When you are grocery shopping, picking out a snack at the convenience store or raiding the vending machine at work, do you take the time to read the nutrition label?
Whenever I teach a nutrition class, I ask people, what do you look at when you read a food label. Most people answer that they really just glance at the number of calories and the fat content. Hmmmm. There’s so much more information on the label that you could be gleaning.
For instance, maybe you are looking at the calories. Great. Did you look at the serving size, too, to find out how much of that package or container you should be eating? Some manufacturers keep the servings sizes really small to make the calories appear lower than other similar products. In addition, you know that “fun size” bag of chips at the convenience store? Yeah, those aren’t one serving. Typically, those are 2 to 2 ½ servings. I’m not saying don’t eat the whole bag, I’m just saying be mindful about how much you are eating.
If you are interested in learning how to navigate the supermarket, I offer two services that can help get you on track.
- Supermarket Savvy – learn how to read and interpret food labels, the best way to navigate the grocery stores to save time and money while choosing healthy products to stock your kitchen
- Pantry Raid – learn how to read and interpret food labels, place food in your kitchen to encourage healthier eating, clean out your pantry, fridge and freezer to jump start your healthy plan
You can also always contact me for a free 30-minute consult to discuss better label reading.