Improving Our Literacy Rate

As I see it, every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself. - Adelle Davis

Quick question.... Do you read food labels?  Even glance?  Or do you study them?  

The FDA made it mandatory to include nutritional info on all foods a few years back.  I have been surprised by some of my findings.  For example, did you know that Ramen Noodles have 7 grams of fat per serving and that 1 packet is 2 servings?  Did you know that a Premium Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken has 20 grams of fat and 440 calories?  And if you use the Southwest Dressing, go ahead and add 100 calories and 6 grams of fat.  Oh, and those smoothies may be low fat, but the large has 70 grams of sugar! 

Nutritional information is available everywhere, so why don't we look at it?  Or, if you're like me, we can look at it, but think if we only have 1/2 serving 10 times a day, that doesn't count.  Well, I'm going to start getting religious about reading those labels again.  I had no idea that some of those "healthy" microwave meals have almost half your daily allowance for sodium and that American Heart Association says that even the Daily Recommended Allowance is really too much.  (We'll talk more about sodium tomorrow.)

My challenge is this:  just go in your pantry, take out your favorite goodies and see where your calories are coming from.  Some things can sneak up on you.  

The FDA a great resource for reading food labels.  Just click here and soak up the knowledge!