You want to buy healthy snacks or food items during your shopping trip. But you’re intimidated by the long list in the nutrition label. We’re here to help. Pay attention to these three key nutrients to quickly filter out products you don’t want to buy.
- Fat
- Sugar
- Salt
Fat (especially trans and saturated fat), sugar and salt (sodium) are the first things you want to look at when you skim through the nutrition label. Though these 3 are important ingredients for taste, you want to make sure these are as low as possible.
We’re looking for the %DV or % Daily Value and portion size. Whatever is the portion size mentioned in the label, adjust for what you’d typically consume per day. For example, a chocolate bar may give nutrition information for ten squares. But if you usually eat no more than five squares a day, then divide everything by 2 to make sure it doesn’t exceed your daily goals.
Also, when shopping for a healthy snack, if you find two identical products from different brands, use these 3 key nutrients to decide which one to choose.
You still want to look at other nutrients on the label. But, most of the food items on the shelves of a grocery store have too much fat, sugar or sodium. So you can skip through these vast amounts of products and spend more time on the ones which are more suitable for your health requirements.
Check out our healthy snack products: click here.
Read more about the health effects of fat here: Health Canada.
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