It can be a struggle to eat healthy or at least healthier than how you may be eating right now. There are so many different things to consume and there can be a hefty amount of research involved in figuring out the nutrition facts, ingredients and what’s really best for you. One thing you can do to narrow down what’s good for you is to investigate the ingredients list and nutrition facts label on your food.
Do you think you eat healthy?
Do you know for a fact that you eat healthy?
Do you really know what’s in your food and drinks?
Ingredients List
High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Sweeteners, Artificial Colors, and we’ll spare you the hard to pronounce names of many other ingredients, but you can take a look at some of them here.
Some of the best advice you’ll hear at some point in your life is that you should try to get the foods that don’t have that many ingredients in them. When you go to the store again, look at the frozen broccoli with nothing added to it then look at the broccoli with cheese. You’ll see a clear difference. Does that mean the broccoli with cheese is completely bad for you and you shouldn’t eat it at all? No, but it’s something to pay attention to.
The picture above is literally just broccoli and cauliflower. Look at the broccoli and cauliflower with cheese the next time you’re in the store. Again, those extra ingredients don’t mean you can’t ever eat it, but keep it in mind. To get an even better grasp of things with fewer ingredients, take a look at these banana pancakes (just egg, bananas, and protein powder). They taste pretty good!
Nutrition Facts
Trans Fat, Sodium, Sugar, Etc. The nutrition facts label is easier to follow in a sense because there are numbers/percentages next to each nutrient telling you how much it contributes to a daily diet.
One major thing to look out for is sodium (which is salt). A lot of processed foods are known to have a bunch of sodium stuffed in them and too much of it isn’t good for you. This is something else to take a look at whenever you go to the store again. There are insane amounts of sodium in so many processed foods and it’s so easy to consume too much if you aren’t paying attention.
Too much sugar can also be bad for you. Although it’s known for increasing your energy, it comes with a drop in your energy, can cause weight gain and many other things.
Trans fats have an interesting history. Using Trans fats (unsaturated fatty acids) was an inexpensive way to preserve the shelf life of many foods and it was used for frying. Trans fats are one of the worst things we can put in our body though, which is why they don’t have anywhere near the same presence as they did years and years ago.
There’s even more to look out for on the nutrition facts label. The things listed above are where you can start then you can make your way to the many other things that can be found on the label.
With all that being said, eat healthy but also eat things you want to eat. There’s no reason to feel guilty just because you ate two donuts in one week or a piece of cake after your last meal. It’s possible to eat healthy while still enjoying some ice cream called “Super Ultra Chocolate Chip Explosion” every once in a while. Look at these zucchini sliders for example. That probably looks good to the average person and something a lot of us would want to try, so if everything checks out about it. . . give it a shot. The same goes for a lot of other foods.
