Think you are making healthy eating choices at the grocery store? How about when dining out? Read these 3 food label deceits then come back and ask yourself those questions again! 1.
Reduced Sodium It doesn't mean LOW sodium.
Rather, it means there is at least 25% less sodium than the regular product.
For example, the regular product has 900mg sodium.
The reduced sodium version can still have about 675mg sodium.
That's still an extremely high number for being "reduced.
" What to do: Look for foods that say LOW SODIUM (140mg or less) or VERY LOW SODIUM (35mg or less).
2.
Serving Sizes Look at a can of soup and notice there are 2.
5 serving sizes to the can.
Who eats 25% of a small can of soup? Yet, the nutrients on the label are given to match ONLY ONE serving size.
For example, the sodium says 600mg per serving size.
This means you must multiply 600 x 2.
5servings (if you eat the entire can, which I'm sure you will.
) Now, can you see why the food industry is deceitful? What to do: Look at serving size before you read the numbers on a label.
This will help you easily figure out the actual calculations before eating or purchasing the food.
3.
"Based on 2,000 calorie diet" Listen, at some point someone has to budge.
In a perfect world, 2,000 calories is a perfect diet.
Apparently 6.
5 out of 10 people, or the number of overweight or obese Americans, don't care how many calories they eat.
Therefore, if the %Daily Value is calculated on a 2,000 calorie diet, then anyone reading labels must first know the EXACT NUMBER (or close as possible) of calories they eat every day.
If the diet exceeds 2,000 calories (which I'm almost certain it will), then the %Daily Values need to be adjusted in your own mind before you purchase that food.
What to do: Know roughly how many calories you consume in day before you start reading food labels and making decision based on the %Daily Values.