Manufacturers have interesting ways of tricking people when it comes to food labels. Learn more!
0:00 Introduction: How to read nutrition facts
0:28 Serving size
1:10 Trans fat
2:05 Carbohydrates
10:10 Whole grains
11:10 Keto-friendly products
12:40 Antibiotics
14:00 Check out my video on organic food!
Food packaging can be very misleading. Today we’re going to focus on how to read nutrition labels, so you can have more confidence in what you buy.
The most important things to look at on a food label:
1. Serving size
The different values are per serving size and not the whole container. You need to look at the serving size and how many servings are in the container. Then, you need to multiply how many servings you’re going to consume in one meal by the total net carbs.
2. Trans Fats
If the product contains less than 0.5 g, or 500 mg, of trans fats, the company can count it as zero. However, if either “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” is written somewhere in the ingredient list, you know there are trans fats in the product.
3. Carbohydrates
The net carbs are the total carbs with the total fiber subtracted. Your net carbs need to be below 50 g per day for keto. However, certain things like maltodextrin are listed under carbs instead of sugar—even though it acts like sugar. This means some products may be advertised as being low in sugar while they actually contain a lot of carbohydrates that act like sugar. Avoid any products with maltodextrin, dextrin, or resistant maltodextrin. Some sugar alcohols, including maltitol, sorbitol, and mannitol can spike your blood sugars and should also be avoided.
4. Whole grains
There are many things that can be added to whole grains, like sugars, chemicals, and preservatives. Whole grains also lose a lot of nutrients after being processed.
5. Keto-friendly products
Some keto-friendly products contain things you need to look out for, like wheat gluten, soy protein isolates, and beet sugar. 95% of beet sugar is GMO. 6. Antibiotics When a product says something like “antibiotic-free.” That doesn’t mean there haven’t been antibiotics used. It means there haven’t been antibiotics used past the second day of life. If it’s classified as “no growth-promoting antibiotics” or “no medically important antibiotics,” they could have still used certain antibiotics.
Dr. Eric Berg
08/31/2023
