Do you read food labels, or do you trust manufacturers to take care of your health? Are you interested in improving how you feel by taking a few extra moments to discover what you are eating?
There is a TON of information on a food label, in fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label (last updated on 01/03/2018), has excellent information about what’s in a food package via ‘the big, white label’. Serving size, servings per container, calories, calories from fat, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates etc. etc. Good information? Yes! But what about ingredients? Without looking at the ingredients within a package, we can tend to ignore the actual ingredients of what we eat.
The Big, White Label.
While it’s great to use the big, white label to see how many carbohydrates, fats, protein etc. are in the foods you eat; all that information (while helpful) can be overwhelming! The deal is, when a thing seems overwhelming, we tend to ignore it; no matter how valuable it is.
So let’s make reading labels simple!
Label Reading Made Simple.
What if label reading was made simple?
Instead of only using the big, white label to determine food value, try to focus on the actual ingredients you feeding your body, mind and spirit. Yep. the tiny, little words, typed at the very bottom of the label.
Begin there, and you can determine VERY quickly the actual value of the food you eat.
Let’s try a few examples.
Example #1
Example #1: Check out all the words in the big, red circle. LOTS of them, right? What is the first ingredient? Yep. Corn syrup, aka. sugar. The second? Yep. High fructose corn syrup, aka. sugar. Continue down the list, but please red the words out loud. Can you pronounce them? Me neither… and I link most things I can’t read, to be stuff that my body will have trouble digesting, assimilating and/or excreting. It is the stuff of chemicals, preservatives, and food colors, the things made in a factory, and not fresh from our Earth.
Example #2
Please read the ingredients (out loud). How’d it go? Easily pronounced? hahahah! Nope. And guess what this is.
It’s beef broth. Shouldn’t beef broth have… just beef broth? Maybe some onions, celery, garlic? But, why does it have, disodium guanylate, and thiamine hydrochloride, and sulphur dioxide? Is that normally found in beef broth? Is that stuff you want inside your body, for your cells to use as fuel for regeneration of new cells? IF the cells can even process it. Do you know what you are eating?
Example #3
Can you guess what Example # 3’s ‘food’ is? Read (out loud)the first ingredient… Enriched rice. Now read (out loud) the next ingredient items. It is curious that this ‘rice’ has corn meal, sugar, maltodextrin, monosodium gluatamate, and artificial color.
Is this rice, or a chemically processed rice (try saying sodium aluminosilicate aloud)?
Do you know what you are eating, or are you trusting manufacturers to serve you?
Example #4
Example #4’s ingredient label is better-not 100%-but better. This chicken broth has actual chicken broth and chicken and spices in it! The part that is concerning, is, it has sugar as an ingredient.
Would you have known it had sugar? You would if you had read the label! Do you know what you are eating?
Take the Time
Take time to read the ingredient labels. It takes a few extra minutes and you can then understand (if you can read it), and then CHOOSE what you put in to your precious body. Why?
Fuel Yourself at the Cellular Level
Meet Nurse Coach Nicole
Nicole Vienneau (said like piano with a 'V') MSN, RN, NC-BC is a registered Nurse, board certified Nurse Coach, personal trainer & yoga & group fitness instructor, & founder of Blue Monarch Health who specializes in helping people discover their power & wisdom to enhance their health & wholeness & prevent disease. When she's not coaching clients, she loves being in nature, relaxing with her cats or traveling with her awesome husband.
When you feed yourself REAL foods, you fuel yourself at the cellular level. Your cells are programmed to die off- it’s called apoptosis. This is an important feature of your incredibly versatile and healing body, and healthy apoptosis is behind the transformation of a tadpole into a frog, or a baby to an adult.
Energy comes from food you eat
Energy comes from food and nutrients you give it. Your beautifully intricate and strong body is constantly replacing damaged and dying cells. The way cells replicate is by using energy. Your body REALLY wants to use good energy to replace dead cells with top notch, new and healthy cells.
Your energy from junk
But if you get your energy from junk, chemicals and preservatives, your cells may not replicate with the vigor and vitality needed for a strong, energetic, focused body, mind and spirit. With junk as fuel, apoptosis may shift to destruction, either by failing to destroy unhealthy cells (like in cancer), or killing off large amounts of healthy cells (like in Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s)!
Choose wisely my friends. Take the time. You are worth every second.
If you need help- just let me know. I’d be thrilled to go on a Grocery Shopping Trip with you (in person or virtual!). One trip will change the way you see food and ingredients labels. Or, sign up for a Health Coaching package to develop a personalized action plan so you feel better in your body, mind and spirit!