Following on from my posts Can Food Really Affect Behaviour?, and Why You Need To Start Reading Packet Labels NOW, I received some requests to help you read packet food labels. So I am going to share with you my 5 Simple Steps to Reading Packet Labels.
Trying to decipher the Nutritional Information Panel on a packet can get confusing but it doesn’t have to be. Yes, all the information there is useful and serves a purpose, but I do not believe it is all 100% necessary in order to answer these two questions for yourself:
1) Do I really want to be putting this in my body, or my family’s bodies?
2) Can I find a better alternative – either on the shelf or from a recipe?
I designed these simple steps as part of The Children’s Health Program because I really wanted a simple way for children to start taking ownership for what they put in their body. I wanted them to be easily able to pick up a packet and answer the 2 questions above.
After going through each step, remember to ask yourself these 2 questions again:
1) Do I really want to be putting this in my body, or my family’s bodies?
2) Can I find a better alternative – either on the shelf or from a recipe?
Step 1 – Look past the bright packaging and marketing messages on the front
All that’s on the front are messages designed to get you to buy the product, not information on whether it’s good for your health. Turn the packet over, and go straight to the ingredients list.
In the example above, I am asking the kids to ignore Bugs Bunny, and I’m asking you to ignore the words “with 6 vitamins, no artificial colours, no artificial flavours”. Turn the packet over.
The ingredients list is usually located just below the Nutritional Informational Panel (the box with all the numbers) – both of these are shown at the right hand side of the above image. The ingredients list holds the answers to the 2 questions above. Here’s what you need to think about:
- The ingredients are listed in order of highest to lowest amount in the food.
- Be wary if the first ingredient does not match what the product is supposed to be. For instance, if you are looking at fruit juice, and something other than fruit is shown first, then leave this product behind.
- Be especially wary when sugar is listed as the first ingredient. Personally, if it was sugar, I’d leave this product behind too.
Step 2 – Count the number of ingredients
If the ingredients list has more than 5-6 ingredients, it’s usually a sign the product has been heavily processed and is unlikely to offer much in way of good health.
In the image shown above – taken from Cheddar Cheese flavoured Le Snak – I can count a few main ingredients, plus a host of sub-ingredients. It gets confusing, but if I just count each separate item, I get 20 for the Cheese Spread, and around 13 or 14 for the Crackers. 33 or 34 ingredients in the tiny packet? No, thanks…
If sugar or sodium (salt) are in the top 3 ingredients, then put it back on the shelf. It’s likely to be too high in both.
Step 3 – Be alert for sneaky ingredients
There’s a few things that should ring alarm bells in the ingredients:
Are there ingredients you can’t pronounce?
If yes, it’s unlikely you know what’s in that ingredient, so put it Back on the shelf.
Are there ingredients you can’t identify?
As above. If you don’t know what it is, why would you put it in your mouth?
Are there any Trans Fats?
These are the worst possible fats for you, but they are rarely labelled as trans fats. They are quite often listed as Partially Hydrogenated Oil or Hydrogenated Oil. Avoid.
Is it logical for salt to be in this product?
Ask yourself whether you would normally add salt to this kind of food. For example, would you really put salt on your breakfast cereal? Why, then, would it be an ingredient in breakfast cereal? You’d be amazed at how salt is creeping into these sorts of products.
Does it contain sugar?
It’s in 80% of our products, and often multiple times, and under different names. Our “Breakfast Bubbles” above contain Sugar, Glucose Syrup, and Barley Malt Extract, all of which are sugars under different names.
There are now at least 60 different names that get used for sugar. See a list of 60 different names for sugar in the graphic above – sourced from the That Sugar Film website.
Step 4 – Look closely at the additives and preservatives
In the beginning of additives and preservatives, the intention was honourable. They were meant to do good things for people, like to prolong shelf life a little. This was important, especially during war times. But today, I personally believe additives and preservatives are food science gone mad. They are added to products for profit, rather than with us consumers and our health in mind. (sorry for the rant!).
There has been so much research into additives and preservatives that show some people are affected by them. The effects can be wide and varied (behaviour problems, eczema, dermatitis, asthma, hyperactivity, irritability, sleep disturbances, depression, and more). Sometimes, the effects are cumulative, meaning the additive or preservative may not affect the person until they’ve been eating it a while and it’s built up in their system.
The image above shows two examples of how there can be lots of ingredients and E numbers in one packet. Each E number is tested and approved in isolation. The long term effect of mixing them is unknown.
