These are the 10 things you should look without fail in food labels
Noticias relacionadas
The light version, this one that says "low in calories", or this jar in which it is written with "natural" chillonas letters.Supermarkets are full of claims in the form of shocking designs to spend money on those products.Many times we choose brands for your healthy promises printed in the packaging.
However, to know all the truth we should look for the small print (never better): the nutritional table and the list of ingredients.Knowing the reality of its content, which sometimes is far from advertising, we will know better what to consume and what not.
Therefore, we tell you ten aspects that you must look at all these products.Your purchases in large stores will be very different from now.
Sodium
Pre -cooked or certain preparations have a large amount of salt added.To know if we are going to consume more than the recommended we must look at the nutritional information table.There we will be told how many grams there are for every hundred that we consummate of the product.
Once let's see the proportion, we must compare with the daily amount recommended by the authorities.If we pay attention, for example, to the Center for the Prevention and Control of diseases of the United States (CDC) in its 2015-2020 recommendations on sodium, the amount should not be greater than 2.3 grams daily.WHO recommends less than 2 grams a day in adults.
A massive and continued sodium intake increases the risks of heart disease, cerebral spills and increased blood pressure, recalls the CDC.In addition to those mentioned, bread, frozen pizzas, fried potatoes or processed meats are products in which we should look for sodium amounts.In case they come in milligrams, 2.3 gs are transformed into 2.300 mgs.
Fiber
Fruits and vegetables already have a good amount of food fiber that will help us avoid more kilos, according to WHO.Therefore, if the processed products you buy do not have it, you have to complement the diet with fresh food.By doing so you will contribute extra vitamins and minerals to your body.The amount recommended by WHO is more than 400 grams daily of fruits and vegetables.
Distrust of false cereals, pasta or integral breads (only those in whose ingredients clearly put that they are made with whole wheat flours) and do not believe that you are ingesting fiber when buying freshly squeezed or industrial juices: the ideal is to obtain it from the fruitwhole.
Whole grains, a good way to obtain fiber.Pixabay.
Carbohydrates
If you are one of those who think that there is no need to eat carbohydrates at night, you must know that it is a little questioned belief.In fact, instead of worrying about the hours of the day, do it for how they are represented on the label.
Within the carbohydrates label, sugars are included, which we will talk about next, starches and fiber.These last two are the ones that interest you most, and you must look for them in legumes or cereals such as oats and rice.
Sugars
WHO recommends a consumption of free sugars of no more than 10 % of daily calories, both in children and adults, to avoid cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or obesity.When reading the labels, we must monitor how they express the amount of added sugars: the ideal is that they make it clear, but on other occasions they put the amount of natural sugars, so to the carbohydrates we must subtract the latter to check ifWe are complying with the WHO directives.
Sometimes, sugars come with other names: dextrose, glucose syrup ... words that also refer added sugars that we should avoid, however healthy what the box tells us.On the other hand, although in the container put "without added sugars" there may be other elements that sweeten the product: they are the sweeteners, such as saccharin, which we must also avoid.
Added sugars, dextrose, saccharin ... avoid all those ingredients.Pixabay
Vegetable oils
Palma oil became a number one public enemy a few years ago, and still still.In fact, preparations that include the "palm sugar" tag in their container have become more popular.However, enemies can continue there in the form of other oils.
Avoid products with sunflower oil and attend to how olive oil they use is: if it is extra virgin, it is acceptable.If you put "olive oil" dry, it is a refined product, of worse quality than the previous two.If you add to this you will probably be in a small amount, better that you leave that product on the shelf.
Products with vegetable oils or low quality olive oil are fried potatoes (even if they are cooked in olive oil, it is not worth it, because this oil can be very burned), tomato, hummus or packaging sauces packaged.If you can prepare them at home, much better.
Vitamins and minerals
Vitamins and minerals are necessary for the regulation of many processes of our body and for the health of their organs.When we read that a product is enriched with any of these elements (famous are the buns with the most calcium and iron), we must assess the amount and, above all, if it does not collide with any of the elements described above: a lot of salt and sugars,Use of vegetable oils ...
Once the harmful ingredients are discarded, we must check if it will be nutritious enough.The Government of Spain set in 2009 among the recommended daily quantities 0.8 grams of calcium, 0.7 phosphorus or 0.8 vitamin A.To obtain them, rather than choosing ultraprocessed products, it is better to opt for fresh fruits, legumes or vegetables.
Remember that if you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet you should not look.
Unsaturated fats
Not all fats are equal.They are not the same those of an avocado or olive oil, for example, that those of a package of industrial sausages.When reading the nutritional table we must distinguish between non -saturated (which are the beneficial) and saturated, which we must avoid as much as possible.
The same goes for trans fats, which you will find in "frozen pizzas, cakes, cookies, cakes, wafers, kitchen oils and spreadable pasta", as the WHO warns us.The OCU warned in a 2016 report of the great presence of saturated fats in Spanish products.
Thus, it monitors the yogurts that are low in fatty matter (better always opt for natural or Greeks without sugar) and rejects all baked or fried products, such as some of those who quoted the WHO.
Numbers and in "homemade" meals
The OCU reminds us that if a product is qualified as "homemade" or "artisan" should not carry numbers e, that is, food additives.You can find the numbers in many prepared dishes, from sweets to frozen
So look at the ingredients ... or directly choose to make them really homemade.The website food additives is a great repository to search or memorize.
Meat or meat product?
You arrive at the supermarket section and find you find loin, chicken or turkey fillets.However, on the label he puts "meat product".What exactly?Well, it is meat like the previous one, but to which spices, preservatives and dyes have been added, among other ingredients.If it puts "100 % meat of ...", it is not always because it is free of any other element, but because all the meat in the list of ingredients is the same animal.
Among those preservatives and dyes, nitrates can also be found, also present in the sausages.These sometimes become nitrites when they reach the digestive system, and form nitrosamines, as the OCU also denounced.When reading the labels, we must seek and avoid nitrates such as E 251 (sodium nitrate or cubic nitro) and E 252 (Potassium nitrate or nitrate of Chile).
Natural yogurt with fruit, the best option after reading the labels in the dairy section.Pixabay
Flavor ...
Before we told you to go from yogurts that claim to be "low in fat" and always opt for sugar without sugar.Well, this advice must be transferred any type of yogurt.When you see one of these products, check whether on the label "flavor ..." or not.
If it is the first, yogurt has nothing vanilla, strawberry, chocolate or macedonia, to say common types: it is milk with flavors and sugar, something not especially healthy.Even if it comes with pieces of fruit, check how much percentage it is from the final product: it is usually small.
If you want a healthier dessert, take a natural or Greek yogurt without sugar and add pieces of fruit or chocolate with more than 70 % of pure cocoa.They are more nutritious options ... and they don't force labels all the time.
1584