How to read food labels

Surely when you go to the supermarket and have tried to decipher the messages on the food labels, you will have thousands of doubts. And it is that the food industry 'camouflages' some ingredients or attributes supposed benefits to their products to make you buy. But if you know how to interpret their messages, it will be more difficult for you to bite.

Do light foods lose weight ? If a product is sugar-free, is it suitable for diabetics? How do I know if a food is healthy? Knowing how to read labels will help you make better food choices and thus be able to eat healthier.

However, the food industry has played the distraction with the consumer. Not many years ago, in fact, most products lacked the necessary information to know what we eat. Fortunately, this has changed. And today there are regulations at the state and European level that oblige producers to adequately inform the end customer. Our commitment to health has also made us more responsible consumers. Despite this, there is still confusion.

What information should a label contain?

We can distinguish three blocks of information:

Commercial information

It is usually found in the front part. This section indicates the commercial name of the product, the brand, the slogan, the related images, statements, seals, awards, recognitions, etc. appear.

Don't let them strain you . According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) in many fruit flavored yogurts there is not even 1% of them.
If it slices, it is not cheese . Actually, it will be a dairy preparation.
This is not meat either . If you put meat product, it is actually a mixture of meat with additives. Also check the list of ingredients of those products in which it says that it is 100% meat from … Sometimes, it also has other additives.
Natural, homemade or artisan . It does not mean that the product does not contain other additives. In fact, it may just be a claim to make us believe they are better.
Is it ecological? To find out, look for the seal of a control body that certifies it, for example, the European Union or the different autonomous communities.

List of ingredients

It is the information that interests us the most, since it allows us to know if that food is healthy or if it claims to be what it is. In short, so that they don't give us a hoot we have to read the list of ingredients. These appear in a decreasing way. The most abundant are indicated at the beginning. For example, the image below is the ingredient list for a cocoa cream. You can see that cocoa is not the main ingredient. Also, the fewer ingredients a product has, the more natural it is. Our collaborator Carlos Ríos has a rule that works most of the time: if a product has more than 5 ingredients, it is usually ultra-processed and therefore unhealthy.

It is also sugar. Corn syrup, starch, syrup, dextrose, maltose, concentrated fruit juice, etc., are synonymous with the same ingredient: sugar. According to sinazucar.org, a project that was born with the idea of reporting the true amount of sugar in food, there are up to 55 different ways to call it. You must be very attentive to control the amount you eat at the end of the day.
The famous 'E'. Additives are also in the ingredient list, those numbers preceded by the letter 'E'. These substances are used to extend the life of food, to keep it better, give it color, flavor or a particular smell. There is an exhaustive control around these additives. However, the less 'E' a product has, the more natural it will be and the healthier it is for you.

Nutritional information

It is the third section of a nutritional label and specifies in what quantity the different nutrients of the product are contained. The percentages appear in a table and the amounts are calculated per 100 g (or ml if it is liquids).

It is also expressed in portions. In some products you will be able to see next to the reference value for every 100 g / ml, the percentage per serving or consumption unit. If listed, the number of servings or total units should also appear on the label. Be careful because some brands highlight the nutritional information per recommended serving - it is usually quite small - because it seems that it contains less grams of sugar or fat.
It is mandatory that they appear. Within the nutritional information, manufacturers are required to report the energy value, carbohydrates and sugars, fats and specify saturated, protein and salt.
It is a 'plus'. At the discretion of the manufacturer, this information can be completed with an indication of the amount of one or more of the following substances: monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, polyalcohols, starch, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals (present in significant quantities).

Energy value

It is the information that, normally, we pay the most attention, since for most of us it is what determines whether a food is fattening or not. It is expressed in kilojoules (kj) and kilocalories (kcal) and sometimes, although it is not mandatory, the percentage they represent of the total calories that is recommended in a day (2,000 for an adult woman) also appears.

eye! They can be more. Keep in mind that calories are indicated per 100 g. But if the net weight is higher, the energy value will be higher. Therefore, to facilitate the account, many products add the information related to the actual amount that you are going to consume. Take, for example, a soda can.
If it is light, do you lose weight? No. Despite popular belief, a light product does not mean that it will not make you fat. They are so called when there is the same product but with 30% more calories than the light version.

