Caution: Don’t go by the claims on the packaging of any food product. If you want correct information, check the fine print and learn to read between the lines.
1. Ingredients
Look at the ingredients list to estimate the fat, sugar or salt content. Usually ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. In other words, the 1st ingredient on the list is the one found in the greatest amount.
2. Dietary disguises
A lot of sugars and salts present in processed food. Often fats, sugars and salts hide under other names. For instance, shortenings, tallow, cream, lard, nuts and seed, all translate to “fat”. Similarly, sugars may be listed as dextrose, sucrose, lactose, fructose, glucose, etc. Sodium goes beyond salt, disguised as baking powder, sodium metabisulphite, monosodium glutamate, and so on.
3. Fighting fat
For a low-fat diet, look for less than 10g fat per 100g of product. Also check the amount of saturated fat. Fats in the form of mono-unsaturated fatty acid (Mufa) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (Pufa), omega-3 and omega-6 are “good fats”; avoid trans-fatty acids (TFA) and high levels of saturated fats .According to the regulations, a product with 0.5g TFA per serving or less can be labelled “Trans Fat Free”. Even with a 0.1g product, if a customer gets three or four such products, he will have 0.4g of trans-fat, in the mistaken belief that he is consuming a trans-fat-free diet. While saturated fats raise total cholesterol levels, TFAs raise total cholesterol and also reduce heart-protective good cholesterol (HDL). Every 2% increase in per day intake of TFAs is associated with a 23% increase in cardiovascular risk.
This is where even reputable manufacturers hide behind ambiguous statements. Nutritional info is typically listed “per serving” or “per 100g”. But what’s the size of a serving, according to the package? (Hint: read closely) And is 100ml really a likely serving for a 200ml box of juice? “per 100g” labels are useful for comparing two products.
http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/21211112/The-truth-behind-nutrition-lab.html
Credit to : livemint.com (The Wall Street Journal)
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