Save yourself time

It is commonly believed that if we are going to walk into a grocery store to read labels, it is going to be very, very time consuming! And even if we are too lay to do so, I think we can all agree that we all want to have a piece of mind, and know what we are putting in our mouths. The good news is that most of us only have to read the food labels once in a blue moon!  Wouldn't it be nice if it could be as easy as walking down the isles and grabbing your food items without having to read the labels time after time? It can be, if you are familiar with which foods have ingredients that you can trust, and feel good about. Here's a few tips on making your grocery experience less time consuming, and more health-conscious:

• 1.      Plan to spend 2 hours (give or take depending on how much you shop) at the grocery stores you normally go to do the all the "work"
• 2.     Take notes! Bring a spiral notebook; and if you're a visual learner like myself, bring a camera!

• 3.      Snap photos of the products that you will continually buy because you like that the product have no _____ (you fill in the blank)! 
• 4.     When the pictures are developed/printed, paste them to the inside of the binder below some titles, i.e. snacks, etc.

This method can work with so many goals, whether that be weight loss, restricted diet, allergies, etc. You will have a log of foods that are in the "safe zone" for you to eat, and then when you stop by the grocery store, you can just grab and go without wasting time with the labels every time you go. Granted, if you can remember all your favorite products, then there is no need to even keep a log!

It is noteworthy that sometimes companies may change their recipe and add ingredients without notice.  Case in point: Taco Bell’s hot sauce didn't always have “yeast extract” in their recipe, and then one day all of a sudden, I noticed that it appeared in their ingredients label. Check out the difference in the two 2 sauce packet ingredients! This is of concern to me since I am allergic to MSG (monosodium glutamate) and all forms of it. This is to say that if you are going for a strict diet, eliminating certain ingredients, you may have to "check on it" every once in a while, especially when something is "off" about it. Before I started reading ingredient labels, I had believed that if it was organic, "natural" that I didn't have to worry about finding additives in my food, however, I still saw "organic yeast extract", which would mean for me that I still cannot eat that, nor can I trust that every time I see an organic label, that it can't contain flavor enhancers in the organic form :-)

To speak more specifically about Macronutrients labeling such as fat, carbs, and protein on the nutrition facts get a lot more attention from the FDA and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) because preservatives and flavor enhancers have already been "dealt with" and placed in a category known as "generally recognized as safe" to eat.2,3 A bigger issue that the CDC are concerned about is the obesity and heart disease epidemic in the U.S.

The FDA has been tackling the issue of confusing or misleading labels more recently, and among various proposals, one idea that sounds good so far is employing the use of "traffic light" symbols on packages to indicate whether high brow like fat or sodium are within acceptable range. As you can probably guess, green = good, and red = poor!5 This has worked well in the United Kingdom, and it might not be a bad idea for helping Americans with obesity by being more up front about what products are in acceptable range, and what is not. Weight watchers already has a similar approach with their points system to track ways to keep a diets in check, centering around caloric intake, and energy expenditure.4

And as always, the best foods for you have no labels! Next week, I’ll explain what the USDA's (United States Department of Agriculture) parameters for labeling things like, "very low sodium", "low fat", etc in order for it to be advertised that way.

¹ http://www.livestrong.com/article/71755-autolyzed-yeast-extract/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35839186/#.T0keN1HwP8s
2 CDC.gov
3 FDA.gov
4 http://www.weightwatchers.com/plan/eat/plan.aspx
5 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35839186/#.T0keN1HwP8s