Fats

Here you can see that they are usually broken down into total and saturated. The fat information is almost more important than the calorie information. A food, for example, may have a higher energy value and yet be healthier than one rich in saturated fat. The intake of this nutrient should not represent more than 30% of the energy we consume for the day.

Low in fat. Ideally, you should choose products that contain less than 10 g of total fat in fat. The saturated should not be more than 3 g. And a low-fat product would contain less than 1g. But the fact that it says 'fat free' does not mean that it does not contain, since that statement can carry products that contain up to 0.5%.
Trans fats . They are the most dangerous and it is not always easy to detect them. If you read partially hydrogenated oils or fats in the ingredient list, it means that it does.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are nutrients that give us energy. It indicates what percentage of carbohydrates that food has and, in addition, the amount of sugars it has. Although there is no obligation to mention if it is free, added or if it is the one that naturally has the food. It is not recommended that the amount of carbohydrates represents more than 10% of the total intake.

No added sugar . It can only appear on the label of those products to which, indeed, no sugar has been added industrially, which does not mean that the food did not contain it (and sometimes a lot) previously.
Low sugar content . It means that the product contains a maximum of 5 g of sugar per 100 g or in 100 ml.
Sugarfree. This means that the food in question can have up to 0.5 g of sugar per 100 g or per 100 ml.

It is worth briefly clarifying the types of sugar:

Intrinsic sugar. It is the sugar naturally present in unprocessed foods: fruits and vegetables. This sugar is healthy, although it does not mean that it is advisable to eat a kilo of melon every day, for example.
Free sugar. There are two types, the added one, which is the one that is added - in whatever form - to the food, and also the sugar naturally present in honey or fruit juices. According to the WHO, the consumption of free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of the total caloric intake. In sinazucar.org they add that a reduction below 5% of the total caloric intake would be the most advisable for our health.

Protein

It expresses the total amount of proteins without specifying if it is proteins of high biological value, which are fundamentally those of animal origin (they contain the eight essential amino acids for it to become a complete protein).

Salt

Salt (sodium chloride) is a condiment, not a food, and its abuse is related to an increased risk of diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and it is also suspected that osteoporosis or kidney stones. At present, we consume around 9 g of salt. However, the World Health Organization recommends not consuming more than 5 g of salt per day, which is equivalent to a teaspoon of coffee (eye, not dessert, which is larger), or 2 g of sodium (most of this comes from processed foods)

To find out how many grams of salt a food contains on its label the sodium value, we must multiply those grams by 2.5. This way we can better control the amount of salt we eat per day.

To ensure that the product contains the least amount possible, these messages can help you:

Reduced salt content: 25% less than a similar product.
Low salt content: no more than 0.12 g / 100 g or ml of product.
Very low salt content: no more than 0.04 g / 100 g or ml of product.
No sodium or no salt: no more than 0.005 g / 100 g ml of product.

Nutri-Score, color-coded front labeling

Several European countries, including Spain, have adopted the Nutri-Score nutritional logo to position it on the front face of product packaging. Its objective is to inform consumers in a simple and understandable way about the nutritional quality of food and to help them guide their selection towards healthier foods (while encouraging manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of their food so that are better positioned on the logo scale).

In fact, as confirmed by CIBEROBN (Network Biomedical Research Group), which have carried out a study to know the effectiveness of the logo, this has scientifically proven to be the most efficient labeling for transmitting information on the nutritional quality of food

This system is based on the attribution of points based on the nutritional composition per 100 g of product. It allows to classify food products in five categories from the point of view of nutritional quality: A, B, C, D and E (5 colors of the Nutri-Score) represented in the form of a chain of circles that go from dark green to dark orange (from best to worst nutritional quality).

The largest circle is the one that will indicate the overall nutritional quality of the product in question. The association of the circles to letters (A / B / C / D / E) guarantees greater readability.