An Interesting Take On How To Read Food Labels

One of the most important factors in being an empowered consumer is education. There is simply nothing more powerful than having the knowledge and confidence to make informed health choices for you and your family, and choosing which products to buy and companies to support with your hard earned dollar. When you are able to understand how to read food labels you can look beyond strategically advertised ‘healthy’ foodstuffs and identify the healthful wholefoods that will truly nourish you and your family.

Food shouldn’t be as hard as it is to understand today, but it is. We are bombarded by contradictory information in the media and it is any wonder that by the time we reach the supermarket the thought of reading food labels is enough to make us scratch the idea of going shopping in the first place. Food labels are confusing, they confuse me. Scientists originally used food labels as a matrix recording the chemical compounds in food and it seems that today you must be a scientist to read one.

The following diagram from the Government’s ‘Eat For Health’ website is a surprisingly helpful tool in highlighting just what the average consumer must be weary of:

While it is refreshing to see the Australian Government display an awareness of misleading and confusing industry food labeling, I would edge on the side of caution…or common sense…If you have been following me for a while chances are that you are reasonably far along your journey and that you know that sugar is out and fat is in, however it seems only natural to me that the best course of action regarding food labels is to avoid them. Real, wholefoods almost nearly never require food labels, they simply have one ingredient that may or may not come stored or bunched together. I mean, when was the last time you turned over the label on your broccoli to see its kilojoule breakdown?