When you are reading food labels and trying to determine which item is healthiest, what is your priority?

Sometimes this is a "no brainer", but sometimes I run into conflicts such as, let's say bread...

One type of bread is made with whole grains and has high fiber, but has more calories.

Another has fewer calories, is still made with whole grains, has less fiber and more fat.

Yet another is not whole grain has little to no fiber, has the fewest calories and no fat.

This is hypothetical, as I don't have any actual products in front of me, but I do find myself running into these types of situations at the market sometimes.

What do you emphasize more...calories, organic, whole grains (if a grain item), fat, sugar...?

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by johnbol:
It seems to me that when I was on Weight Watcher's last, their program had a positive adjustment for a bread with more fiber - the calculator that measured points.

Maybe a present WW'er can respond about that.

I meant to respond to this, but forgot.

The WW’ers thing with fiber is both “good” and “bad”.

It is good that they encourage people to eat more whole grains and whole wheat bread.

It is “bad” in three ways…

1) It is possible to eat a slice of whole wheat bread with 4 g. of fiber that is 110 calories and have it be 1 point. OTOH… It is possible to eat a piece of sour dough made with white flour, that is 85 calories and 2 points.

2) It is a new trend to add fiber to everything… they are adding fiber to Splenda now. But people will game the system and have figured out that if you eat LOTS of food with LOTS of fiber… you can devise a diet that is 2,000 calories and only 20 points. Fiber is added to WW ice cream to bring down the points… but it still has calories. OR if you put ½ an English muffin with 8 grams of fiber in eTools… it will calculate it as 0 points. (But if a person IS doing this… the only person they are fooling or hurting is themselves).

3) Personally, I find bread or pasta products with LOTS of added fiber “gritty”. I don’t like the Flatout wraps or English muffins with 10 g. of fiber. I think that a lot of people are eating food that they deep down don’t like because it is low points. And then they start hating being on WW and quit, because the food sucks or is “too hard” and they never eat white bread or sourdough because it is too many points… but actually might be less calories.

But the idea is good… and it is good to encourage people to eat healthier… but a lot of people “abuse” the fiber thing… but on the other hand… you can’t save people from themselves.

quote:

Sometimes I really like a whole wheat tortilla... and sometimes I just really want a white tortilla with 5 g. of fat.

Don't forget about soft corn tortillas, made from masa/masa harina. Masa is made from whole grain corn. I love the taste, and if memory serves, they also have fewer calories than than either white or whole wheat tortillas.

My big thing is corn syrup. Unfortunately, most gluten-free items are not whole-grain, so that's not really a factor, although I'd prefer whole-grain.

I tend to go for things with minimal ingredients and stuff I can pronounce, rather than specific fiber/salt/etc.

I emphasize organic/all natural first. It's really important to me to not have chemicals, HFCS, food colorings, etc in my food.

Next I look for whole grains, then calories, then low fat (in that order).

What I've found is if I'm going organic, it's easier to find whole grains/low cal/low fat.

At this point, I have my standard brands that I buy and end up label reading if it's something new.

For example....My english muffins...

I buy Rudi's organic bakery whole grain wheat muffins. They are 120 calories per muffin, 1 g of fat and 3 g of fiber. I can find higher fiber muffins but they are higher in calorie (180 to 210 calories per muffin depending on the brand). I don't want a muffin that high in calories and am OK with the 3 g of fiber since I know I get enough elsewhere in my diet.

I usually run into this dilemma with bread. I don't want bread less than 4 grams of fiber and I'm surprised how difficult that is to find.

It seems to me that when I was on Weight Watcher's last, their program had a positive adjustment for a bread with more fiber - the calculator that measured points.

Maybe a present WW'er can respond about that.

Linda

quote:

Originally posted by Nbox:
I tend to get into more trouble eating cake than by choosing a bread that has 9% fiber over one that's 11%.

Me too.

Or I get in trouble eating 4 or 5 slices of bread for breakfast instead of 1 or 2.

I also go with a 20/80% rule... and I've decided that I have tried to like whole grain pasta... and I just REALLY prefer white. MOST of my grains are 100% whole grain... and I don't stress over eating white pasta twice or three times a month.

Ditto tortillas and Peg's post. Sometimes I really like a whole wheat tortilla... and sometimes I just really want a white tortilla with 5 g. of fat.

And SOME of it depends on my scale number... sometimes I'm looking for a brand of bread that is 85 cals a slice... and other times I'm looking for my favorite brand, and don't really care about the calories.

I look for a variety of things...

Whole grain
organic
little/no additives
low sugar
low fat

I find that when I shop mostly in the grain and produce aisle (forget the cracker, cookie, chip aisle) I generally have an easy time making choices- I just buy the veg/fruit that looks good and is on sale. I buy whole grain pasta and low fat dairy.

