Having food knowledge nowadays is extremely essential to figure out whether the food that you are going to buy/eat is healthy and nutritious for your or not.
Food wisdom
Here are some simple ways to know which food for you is healthy and which is not;
Check Out the Ingredients List
Start picking up the food by giving a look at the ingredients involved. Never judge a product by its front label for example, if the label says “sugar-free, fats-free, gluten-free etc.” then you should look at the back of the pack and see other ingredients as well because such products usually have way too many unnecessary additives and ingredients which can also include the ones that doesn’t suit you well.
You should have the basic food knowledge in order to understand the ingredients for example; if the label says “isolated, enriched or hydrogenated food” then the product isn’t as safe as a whole food whereas, if the label itself says “whole foods” then pick up the product without even giving a second thought.
One more thing that you should keep in mind is the sequence of ingredients on any product is according to the quantity of that ingredient present in the food hypothetically, if wheat is written first then wheat is present in the highest quantity in the product, if sugar is written at second place then the product has lesser amount of sugar than the ingredient number 1 and that is how the list goes on.
Check the Number of Ingredients Present
Shorter the list, easier it is to read and determine which food is healthy and which isn’t. A long list of ingredients is usually hard to read and as mentioned above, contains a lot of unnecessary additives and ingredients. Generally, products having a long list of ingredients are not considered healthy enough for you due to the presence of additives such as; added sugars, fats etc. keep in mind that all the ingredients that are difficult to pronounce aren’t usually friendly enough to your health.
Give Sugar Content a Good Look
When you are searching that which food is healthy for you then knowing the sugar content of the product that you are going to buy or eat is a must. If the product exceeds 10 grams of sugar per package then you should keep that bag back right away. Also, if you see any ingredient that ends on “ose” such as; sucrose, fructose etc. these are also additional sugars. Moreover, apart from simple sugar, some syrups might also be present in the product as an additive. Keep all of these things in mind while you check the ingredients in any product.
Look for Preservatives
According to the studies, foods that contain preservatives should be avoided. Don’t know what are preservatives? Any ingredient named as; citric acid, nitrate, benzoates, trans fats, propyl alcohol, potassium sulphates, BHA, monosodium glutamate, BHT, artificial sweeteners, propylene glycol or aspartame come under the category of preservatives and should not be taken in. These preservatives bother your body and health by producing a lot of toxic and harmful responses that is why these need to be avoided.
Avoid the Ingredients You Are Allergic To
If you are sensitive to a certain ingredient then don’t forget to aim your look at that in the allergen warning section. Allergen section would have common ingredients that most people are allergic to such as; wheat, peanuts, eggs, dairy, shellfish or soy. If you see your “must avoid” ingredient then put the pack back in the shelf. However, if you aren’t allergic to foods then there are some ingredients that need to be prevented such as; processed gluten, processed soy etc. because these processed ingredients are the refined ones and doesn’t contain actual gluten or soy. Another reason to look at the allergen warning list is to find out any ingredient that you might have missed above or have been coded in hidden terms that you might be unable to understand.
Expiry Date Shouldn’t Be Ignored
If the food you are looking for doesn’t have much life then it probably has less nutritious ingredients and you need to avoid buying that food.
If you consider these tips seriously and learn some basic food knowledge then you might be able to figure out easily that which food is healthy, and which isn’t.
