diet Archives - Green Businesses

How healthy is the food item for you, really? “Low in sodium”. “Heart Healthy”. “Lots of Fiber”. Companies like to make “healthy” claims on their products to pull the consumer in. However, much of the time, their claims do not mean anything to health. Consuming their product will get the consumer no closer to a healthier lifestyle, than sitting on the couch all day long. To make sure these food products are actually healthy, the nutrition label is the first stop to finding out. The Nutrition Label will provide accurate sums of certain macronutrients, micronutrients, and vitamins and minerals contained in the food that the body consumes on a daily basis. Such nutrients include: sodium, carbohydrates (or sugars), and fats. Fats It is important to understand what kinds of fat are bad and what kinds are good. Trans fats and saturated fats become solids in the bloodstream, and increase levels of low-density lipoproteins, or LDL cholesterol, which hurt your heart. Too many low-d…

So, this morning I am shopping through my kitchen cabinet on the hunt for cereal. I come across Vanilla Chex and think, “hm, that sounds good right now.” Brandished right on the front of the box are some company claims attempting to convince the consumer, me, their product is the healthier and tastier choice. “Natural flavors”. “Gluten free”. “No artificial colors”. Companies like to make “healthy” claims on their products to pull the consumer in. These claims sometimes sound intriguing, but be warned – it is fancy jargon the corporate world likes to play with. If you do not understand what the claims mean, you can easily be led astray. Let us look into this box of Chex and figure out what its claims mean for us. Natural Flavors What do you first think of when “natural flavors” is written on your food product? I do not know about you, but I certainly think of the flavor in its simple and natural form. For example, in this vanilla Chex my first thought goes to a long and fr…

diet

(Part 2 of 2) Catching Cunning Companies and Their Claims: Nutrition Label

Catching Cunning Companies and Their Claims: Marketing Claims