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Advice on Choosing Health Food And Healthy Foods And Reading Nutrition Labels
 Category |
: Food and Drink |
 Times Read |
: 61 |
 Date |
: 25 May 2008 07:00 |
by: Chris Robertson
Health food doesnt need a definition, does it? We all know what health food is its yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and organically grown vegetables and fruit. Its 100% natural, no preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put all that together, you should have healthy food, yet all too often, whats marketed as health food these days barely classifies as food, let alone health food.
Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices - yogurt. It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had been available before that in health food stores and restaurants. Real yogurt has two ingredients: milk (whole, skim or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. Thats health food - calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein. Next time youre at the supermarket, take a look at the dairy case. Youll find row after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow swirled and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our littlest consumers - children. Millions of parents buy the enticing packages, secure that because its yogurt, theyre buying food thats healthy for their children.
One look at the label, though, and its clear that these kiddy yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt thats marketed to adults) are a far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular yogurts for children contain anywhere from 3 to 10 added teaspoons of sugar. Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are in a single serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar bowl. In addition, most yogurts include "natural" ingredients that have little to do with health food. Ingredients like pectin (to thicken yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives some yogurts their body, and annatto (for color) add little nutritionally to yogurt. Theyre in the mix to serve one main purpose: to help yogurt survive its trip from the factory to your table.
Youll find the same situation with other foods that originally made their debut as health foods in the seventies. Granola has become granola bars with chocolate chips and gooey caramel. Whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even brown rice comes in the instant variety.
Healthy food not health food
The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States Food & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for nutritional labeling of all food products. The nutrition label will tell you all you need to know to choose real health foods. Some things to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels for health foods:
* In the ingredients portion of the nutrition label, ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient thats listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next largest amount, etc.
* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily value.
* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the foods calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated and unsaturated fat.
Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the best way to tell whether a food is really a health food - or just masquerading as one.
About The Author
Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon International. Majon International is one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing and internet advertising companies on the web. Visit their main business resource web site at: http://www.majon.com
To learn more about subjects like health food please visit the web site at: http://www.majon.com/directory/Food/
For more information and informative related articles and links about this subject matter and content, please visit Majons Food directory: http://www.majon.com/directory/Food.
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