Reading labels on food packages is a useless pastime. The food industry has deliberately misled you into looking at the wrong things, irrelevant things.
It is good to broadly know what are the important nutrients that body needs, and know which foods give you more of those
It is also good to know what foods are "superfoods", foods that pack a nutrient-dense punch.
But right now we are talking about why not to read labels, and what to focus on instead. Ok, so here goes.
Any food that is minimally processed is better compared to highly processed. An example of highly processed is instant coffee powder. Ever thought how the poor innocent coffee seed is converted into that wonder?
Any food with a wonky name, like Dairy Whitener for milk powder, or Frozen Dessert for Ice Cream, is a definite problem.
Any food with a very long shelf life is a problem.
"Added nutrients" are a fraud.
The bigger the set-up of the company that makes the food, the more of a problem it is. A McD is worse than your local Darshini.
Refined carbohydrates are bad. White flour is horrible.
Refined oils are bad.
White sugar is bad. Substitutes for white sugar are worse.
Reading any amount of labels will not make these facts go away.
When I started penning this, I thought I could give guidelines on which processed food is better and / or what to look for when it comes to processed foods.
Unfortunately, as I am thinking this through, the conclusion is again becoming apparent.
There is no alternative to cooking at home.
If you can't do that, catch hold of a neighbouring auntie who cooks fresh food every day and let her send you a dabba.
India is full of such aunties. Every lane has one of them. I believe the US is full of them too, New Jersey for example has enough supply of Andhra or Gujju or Tamil aunties doing this.
It's not practical, my lifestyle does not permit it, you say?
Well, then face the fact that you are eating junk, and give up the pretence that reading labels will improve the situation in any way!
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