You know eating nutritious food is good for you. You know it can prevent, even reverse diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. You know it can thwart weight gain that leads to obesity and exacerbates these diseases. What’s more, you actually love healthy food: avocados, wild blueberries, wild salmon, dark chocolate, olive oil, fresh, delicious greens and fruits…. So, why do processed sugars and animal fats seem to linger in your mind?
We know that for most Americans, foods of all kinds are readily available. But why do feel we have to eat it? Is it poor self image? No willpower? Are we simply to weak to resist a little temptation? We make smart decisions everyday about our family, our finances, our work—why is this so different? It’s almost like an addiction.
If you think food might be mimicking addictive behavior, many experts say you’re right. Food provides a burst of pleasure. You think about food all the time. The pleasure is fleeting, not truly satisfying. It leaves you wanting more.
Last year, David Kessler wrote The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, a revealing book about what is responsible for our inability to resist certain food. In it, he explained that foods created with a magical recipe of high fat, high salt and high sugar alters the brain’s chemistry in ways that compel people to overeat. These foods do the opposite of satiating us—they make us crave more.
In fact, many things are at work in the foods that surround us. First, some foods override the body’s signals that tell us we’re full. Artificial sugars, for instance, trigger cravings. Add to that Kessler’s sugar-fat-salt profile that has been honed by food engineers to deliver the high doses in the most irresistible combinations. Administered in intermittent doses, this combination can have a powerful affect on the brain. The brain, in some cases, is not able to curb its dopamine response, the same response researchers see in those who take cocaine.
Furthermore, food manufacturers make food easy to chew, so hundreds of calories slip into our mouths and into our bodies easily. (Compare the satisfying crunch of fresh carrots to an air filled, sugar encrusted donut.) They also cater to our brain’s desire for novelty with complex flavors and food combinations like chewy nougat and milk chocolate, ice cream with chunks of nuts, chocolate or, yes, dough. These kinds of combinations stimulate our brain and make us desire more. Before we know it, we’re acting like addicts, and all the self-esteem and will power in the world can’t stop our hunger.
What’s the solution? Kessler says in the Guardian:
* Individually, we can practice eating in a controlled way.
* As a society, we can identify the forces that drive us to overeat, and diminish their power
* We can enact mandatory calorie counts for fast food and labeling food products, and monitor our food marketing in an effort to shift attitudes about unhealthy food.
We can also be a sponge for knowledge. We can understand the draw foods create and the physiological affects they have on our bodies, and start eating consciously. We can substitute wild blueberries for vending machine candy, and eat low glycemic index foods so we aren’t slaves to the artificial sugars that trigger our cravings. We can realize some burgers serve as entertainment, not nutrition. We can ask ourselves if a caveman would eat the food we have on our plate. We can begin to take control over the powerful forces that keep whisking us into the cycle of what might rightly be called food addiction.
Do the Super Chocolate Sugar-Os you had for breakfast claim to combat heart disease? Did that 20-ounce bottle of soda from the vending machine you polished off during lunch say it actually contains 2.5 servings?
If so, you are a casualty of Nutrition Labeling.
Nutritional Labels began showing up on food packaging in 1992 as a result of an effort from the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA to help consumers better understand the food they are eating. Since then, the ubiquitous black and white rectangle has endured criticism and ridicule as a tool to improve eating habits. For starters, they often present unrealistic serving sizes, and their polysyllabic ingredient lists can require a Ph.D. in Nutrition (or Philology) to translate.
These little boxes also epitomize the challenge of too much and too little. By leaving out the stuff we could use – such as daily values for trans-fats, for example, which can lead to the development of heart disease – they sometimes come up short by offering information without a way for the consumer to actually use it.
However, far from being the culprit, labeling is being touted as the key to a healthy diet – and it can be, if those labels provide accurate and helpful information. New regulations may make labels that are apprehendable by humans the norm. As part of efforts towards fighting the nationwide battle against obesity, the FDA is currently supporting a requirement by food manufacturers to post nutritional information on the front of packages where it can be seen, not in a little box on the back, and requiring more “practical” serving sizes and accurate health claims. As a result, your box of Super Chocolate Sugar-Os can only claim it is “heart healthy” if it comes with a treadmill and a pair of sneakers – and instructions to throw out the box.
Such regulations might make labeling part of the solution. Of course, conventional wisdom tells us that the best foods don’t have labels. They are found in the produce section, where the only packaging is bright, unblemished skin and lush leaves. But thanks to quick freezing technology, we know that frozen fruits and vegetables maintain all (or more) of the nutritional benefits of fresh food, as well as offering convenience, price and low waste…and frozen fruits and vegetables have labels, right?. As smart consumers, it seems we’ll never get away from reading labels despite our on-again, off-again relationship with them. It pays to be label-savvy.
As part of improving our label I.Q., we’re taking a look at a typical Nutritional Label created from a nutritional analysis done on wild blueberries to see what this “just the nutritional facts” box has to offer – and what it doesn’t offer up.
