Simple ways to identify healthier choices when food shopping: Part Three of a Three Part Series
Comparing Popular Products
Part 3
As we have highlighted in this series, walk through most grocery stores and you will see tons of food products advertising their "healthy benefit". Food Industry leaders are capitalizing on consumers' desire to purchase healthier products. Therefore all efforts are made to create packaging that grabs your attention, creating the impression you are making a healthy choice.
As mentioned in Part 2: Playing Food Detective, manufacturers make claims such as "Trans Fat Free" "High Fiber" and "All Natural" which can mislead consumers. But remember " all foods are not created equal", so you need to look beyond the front label and turn over to the ingredient list of every package you contemplate purchasing. Reading the ingredient list is truly the only way to determine the product's health factor.
Let's compare two popular foods that can consistenly mislead the public into thinking they are healthy.
- Energy bars
- Peanut butter
Energy bars
Energy bars are a great example of how companies are trying to capitalize on marketing while promoting misleading health claims of their products. If you are interested in learning more about misleading energy bar claims, check out this article by the Centers for Science and Public Interested called, "The Bar Exam". For the purpose of this post, let's review two popular bars ingredient lists to verify their claim to be "healthy".
'Fiber One Bars" : Oats and Peanut Butter
Ingrediant list: Chicory Root Extract, Peanut Butter Flavored Chips (Sugar, Fractionated Palm Kernel and Palm Oil, Partially Defatted Peanut Flour, Nonfat Milk, Whey, Peanut Butter [Peanuts] Salt, Soy Lecithin, Rolled Oats, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt, Salt) Barley Flakes, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Roasted Peanuts, Honey, Peanut Butter Flavored Coating (Sugar, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, Partially Defatted Peanut Flour, Peanut Butter, Nonfat Dry Milk, Whey, Salt, Soy Lecithin) Canola Oil, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Glycerin, Maltodextrin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Peanut Oil, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Baking Soda, Color Added, Sunflower Meal, Wheat Flour, Almond Flour. Mixed Tocopherols added to Retain Freshness.
WOW, what a list that is! We have color coded it to simplify it into categories to evaluate the "nutrient dense quality":
SUGAR (in red) - 9 items listed
OIL/FAT (in blue) - 5 items listed, not inluding any actual peanut ingrediant (an additional 4 items) which also contain fat
SALT (in orange)- 4 items listed
Where are the WHOLE GRAINS providing the "fiber" in Fiber One?
We see listed peanut flour, rice flour, wheat flour, and almond flour, but this is not a whole grain and has no fiber? Yes,rolled oats are listed, but it's listed as the fifth ingrediant! The first four ingrediants (remember ingrediants are listed most to least) is simple flour, sugar and salt. If you were an athlete performing at high intensity for two hours or more of activity, you just may need this quick surge of energy. However, for the average consumer eating this as a snack, it's filled with non nutritious-empty calories.
The first thing to consider here is that there are more than five ingredients and that alone is a red flag. The next downside to this bar is the lack of natural fiber. Chicory root extract is the first ingredient, indicating this bar is made up of mostly an isolated fiber called inulun which does supplies the 'extra fiber' and may nourish the good bacteria in your gut; however, research does not indicate it lowers cholesterol, boosts regularity, curbs blood sugar, or has any other benefits as the intact fiber found naturally in whole grains and bran.
Lara Bar: bananna bread
Ingredient list: almonds, dates and unsweetened bannana.
The Lara Bar contains only three ingredients which is amazing. The Lara Bar is a simple energy bar with natural whole food ingredients, so it is definitely a better choice than the Fiber One bar. The Fiber One bar is filled with sugar and has way too many "factory altered" ingredients, especially ingredients that may or may not have the health benefit they claim.
Keep in Mind...
Just be aware when snacking on energy bars, because even with less and all natural ingrediants, they are higher in sugar and fat.. Although the Lara Bar is a healthier choice, you have to remember that it is still a high calorie snack. Dates which is one of the main ingrediants is a very sugary food and nuts are high in fat.
Having less ingredients usually means that there are less chemicals, sugar, and additives in your food. Remember, calories supply the body with energy. "Energy bars" were meant to be a convient way of fueling the body with needed "energy" (calories) during intense workouts. Lara Bars are great because they’re super natural (most bars have only 2-5 ingredients), have very healthy fats (from nuts), have good fiber/protein content, and are quite filling! Each bar is only about 200 calories which makes it a great snack or meal substitute (if your only options for lunch are white bread and cheese).
Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter is actually an amazingly healthy food, that is often transformed into a high sugar, non-nutrient dense food. When looking at the ingrediant list, peanut butter should ideally only contain peanuts and salt.
Skippy Peaunt Butter is a perfect example of a good food gone wrong. The ingredients label from the Skippy Peanut Butter jar lists way more than five ingredients with sugar being in the top three of those ingredients. Oh and don't look past the hydrogenated vegetable oil that was added as an emulsifier!! Fully hydrogenated vegetable oils are "healthy, unsaturated fat oils" that have been hydrogenated to yield a hard, waxy, fully hydrogenated fat. Basically they took a healthy fat and transformed it into a not so healthy fat. Peanuts have their own healthy polyunsaturated fat, they don't need anything extra.
Skippy Natural is just another marketing trick to get you to buy a peanut butter you think is natural. The FDA does not have a clear definition of what "natural means", so, this is a perfect example of how reading your food labels can uncover unwanted ingredients in your food. Skippy Natural is actually considered a "peanut spread", not a peanut butter because it does not meet the standards to be called peanut butter. True peanut butters must contain 90% peanuts and can contain up to 10% stabilizers such as partially hydrogenated (AKA trans fat) or hydrogenated oil to keep the product from seperating. Skippy Natural uses palm oil, which is not hydrogenated but it still adds extra, unneeded oil to the peanut butter. Simply... do not choose peanut butter spreads because they are not 90% peanuts.
Smuckers Natual Peanut Butter, Trader Joe's Peanut Butter, and Teddy's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter all contain only peanuts and salt. This peanut butter is a good choice, containing only two ingredients and no added sugars or oils to be used as emulsifiers and shelf stabilizers. Once you open the jar of peanut butter, you just need to give it a slow and steady stir to mix the natural peanut oil and peanuts together. Put it back in the fridge and whala, it's naturally emulsified and you should not have to mix the oil and peanuts together again.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Being a healthy food consumer requires more than reading the food packaging labels that showcase their "natural", "healthy choice" or "high fiber" claims. You must read between the lines and read the ingrediants listed that make the health claims true or perhaps NOT true. Get overwhelmed trying to understand the ingrediant list. Simple is always best. Look for less ingrediants, ingrediants you can pronounce and that ingrediants that are dervied from nature, not a lab.
Happy Healthy Shopping!
Jenn and Jeannine
Sources:
Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Division
Energy bars are a great example of how companies are trying to capitalize on marketing while promoting misleading health claims of their products. If you are interested in learning more about misleading energy bar claims, check out this article by the Centers for Science and Public Interested called, "The Bar Exam". For the purpose of this post, let's review two popular bars ingredient lists to verify their claim to be "healthy".
'Fiber One Bars" : Oats and Peanut Butter
Ingrediant list: Chicory Root Extract, Peanut Butter Flavored Chips (Sugar, Fractionated Palm Kernel and Palm Oil, Partially Defatted Peanut Flour, Nonfat Milk, Whey, Peanut Butter [Peanuts] Salt, Soy Lecithin, Rolled Oats, Crisp Rice (Rice Flour, Sugar, Malt, Salt) Barley Flakes, High Maltose Corn Syrup, Roasted Peanuts, Honey, Peanut Butter Flavored Coating (Sugar, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil, Partially Defatted Peanut Flour, Peanut Butter, Nonfat Dry Milk, Whey, Salt, Soy Lecithin) Canola Oil, Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Glycerin, Maltodextrin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Peanut Oil, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Baking Soda, Color Added, Sunflower Meal, Wheat Flour, Almond Flour. Mixed Tocopherols added to Retain Freshness.
WOW, what a list that is! We have color coded it to simplify it into categories to evaluate the "nutrient dense quality":
SUGAR (in red) - 9 items listed
OIL/FAT (in blue) - 5 items listed, not inluding any actual peanut ingrediant (an additional 4 items) which also contain fat
SALT (in orange)- 4 items listed
Where are the WHOLE GRAINS providing the "fiber" in Fiber One?
We see listed peanut flour, rice flour, wheat flour, and almond flour, but this is not a whole grain and has no fiber? Yes,rolled oats are listed, but it's listed as the fifth ingrediant! The first four ingrediants (remember ingrediants are listed most to least) is simple flour, sugar and salt. If you were an athlete performing at high intensity for two hours or more of activity, you just may need this quick surge of energy. However, for the average consumer eating this as a snack, it's filled with non nutritious-empty calories.
