Know your ingredients – How to read food labels?

Know your ingredients: How to read food labels?
Know your ingredients:
Why is it important to read the ingredient list? How to read food labels?

A lot of brands deceive you with the fancy illustrations on the front of their products. However, the real information is provided in the ingredients list on the back of the product. Lets learn how to be aware of the elements that goes into our food products.

1. Read the ingredients list: Never buy a food based only on information provided on the front of the package; always turn it over and read the ingredient list.

2. Order is important: Ingredients are listed in descending order, starting with those used most to those used least (by weight). For example; if you are trying to reduce your sugar intake, make sure sugar is the last item mentioned in the ingredients list or better no sugar is on the list.

3. The fewer ingredients, the better: Buy packaged foods with as few ingredients as possible.

4. Know what you’re eating: If you don’t know what it is (i.e., hydrolyzed corn gluten) and/or do not find it occurring in nature (for instance; cumin, turmeric, ginger, coriander, salt, sugar, chillies etc), it’s best to avoid the product.

5. Get a peek at the Nutritional facts section: Check the Nutritional facts section for Trans Fat – better leave that product back in the store of it contains Trans Fat.

This is because, Artificial trans fats (or trans fatty acids) are created in an industrial process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. Unlike other dietary fatstrans fat — also called trans-fatty acids — raises your “bad” cholesterol and lowers your “good” cholesterol. A diet laden with trans-fat increases your risk of heart disease, the leading killer of adults.

What have we learnt?

In conclusion, when you know your ingredients, one can take a step forward to leading a healthier lifestyle. Getting into the habit of reading ingredient lists before you buy packaged foods can benefit your health greatly, and it only takes a couple seconds.

Above all, we encourage you to become the investigator of your own food and discover what is behind the curtain!

Similarly, we at VVS are always transparent at what goes into our food products and the process followed. Click here to know more about all our products. Now you can shop our popular products like chekku nallennai, gingelly oil, pooja oil, sathu maavu & more online at VVS.