Read Thy Food Label!!!!

Such a simple answer to so many problems – if you know what you are eating, you will be able to better decide what to eat. Recent questions have spurred me to write a 101 on the food label – it is our friend, not the enemy……..trust me on this! In 1994 the FDA actually accomplished something historic and made it a law that all food and beverages (not alcohol) contain necessary nutrition information so Americans know what they are ingesting. Now, what most do not know is that these companies have leeway as to what they can publish, meaning that they have to have the following:

Serving Size
Servings per product, container, box, etc
Calories
Fat
Carbohydrates
Protein
Sugars
Sodium

Now, some people can get even granular with listing the specific fats, monosaturated, saturated, polysaturated, trans fats, specific carbohydrates – fibers, and other key elements that the company feels they need to highlight. Don’t get confused or scared – what you need to know or look for in the beginning of your healthy living are the serving size, how many servings, calories, sodium and protein.

Think of your daily caloric intake as a bank and allocate a certain amount of calories a day for you to ingest. The trick here is to make sure you are taking in the right calories and not the wrong calories. Few average food battles we could be faced with throughout the day:

1 Slice of White Bread: Cals:80, Fat:1, Carbs:15, Fiber:0.7 Protein:2

1 Slice of Wheat Bread: Cals: 100, Fat: 2 Carbs:20, Fiber: 3, Protein: 4

Bottom Line: The whole wheat bread might have 20 more calories, but the whole wheat combined with fiber and protein will keep you fuller much longer where the white bread does not contain significant nutrients to fill you up. The whole wheat also provides you with fiber – essential to daily health.

Important to know where you are getting your calories – if your "calorie budget" for the day is 1500, its NOT ok to eat a whole pizza and be done for the whole day! TOTALLY wrong way to view your calorie budget – you should be eating foods that are low in calorie but high in nutrients.
Don’t worry – we will have many examples and articles that will make all of this easier and bring all of the million tiny pieces together to form the puzzle… :-)