Understanding what fats come from where and how much your body needs can drastically aid the average person in reaching their fitness, dietary, or health goals. Unsaturated fats or “good fats” are usually found within certain natural foods such as avocados, nuts, and seeds! It usually isn’t easy to go overboard on these, as unsaturated fats are usually recommended for healthy hair, skin, and nails and have the tendency to keep one full for a long period of time. Saturated fats are fats usually found in fatty animal products, and can be detrimental to overall health as they raise cholesterol levels and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (Mayo Clinic). Trans fat are naturally occurring fats that are usually found in small amounts (Mayo Clinic). A typical trans fat would be that of vegetable oils such as olive oil, coconut oil, and canola oil. Again, the general rule of thumb is to avoid it when not plant-derived, and always consume in small amounts!

Ideally, carbohydrates should amount to about 40 to 65 percent of your daily caloric intake (Healthline). Carbohydrates are your bodies main source of energy, as it gets broken down into glucose and becomes the fastest and easiest to use. Carbs can be good or bad however, like most things. The difference between a complex carb and a simple carb is the difference between efficient fuel and empty calories. Simple carbs are such things like white bread, potato chips, cereal, and soda. While a complex carbs provides complex nutrition such as rice, beans, fruits, veggies, whole-wheat pasta, and oatmeal! Knowing what kinds of carbohydrates you are consuming is the fundamental basis towards understanding proper nutrition.

We discussed serving size, ingredient list, sugar, sodium, fat, and carbs. After reading this two-part post you should now be more familiarized with knowing what a “healthy diet” truly consists of! If you have any further questions about your health, do not hesitate to reach out and schedule a free appointment with one of our Registered Dieticians at a HealthNet location nearest to you.

Posted by: Emily Jump, Marketing and Communications Intern

The first most important thing to understand is serving size, which is usually located at the top left of the label. If a serving size is 12 crackers with 120 calories per serving size, but there are 60 crackers in the box, eating the whole box means consuming a whopping 600 calories! Knowing exactly how much you are eating can better help you understand where to fit your snacks in during the day and how much to eat of what. That box of crackers just replaced an entire meal that could have been something else with more substantial nutrition.

Near the bottom of the label lists all the ingredients that are found within the product. The first ingredient listed is the main ingredient, meaning that most of the product is made up of that ingredient. If the first ingredient is cane sugar and the last ingredient is apple juice, that means that there is far more sugar than there is fruit juice. What many people also trip up on is the pronunciation of certain words found in this list. Usually these words are long scientific words that are often confusing. In order to breakdown what these words mean, it is important to understand prefixes and suffixes, as prefixes and suffixes determine the origin of each ingredient. For example, if an ingredient starts with “lact-” that means that it is a derivative of milk, meaning someone with a dairy intolerance would not be able to consume that product. The suffix “-ose” found in the words glucose, fructose, and lactose, means “sugar.” This understanding is also useful when reading cosmetic products, as the suffix “-cone” means a variation of silicone, which has been a recent infamous ingredient to avoid in shampoos and conditioners.

The next most important thing to understand in a nutrition label is grams of sugar, and how much is too much! According to Healthline, the recommended amount of sugar to consume a day is 37.5 grams for males and 25 grams for females. The average person consumes 76.7 grams of sugar a day, which is equal to 19 teaspoons and 306 calories (Healthline). To put these numbers into perspective, a bottle of sweet tea contains 44 grams, a can of soda contains 39 grams, and an energy drink contains 27 grams of sugar. If you want to stay inside your daily limit of sugar, opt for drinks with a lower amount of sugar per serving (less than 10) or only indulge in a couple of sips of soda or tea!

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we discuss sodium levels, different types of fat, and carbohydrates!

Posted by: Emily Jump, Marketing and Communications Intern