Top 3 Things to Look for on Food Labels

 Let's talk about the importance of food labels! Unless you have an allergy or specific diet you are following, I doubt you read food labels. Though it might not seem that important, there is a lot of critical information that comes from a food label. Here's the top 3 items that we recommend looking at:

1. Serving Size and calorie count - This is especially important for weight and portion control. One in three adults are overweight (30.7%), more than 2 in 5 adults have obesity (42.4%) and 1 in 11 adults have severe obesity (9.2%). Along with being active, knowing how many calories you are consuming based on serving size is critical for maintaining healthy weight. 

2. Protein Intake - Lately, there has been a lot of research regarding the importance of protein intake. Since it has become a popular trend, several food labels say "high protein" when in fact they aren't. A good way to check to see if something is high in protein, take the calories and divide by 10. A serving should have at least that many grams of protein if not more. (For example, if a serving is 140 calories, then it should have at least 14 grams of protein for it to be considered high in protein). 

3. Sugar content - Every 12 g of sugar per serving size is equivalent to a tablespoon of sugar. That means a can of soda (roughly 40 grams of sugar) has over 3 tablespoons in just one can. Tracking sugar content is so important these days because research is connecting Alzheimer's and dementia to high sugar content, calling those conditions Type 3 Diabetes.

Want more simple and practical nutrition advice? Come see us at Tennessee Back Pain Center. We are interested in your whole health, not just your spine. Visit our website at www.tennesseebackpaincenter.com for more information!

For more easy nutrition tips, visit https://www.tennesseebackpaincenter.com/blog/categories/nutrition-advice