By: Lindsay Taylor PhD.
Grocery shopping can be a tad overwhelming, especially when you’re trying a new way of eating. Primal, paleo, keto, Whole30, vegetarian, vegan—they all have their own set of guidelines about what foods are “allowed” and which you should limit or avoid.
Front-of-package food labels allow you to scan the shelves at your supermarket and quickly gather information about products. Depending on which diet or food plan you’re following, you might decide whether or not to grab an item based on:
Food type or ingredients: whether
it contains grains, animal products, nightshades, added sugar, etc.
Macronutrient profile: low-carb, low-fat, keto.
How ingredients were grown or harvested: organic versus conventional, wild versus farmed, and so on
Decoding food labels can be tricky, though. Some claims are subject to strict labeling standards, but others are buzzwords meant to draw your attention and make you think that a product is healthy. “Natural” is a good example of the latter. It sounds like something you’d want, but the term isn’t regulated, so ultimately it doesn’t signify anything specific.
It’s up to you, the consumer, to educate yourself about which labels are meaningful and relevant to you. That way, you can efficiently find products best suited to your needs without being sucked in by meaningless claims and marketing ploys.
How Food Labels Can Help You Shop Smarter
Food labels are heuristics—tools for making snappy judgments about which items are up your alley. They can be particularly helpful if you’re following a diet with strict guardrails around what is and is not compliant, such as AIP, or if you have dietary restrictions (you have to avoid gluten or dairy, for example).
However, the icons and claims on the front of the package only tell you so much. They don’t tell you whether a particular product meets your personal standards. I’m pretty sure most Primal folks aren’t going to grab a box of Raisin Bran cereal just because it says “Heart Healthy” on the front and carries the Whole Grain Stamp™ from the Oldways Whole Grain Council. By the same token, a food could call itself “keto-friendly” and still be made with canola or other oils you typically avoid.
Choosy shoppers should start by deciding what qualities are most important to them. Maybe you prioritize organic and non-GMO foods but could care less about keto or vegan certifications. If your doctor told you that you must follow a low-sodium diet, you might want to know how the FDA regulates claims about sodium content,1 whereas the rest of us probably don’t need to worry about that.
The next step is to learn what different labels actually mean. Who’s in charge of bestowing a given certification or guarantee, and what standards does a product have to meet in order to earn a particular icon? Some food labels and claims are more informative than others.
When shopping, scan the shelves for certification icons and highlighted claims first. Before deciding yes or no, however, flip the product over, read the ingredient list, and check the nutrition facts to confirm they work for you. Here are some labels and icons that Primal consumers may find useful.
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