The first thing to consider here is that there are more than five ingredients and that alone is a red flag. The next downside to this bar is the lack of natural fiber. Chicory root extract is the first ingredient, indicating this bar is made up of mostly an isolated fiber called inulun which does supplies the 'extra fiber' and may nourish the good bacteria in your gut; however, research does not indicate it lowers cholesterol, boosts regularity, curbs blood sugar, or has any other benefits as the intact fiber found naturally in whole grains and bran.
Lara Bar: bananna bread
Ingredient list: almonds, dates and unsweetened bannana.
The Lara Bar contains only three ingredients which is amazing. The Lara Bar is a simple energy bar with natural whole food ingredients, so it is definitely a better choice than the Fiber One bar. The Fiber One bar is filled with sugar and has way too many "factory altered" ingredients, especially ingredients that may or may not have the health benefit they claim.
Keep in Mind...
Just be aware when snacking on energy bars, because even with less and all natural ingrediants, they are higher in sugar and fat.. Although the Lara Bar is a healthier choice, you have to remember that it is still a high calorie snack. Dates which is one of the main ingrediants is a very sugary food and nuts are high in fat.
Having less ingredients usually means that there are less chemicals, sugar, and additives in your food. Remember, calories supply the body with energy. "Energy bars" were meant to be a convient way of fueling the body with needed "energy" (calories) during intense workouts. Lara Bars are great because they’re super natural (most bars have only 2-5 ingredients), have very healthy fats (from nuts), have good fiber/protein content, and are quite filling! Each bar is only about 200 calories which makes it a great snack or meal substitute (if your only options for lunch are white bread and cheese).
Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter is actually an amazingly healthy food, that is often transformed into a high sugar, non-nutrient dense food. When looking at the ingrediant list, peanut butter should ideally only contain peanuts and salt.
Skippy Peaunt Butter is a perfect example of a good food gone wrong. The ingredients label from the Skippy Peanut Butter jar lists way more than five ingredients with sugar being in the top three of those ingredients. Oh and don't look past the hydrogenated vegetable oil that was added as an emulsifier!! Fully hydrogenated vegetable oils are "healthy, unsaturated fat oils" that have been hydrogenated to yield a hard, waxy, fully hydrogenated fat. Basically they took a healthy fat and transformed it into a not so healthy fat. Peanuts have their own healthy polyunsaturated fat, they don't need anything extra.
Skippy Natural is just another marketing trick to get you to buy a peanut butter you think is natural. The FDA does not have a clear definition of what "natural means", so, this is a perfect example of how reading your food labels can uncover unwanted ingredients in your food. Skippy Natural is actually considered a "peanut spread", not a peanut butter because it does not meet the standards to be called peanut butter. True peanut butters must contain 90% peanuts and can contain up to 10% stabilizers such as partially hydrogenated (AKA trans fat) or hydrogenated oil to keep the product from seperating. Skippy Natural uses palm oil, which is not hydrogenated but it still adds extra, unneeded oil to the peanut butter. Simply... do not choose peanut butter spreads because they are not 90% peanuts.
Smuckers Natual Peanut Butter, Trader Joe's Peanut Butter, and Teddy's Old Fashioned Peanut Butter all contain only peanuts and salt. This peanut butter is a good choice, containing only two ingredients and no added sugars or oils to be used as emulsifiers and shelf stabilizers. Once you open the jar of peanut butter, you just need to give it a slow and steady stir to mix the natural peanut oil and peanuts together. Put it back in the fridge and whala, it's naturally emulsified and you should not have to mix the oil and peanuts together again.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Being a healthy food consumer requires more than reading the food packaging labels that showcase their "natural", "healthy choice" or "high fiber" claims. You must read between the lines and read the ingrediants listed that make the health claims true or perhaps NOT true. Get overwhelmed trying to understand the ingrediant list. Simple is always best. Look for less ingrediants, ingrediants you can pronounce and that ingrediants that are dervied from nature, not a lab.
Happy Healthy Shopping!
Jenn and Jeannine
Sources:
Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Division
Posted by Jenn West and Jeannine Capria at 5/10/2010 
Categories: processed foods, Food Shopping, general nutrition
Categories: processed foods, Food Shopping, general nutrition
It was a while to wait for the third part of the series, but it was an interesting read. Thanks for the information! I will think twice before reaching for energy bars and read more closely my peanut butters
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Great insight, great article, and thanks for sharing it.
How to subscribe on your blog ???
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