Page 198 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

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UP YOUR

SUPERMARKET SAVVY

s you navigate food labels, keep in mind the following over-
Aarching tips:
1 Whenever something gets removed from a processed food
product, it must be replaced with something else. The replace-
ment item will need to serve a similar function (desired
texture, shelf life, flavor, color, and so on). Take gluten-
free products, for instance. Gluten provides elasticity and
strength to dough, serving as a binder. Commonly, glu-
ten-free products rely on flour substitutes like tapioca
starch and rice starch, which are blood-sugar-spiking
refined carbs. And sometimes the thing being subbed in
may actually be worse for you nutritionally than the thing
originally deemed to be bad.

2 Keep your eyes on the prize: your general health. Rather than
fixating on specific nutrients or trying out strict diets over
the short term, the best bet for a lifetime of healthy eating
is to enjoy the flavorful and diverse options included in a
dietary pattern with lots of evidence behind its long-term
health benefits, such as flexitarian eating. In the context
of navigating food labels, sometimes you need to pull your
head up, take a step back, and keep the bigger picture in
mind. Which means remembering that as a rule of thumb,
most of the healthiest foods don’t even have labels for you
to read in the first place.

Stuff that Comes from Factories 187

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