Label.ology: How to Read a Label

I know–duh, right? Don’t you just pick up the package, turn it over, and read? Yes, but you may not know what exactly you’re seeing.

It’s complicated. We are bombarded by conflicting information, buzzwords, health halos and claims being made on packages, so we just chug along, not making changes we know we need to make because we’re not quite sure exactly what we’re being sold…or what to trust.

One of the reasons we’ve seen such dramatic imbalances in human health is because we have radically changed our patterns of eating over a very short period of time. We have created dietary chaos. Much of what we call food in our modern world is actually unfit for human consumption. The literally thousands of chemically processed colors and flavors created to enhance and preserve our foods are absolutely alien to who we are as human beings. Our biological history has no way to deal with this stuff. I’m not talking about the basic constituent nutrients that remain in many modern foods–that is not in dispute. The quality of nutrients seems to have lost its place of importance in the world of food.

But don’t fear. Over the next weeks, I’ll give you the tools you need to become a savvy label reader, enabling you to make the best choices you can for your loved ones…and for you!

Next up, Lesson One Reading and Understanding Serving Sizes.