Label Linguistics

What do you think of food labels? Do you look at calories per serving, grams of fat, protein, carbohydrate, and sugar? The first thing to make sure of is to avoid chemicals such as preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils and many other food additives. And avoid added sugar too, since today’s sugar is a chemical that is bad for your health. If most of the foods that you buy don’t have labels, then all the better. If you use packaged foods (canned, frozen, dried) then all of the ingredients should be easy to identify and not chemicals. Also, for optimal nutrition, you should strive for products that are non-GMO and organic. It is a fun and instructive activity to pull out the foods in your kitchen and start deciphering the chemicals.  

I encourage you to visit Center for Science in the Public Interest “Chemical Cuisine” to find out if the additives in your food are safe or unsafe.