I buy cage free eggs- no hormones.
Most of my meat is organic/Amish farm stuff.

My decisions are usually primarily personal preference and pricing (especially lately). I buy whatever 100% whole wheat sandwich bread is on sale. I have preferences but I won't pay more for them. Other bread products, I primarily look at fiber content when I choose between them and generally whatever is on sale although the whole grain options in other products like buns, etc. are more limited and sometimes I just can't bring myself to pay the premium for the 100% whole grain.

I was standing in front of the tortillas though doing this exact routine yesterday and wound up walking away without. I used to buy the whole wheat ones but they didn't seem to have those. I don't care for the 'multi grain' ones and the heart healthy ones with added fiber taste like paste to me. I really, really want to just eat the classic flour tortilla but at least yesterday couldn't bring myself to indulge.

I also bought spaghetti yesterday. I made sure the whole grain blend had a good amount of fiber and then bought what was on sale. I didn't look or compare any of the other nutritional info.

Other non-grain foods, I'll look at sat fat, trans fat, sometimes sodium on a prepared food. I try to avoid HFCS in my beverages but don't always avoid it in other foods (like marinades and bbq sauce). I bought a premarinated pork tenderloin yesterday because it was on a killer special. I will need to be careful to serve that with something fairly low sodium...pretty steep sodium level.

Clear as mud huh? LOL

Peg

With bread I look at the type of grain, fiber content and sodium. With lunch meat, it's fat and sodium. With dairy, it's fat or calories (cheeses are easy but other stuff not. I try to avoid flavored yoghurt because of the high sugar content, so I choose plain even though it might have more calories/fat).

I tend to get into more trouble eating cake than by choosing a bread that has 9% fiber over one that's 11%.

I notice I have different priorities. For cereal for the boyfriend, I look straight at fiber. I know that's sometimes the ONLY point in the day where he'll get a big dose of fiber, and because of some past issues, he needs it.

After that, I tend to look at saturated fats, sodium, and calories. I won't buy a cereal that's full of fiber but 400 calories a serving, you know?

For fruits & vegetables, I look first for "where," and try to buy from near rather than far.

quote:

When you are reading food labels and trying to determine which item is healthiest, what is your priority?

With cereals, the first thing I look at is sugars.

Be it white/brown sugar, or corn syrup, or honey, too many sugars are too many sugars.

Many whole grain cereals are just massively oversweetened junk food.

PS. I eat from 1 - 3 slices of bread a day. Except when I'm making jam, and end up eating 6 slices... since the jam MUST be tested, right?... over and over and over...

But usually I get my whole grains from toast, and brown rice and oatmeal. I don't eat 5-7 slices of bread a day (with the exception of the jam "tasting" thing...)

With breads (and English Muffins, bagels, etc)... it is MOSTLY taste and the brands of bread that I like. Cost is also a little bit of a factor.

I lost 20 lbs eating bread that was 110 calories a slice. When I joined WW’ers… In the back of the “getting started book” it said, something like “Bread, 3 g. of fiber per slice - 1 point”. And that last year I was losing, the brand of bread I was eating was 110 calories.

I will confess to really liking bread and toast. I often have 2 or 3 loaves of different breads in the freezer as well as English Muffins. They range from about 85 to 120 calories per serving.

Sometimes (especially during the holidays) I’ll have half an English Muffin for 60 calories, rather than a slice of toast that is 100 calories. But MOST of the time, I find that it works well to follow the guidelines at www.mypyramid.gov and eat 5-6 servings of whole grains that are about 100 calories per serving. Realistically, we need a certain number of calories to come from grains, for nutrition.

I’ve bought “thin” diet bread in the past… and English muffins that 100 calories per serving with 8 grams of fiber… and low carb wraps. I don’t care for them. I think that about 3 or 4 g. of fiber is all I can take in at bread product, more than that… I don’t like the texture. I find it “gritty”.

I don’t look at the fat or sugar too much. There is HFCS in the brand of bread I’m eating right now. I don’t eat a TON of products with HFCS… and I sort of wish it wasn’t in the bread, but I also don’t care very much at all. I don’t really don’t think that HFCS is a factor in my personal weight control. It may be a factor in the American public (and is in soda)… but for me personally, my 8 calories a day in HFCS are not an issue.

I was messing around with the planners and food logs at My Pyramid, and was quite peeved that when you enter a slice of bread… most of the calories go to “grains” BUT 29 calories go to your discretionary “extra” calories. I suppose (especially in my case) it is realistic that 29 of my bread calories might be fats and sugars… but it still irked me. Quite a bit.