How do you know which products are good for you and how should you actually read labels? Get some tips for making reasonable and healthy choices.
What is important in the list of ingredients?
- Fats – do not buy products which contain palm oil.
- The amount of salt – if salt is listed first or second in the list of ingredients, be extra careful.
- “E” numbers – not all E-numbers are harmful, but the good ones also tend to be identified by the manufacturer by their actual names. For instance, the mysteriously sounding E-350 is actually sodium malate, an acid which naturally occurs in fruit.
[Translate to English:]
Na co zwracać uwagę na liście składników?
- Wykorzystywane tłuszcze – nie kupuj produktów z olejem palmowym w składzie.
- Ilość soli – jeśli występuje na pierwszym lub drugim miejscu w składzie, zachowaj szczególną czujność.
- Ilość składników „E” – nie wszystkie „E” są złe, ale te dobre producenci zazwyczaj opisują również słownie. Przykładowo E-350 – tajemniczo brzmiący „jabłczan sodu” jest naturalnym kwasem występującym w owocach.
What else should you remember?
Vegan does not equal healthy – preservatives, sugar and taste enhancers can be vegan and come disguised in flashy packaging and marketing smoke and mirrors.
Healthy products may be high-calorie foods – it might seem that a “healthy diet will make you lose weight”. That is true, but only when the total number of calories you eat throughout the day is smaller than the total amount of energy you spend to survive, work and complete other activities of the day.
Eco and bio foods do not always feature excellent ingredients – the terms refer to the growing/rearing method and to intermediate goods which does not mean that ingredients such as sugar do not make it into the mix (provided that the sugar has been produced in accordance with the requirements which must be met for the producer to be able to use the “eco-food label”).
Remember!
The dose makes the poison – sometimes it is better to eat something unhealthy than to stick to a healthy diet for several weeks only to abandon it later because it becomes too difficult and too time and energy-consuming. Find your own golden mean.