A little extra reading can help you be skinnier

Grocery shopping – one of those things few people love to do, it is a necessary evil.

Everyone develops their own style and has their own set of rules for what goes into the basket.

The rules include…

it must look good – the sexiest packaging wins out
it must be BRAND X
price rules – it must be the cheapest
it MUST be organic / local / GM free
what’s in it, is what really counts

The counters can be seen holding the jar in the light, trying to make out the names and numbers.

Are they just wasting their time ?

When your life depends on it

Clearly people who scrutinize what is in the product, often do it not driven by a sense of curiosity, but necessity.

Let’s be real, if your body has a SERIOUS aversion to peanuts, a chance encounter can be FATAL.

You NEED to know.

The same applies for gluten, phenylalanine etc.

But there are a small percentage of shoppers who are not looking for specific TROUBLE ingredients, but looking at the overall picture………

The calorie count, the macronutrient ratios, if there is added sugar or the can is lined with BPA .

Counting up counts for something

Well if you’re one of those people……… the habit is more than likely helping your figure. It is probably helping to the tune of a couple of kilos or 1.49 points on your BMI score.

This is the finding of a research team which analyzed data collected by the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey gathered information about 25 640 people’s eating-cum-shopping habits via a questionnaire. The team tracked if and how often participants read food labels and how much they weighed.

Who are the food label readers

Food label readers had a few interesting traits in common.

First off, they were seldom smokers.

This may explain why those WARNING labels on the back of cigarette packs don’t inspire people to quit. Smokers aren’t reading them….

And they’re usually “educated” women. It is not that men don’t read food labels, some do, but since women are the big food shoppers, it makes sense that women are the food label readers.

Become a food label reader

So start today – before you add an item to your shopping cart, take a moment to peruse the food label.

Just realizing that the tiny bite size snack has as many calories as a plateful of dinner or grasping just how processed that snack really is, when you discover you only recognize one of the ingredients in the list, can help you put it back, even if you know it WILL BE DELICIOUS.

The snacks left behind in the grocery store – never have an opportunity to make their way to your hips.

So get out those glasses and read the food labels – it is the smart thing to do.

The effects of nutritional labels on obesity. Agricultural Economics (2012) 43(3):333-342. Maria L. Loureiro, Steven T. Yen, Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr

Interested in learning more about the chemistry driving those munchies ?

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