Ingredients to Watch Out For

Most of us are now making an effort to eat healthier. We try to exercise restraint in restaurants, we think twice before attacking the vending machines, and we take a little more time in the supermarket in an attempt to choose products best suited to move us towards out fitness goals. Product manufacturers are well aware of these facts and have developed marketing strategies to reel you in to their products. Increasingly, you see words like "whole grain" and "low carb" on products targeting those who are trying to lose fat. However, just because a product "appears" healthy does not necessarily make it so.

TOO MANY INGREDIENTS?

Each product should list the ingredients on the label. They are listed from largest to smallest amount (by weight). This means a food contains the largest amount of the first ingredient and the smallest amount of the last ingredient. You want to pay attention to the first four ingredients as they make up the majority of a product. Sometimes, one of the first four ingredients is further broken down into sub-ingredients. In the example on the right, the first ingredient (filling) is further broken down into its sub-ingredients. The same rule applies to sub-ingredients: the first four sub-ingredients make up the majority of an ingredient. Still using the example, the first four ingredients of this product are: filling, whole grain rolled oats, enriched flour, and whole wheat flour.

INGREDIENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR

Sugar - Consuming sugar results in a high glycemic reaction. That means that your body turns it into blood sugar (or glucose) too quickly. When that happens, your pancreas releases insulin to get the excess sugar out of your blood before you die. Insulin does not make excess blood sugar disappear - it moves it to another area of the body where it can be stored for later use. The first stop is the liver, however it can only uptake glucose at a slow and steady pace. Because you are trying to store a large amount of glucose quickly, your body is forced to skip to the next stop: the muscles. Your muscles also uptake glucose at a slow and steady pace, so your body has no choice but to skip to the third and final stop: FAT! Fat is able to absorb glucose at a very fast pace, consequently when you consume a product high in sugar, you are going to store a majority of it as fat.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup - This is a sweetener often used by product manufacturers because it is a less-expensive and sweeter alternative to sugar. The problem is that HFCS is converted to glucose by your body EVEN FASTER than sugar, obviously resulting in fat storage.

Enriched - Enriched means that vitamins or minerals have been added to the food. The vitamins and minerals are added to replace the original vitamins and minerals that were lost during the refining process. For example, if the food originally had iron, but the iron was lost during the refining process, the food will be 'enriched' to add the iron back into the food. The problem is not necessarily with the enrichment part, it is with the refinement part. When a product is refined, it is converted to glucose quickly in your body and results in fat storage as mentioned above. Typical examples of refined foods are what I like to call the "white carbs": white rice, white bread, and white flour. However, enriched ingredients are listed in many so-called healthy foods.

Lard or Animal Fats - Lard is fat from a hog. Animal fats are used as a preservative in many products. Animal fats clog your arteries and raise you LDL (low-density lipoprotein) better known as "bad cholesterol."

Hydrogenated - Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction -- widely used in the processing of cooking oils and fats -- that turns unsaturated fatty acids into saturated ones. This is accomplished by attaching hydrogen atoms to vegetable oils. Why do product manufacturers hydrogenate foods? It increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. There are a multitude of problems associated with these "transformed fats" or trans fats. Here are a few:

* increased risk of heart attack
* increased risk of diabetes
* raises LDL (i.e., bad cholesterol)
* lowers HDL (i.e., good cholesterol
* hinders liver detoxification
* adversely affects vision in children

THE BOTTOM LINE

Reading product labels is a tedious, yet vitally important process as you work towards your fitness goals. What looks healthy on the front of the package may not be so healthy once you read the ingredients. In the label I provided as an example, you find the first ingredient (filling) is made made up of mostly high fructose corn syrup. The third ingredient is enriched flour. These are two of the five ingredients we need to look out for. What you may be surprised to learn is that this is the label of a Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Bar. On the package is printed (in large print) "More whole grains your body needs." It's easy to walk down the aisle of your supermarket and pick this up as a healthy snack choice for someone trying to lose fat. Unbeknown to them, they are selecting a snack that is likely to be stored as fat.