It’s all Greek (yoghurt) to me- Deciphering the Ingredients List

Low GI, high in omega’s, trans-fat free, low in sodium… the now familiar phrases that have joined the shelves to, apparently, assist us in making the right decision about what should be filling our shopping baskets and our stomachs. But how many of these words and concepts do we really comprehend? Then there’s the fine print of the nutritional table and those long list of ingredients which we have the sneaking suspicion we should pay attention to but we’re not quite sure how.

This is a blog series aimed at educating consumers on how to read, understand and utilise the information we find on our food labels. Starting with the basics- the ingredients list.

Ingredients should be listed in descending order according to weight i.e. the ingredient listed first will be the ingredient that the food contains the most of. A general rule of thumb is to pay attention to the first 3 ingredients; as these will be the ingredients usually form the largest portion of your food. If sugars, fats or refined carbohydrates are in the first 3- put in back on the shelf. Chances are it’s not going to be a healthy choice.

Although listing ingredients by weight is useful; we also need to consider what the actual ingredients are and how much we might expect them to weigh. For example; salt may not have a high enough weight to be listed in the first 3 ingredients but just 1.5g of salt per 100g is classifies a food as high in salt. In this case paying attention to the rest of the label is important too. To understand if a food is high in salt- you need to have a look at the nutritional table, which will be dealt with in another blog.

The best rule to follow is to stick to foods with fewer ingredients. Whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables, don’t include endless ingredients- because the food is the ingredient! The more ingredients; the more processed the food. And the more likely you are to be including the type of ingredients you want to avoid. Aim for foods with less than 5 ingredients. And that include ingredients you can pronounce.

One last tip is to make sure pay attention to the wording on labels. For example, if a yoghurt is ‘Strawberry flavoured’ this product may not actually contain any real strawberries. The label needs to indicate “Strawberry yoghurt” in order to require actual strawberries to be present. Here your ingredient list is useful- flip the product around to check if there are actual strawberries listed. Remember, the closer to the front of the list they are, the higher the percentage of the product is strawberries.

For more information regarding food labels and food choices; schedule a Supermarket session. Booking can be made online or by giving me call; contact details can be found on my website.