When it comes to SANE eating, nutrition label reading isn’t critical. Non-starchy vegetables, seafood, lean meat, protein powders with no added sugar, low-fat or fat free plain Greek yogurt, low-fat or fat free cottage cheese, berries, citrus fruits, nuts, or seeds are SANE. Starches and sweets are inSANE. No nutrition label needed 🙂
For everything else, here are six simple tips to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels.
- The more fiber the better.
- The more protein the better.
- The less sugar the better.
- The fewer ingredients the better.
- The more vitamins and minerals per serving relative to calories per serving the better.
- If the ingredients include added sweeteners that contains calories (list below), hydrogenated anything, or starch (flour, corn, rice, barley, etc.) try to avoid it.
List of Sweeteners That Contain Calories
- Agave Nectar
- Barley Malt
- Beet Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Buttered Syrup
- Cane Crystals
- Cane Juice Crystals
- Cane Sugar
- Caramel
- Carob Syrup
- Castor Sugar
- Confectioner’s Sugar
- Corn Sweetener
- Corn Syrup
- Corn Syrup Solids
- Crystalline Fructose
- Date Sugar
- Demerara Sugar
- Dextran Dextrose
- Diastatic Malt
- Diatase
- Ethyl Maltol
- Evaporated Cane Juice
- Fructose
- Fruit Juice
- Fruit Juice Concentrates
- Galactose
- Glucose
- Glucose Solids
- Golden Sugar
- Golden Syrup
- Granulated Sugar
- Grape Sugar
- High-Fructose Corn Syrup
- Honey
- Icing Sugar
- Invert Sugar
- Lactose
- Malt Syrup
- Maltodextrin
- Maltose
- Maple Syrup
- Molasses
- Muscovado Sugar
- Panocha
- Raw Sugar
- Refiner’s Syrup
- Rice Syrup
- Sorbitol
- Sorghum Syrup
- Sucrose
- Sugar
- Syrup
- Treacle
- Turbinado Sugar
- Yellow Sugar