Episode Transcript
Interviewer: Fat-free, reduced-fat, sugar-free, whole grains, gluten-free. It seems impossible to hash through the different labels and figure out what is actually the healthiest. Get help and learn to eat this, not that, next on the Scope.
Announcer: Medical news and research from University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Interviewer: Grocery shopping can be stressful these days. There are so many different labels on foods. Luckily, we have Ashley Quadros, a health educator from the University of Utah Department of Health, here to help us figure out what to look for when we're shopping. Hey, Ashley. How are you doing?
Ashley: I'm great. Thank you.
Interviewer: Awesome. So, walk us through a typical nutrition label. What will we find there?
Ashley: You'll find an abundance of information on a nutrition label. I would start at the top, and the first would be the number of servings in that particular container, and also what the serving size is. So how much the label tells you about that serving size. That's at the top. Then it will go through a number of different nutrients in the food, vitamins, minerals, fat, carbohydrates. And then at the very bottom you'll see the ingredient list, so everything that's in that product.
Interviewer: Okay, what are the most important things on that nutrition facts label we should be looking out for when comparing different products?
Ashley: By far and away, the first thing you should look at is the serving size because that's going to tell you, a teaspoon of the product, which is a tiny amount, or I get to an entire two cups of this product for what the label is telling me. So that's the first and foremost thing to look at. And then, what you look at all sort of depends on what your focus is. So if you're trying to lose weight, calories might be important to you. If you have Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes, carbohydrates would be really important to you. If you're trying to minimize sodium, you would look at the sodium content. So, it kind of depends on what your goals are, really.
Interviewer: I can definitely see what you're saying in regards to looking at the serving size. You may think, "Hey. It's only 15 calories. This is great." But that might be a teaspoon instead of what you might think it might be. So, you could really add up really quickly.
Ashley: Yeah, and my favorite example of that, actually, is a pint of ice cream is four servings, but who really only eats a fourth of the pint?
Interviewer: No one.
Ashley: No one.
Interviewer: Absolutely. So what are some misleading labels we should be looking out for that we'll see on foods?
Ashley: Well, I think what's most misleading is what's on the front of the product, especially when you think about something like a bread product. They'll put a lot of different marketing claims on the front, so it could be made with whole grain or it could be gluten-free or 100% organic, and you might have different ideas about those things being healthy. But, they're not necessarily true, or they could be misleading you to think that they're healthy when they might not be. So that's what I think is most misleading, so you really need to look at the label itself and read it and make a judgment based on what you know.
Interviewer: So say that you are looking at a bread. What would be the healthiest option after reading all these different types of labels?
Ashley: When you're looking at the bread, you would look at the label, and you would want to see the first ingredient to say 100% whole-whatever the grain is. So that could be rye, or it could be wheat, or whatever you're looking at. That is the first thing to look at. So just on that alone, you would know that the bread a reasonably good choice.
If you read further along in the label, and somewhere you saw enriched wheat flour, then you would know that there is some refined flour in it, too. It's not 100% whole grain even though the first ingredient is. So you would know that there is some white flour, so still a good choice but not perfect. If you saw another label that just said 100% whole grain wheat and nothing else, except for maybe some salt, water, oil, that sort of thing, then that would be the best option because it's 100% whole grain.
Interviewer: Okay, so look out for the 100% whole grain and have a very basic ingredient list.
Ashley: Yes, and don't trust what the front of the bread package says.
Interviewer: Any ingredients, in general, that we should avoid if possible?
Ashley: I think probably the most important thing to avoid is the partially hydrogenated oils, which many of the listeners may have heard of before. But those are what trans fats come in. They come in partially hydrogenated oils, so that would be the most important thing to avoid in most processed foods. Also, anything with added sugar, and there are some controversial ingredients that people choose to avoid. Things like MSG or artificial sweeteners. So depending on what your concerns are, you would look out for those.
Interviewer: And then finally, what are your best tips for grocery shoppers trying to stay healthy? I know I've heard things like, "Walk the perimeter of the grocery store because that's where all the natural foods are." Are there any overall tips for someone walking into the grocery store, you would say, "This is what you should do."
Ashley: Yeah, I think that there are different tidbits of advice that work for different people. I do like shop the perimeter of the store. I also really like promoting things that don't have labels because if it doesn't have a label, it's not processed. Things are only required to have labels if they have a certain amount of processing. That's probably your best bet.
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