Many of us try our best to be as smart as we can about choosing the food we eat but we do not always get the best information from their labels and these choices are often the wrong ones. Here is a list of the top 10 mistakes we make:
1. Multigrain Cereal & Bread: we need to look closer at the label which can claim their products are made of grains even if they are stripped out of a lot of the fiber and nutrients during processing. Look for labels that state how much grain is contained, not just that its present.
2. Vitamin Drinks: many bottled water drinks advertised as fortified with nutrients are just filled with unnecessary calories. A label may say it supplies half the daily requirement for some of the nutrients but when you look closer, you may find that in order to get that dose, you have to finish the whole, high-calorie bottle. Much better to drink just plain water when you are thirsty and take a multivitamin daily.
3. Vegetable Chips over Potato Chips: we may think we are making a healthier choice by choosing vegetable chips but most of them simply have vegetable coloring if you look at the ingredients and many of these are still loaded with calories. A better alternative is baked potato chips which has far less oil or nuts like almonds and peanuts if you need a snack to nibble on.
4. Foods “Made With Real Fruit”: most do not provide any fiber and simply have a trace of fruit. Again, look at the label closely, beyond the pictures of fruits, because laws do not require them to mention how much fruit. It is smarter to just go for the real fruits instead when you want something sweet.
5. Less-Sodium foods: most of these foods that are labeled “has less sodium” still contain much more than the 140 mg that most of us need in one serving because the laws require that they only have about 25 percent less sodium than the original. We need to make sure exactly how much sodium we are getting by looking at the labels.
6. Fat-free Milk: this is usually a good choice except that when they are sold in translucent or clear containers, they lose a lot of their nutrients when exposed to light. Buy milk in opaque containers and you will get most of the Vitamin A and riboflavin from the milk.
7. One glass of Wine or Beer: even light drinking of alcohol on an empty stomach can elevate blood pressure. It is best to drink moderately but make sure you do so over a meal.
8. Granola Bar: eating in the morning is good for health overall but most of those granola bars are no better than candy bars with their high fructose and trans fats. Better to make your own oatmeal raisin cookies over the weekend.
9. After-Dinner Mint: these tend to give you heartburn just like coffee and soda because they relax the muscle that allows stomach juices to go into the esophagus. A better choice is to drink a glass of water and take a walk after a meal as that keeps the stomach acids from splashing up the esophagus.
10. Saving Restaurant Leftovers in a Doggie Bag: better put that food in a fridge within a couple of hours or you risk food poisoning, specially if it is hot outside. Also, it may be dangerous to heat food in some restaurant containers in the microwave, even in some paper plates as these can leach dangerous chemicals into the food while being nuked. Always use microwave safe containers and bring soups and gravies to a boil to kill off bugs.
