In this bite-sized video, Registered Dietician Tamzyn Murphy RD Msc, discusses how to decipher a food label accurately.
Gain control over your nutritional intake by learning how to decipher food labels correctly. This will help you to successfully adapt to a ketogenic way of eating. To do so, you need to ensure that the total glycamic carbohydrates that you consume daily do not exceed 20 – 45 grams. This way, your blood glucose levels will remain low. As a result there will not be a surge of insulin from the pancreas gland resulting in excess energy from the excess glucose being stored as body fat.
Another benefit of learning to decipher food labels accurately is that adequate protein intake will be possible. A recommended amount of protein per day amounts to 110 grams. The will ensure satiety meaning that a person eats less. In addition, enough protein ensures muscle strength.
Protect yourself
By learning how to decipher food labels you can protect yourself by discovering hidden ingredients. These could affect your health without you knowing. For example, you may have an allergy to an ingredient. Children or migraine sufferers may be sensitive to additives.
Ingredient quality
This is also an important consideration. Do the carbohydrates come from refined wheat and sugar? Or do they come from healthier ingredients such as nuts, seeds or vegetables? Fat could be pro-inflammatory trans fat or omega 6 fat from sunflower oil. Heart healthy anti-inflammatory fat is omega 3 from monounsaturated fatty acids. Protein could be the type/quality to meet the needs of our bodies, or not. In other words protein from animal foods compared to protein from plant matter.