How to read product labels
A skill for life
This is a very good idea I got from someone in my program. I got asked to elaborate on the way I read product labels at the store.
So I am beginning a new series of articles.
We’ll start with a light read today. Here is a pack of biscuits / biscuits I have in my house for over a year. It served as a prop for older posts.
✅ CONSUMING 1125 CALORIES
This pack of biscuits weighs 250 grams and has 1125 calories.
The pack reads “light”, but there is nothing “light” about these biscuits. Just marketing schemes. All biscuits are made from flour, sugar, and oil.
Please, don’t jump the fence. I know not all of you are like me – able to eat this pack of biscuits within the first 10 minutes of watching a new show.
There are also those people who will drink their coffee in a fancy way: with their little fingers up and touting moderation. They will eat the pack in 3 days.
✅ BURNING 1125 CALORIES
You know the thing about calories, right? If you don’t burn them, they will be deposited in your body as inaesthetic fat – most likely on your belly or your butt.
A 37-year-old woman measuring 165 cm in height and weighing 65 kg should walk for 6 hours at a speed of 4.8 km/h in order to burn 1125 calories. Meaning 29 km. The source is the Keisan Casio app I used to make the calculations.
This means that for 6 days in a row, starting on a Monday and ending on Saturday, you should dedicate an extra hour of your schedule just to burn some biscuits you had on Sunday.
But I’m not the one telling you what to do. The decision is yours.
✅ INGREDIENTS
Ingredients: wheat flour 60%, sugar, whole grain flour 13%, sunflower oil, glucose-fructose syrup, aeration agent (acid sodium carbonate), acidifier (malic acid), emulsifier (E472e), salt.
✅ RATIOS
🏆 PRO Tip: The order of the ingredients shows their ratio in the composition, from highest to lowest.
In this example, wheat flour, sugar and the whole grain flour have the biggest ratios in the ingredients list.
Smallest ratio: the salt.
✅ PRACTICALLY
As I have been telling you and as you can see for yourselves, the majority of biscuits you can buy in a store are made from flour, sugar and oils.
Most biscuits will have over 1000 calories in 250 grams of product. Keto biscuits will have even more calories.
Nothing is cheaper (and harmful in the long run) than a diet full of empty calories from flour, sugar and oils.
Production costs are tiny, the sale price is gigantic, the profit is obscene.
✅ SYRUP
If you see “fructose/glucose syrup” on the label – you should know that’s another name for sugar.
It’s probably High Fructose Corn Syrup containing 60% fructose and 40% glucose.
🏆 PRO Tip: granulated sugar is 50% glucose + 50% fructose.
✅ NUTRITIONAL TABLE
One biscuit is about 67 calories. Go for a brisk 20-minute walk and think about whether you deserve a biscuit. Who the hell eats just ONE biscuit?
We have the following nutritional table for 100 grams:
450 calories;
14.5g of fat, out of which 1.5g of saturated fatty acids;
70g carbohydrates, out of which 20g of sugars;
3.6g fiber;
7.2g protein;
0,97g salt.
✅ THE TABLE EXPLAINED
For some reason, saturated fat quantities are highlighted, even though it is the polyunsaturated ones that are harmful.
It probably has something to do with the “saturated fats are harmful and they stick to your arteries” myth. Then it makes sense.
You probably didn’t know, but 14% of olive oil is saturated.
✅ LE CARBO
Then we have 70g of total carbohydrates, out of which there are 20 grams of sugar.
That is: 50g of starches (from the flour) and 20g of added sugar.
So after metabolization, the bloodstream will receive 50g of glucose + 20g of sugar.
Meaning 50g of glucose + (10g glucose + 10g fructose).
Meaning 60g of glucose + 10g fructose.
Equals 70g of sugar.
✅ LE FIBER
In order for the pack to display something like “Source of fiber”.
A minimum of 3% of that ingredient should exist in the mix. They could have added 3% kebabs (or uranium just as well).
But they added fiber, because hipsters eat the biscuits for the fiber content.
Because they are digestive. And expensive. If the product is expensive, then it surely must be good.
We’re talking about that 3% fruit content from that yoghurt containing 80g of sugar.
✅ LE PROTEIN
We then have 7.2 grams of protein from wheat, out of which 70-85% is gluten. Exactly, gluten is a protein. And 1 gram of salt.
✅ THE BEST COMMENT
“I didn’t read the entire article. You lost me at “6 hours of walking on the treadmill” for a pack of biscuits. Damn!”
✅ THE CORE
Exactly. That’s where the core of it all lies.
Once you understand that to take in 1250 calories you should eat so much food, you can’t even breathe: 1 kilo of vegetables + 2-3 apples + 2-3 eggs + 200 grams of fish + 200 grams of meat.
And once you understand you must walk for half a day for a pack of biscuits.
You then understand how our members lose 30-40-50 kilograms of weight per year.