.
As you can tell from the label, one serving of the yogurt has more than twice as much sugar and nearly just as many calories as one serving of the ice cream! This is a perfect example of why reading labels is important. Certainly I don't want to be eating a food that is worse for me than ice cream and had I read labels from the beginning, I might not have ever purchased this yogurt. When choosing a greek yogurt, I have found it is best to choose the unflavored ones or even the new Oikos triple zero, which have a low serving of sugar.
Have you had a lesson in reading food labels? I'd love to hear about it!
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