5 Nutrition Label Numbers You Should Know About
1) Serving Size & Calories
While many of us have grown wise to the scheme, we know that the “new math” demonstrated by the serving size/calories equation can trip up even a keen consumer. It’s why a bag of chips may seem low in calories, until you realize a “serving” is four chips. And, if you’ve ever eaten New York Super Fudge Chunk directly from the carton, you have a little field knowledge about the voluntary delusion these numbers cater to.
In the case of the wild blueberry label, there are 40 calories in 100 grams. One hundred grams is equal to a little less than ½ cup, and USDA’s Dietary Guidelines recommend 1 to 2½ cups (depending on age and gender) of fruits and vegetables a day. So, ½ cup of wild blueberries delivers one fruit serving, getting you well on your way to your quota, a mere 45 calories later. Not bad – blueberries are truly a naturally low-calorie food. If you ate wilds exclusively in an effort to get your daily requirements, you’d only be racking up between 90-225 calories a day.
While that’s low, we also have to consider nutrition-to-calorie ratio: healthy foods mean more nutrients per calorie, and that’s the key to achieving better health and lower weight. It’s why fruits and vegetables get high marks for health: their calorie to nutrition ratio is excellent, so in most cases (unless you are battling a broccoli addiction) the more you eat the better.
Also, wild blueberries have more skin per serving – cultivated blueberries create their serving-size bulk with a much higher pulp-to-skin ratio. That means higher antioxidant capacity and more nutritional punch per serving for wilds, another thing the label doesn’t tell you.
2) Fiber
When choosing foods, consumers are often looking for good sources of dietary fiber. Fiber is good for you because it can help prevent diseases such as heart disease and cancer. It’s also good for your digestive system, and it can help maintain a healthy weight.
The recommended amount of fiber is 25 grams per day. While processed foods are void of fiber, some high fiber foods can also be loaded with sugar and salt. So if we’re using high fiber numbers as a rule of thumb, we have already found ourselves in a sticky (if not a sticky bun) situation.
Whole grains are great sources of fiber, as are fruits, and this label indicates that each serving provides 4 grams of fiber. Blueberries are high on the fruit fiber scale, along with apples, pears and mangoes. One cup of blueberries per day would provide 36% of your daily requirement of fiber without stealth additives straggling along. Bravo!
3) Sugar
Sugar has become a nutritional expletive, but sugars are a part of a healthy diet, and there is no nutritional organization that calls for a limit on natural sugars. Most fruits and vegetables contain sugar, and sugar amounts are plainly labeled on food packages. What isn’t on the label, however, is whether they are natural or added, making the sugar amounts less helpful than they should be.
It’s up to us to avoid foods that are high in sugar but void of other nutrients, and to differentiate between sugars like sucrose and corn syrup that are added to foods and those that occur naturally. We can do that by referring to the ingredients list.
Our blueberry label indicates 7 grams of sugar. Because this label refers to the natural food and the data refers to just one ingredient (there is nothing added), these are natural sugars, not added ones. Frozen wilds have no additives (who needs them) and their nutritional makeup is exactly the same as a blueberry taken straight from the barren.
4) Carbohydrates & the Glycemic Index
The nutritional label indicates that this food has 13 grams of carbohydrates. What’s most interesting about this food, however, is a number behind the carbs that isn’t listed here. Perhaps it should be—it’s the Glycemic Index.
The Glycemic Index ranks carbohydrate foods according to their effect on the body’s blood glucose levels. Individual foods are compared to white bread or glucose and ranked on a 100-point scale, with white bread at 100. A GI of 70 or more is high; 56 to 69 is medium; 55 or less is low. At the high end of the scale are crackers and corn flakes; at the low end are non-starchy vegetables, fruits, beans, sugars and most dairy products. Consuming low GI foods causes a smaller rise in blood glucose levels than consuming high GI foods — an important consideration for people with diabetes. (Nutritionists are also interested in the effect GI foods may have on weight loss and appetite control. Research is currently under way to evaluate these claims.)
In a recent test, wild blueberries scored 53 on the Glycemic Index (GI) scale making them a low GI food. This translates into health benefits – low GI foods don’t escalate blood sugar levels, don’t cause mid-day “crashes” and don’t contribute to that diet-decimating cycle of eating and getting hungry, then eating, and then getting hungry. In addition to lowering diabetes risks, low GI goods can decrease risks of cancer, high cholesterol and heart disease. So, while GI numbers aren’t showing up on the label, they probably should be.
5) Vitamins & Antioxidants
Only two vitamins (A and C) and two minerals (calcium and iron) are required on the food label. Food companies can voluntarily list other vitamins and minerals in the food. And, when vitamins or minerals are added to the food, or when a vitamin or mineral claim is made, those nutrients must be listed on the nutrition label.
While we don’t see anything listed for “antioxidants” on this label, vitamins A, C and E provide antioxidants, and they have made an appearance here. In fact, Women’s Fitness reports that one of the top 10 great things about blueberries is their high capacity to deliver on vitamins. They have the highest antioxidant capacity of all fruits, they include anthocyanin, vitamin C, B complex, vitamin E, and vitamin A, and they neutralize free radicals which can affect disease and aging in the body. There is no antioxidant number on this label, but if we’re nutrition savvy, the data about vitamins that deliver the antioxidant power can help tip us off.
