The U.S. supplement industry has annual revenue of $25 billion, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. Grocery shelves have foods with added calcium, Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins that promise you health. Some people take so many supplements that they are too nauseated to eat. The vast majority of us only need good food, not supplements. Buyers beware!
There is a lot we don't know about how food nourishes us. A nutrient may be good for us, but adding that nutrient to our diet is not the same as adding the whole food. An orange is more than just vitamin C! Eating an orange gives you fiber, protein, A and B vitamins and more. An apple is a whole food….an apple dessert in a package is not. Steel-cut oats with a little maple syrup are whole foods…..packaged instant maple flavored oatmeal is not.
Eating whole foods frees us from reading food labels and ensures that we are getting the full benefit of what we eat. The obesity epidemic and the high rates of chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes and strokes are strongly linked to our "Standard American Diet" of highly processed food.
If you don't eat whole foods, you will have to read food labels and ignore all the "healthy" claims on the front of packages! I look at two things first: the serving size and the ingredient list.
Serving size: Processed foods often have serving sizes on the label that don't reflect the amount we actually eat. Did you know that there are 2 servings in a package of ramen noodles? Multiply those calorie, fat and sodium numbers by two unless you cut it in half. Small serving sizes also make it possible to put labels on food like "fat free" or "trans fat free." Even foods made of oil (like cooking spray) can be labeled "fat free" if the serving size is small enough. But nothing made of oil is really fat free, is it?
Ingredients list: This is the most important part of the label. It shows exactly what went into the product in descending order of weight (from most to least). No one wants to see fat or sugar listed as the first ingredient, so many foods have a variety of different sweeteners or fats in them. These ingredients are in small amounts, so they fall later in the ingredient list. Look for sweeteners including sucrose, dextrose, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, molasses and honey. Fats include butter, cream, any oil and lard. Anything hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated is a trans fat.
Any ingredient list that starts with "enriched flour" should be off your shopping list. They have removed the "good stuff" during processing, and then added some back by "enriching" it. My mother-in-law used to say "The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead." Mothers are usually right!
Be a smart consumer. The claims of "all natural" are a case in point. Chicken "plumped" with salt and water may be labeled "all natural" because salt and water are natural ingredients. They are not naturally part of chicken, and increase the sodium in a four ounce piece of chicken from 45-60 mg to 220-400mg. Now you are paying chicken prices for salt and water.
If you have a healthy whole food diet, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and the right kind of fats, you will have the necessary vitamins and nutrients to be healthy. Most people only need to add a multivitamin. You don't need to spend your money on processed foods with the latest additives or on bottles of pills!
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Susan Boyko, RN, BSN
Health Coach, Harbor LifeStyle Center
