The “Expert’s Opinion” section is a space entrusted to specialized people on topics of common interest
SHOPPING WITH THE NUTRITIONIST (Part I): ingredients and nutrition label
When you pay attention to your diet it is inevitable to have doubts while shopping: deception is around the corner and the food industries know how to ignite the addiction to junk food thanks to the “bliss-point”, or the right union of salt, sugars and fats. So how to do it?
It is important not to be carried away only by the palate and to follow some useful indications such as:
• shopping with awareness (“mindful eating”) and knowledge;
• go shopping not hungry;
• bring the list of necessary items ready.
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At this point, despite having the utmost good intentions, a series of new difficulties arrive once we arrive in front of the shelves. How to read the nutrition label? What are the right ingredients to choose a good product? Are food additives dangerous? Yogurt and biscuits: are they all the same?
Let’s try to answer these questions and understand how to best choose our shopping.
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THE INGREDIENTS
The list of ingredients, compulsorily present by law on the packaging of each food, allows us to have a lot of information on the raw materials and the healthiness of the food we are buying.
To read it, you need to know that:
• the ingredients are listed in descending order, ie the first will be the most abundant and the last the least the one present in smaller quantities on the finished product;
• the fewer ingredients there are, the more hope we have of finding a good product;
• aromas are divided into “natural flavors” (or natural flavoring substances) and “flavors” (all other types) and are not part of food additives;
• the abbreviations E000 indicate the addition of food additives.
One of the more interesting and lesser known aspects, however, is that companies can use trick synonyms in the ingredient list. This deliberately creates confusion and draws the attention of the less attentive consumer. For example:
– Levite extract, tomato extract, hydrolyzed proteins, fermented soy or miso are practically synonymous with glutamate;
– fruit extract, grape juice, apple juice are simply sugars;
– glucose syrup and / or fructose and / or malt are again sugars;
– herbal concentrates (for example celery) indicate the presence of nitrates or nitrites.
THE NUTRITION TABLE
It indicates the composition in macronutrients, or carbohydrates, fats and proteins, present in 100 grams of product, but often does not report the micronutrients (vitamins, mineral salts), suggesting little or nothing about the nutritional qualities of the product.
The nutritional table gives very useful information to the professional, but it is not always easy for the consumer to decipher, also because there are no general reading criteria: it is not possible to compare a jam with a tin of tuna, rather it is useful to compare the tables. of similar products i.e. yogurt with yogurt, cheese with cheese, crackers with crackers, etc.
However, there are criteria that define a product that is excessively loaded with salt or sugar or fat, such as those established and disclosed by the FSA (Food Standard Agency, United Kingdom) with a sort of “traffic light”.
Prof. Berrino, Oncologist of the National Cancer Institute of Milan, advises on the expense:
“When you go to the supermarket, go with your great-grandmother (if you don’t have it anymore, imagine it) and everything your great-grandmother doesn’t recognize as food… don’t buy it!
Reading the label there are substances that she doesn’t understand what they are… don’t buy it!
If there are more than 5 ingredients… don’t buy it!
If it says it’s good for your health… don’t buy it! ”.
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Dr. Simona Ciciliani, Nutritionist Biologist
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