Eat & Move with Derval O’Rourke: Top tips for what to look out for in the supermarket
This week I’m sharing a guide to reading food labels. For my recipe I’ve got two healthy desserts, raspberry sorbet and fresh fruit salad.
As you walk through the supermarket aisles ticking items off your shopping list, you may think you are picking the best products for you and your family. However, as we have became more aware of our health and what we are eating, food manufactures have become better at marketing their products.
It’s important to learn how to read food labels so that if you are grabbing snacks in a shop or pre-made dinners you know what to look out for.
Here are my top tips:
Products can be described as ‘healthy’ or ‘natural’ but may not be particularly healthy. There is often an association with ‘free-from’ products and health. However, unless you have a diagnosed intolerance or allergy there is no benefit to avoiding foods like gluten or dairy in your diet.
Remember if you remove something from a food product, it has to be replaced with something else for example extra sugar or additives. My advice would be to look beyond the branding and turn to the label on the back of the product.
Ingredients in food products are done by weight, the ingredient that is first makes up a higher percentage of the product than the ingredient that is last on the list.
This is important. I try to pick products that have whole foods in their first three ingredients. The longer the list of ingredients the likelihood is the product is highly processed.
Sugar can be called many different names on the label including corn syrup, corn sugar, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, sucrose, dextrose, honey, molasses or brown sugar.
Fat can also go by many names for example butter, dripping, lard, milk fat, cream, vegetable oil, vegetable fat, peanut oil (or other nut oil), monoglycerides, trans fats and hydrogenated fat.
The nutritional information is always given per 100g but the amounts per serving size are those to focus on. Take note of how much the serving size is as it might be far smaller than the amount you plan to consume. For example a serving size of a Twix chocolate bar is one finger and a 500ml bottle of coke serves two.
This labelling system tells you at a glance if the food is high, medium or low for fats, sugars and salt. Red means ‘high’, amber means ‘medium’ and green means ‘low’. As a general rule we should be eating more products with ‘green’ labels and fewer products with ‘red’.
Low: Less than 3g/100g
High: More than 17g/100g
Note: Avoid trans or partially hydrogenated fats which are industrially processed to increase shelf life.
Low: Less than 5g/100g
High: More than 22g/100g
Note: No added sugar means no sugars have been added by the manufacturer but the product may contain natural sugars.
Low: Less than 0.6g/100g (0.1g /100g)
High: More than 1.5g /100g (0.6g/100g)
Note: Guidelines recommend we aim for less than 6g per day
Low: Less than 3g/100g
High: More than 6g/100g
Note: Guidelines recommend we get 24g to 35g per day of fibre but, 80% of us fall short.
The best way to make healthier choices is to buy foods that don’t need labels. For those products that do need labels, take a minute to look at the package so that you can make an informed, smart and healthy decision.
Fitspiration
Nathalie Lennon is a personal trainer and online coach. She is also a brand ambassador with The Complete Natural. Her page is packed with recipe and workout ideas plus lots of inspiration for how to live a healthy, balanced life.
Healthy Raspberry Sorbet
Frozen berries are one of my hero foods, they have such a beautiful colour and are packed with goodness. Here I combine them with stevia and lemon juice for a simple and healthy dessert. This sorbet kept me going through our recent heatwave.
4
5 minutes, plus 4 hours to freeze
Protein — 3.5g
Fat — 0g
Carbohydrate — 31.25g
Calories — 128
Place ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Pour into a shallow container, a Tupperware is ideal, and place in the freezer to set.
Remove from the freezer after two hours and mix with a fork. Return to the freezer for another two hours. Serve with fresh fruit or as a palate cleanser between courses at a dinner party.
Fresh Fruit Salad
Adding more colour to your diet is one of the best things you can do for your health and wellness.
Fruit and vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre. Use this recipe as a base and experiment with your own flavour combinations.
1 large bowl
15 minutes
Protein — 11g
Fat — 3g
Carbohydrate — 304
Calories — 1,247 for entire bowl
Combine all the prepared fruit in a large serving bowl.
Squeeze over the lemon juice and mix well to combine.
Enjoy.
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