Eating a healthy, balanced diet is something that many people struggle with. Buying fresh produce and preparing healthy meals at home can be a great way to maintain a balanced diet, but when you're trying to be healthy, a trip to the grocery store can seem like torture. There are so many items to select from and so many temptations, its hard to know what to choose.

Fortunately, thanks to the Food and Drug Administration, all of the information you need to make healthy choices is right at your fingertips. The problem is, however, that trying to make sense of nutrition labels can be overwhelming. In our frustration, we are likely to select food items claiming to be "light" or "diet" or to just give up on healthy eating altogether and head to the frozen pizza aisle. If this sounds like you, don't feel bad - you're not alone in your frustration. The truth is, most adults are pretty clueless when it comes to understanding nutrition labels.

Many people have given up on deciphering nutrition labels because they believe it is too time-consuming. Let's face it, most of us don't have a lot of time to spare and dealing with crowds of shopping carts or our own screaming children makes us want the whole grocery shopping experience go by as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

However, reading nutrition labels doesn't have to be a chore. With a few simple tricks, reading nutrition labels becomes a breeze and you will feel good about the healthy choices that you are making. The key is in knowing where to look and what to look for. Part of the reason that nutrition labels are so intimidating is the shear volume of information that is included. Luckily, you don't have to read every label in its entirety.

A good place to start is with the list of ingredients. Glancing at the list of ingredients alone can help you easily determine whether a food item has any significant nutritional value:

-The Rule of Five. If any of the following five ingredients are anywhere in the top five on the list, it's not a very healthy choice: (1) sugar (2) high fructose corn syrup (3) saturated fat (4) partially hydrogenated oil (trans fat) (5) enriched white flour.

-What the Heck is that? A second thing to take into consideration when reading the list of ingredients is whether or not you recognize the names of the first few items listed. If the names are foreign to you, you can assume that the item is probably not very healthy and full of preservatives.

-The Shorter the Better.

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about How to read food labels: Supermarket nutrition demystified?
We want to hear your view. Write now!