Nearly 50% of people make a resolution each New Year to lose weight and get healthier. In fact, a CNN poll in recent days found that 76% of people intend to try and lose weight in 2012.
This goal is not easily accomplished, however, unless you are a self taught expert at deciphering food labels and the many games food manufacturers play with ingredient names.
MSG, for example, has over 50 different names that are used to disguise it on food labels with the primary goal of fooling the consumer. Consumption of MSG is associated with obesity, hormone disruption among many other problems, so avoiding this additive in the foods you buy if you are trying to lose weight is very, very important!
In this video lesson, I show you how to easily buy the best brands and avoid ones that will harm your health – all without knowing a thing about food labels!
If you can do only a single thing this year to improve your health, follow the recommendation in this video and you will finish 2012 a whole lot healthier than you started it. My guess is that you will have lost a whole lot of weight too if that is your goal!
*To order the $1 booklet mentioned in the video, click here. If you order 10 or more, each booklet is only 50 cents!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
When looking at the back of food packages at times the food labels can seem like they were written in foreign language. http://t.co/t71CahqC
Ain’t that the truth!
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
I’ve found the best thing to do is simply not buy anything with a food label. Shop the perimeter, folks.
Yes, shopping the perimeter is a very good strategy. The WAPF Shopping Guide goes a step further though and identifies the “Best”, “Good”, and “Avoid” brands in the perimeter foods. For example, which cheeses are the best to buy and which to avoid. Same with butter, bread, and many other foods. It is really indispensable tool for healthy and traditional eating.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
Nice post & video from Sarah at thehealthyhomeeconomist about Weston A. Price’s buying guide. Just got mine in… http://t.co/bzOezkiV
Ooh I definitely need to order one for myself, my parents, my mother-in-law, my best friend…
Thanks for the suggestion!
Lauren Hairston Collado\’s last post: Life This Week: January 2, 1939
Video: Reading Food Labels http://t.co/G1Y85Ltb
Thanks Sarah, really enjoy your blog and all the great info! I just ordered my shopping guide, $1, plus .50 cents shipping.
Only 50 cents shipping? Wow. What a deal. That’s got to be the best deal out there for helping people to figure out what to buy at the store.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
I hear you but no video! Wonder why!
It works now! Hope no one else had this happen. Great tip Sarah! I am getting one today.
I understand the confusion with the sprouted soy flour. People think because it’s sprouted, it must be good. It’s not.
Sounds very useful. Though its probably better to buy foods that don’t have a nutritional label period or only one ingredient listed.
Even really excellent cheese has an ingredient label. So do fish eggs. Many very very healthy foods do.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
I haven’t gotten my 2012 one yet but I have used the previous versions a lot. Now I find myself going there more for reference when I see questions from others, simply because I buy so few things in the supermarket anymore…. This year I’m going to order a number of the 2012 guides and save my 2011 version and send them out to folks who need it. What a great inexpensive way to ‘pay it forward’. Thanks Sarah!
I did buy the pamphlet — the only complaint I have is –most of the the Best are not available in CA. And most don’t offer mail order
. But for $1 –it is worth it anyway
I agree with you KL. I was hoping to find the Best products in Toronto.. but no luck
Does anyone on here have any idea how long fermented cod liver oil (or just plain cod liver oil) will stay good stored on a shelf unopended? Opened? Does it go rancid like other fats?
Many months. It is alive because it is fermented and so does not go off for a very long time as long as it is kept in a cool cabinet out of the light.
I could hear the video, but it was just a black screen.
Try it again. Someone else had this problem and then tried it again and it was fine.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
This is the perfect opportunity to ask a question I’ve had about the shopping guide for months! I have the 2011 Shopping Guide, and I JUST ordered the 2012 one yesterday. (I’m one step ahead of you, Sarah!) But I was wondering about the quality of the products these companies offer. So many “organic” companies out there are trying to cut corners and offer sub-standard “organic” products. They’re hiding behind the organic seal, pretending to deliver high-quality products, and marking up their prices because they know people will pay more for organic. I’ve even heard that organic produce companies are beginning to use conventional pesticides that the USDA is permitting to be sprayed on certified organic crops.
Are the products in the shopping guide true high quality? Do I need to do additional research?
Also, is organic produce from the supermarket even worth it any more? Do I have to buy directly from a farmer 100% of the time to ensure that I’m not ingesting nutritionally-deficient, pesticide-laden food?
The brands in the Shopping Guide are vetted before being allowed in there, so I feel quite comfortable trusting the information. Products that are in there one year may not be the next reflecting that manufacturers sometimes cheapen their products and what was good before may no longer be good. I buy quite a bit of organic produce from the store. While local is always best, this is not always possible or even practical.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
Wonderful video, thanks Sarah! As I live in Australia I was just wondering if there is much point in me purchasing this shopping guide, as maybe none of the information is relevent as the brands arent in Oz. Thanks!
I’m not really sure Aimee. But, for $1 plus 50 cents shipping (maybe a few cents more to get to you), it’s worth a shot to see! Some of the brands are available in multiple countries like Kerry Gold butter for example.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist\’s last post: Video: Reading Food Labels
Thank you!
Video: Reading Food Labels — The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/Ot6lXYBv
This is a great video. But you cannot find something on the label if it is not there. The FDA does not require that all ingredients be on the label. Some very powerful chemical flavoring agents are not required to be on the label, because the amount used is small in volume. Yet these chemicals can have a powerful effect.
Nanites are not required to be labeled, but are already in many food products and food packaging, as well as many medications.
Finally, the food industry is constantly using new technology, which is often not on the label. Most people have heard of nanites only from science fiction stories, or not at all. Yet they are in wide use. We do not even know what some of these unlabeled additives are.
We try to avoid packaged foods to the extent we can, because labeling requirement are so lax. If we buy a packaged food, we try to get only one hundred percent organic, or from a company we trust to be committed to real food. Those are few and far between
. I wish the FDA would leave our farmers alone and concentrate on forcing the food manufacturers to label every ingredient clearly. We are nowhere near that now, and you cannot trust the label to reveal everything.
Stanley Fishman\’s last post: Aging in Reverse with Real Food—Then and Now
Thanks! found the video very good an informative.. hope it can help us
Wanna see a couple of food labels that will make you wonder what in the world the food manufacturers REALLY have in mind? Check this out: http://www.brucebradley.com/food/big-foods-insane-weight-loss-program/
Insane. Yep, that would be the word, all right. Sickening comes to mind, too, forget about weight loss. You’ll lose weight because you’ll be deathly ill.
Is this pamphlet available as an iphone/ipad app or as a android app? That would make it so much more convenient.
Can I just say that I love you!? I have learned so much valuable information since I started following you. I love every one of your posts. THANK YOU for what you do!!!
Hmmm…it seems now that we have to have a membership to order the pamphlet. Am I doing something wrong? When I click “order materials” it wants me to log in or create a membership for $40.
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