Furthermore, wild blueberries also outperformed selected fruits in an advanced procedure known as the cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assay, a new means of measuring bioactivity inside cells. Wild Blueberries performed better in cells than cranberries, apples and both red and green grapes. Find that interesting? It provides guidance not just about whether to choose a fruit over a fruit cake, but what fruit you should choose for the biggest nutritional punch. While the presence of vitamins is evident on the label, it’s what’s missing about what those vitamins deliver that is not.
Bottom Line
What can we learn by looking at the label? In this case, we know that wild blueberries are a naturally nutrient-rich choice. At just 45 calories per serving, they are packed with antioxidants and deliver substantial nutrients for every calorie consumed. But their nutritional power isn’t always evident on the label: antioxidant capacity, pulp-to-skin ratios, and the glycemic index aren’t numbers that can be easily extracted here. And if this had been a more nutritionally “complicated” food, this label could have masked some important nutritional deficits as well.
Until labels and packaging tell us more of what we need to know and less of what we don’t, the bottom lime is: don’t be a casualty of the nutritional label game – know the facts about what’s behind the numbers before you buy.
You’ve seen the term on blogs, on websites and in the news. Health Magazine used it in America’s Healthiest Superfoods for Women, and it has been used by Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Oz, on WebMD, in Better Homes & Gardens and by a host of nutritionists. The term is superfoods, and if it conjures images of fruits and veggies in capes and spandex tights fighting nutritional evil, you’re not far off.
Of course, we love foods that offer efficient, high-potency nutrition. But we wanted to know: who is behind this powerful, high-octane, health-affirming term?
Foods That Will Change Your Life
We tracked the buzzword to its point of origin and found Steven Pratt MD, best-selling author, ocular surgeon, and healthcare, nutrition and lifestyle specialist. In his groundbreaking 2004 book, SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life, Dr. Pratt stated that he had uncovered the key nutrient-rich foods that play a significant role in achieving optimal health. It became the Superfoods List, a touchstone for healthy eating, disease prevention, and longevity, and included foods such as wild salmon, tomatoes, walnuts, turkey, and blueberries.
Pratt had been researching longevity-enhancing nutrients. In 2004, scientists were just beginning to understand the field of nutrigenomics, that is, how food can control genes. He back-tracked from nutrients to the foods that contained them, seeking only those with tremendous amounts of polyphenols, a substance with antioxidant characteristics.
Foods like blueberries, particularly wild blueberries, fit the bill. They were chosen for their incredibly high levels of antioxidant phytonutrients, which have been proven to help prevent and, in some cases, reverse the well-known effects of aging, including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers. Blueberries’ position on the Superfoods list began to turn people’s attention from the more traditional healthy fruits toward this mega-healthy fruit. The Superfoods buzz was on.
It’s been six years since SuperFoods Rx (which Pratt followed with SuperHealth: 6 Simple Steps, 6 Easy Weeks, 1 Longer, Healthier Life) and the foods on Pratt’s list continue to be acknowledged as having a high impact on health. It’s no surprise that fruits and vegetables figure prominently – Pratt has referred to the produce and frozen foods section of the supermarket “the best pharmacy in the world.” But fruits and vegetables are complemented by foods like honey, cinnamon, garlic, and dark chocolate. Now, a half-ounce of dark chocolate per day is a common recommendation for a healthy diet.
Superfood Synergy
Superfoods represent whole foods that are simple on the surface, but internally complex and packed with nutrients. They also represent foods that work together to up the ante on health through synergy: According to Pratt, food synergy refers to the interaction of two or more nutrients and other healthful substances in foods that work together to achieve an effect that each is individually unable to match, and it is critical to health. That’s why he is a proponent of bathing healthy meals in berries, combining wild blueberries with low fat yogurt, or adding walnuts to an avocado salad. When you do, the nutrition intensity skyrockets.
The taste skyrockets as well. Superfoods are not just purveyors of high health and low calories. It was important to Pratt that they also be tasty. He wanted his list to sound appetizing – and it does! Just reading the Superfoods List is a reminder of how delicious healthy eating can be!
We know that for most Americans, foods of all kinds are readily available. But why do feel we have to eat it? Is it poor self image? No willpower? Are we simply to weak to resist a little temptation? We make smart decisions everyday about our family, our finances, our work—why is this so different? It’s almost like an addiction.
Furthermore, food manufacturers make food easy to chew, so hundreds of calories slip into our mouths and into our bodies easily. (Compare the satisfying crunch of fresh carrots to an air filled, sugar encrusted donut.) They also cater to our brain’s desire for novelty with complex flavors and food combinations like chewy nougat and milk chocolate, ice cream with chunks of nuts, chocolate or, yes, dough. These kinds of combinations stimulate our brain and make us desire more. Before we know it, we’re acting like addicts, and all the self-esteem and will power in the world can’t stop our hunger.
