Ask The Healthy Eating Coach Can You Judge A Healthy Food By Its Package

Hi All,

With this post, I'm kicking off a new feature called "Ask The Healthy Eating Coach" which will give you a chance to see some of the many questions I answer every day from subscribers to my list personally as a perk for being a subscriber.

Question: 

Do you find that you can choose or you do choose certain healthy foods over others based on their packaging labels? Do you read the ingredient labels on the healthy foods you buy?

Answer From Healthy Eating Coach Melanie:   

Absolutely I read labels and ingredient lists!  You can't judge how healthy a product is by branding or ad claims on the packaging alone. 

In fact, there's a huge difference between advertising claims that are legally allowed (and sometimes even these rules are bent by the food manufacturers), and what the actual ingredients tell you.  For example, zero trans fat does not always mean zero trans fat as the regs say that manufacturers can say zero grams of trans fat even though a product has as much as .5 grams.  Only the government would have math that says zero = .5! 

Even organic labels can be confusing.  "Organic" means something is only 95% organic.  Only if it says 100% organic is it truly organic.

Got a question, or a bunch of questions of your own?  I'd like to invite you to become a subscriber to my list where you'll be able to ask questions on any aspect of healthy eating, weight loss, fitness, healthy food products as a benefit of being a subscriber.  I answer all questions personally as my schedule permits.

And as a further thank you, you'll get free, instant free access to two chapters from my book "Have Your Cheeseburger And Keep Your Health Too!" Go to http://www.healthyeatingcoach.com/bookexcerpt.html

--Melanie R. Jordan, Author of Have Your Cheeseburger And Keep Your Health Too!  Available 24/7 at http://www.HealthyEatingCoach.com

"Healthy eating with favorite comfort foods...it's deliciously possible!"

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Check out more of Melanie's empowering publications on work-at-home lifestyles, foreclosure investing and learn about her Marketing and Infopreneur Consulting and Coaching Services at http://www.SunLoverPublishing.com

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Copyright SunLover Publishing LLC 2008

Comments

[Melanie Jordan]

Hi Kjnyca! Thanks for taking the time for your detailed response.

My goal is to teach you and everyone I can to not be just the average consumer, and not to fall prey to the government's often "wide latitude" package labeling regulations that can lead consumers to believe they are getting one thing, when they are actually getting, and usually paying up for, the privilege.

For example, 95% vs. 100% organic may not be as big a deal. But "made with organic ingredients" may lead someone to believe a product is all organic and it's just 70% organic, and sulfites and nitrates, which many people do not want in their bodies, are allowed to be in the product.

We're all busy, and I respect that because I am too! But this is about what goes into your body which ultimately affects your health, and I believe one has to try to never be too busy to care of oneself--or at least try very hard :)

Besides, if you bother to give your own shopping list a once over one time, once you have made your healthy brand choices with full knowledge of the ingredients list, then your future shopping trips become routine. And it'll take a minute to eyeball a product for partially hydrogenated oil (aka trans fat) when you consider new purchases. VERY EASY!

[KJnyca]

Do you think the average consumer carefully looks at the ingredients and not just the packaging labels on products? And if not, who is at fault? Advertisers? Or the consumer for not going that extra step? Advertisers dont always create the packaging. In fact, i think more often than not it's done in house by the brand themselves.

I know we live in a world where everyone is busy and on the go and it's easy to just go to the grocery store and throw items in our carts based on the initial feedback we get from the packaging and our history with the product, but at the end of the day I think it's up to the consumer to go the extra step and check the ingredients. I wonder if it really makes that big of a difference to the average consumer if they buy a product labeled 95% organic or 100% organic. I think to most people who aren't really in the mindset of "I'm going to lead a healthy lifestyle", just choosing the 95% organic and seeing that it's at least a majority organic makes them feel better about themselves. I would feel differently if packaging labels were highly false.

[Melanie Jordan]

Thanks for stopping by my fellow healthy blogger! See I'm lucky because now my husband reads the labels along with me or shows me them and asks what I think. He's come a long way and I am vey proud of him.

[Mike Foster]

I drive my wife crazy, I read the labels some much while shopping. Gotta know what goes into your food before you put it into your body.

peace,
mike
livelife365