Whilst traditionally additives and preservatives have been shown as numbers or E numbers in the ingredients, this is not a requirement of labelling laws. Big business and their marketers have cottoned onto the fact many consumers are now looking for ‘numbers’ so they have started to show the ingredients with names.
So here’s what I suggest:
Look for Numbers or E Numbers
If you find them, investigate their potential effects and symptoms. The Chemical Maze app or book are both great resources for this. In the Le Snak packet above, there are numbered ingredients 471, 304, 307b, 339, 452, 234, 503 and 500. What the…?!
Look for ingredients you can’t pronounce or identify
Look these up in Chemical Maze too using the alphabetical search function.
Beware “clean label” ingredients
Big business are now creating ‘clean labels’ for additives and preservatives – giving them names that sound pleasant when they really aren’t. For instance, in meats such as salami, a clean label ingredient may be shown as Rosemary Extract, which sounds nice, but it’s actually another name for E300-321, also known as butylhydroxyanisole or BHA (see Other Reading from The Guardian, below). I know right?! Don’t even get me started!
So if you’re thinking, “Mmmm, I wonder why that nice sounding name would be in this food?”, it’s quite possible it’s a clean label. Put it back just in case because it’s hard to work out these clean labels.
Steer away from these ingredients altogether
The information below has been collated from a number of sources (see bottom of post).
Colours:
102, 104, 107, 110, 120, 122 – 129, 132, 142, 150, 151, 155, 160b
Preservatives:
Sorbates 200 – 203, Benzoates 210 – 213, Sulphites 220 – 228, Nitrates & Nitrites 249 – 252, Proprionates 280 – 283
Antioxidants:
Gallates 310 – 312, TBHQ, BHA, BHT 319 – 321
Flavour Enhancers:
620 – 625, 627, 631, 635, Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP), Hydrolysed Soy Protein (HSP), Soy Protein Isolate (SPI), Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Oil
Artificial Sweeteners:
Numbers in the 900 range plus sorbitol (420)
Step 5 – Count how many teaspoons of sugar
If the previous 4 steps haven’t answered the questions about whether you want to put this in your body or is there a better alternative, then this step should seal the deal for you.
Thanks to the incredible That Sugar Film (if you haven’t seen it, like Jamie Oliver says “It’s a must see”) and Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar, sugar is making headlines because of how addictive it is and how it’s in so many products – you could say it’s hidden in many products.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) latest recommendations are that adults should not have more than 6 tspns (24g) of sugar a day. It is being said based on these recommendations, children should have no more than 3-4 teaspoons (12-16g) a day. Many get more than this in their breakfast cereal servings.
How much sugar?
So now go to the Nutritional Information Panel and look for the amount of sugar per 100g. Remember, 4g is 1 teaspoon.
And remember, the sugar in this packet is not the only sugar you will be eating today. Think of your breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner.
Now let’s do some simple maths: if there’s 12g sugar per 100g, then that means 3 teaspoons, cos 4g x 3 = 12g.
Serving Size vs per 100g
If you still haven’t decided if this is too much sugar for you, then go one step further and look at the serving size. Is it bigger or smaller than 100g? Using maths again, adjust the amount of sugar based on the serving size. For instance if the serving size 200g, then the amount of sugar in the packet is 24g or 6 tspsn. Conversely, if the serving size is 50g, then the amount of sugar is half of 12g, so 6 g = 1.5 tspns.
Serving Sizes Realistic?
Of course, there is one more factor to consider, and that is whether this serving size is realistic for you. Often, particularly in breakfast cereal, the serving size is smaller than what an average person would eat. And sometimes, in packets aimed at children, there is actually more than one “serving” in a bag, but the reality is the child will eat the whole bag.
Wrap up
Hopefully these 5 Simple Steps have helped you have a better understanding of working out whether you really want to be eating the packet food you’re looking at, or at least helping you determine if there might be a better alternative for you.
I’ve included some other reading below which you may find interesting, and I’ve also linked to the sources I use when researching information particularly around additives and preservatives.
Other reading
- That sugar film – Added Sugar -v- Natural Sugar
- Vic govt better health – Food Additives
- The Guardian – A feast of engineering, what’s really in your food?
- Healthy Bliss – The Truth in Food Labeling – food additives to avoid and hidden sources of MSG
- My Book – The Lunchbox Effect