A big part of being healthy is based on eating healthy. But in order to really eat healthy we need to understand what is in the food we eat so that we can make the right decisions when we fill the grocery cart.
This may be easier said than done when the ingredient list for your average commercial product is practically unpronounceable while the food’s value is categorized in a little box chart that the average person may find hard to decipher.
For those who are trying to get a better handle on what they are consuming, never fear, the Nation is here to help decode the nutritional information with the help of the latest addition to the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay’s team of dieticians, Swiss national Jani Cheseaux.
While he may be far away from home, Cheseaux has spent the last four months helping the youth of Chisasibi decipher what is best for their diets and part of this strategy includes offering tours of the local grocery store.
“There is a lot of information that we don’t understand when it comes to food labels because the names of the ingredients are not necessarily very clear. For example, if maltodextrin is listed most people aren’t going to know what that is; it’s actually some kind of a starch,” said Cheseaux.
“Sometimes these are actually good things like in pasta; they will list thiamine and riboflavin as ingredients, these are actually vitamins.”
To help people learn how to decipher what is in the products they usually take home and whether these products are adding or subtracting the inches around their waistlines, Cheseaux’s tour consists of visiting each department of the local store to look at the food choices Crees are making and what is in them.
While comparing and contrasting individual food choices is a big part of the tour, the fundamental principle Cheseaux teaches is how to read a food label and an ingredient list so that those on the tour can be armed by the knowledge of what is actually in each product. Without some training, it is difficult to know what is pertinent.
The very first part of the lesson is to look at the suggested portion size listed on the product at the top of the label that the nutritional information is indicated for such as a half cup or one cup portion or 50 grams or two biscuits of whatever the product may be.
Admittedly, often the portion size listed may not be a realistic portion size as they are frequently quite small. But it is still necessary to look at it because it is from there that an individual will be able to start calculating exactly how much they are consuming.
“They don’t always correspond to the Canada Food Guide either; the portion size is at the discretion of the food producer. Usually the portion indicated is small but sometimes it is fitting. A good example of this is juice, which will often be listed as a one-cup portion. This is realistic but still is small in comparison to what most people will consume so this must be taken into account,” said Cheseaux.
While he acknowledges that the vast majority of folks can’t make these kinds of calculations in their heads, as it can be difficult to figure out what the nutritional value for two and a half cups will be from a portion size that is listed at ¾, this is still the cornerstone of understanding labels.
Next up, Cheseaux said that the nutrition percentages is also incredibly important as that is where you will find out whether a product contains any of the essential nutrients that an individual needs throughout the course of their day or has little food value.
“On the right side of the label and so you will see percentages like 4%, 8%, 10% and so on of the food’s daily value. It is important to understand that these percentages are based on a 2000-calorie per day diet but that does not necessarily correspond to everyone’s daily intake. A child will eat less whereas someone who is very, very active will eat more than that. So it is a way to see how nutritious a food is and how much it can add to your daily diet.
If there is less than 5% in a portion size then there is only a little bit of nutrients in this food but if a product has more than 15% then it carries a lot of nutrients for its portion size and so looking at it from 5-15% is a key point. A lot of nutrients would mean that the product contained fiber or lots of vitamins like C, A or calcium. What you want to see small quantities of are fat, saturated fat, trans fat and sodium, so less than 5% of your daily intake in that food,” said Cheseaux.
Next up, the ingredient list is where a product’s actual contents are listed but in order to understand what is written there you need to realize that ingredients are listed by weight with the heaviest ingredient listed first and the lightest last.
Depending on the length of the list, the few first ingredients are the most important ones. If sugar (see image) appears as the first or second ingredient then this product is very sugary.
The same goes for fat. If a fat appears (see image) as one of the first three ingredients, this product may not be a healthy food choice or one that should be used minimally.
“For my grocery tours I prepare lists of the different names for sugar and for fat and this is particularly handy for the Cree communities because people tend to eat a lot of pre-prepared foods and frozen foods,” said Cheseaux.
In light of this, arming yourself with as much information as you can and then taking the time to read the labels is a great strategy to keep you and your entire family healthy.
While this process may be a tedious and time-consuming, progressively making better food choices becomes easier and faster and can really help an individual stay on track with healthy eating.
“I think that people mistrust what is on the food label and the ingredient list. For sure most people don’t really understand where all of the ingredients come from but it is important to trust the system because there are mechanisms for control over the products. Especially when there are labels for organic products, these are labels that are good and then those that are not so good. Basically you can trust what is on that label,” said Cheseaux.
And like they used to say at the end of every episode of GI Joe, “knowing is half the battle!”
