How do we decode food labels and translate product ingredients and nutritional information?
MH: Essentially, you have to be smart about it. Marion Nestle’s book What to Eat contains some good advice on becoming a more educated consumer, as does my book UltraMetabolism. But my basic rule of thumb is this: If you have to buy something with a label, make sure you know what all the ingredients are and that you’re comfortable putting them in your body. Avoid food with more than five ingredients, try not to buy foods that come in boxes, and be wary of any package decorated with cartoons. EL: Are there any good foods in the canned, boxed, bagged or frozen-food aisles? MH: Absolutely, they’re just few and far between. Things like frozen blueberries or canned black beans can still be good for you, as long as they don’t contain a bunch of unhealthy and unnecessary ingredients. My conservative philosophy is, “If it has a label, don’t eat it.” That said, I realize that’s not always realistic for all of us all of the time. We like to have convenience foods to help us deal with our time cr
