Are You Checking the Ingredients List Before You Buy?

How do you decide what box, bag bottle or can to put in your grocery cart?

Do you look at the label? The front, the Nutrition Facts or the ingredients list?

Manufacturers are very aware that consumers are becoming more conscious about eating healthier foods. But instead of making healthier foods, they make the packaging more deceptive so it's harder for the consumer to determine how healthy the food item really is.

When you're choosing items from the grocery store shelf, the first choice should be fresh whole foods. However, if you do buy prepackaged foods, skip the front of the label. That's what the manufacturer want you to think about the product. What's on the front of the label is not necessarily true about the product inside the package.

As shocking as that statement may sound, it's true. The reason it's true is that there are terms that are not defined in the industry, like natural and healthy, so manufacturers can use them to mean anything they want - and they do.

Next, skip the Nutrition Facts. The first thing you should look at when you pick up a package is the ingredients list. If the products has harmful ingredients, and most processed foods do, the Nutrition Facts are meaningless. If the ingredients are healthy, then look at the Nutrition Facts if you like.

If you have a hard time reading the ingredients list because it's so tiny, carry a magnifying glass with you when you shop. If you don't know if the ingredients in the product are healthy or not, get the book FOOD ADDITIVES: A Shoppers' Guide To What's Safe & What's Not and take it with you every time you shop. You'll become an expert label-reader in no time. It's simple to use, even kids can do it.