Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For most of my life, I never even bothered looking at the nutritional facts labels on food. Then I met my wife, who does analyze the labels carefully. She taught me to avoid foods with a high amount of calories per serving as well as food with a lot of saturated fat and/or sodium. I started doing it, and it completely changed the way I see food, and now I can't buy anything without looking at them.
Those delicious cookies I used to love? 140 calories per cookie and 15% saturated fat (% Daily Value). I used to eat 4/5 in a seating, easily.
Frozen cheesecake? That's over 1000 calories and like 95% of the saturated fat I'm supposed to eat in a day in just one slice!
In summary, I realized pretty much everything I loved sucks and is really unhealthy: pizza, ice cream, etc. I know it sounds stupid, but even though I always knew these foods weren't healthy, I never really realized how unhealthy they actually are.
I've lost a lot of weight since I started looking at these nutritional facts when buying food or eating out. They've changed the way I see food. Whenever I eat something I love but is unhealthy, like a cheesecake or cookies or pizza, I can't help thinking "Dude, the nutritional facts!!...this is really not good for you!", and then I stop eating it. Or I simply don't buy those products. It's been good for my health though.
I'm not saying people shouldn't eat the food they love, everything in moderation is good. But now I've become obsessed with nutritional facts and I just can't buy food without first looking at them. Is anyone else like this?
Yes I am like this for the past year, being on WW has taught me to look at lables. I do occasionally buy my favortite snacks. I especially look at the fat and salt content.
I remember the days before nutritional labeling!
One writer said that you shouldn't eat anything that *needs* a label (meaning, all fresh unprocessed food). Another said only buy something that has no more than five ingredients and don't buy it if there's a list of stuff that you can't pronounce.
But then, I've always been good at hearing public health statements and taking them to heart. Didn't stop me from periods of wild carb bingeing after night shifts, but I'm better now.
I remember the days before nutritional labeling!
One writer said that you shouldn't eat anything that *needs* a label (meaning, all fresh unprocessed food). Another said only buy something that has no more than five ingredients and don't buy it if there's a list of stuff that you can't pronounce.
But then, I've always been good at hearing public health statements and taking them to heart. Didn't stop me from periods of wild carb bingeing after night shifts, but I'm better now.
Don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients...lessee...my cookies:
white flour
butter
sugar
egg
That's only 4 ingredients. I guess this means I can eat as many as I want!
Or what about vanilla ice cream:
cream
sugar
vanilla bean
I'll have me some of that for supper, mom!
Matzoh: flour, water
Butter to put on the matzoh: cream, salt
Silly rule, if you look at all the things made with 5 or less ingredients that are -really- bad for you, or that can be -really- bad for you if you have more than a little of it.
I read ingredients, but usually I'm looking for specific things. MSG, sodium, and artificial flavoring. I'm not too concerned if the chicken in my frozen dinner is an actual slice of chicken breast, or if it's chicken "pink slime." Either way, it's chicken, so it's fine by me. I just can't have too much sodium, I get headaches from MSG, and I can usually taste the "artificial" in artificial flavoring so I just avoid it.
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
2,218 posts, read 3,462,002 times
Reputation: 6035
I read labels like some people read best sellers LOL. Yes, I read labels and it is surprising how many people do not.
Recently, I have noticed that "serving size" is often an eye-opener. So many things that I would would have eaten the whole container is actually meant to be 2+ servings. If you arent careful, you can pound down an enormous number of calories and fat grams without even knowing it.
Read the labels...you will be amazed by what you might find there.
For most of my life, I never even bothered looking at the nutritional facts labels on food. Then I met my wife, who does analyze the labels carefully. She taught me to avoid foods with a high amount of calories per serving as well as food with a lot of saturated fat and/or sodium. I started doing it, and it completely changed the way I see food, and now I can't buy anything without looking at them.
Those delicious cookies I used to love? 140 calories per cookie and 15% saturated fat (% Daily Value). I used to eat 4/5 in a seating, easily.
Frozen cheesecake? That's over 1000 calories and like 95% of the saturated fat I'm supposed to eat in a day in just one slice!
