If you find yourself reaching for the most obvious food or drink product in a supermarket you are not alone. Unfortunately the supermarket knows this is the habit of most people and places the products they want you to buy rather than are most healthy for you. This often are products high in sugar fat and/or salt and often described as a 'sometimes food'.
So what can you do to take charge and save yourself not only your health but more often than not save money as well?
Try using these three tips:
- Check the back of the food product.
To begin with, go to the column which says per 100g, this makes it easier to compare four important ingredients quickly.
- Firstly, check the added sugar is no more than 15g for food and 15g for drinks per 100g or mls.
- Secondly, the salt is less than 120mg per 100g for a gold star or 400mg for a silver medal.
- Thirdly, check the total fat content to be less than 10g. Then less than 3g of saturated if a food product of 1.5g if a drink.
- Finally, the fibre content is 3g or more per serve.
- Check the first 5 Ingredients.
If the first 5 ingredients contain fat, salt, or sugar you may want to consider another product. Ingredients are listed from the ingredient added the most to least. The word for fat may not be simply 'fat', check for words like palm or coconut oil, vegetable shortening, animal fat or oil, beef fat, butter, milk solids, cream, suet or dripping. Sugar also tried to hide in words like concentrated fruit juice, honey, sucrose, fructose, golden syrup, glucose, corn syrup or maple syrup. Finally check for other words for salt like celery salt, garlic salt, baking powder, meat/yeast extract, monosodium glutamate (MSG), onion salt, rock salt, sodium, sea salt, sodium ascorbate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium nitrate or nitrite, stock cubes or vegetable salt...phew! I recommend taking a list of these names to look out for or upload this article to help.
- Check out the Health Star Rating
This is a rating which compares like products. It is a rating out of 5 which evaluates the energy, saturated fat, salt and sugar of a product to others in the same category. It is important to note that fresh fruit and vegetables as well as lean meat products, seafood and poultry do not have a Health Star Rating.
Take home message: If the food of drink you are searching for does not meet the health needs that your body deserves have a look around the shelves. This may mean looking above or below eye level and searching for products which the supermarket may not want you to buy. Being savvy about reading food labels will ultimately leave your waistline and wallet a lot happier.
