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Whenever you are in a supermarket, you are surrounded by a wide variety of products with the food/ grocery section being one the largest if not the largest in most supermarkets. From vegetables to juices, everything is just there. Although for loose items like veggies, there are no labels attached to them when it comes to packaged items, the first you should do after checking the price of course if you are anything like us is to read the labels.
Reading labels is an important practice that you should follow before buying any product. It gives a good idea about what you are buying and whether the product actually delivers what it claims to be. From the ingredients to the nutritional facts, you must run through the information provided for the following reasons. Keep reading to know more.
Provides Information About Your Food
First and foremost, food labels provide you with the key information and aspects of your food. This information contains the ingredients as well as the nutritional composition. The ingredient list is basic and contains the ingredients used along with the common allergens. Although there are times when complicated or scientific names of certain ingredients are used it is advised to search what exactly that ingredient is on the internet if you aren't sure.
The nutrition table on the other hand gives you the nutrient composition of the product. It tells you the amount of fats, carbs, protein, sugar and other nutrients present in the product.
This allows you to make an informed decision knowing what you are eating through and through.
Doesn't Let You Get Misguided
Many products market themselves as healthy products despite being loaded with ingredients that are gravely unhealthy. For example, many biscuits promote themselves as a healthier product saying "made from whole wheat and other grains" while being a combination of refined flour with whole grains with refined flour often having more than 70-80 percent of the total composition. Along with that, they are loaded with sugar to make their biscuits taste better to please the wide audience they target.
Allows You To Limit Your Intake Of Certain Nutrients
It certainly helps a lot when you are on a diet and want to limit your consumption of certain nutrients or ingredients such as fats, carbs and sugar.
The nutritional value table gives the ideal information to make a decision whether eating that product aligns with your dietary goals or not.
Awareness About Health-Sensitive Ingredients
The common culprits here are sugar and salt. There are health-sensitive ingredients which may not suit everyone if consumed in a large quantity.
The saying, "less is better" applies perfectly here, you should keep an eye on the amount you are consuming because salt and sugar could have detrimental effects on your body if consumed in excess.
Helps You Understand Calories Per Serving
One of the key aspects while reading labels is that you understand that the values given are usually not for the entire weight of the product usually like 'serving size per 100 grams' or any number. So you brought a granola of 300 grams and it has 450 calories per 100g serving then it means the product in total has 1350 calories.
Many people often get confused during this so make sure you read the serving size well.