In summary, I realized pretty much everything I loved sucks and is really unhealthy: pizza, ice cream, etc. I know it sounds stupid, but even though I always knew these foods weren't healthy, I never really realized how unhealthy they actually are.
I've lost a lot of weight since I started looking at these nutritional facts when buying food or eating out. They've changed the way I see food. Whenever I eat something I love but is unhealthy, like a cheesecake or cookies or pizza, I can't help thinking "Dude, the nutritional facts!!...this is really not good for you!", and then I stop eating it. Or I simply don't buy those products. It's been good for my health though.
I'm not saying people shouldn't eat the food they love, everything in moderation is good. But now I've become obsessed with nutritional facts and I just can't buy food without first looking at them. Is anyone else like this?
I've been like this for the last 14 years since I started losing weight on my own and have lost a total of 500 pounds. Even more so in the last year or so since my husband was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
I look at ingredients first, sugars next. and fat and calories last. I want to limit my consumption of chemicals more than I care about fat and calories.
For most of my life, I never even bothered looking at the nutritional facts labels on food. Then I met my wife, who does analyze the labels carefully. She taught me to avoid foods with a high amount of calories per serving as well as food with a lot of saturated fat and/or sodium. I started doing it, and it completely changed the way I see food, and now I can't buy anything without looking at them.
Those delicious cookies I used to love? 140 calories per cookie and 15% saturated fat (% Daily Value). I used to eat 4/5 in a seating, easily.
Frozen cheesecake? That's over 1000 calories and like 95% of the saturated fat I'm supposed to eat in a day in just one slice!
In summary, I realized pretty much everything I loved sucks and is really unhealthy: pizza, ice cream, etc. I know it sounds stupid, but even though I always knew these foods weren't healthy, I never really realized how unhealthy they actually are.
I've lost a lot of weight since I started looking at these nutritional facts when buying food or eating out. They've changed the way I see food. Whenever I eat something I love but is unhealthy, like a cheesecake or cookies or pizza, I can't help thinking "Dude, the nutritional facts!!...this is really not good for you!", and then I stop eating it. Or I simply don't buy those products. It's been good for my health though.
I'm not saying people shouldn't eat the food they love, everything in moderation is good. But now I've become obsessed with nutritional facts and I just can't buy food without first looking at them. Is anyone else like this?
LOL...
I KNOW! I can remember going over food that I knew just common sense wise was junk food and bad for you. But when I wrapped my mind around just exactly HOW BAD I was shocked. Its kinda amazing I didn't have more to lose considering my history of food sins. LOL
Since you are label obsessed right now a fun food game is to try to find the healthier alternative of the bad food or come up with a recipe of your own that is healthier.
I still can't get over how high calorie and bad for you some restaurant dishes are. That is another one thats fun and shocking to look into since you are on the label reading fever train. ☺
LOL...
I KNOW! I can remember going over food that I knew just common sense wise was junk food and bad for you. But when I wrapped my mind around just exactly HOW BAD I was shocked. Its kinda amazing I didn't have more to lose considering my history of food sins. LOL
Since you are label obsessed right now a fun food game is to try to find the healthier alternative of the bad food or come up with a recipe of your own that is healthier.
I still can't get over how high calorie and bad for you some restaurant dishes are. That is another one thats fun and shocking to look into since you are on the label reading fever train. ☺
This is so much fun. For instance, I can make an amazing pizza with many more nutrients and much less salt, fat, or calories. I either make my own whole wheat dough, or my Whole Foods has a whole wheat and black bean flour pre-made dough that is great. Measure out your mozzarella or goat cheese, toss on a TON of veggies (arugula, onion, mushroom, pepper is my standard), and put in the oven for half an hour. It's a filling meal that you don't feel the need to blot with a paper towel.
Same with cheesecake. My roommate and I made cheesecake bites in muffin tins. You layer a big strawberry (or strawberry slices) on the bottom, then some cheesecake mixture (we mixed low fat cream cheese with splenda, egg, and cocoa powder), then more strawberries (or any other berry!), and more cheesecake mix. Bake and you have perfectly portioned sweet bites. Not an every day thing, but she needed to make a dessert for a Passover party and that worked.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
