5 Things To Look For When Buying Food

We had a great turn out this past Saturday for our Nutrition Seminar, taught by PNF Nutrition Coach Courtney Kirkwood. In case you missed it here are five take-aways from her presentation on things to look for when shopping for food.

• When buying meat look for Certified USDA Organic. Certified USDA Organic is the cleanest meat on the market with no pesticides or hormones having been used, the animals are treated the most humanely, and it is the most environmentally friendly way of producing meat. Also, in the U.S. it is illegal to used hormones in pork. So pork that is marked hormone free is just a marketing ploy to get you to spend a little more money for the same product.

• Artificial sweetners are masked under many different names. Check your labels for the following: Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, Neotame, Saccharin, Sucralose, Stevia, and Rebaudioside are just a few. Do your research on the ingredients in your food.

• Prepare as much of you food at home as possible. This not only ensures that you eat less hidden calories, but it also helps you control what you are eating and what is in your food.

• Watch for added sugars they are in just about everything that is packaged.

• Don’t fall for Stevia’s “natural” claim. There is something like 42 or 43 molecules that make up the Stevia sweetners we buy in the store, of those only one molecule is natural the rest are all made in a lab or through processing. Stevia, also under the name Truvia and Stevia in the Raw, is just the latest hot sugar substitute and is really no better for you than Sweet N’ Low, Equal, or Splenda. When using sugar it is always better to use a true natural sweetner like plain sugar or honey. These are less processed and our bodies know how how to handle to them.

Eating clean can be very difficult, as there are many hidden ingredients in our food these days. The best rule of thumb is to look for items with the least amount of ingredients, look up the big “science class” words, and cook most of your meals at home.

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