Food Labels look just like this in the United States
Quick Information & Tips on How to Read the Label:
• The daily percentage is based upon a typical 2000 calorie diet. Note- Most everyone will never maintain at 2000 calories- you may maintain at less or more depending on your age, athletic state etc.
• Serving Size- The largest factor you must learn is the Serving size for the information provided. Serving size is vital for calorie counting- it will tell you if it's grams or ounces. *Tip - Never- Ever count your food by hand- weight it! If it tells you you can have approx: 14 chips per serving- I've found it's more like 12! Hey, it' all adds up! Just below the serving size it will disclose approximately how many servings are in that package. So if you have a bottle of Juice and it says 110 calories but that's for 8oz of fluid but yet there are 2 servings for that bottle you then have to multiply the the number of servings in the container times your serving size! So if you drank a 16 oz of juice you then drank 220 calories.
•Total Fat- How much fat is in that serving size- We need fat- We need the healthy fats! So STOP BUYING FAT FREE! Fat free is marketing ploy!
*Saturated fat- not good- think butter- it's solid in room temperature- think of how that will flow through your body- like a semi-solid at body temperature- it leads to heart disease and atherosclerosis -You need to limit saturated fat because of its negative effects on blood cholesterol. Saturated fat increases the amount of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, in the bloodstream. Elevated levels of this "bad" cholesterol increase your risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. Excessive saturated fat intake also contributes to the development of type 2 diabetes. Initially, high saturated fat intake decreases insulin production, which signals the body to produce even more. Over time, this can lead to chronic over-production of insulin, which is a primary factor in the development of diabetes. Limit your saturated fat to 7% your daily intake for calories (Generally for me- I aim for no more than 5g of saturated fat in any meal)
*TransFat- My God- Please Don't buy any product that has transfat! Trans-fat is man made and so bad and is a definite artery clogger!
*************TIP- LOOK IN YOUR INGREDIENT LIST- IF YOU READ "PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED" THIS IS TRANSFAT CCRG'S!!! DON'T BUY IT- IT'S A LOOPHOLE TRICKERY! The food manufacturer by law does NOT have to disclose transfat if it falls under a .5gram status- ok- so in actuality you are eating it if it's in the ingredient list- don't be fooled!****************************************
*Mono/Poly Fats- they're our friend! These fats are healthy fats they are long chained fats and they don't clog our arteries and actually our body needs healthy fats to function properly! So Fat is good- this fat is good fat! Think of oils you use in the kitchen that stay liquid at room temperature (yes even vegetable oil) because it's an Omega 6 and it's just as important as an Omega 3! (but Omega 3's are the best!)
•Cholesterol- Not good when you have too much- but important when you have just enough- it helps to remove the toxins from our body! Thank You Cholesterol - we need you! Keep Your Cholesterol under 300mg a day or you will hurt yourself!
•Sodium- Keep it under 1600 mg a day now! *tip rinse your canned goods like olives- beans - you will eliminate at least half your sodium from the product! You can purchase no salt canned veggies, you can purchase low sodium broth/soup and
•Carbohydrates - Vital for the Athlete!
*Tip* what you need to know best- trying to lose - keep your carbs under 50% your daily intake!
*Tip* you can take a carbohydrate gram total and subtract the fiber content to come up with a true carbohydrate that can be stored as fat. You see- Fiber will NOT be stored as fat- so by all science you can negate the fiber from the carbohydrate quantity. So if you ate a whole Wheat Bagel and it had 45g of carbs but of that 45g 6 were fiber- you then only ate 39grams of carbs that can be used as fuel or stored as fat. This is often referred to as Net Carbs * please note: there is some story theorists that believe that not all fiber is set up the same- that some may digest so net carb idea should be used loosely*
*Tip* Sugar falls into this too- Simple sugars - this is what will spike your blood sugar and trigger an insulin response and likely be stored as fat. What is not shown is then complex carbs! which is good because complex carbs are turned into fuel slowly!
•Protein- YUMMY! a Food that has at least 7 grams of protein per serving is said to be High Protein!
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