Shopping is an increasingly complex exercise and one that requires attention. It is not easy to face the shelves of supermarkets, filled with packaged food. Depending on the degree of knowledge in food matters, it can be more or less complex. Or as the food and health expert Laura Caorsi says in the book Fantastic Food (Vergara), using a sports simile: “Running a marathon with the appropriate clothing and being a professional athlete is not the same as doing it without prior training and being a professional athlete as doing it without prior training on a summer day and wearing heels.”
The majority, he adds, are part of the second group. That is, read food labels without much training on the subject. “If we come across this product, or any other product that presents us with extra difficulty, it is normal for us to use a nutritional application that simplifies the data for us or to make big decisions without reading.” What’s more, according to the chair Shopper Lab of the Complutense University of Madrida project that analyses what people feel, observe and experience throughout the purchasing process, points out that these types of decisions happen very quickly: it only takes 25 seconds to select a food item. Because most of the time spent in a supermarket is spent walking down the aisles. Or in other words, walking among the advertisements.
Food information poses challenges, adds Caorsi, of different types in a multitude of packages. The front faces superimpose advertising and lures, and many lists of ingredients superimpose reading difficulties to the point of turning choices into chance and space into a trap. Tiny, cramped letters, compound ingredients or incalculable percentages make the exercise of shopping become an arduous task. And the sections, the author lists, of pastries and breakfast, those of prepared foods, desserts and sweets, as well as that of sauces and dressings, are real minefields.
It is therefore advisable, says the aforementioned expert, to carry a small cheat sheet with the steps to follow when the moment of truth arrives and you have to face the terrible moment of scrutinizing the packaging of any food.
The basics
- Turn the container upside down.
- Look up the actual name of the product to find out what it is.
- Look at the ingredients list. They are ordered from largest to smallest.
- Check that the ingredients correspond to what is stated on the front.
- See the nutritional information table for amounts of sugars, fats, calories and salt.
Nutrients
- Sugar: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is advisable not to consume more than 25 grams of free sugars per day. You have to be careful because it can be camouflaged under other names. When it says that it does not contain added sugars, it may contain them, so it is advisable to look at the nutritional information. Reduced in sugar means that it has 30% less than the original product.
- Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils should be avoided as they contain trans fats. Reduced fat means 30% less.
- You should not consume more than 5 grams of salt per day, that is, a little less than a teaspoon, according to the WHO. Do not confuse table salt with sodium, as they do not mean the same thing. Table salt—called by its chemical name, sodium chloride—is a compound with a crystalline structure. Sodium is a mineral, and one of the chemical elements that make up salt. To calculate the grams of salt, you must multiply the grams of sodium by 2.5. As a general rule, it is considered a lot of salt when it contains 1.25 grams per 100 grams, and little salt, when it has less than 0.25 grams per 100. Reduced salt means that it has 25% less.
To consider
- If an ingredient is highlighted with images or words, its quantity must be listed. You have to look for it on the list, and the percentage may be minimal.
- If the list of ingredients is very long, it is recommended to pay attention to the punctuation marks, as they help to understand the product.
- Allergens are highlighted in capital letters, underlined or in bold.
- Additives can be put with an E code. The absence of these codes does not mean that it does not contain additives.
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