Learn how to make healthy choices
By Peter Jaret

“Made with whole grains!” proclaims one food label. “Low in saturated fat!” promises another. “All natural!” trumpets a third.
Originally designed to help us make the healthiest choices, food labels now carry so many claims that it’s often hard to make sense of them. The task has become even trickier lately as more and more groups put their own “seals of approval” on foods―from the American Heart Association to the Whole Grain Council. The latest logo is “Smart Choice,” developed by a consortium of food companies.

Unfortunately, those stamps don’t always mean a food is healthy. Take the Smart Choice emblem, for instance. It’s supposed to single out the healthiest foods, right? Yet skeptical nutrition experts have pointed out that chocolate popsicles, diet cherry colas, and even sugary cereals such as Fruit Loops carry the endorsement.

“A food may be low in fat but very high in refined carbohydrates and calories,” explains Suzanne Farrell, RD, MS, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. “Or it may look healthy because it contains some whole grains, but it may also be loaded with sugar and saturated fat.”

So how do you choose the food that’s best for you? With obesity, diabetes, and other conditions linked to poor diet on the rise, it’s an urgent question―especially for people with schizophrenia who suffer a higher-than-average risk of diabetes and whose medications may lead to weight gain.

Fortunately, food labels can still help. “All the information you need is right there,” says Farrell, “as long as you know what to look for and what to ignore.” Here are the four things experts agree are worth checking out on the label:

Calories per serving  
It’s hardly news that North Americans are getting fatter. Studies show an increasing number of kids are growing up overweight or obese. The culprit: many of us consume way more calories than we use.

It’s critical to know how many calories a food contains, but the really crucial number is how many calories a serving contains. “Many people make the mistake of thinking that a package or bottle equals a single serving,” says Farrell. A serving of chips may contain just 150 calories, but the package you consider as one serving may contain three. Eat the whole package―which many people do without thinking―and you’ve consumed 450 calories. “Always, always check out serving size,” says Farrell. “Then look at how many calories there are in a serving.”

Types of fat
Fat itself isn’t bad for you; in fact, some dietary fats are essential to good health, including unsaturated fats and omega-3 fats (the kind found in fish). The fats you should limit are saturated fats, the kind found principally in meats and dairy products. The food panel label on packaged foods provides a breakdown of fat as a percentage of calories and the number of grams of different kinds of fat. When comparing labels, choose the food with the lowest amount of saturated fat.

Whole grains
Many foods, including breads and breakfast cereals, claim to contain grains. “What’s important is that foods contain ‘whole’ grains,” says Lisa Hark, PhD, RD, a family nutrition counselor in Pennsylvania. “Whole grains contain far more nutrients and fiber than refined grains.”

Studies show that people who eat plenty of servings of whole grain foods have a lower risk of being overweight or of developing heart disease and diabetes. On breads and breakfast cereals, the word ‘whole’ should appear among the first two or three ingredients. This is one place where a seal of approval can help. The Whole Grain Council’s stamp on a product means it contains at least 8 grams of whole grains per serving. A food labeled “100 percent whole grain” has to contain at least 16 grams, the equivalent of one serving of whole grains. The official recommendation: consume at least three such servings a day.

Fiber
“Foods high in fiber tend to be more filling,” says Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD, medical director of the obesity program at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “Fiber may also help lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.” The official recommendation is 25 to 38 grams of fiber a day, depending on a person’s age and gender. Most of us get only half that amount. When shopping for packaged foods, choose the product with the most fiber.

Salt
Too much salt (or sodium) in foods can cause high blood pressure, which in turn increases the danger of heart disease and stroke. Most of the salt we consume comes from packaged foods, such as soups, snacks, or frozen meals, so reading labels is so important. Studies conducted by the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute show that the lower your salt intake, the lower your blood pressure. Ideally, your total daily amount should be 2,300 milligrams of sodium or less.

Reading labels is crucially important to making healthy choices. But nutrition experts point out that it’s just as important to fill your shopping cart―and your plate―with foods that don’t come with packaged labels, including fruits and vegetables, as well as nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

“The guidelines suggest eating [between] five and nine servings of fruits and vegetables,” says Hamdy. “The average person eats only half that amount. All of us would be healthier if we did more of our shopping in the produce section.” 

Peter Jaret writes frequently about health and medicine for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines.