All my life I have been very conscientious about healthy eating and staying in shape. I first started out as an awkward, chunky girl (or as my mother would say, I was “pleasantly plump”). From an early age, I have learned the importance of fitness and portion control; however, as I have gotten older, I started to pay more attention to food labels and ingredients. I used to only be concerned about looking thin; but now I am realizing just how important it is to fill our bodies with nutritious food and to get rid of all the crap that helps destroy them.
As a 21-year-old woman in her senior year at Wake Forest, I am striving to live my life as healthily, organically, and energized as possible. I unfortunately love the “bad stuff” (as I am sure many of you do, too). That’s why I wanted to start this blog – I want to explore the healthy options, but not go too crazy. It’s good to alter your lifestyle a little bit, but you must do it in bits and pieces. So, go ahead and have that piece of chocolate cake once in a while. We only live once – we might as well enjoy treats every now and again. But, we must also remember to treat our bodies with respect and to enrich both our soul and body with the nutrients we all desperately lack.
So with that said, I wanted to go over some important terms you should be looking out for in food labels and just why you should be paying attention to them.
*Image from wifflegif.com
The Fats
Saturated Fat: According to The American Heart Association, “Saturated fats have a chemical makeup in which the carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen atoms.”
Okay, enough medical talk. So how does this relate to you? Eating foods that have high saturated fat, like cheese and butter, raises the level of cholesterol in your blood. High cholesterol is bad because it can increase your risk of heart disease and potential strokes.
Trans Fat: We all have a love-hate relationship with trans fats – but we need to learn how to hate them! They’re only good for several things, enhancing the flavor and increasing the shelf life of many processed foods.
According to WebMD, “Like saturated fats, trans fats raise LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease. But unlike saturated fats, trans fats lower HDL “good” cholesterol and may do more damage.” So this fat not only elevates bad cholesterol but it lowers the good stuff! While The American Heart Association tells us to limit sat fat to less than 7% a day, they advise us to consume less than 1% of trans fat!
*Image from diet.lovetoknow.com
Portion Control
Calories are great for energy, but you always must be cautious of how much you consume. Don’t be too obsessive though; if you are eating something healthy, it’s okay to eat a lot of calories. Just read the nutrient information and beware of bad things such as…
Added Sugars: High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a manmade sweetener found in TONS of processed foods. It is essentially a chemical that is linked to obesity. While doctors take different opinions about the true effects of HFCS, they say it’s better to have no artificial sweetener at all. My own advice: if you see any kind of added sugar under the names of sucrose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, maple syrup, or fructose, put down the food and run.
*Image from Wikipedia
What are all these numbers?
We see the numbers linked to “Daily Value” on the Nutrition Facts label; but what do these numbers exactly mean?
These values (in %) show how much of that ingredient contributes to your daily diet in one serving. You should look at the percentage values and determine how much or how little of that food you should be eating. According to the FDA, anything with a DV of 5% or less is determined as low and anything 20% or higher is high.
Collegiettes, it is important to be aware of what we feed our bodies. Learning what to look out for in foods and what to steer clear from is all a process, but it gets easier with time. Always be mindful of what you consume and how you treat your body. Buy healthy snacks; find a good cookbook to inspire you. Since I live off campus and I am always cooking, I bought Gwenyth Paltrow’s new cook book It’s All Good. Gwenyth reminds us that learning how to eat healthy is a process.
“Falling off your plan is part of it,” says Gwenyth, “Not a reason to beat yourself up. It takes time to make these changes. It’s all good.”
Reporting Index
“Saturated Fats,” American Heart Association
“Tips for Using the Food Label,” Health.gov
“Understanding Trans Fats,” Web MD
“Using the Nutrition Fats Label,” FDA.gov