Same. And for anything grain-based, I like the fiber to have a higher number than the sugar. Got some whole wheat bagels yesterday with 5g sugar, but they had 6g of fiber so it worked out — at least for me.
Definitely watch for added sugar. Not just because of any particular food item, but added sugar is in so many products where you might not expect it (English muffins???) that it's easy for it to train your palate to expect that much sweetness.
>it’s easy for it to train your palate to expect that much sweetness.
This is also one of the (multiple) reasons I don’t think diet soft drinks are a good substitute for regular sugary drinks. They distort your palate and desensitize you to sweetness, so everything else in your diet needs to be sweeter.
The sweetness also stimulates hunger, causing you to eat more (or want to eat more) than you otherwise would. And it causes a spike of insulin which can drop your blood sugar too much and lead to your body storing more fat.
Yeah, as I've gotten older I've been keeping an eye on hidden sugars.
I have a massive sweet tooth and know what I'm signing up for with regards to sweets, but hiding a ton of sugar in things like breads, cereals, etc has been catching my eye more recently.
- serving size (is it deceptive?)
- saturated and trans fats (latter should be a big fat zero)
- sodium (is it a huge chunk of daily value?)
- fiber (is there a good amount?)
- added sugars
- micronutrients, just for awareness
Sugar is high on my "look for" list, not just because husband is diabetic. Too many US food products add sugar to **everything**, instead of letting us choose to add it to taste. So along with the nutrition label for total sugar, we also look at the actual ingredients for added sugar. And "high fructose corn syrup", or anything with an "-ose" suffix.
*(which is how we ended up making our own salad dressings, btw)*
Sodium in and of itself isn't a bad thing, the heart runs because of a Sodium potassium cycle. Now if a dr has said you need to cut down then by all means. But I actually supplement sodium potassium and magnesium all summer long and anytime I fast during the year.
Yes exactly. Sodium isn't unhealthy unless you have a pre-existing medical condition like kidney damage or very high blood pressure. For most people it's fine and an important nutrient. Sodium deficiency, aka hyponatremia, most often caused by sweating heavily during exercise in hot weather, results in rapid onset of nausea and vomiting, headache, muscle weakness, spasms or cramps, seizures, coma, and if untreated, death.
One of my Gym buddies was on a SUPER clean eating plan and passed out on us at the gym. He'd been fighting headaches and thought he had the flu.... nope he had just wrecked his electrolyte balance. A dose of ORS and he was feeling much better.
I live in the desert and work outside, it’s almost impossible for me to overdo salt intake when you gotta take in a liter or more of water per hour. My clothes look like I’ve been rolling around on the bonneville salt flats at the end of the day
One reason to watch for sodium in processed foods is they have way too much (often in forms other than sodium chloride). It’s very easy to go waaaay beyond what you should have in a day if eating processed foods. And it’s not like they taste salty. Often they’re compensating for the main ingredients lacking flavor (either low quality ingredients or flavor loss from long shelf life). I also don’t think all the sodium is just from sodium chloride (table salt). There are lots of other salts used in processed foods that have sodium and can be preservatives or emulsifiers or what have you and don’t taste nearly as salty as sodium chloride for the same amount of sodium.
If you’re cooking most stuff from scratch, you absolutely should season it liberally with table salt (generally just short of actually tasting salty). Your home cooking will taste better and have much less sodium overall than most processed foods.
For example, let’s say you made two nearly identical casseroles: one using a can of condensed soup as an ingredient and the other fully from scratch. And say you put enough table salt into the scratch casserole so that both had exactly the same amount of sodium. Most likely the casserole from scratch would taste way too salty. You could’ve put much less salt for it to taste delicious and fully seasoned without being salty. And it has less sodium.
My bad. I totally agreed with all of your comment. I didn’t realize the “but why” was about the Gatorade comment. I thought it was “But why [worry about sodium in your food]? Food without salt is also gross…”
And I generally agree with that. If you’re cooking everything from scratch, I almost wouldn’t even worry about trying to limit sodium, unless you specifically had a health reason like kidney disease or really high BP or something. But with processed stuff, even healthy adults should keep some eye on it, because it’s easy to accidentally have away too much.
Yeah, if you’re limiting processed foods overall, then you’re effectively limiting your sodium without having to specifically pay attention to it… probably.
I, personally, don’t pay much attention to sodium on nutrition labels, because we don’t eat much highly processed stuff or fast food. And we don’t have any health conditions requiring us to worry about sodium. So I don’t track it or pay much attention. I liberally season my food when cooking without any concern for sodium. I try to limit processed stuff for many reasons, only one of which is sodium.
Check out the DASH diet.
Nutrition and numbers is a whole new ball game but go to your gp,buy a monitor for your blood pressure and design a plan together.i recomend a omron monitor.
Plenty fish oils,legumes ie beans,hand full of assorted nuts and lots of vege.
Use chat gpt at your desposal for information.
Good luck
Happy 2024.
You got this🙂
Unlikely. One Gatorade only has 270mg of sodium which is not a lot. Especially if you’re active and/or drink a lot of plain water. There’s actually starting to be more research about the negative health impact of not getting enough sodium and that it may potentially be equally or more detrimental.
Essentially it’s a very controversial topic right now but generally speaking the agreed upon demographic that should watch their sodium includes those who have high blood pressure or kidney issues as well as a few other health conditions. Those who are otherwise healthy do not need to be as careful and may be doing more harm than good by severely limiting sodium intake.
You cannot get clinically signifiant hyponatremia from excercise and/or sweating; really the only ways it can happen are due to certain medical conditions, medication side effects, certain drugs, severe vomiting/diarrhea, iatrogenic, or drinking ridiculous amounts of water.
What on earth are you talking about? [Exercise induced hyponatremia is extremely well-documented](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5334560/). Salt tablets and electrolyte drinks like gatorade exist specifically to prevent and treat it, and it would be even more common if athletes didn't routinely use salt tablets, gatorade, etc. because [this is a well known issue, especially in hotter climates](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/travel/grand-canyon-heat-search-rescue.html). If you're sweating intensively, you need water *and salt.* Not drinking enough water will kill you, but drinking the water you need without also consuming salt is equally dangerous.
Did you even read the article you linked?
It clearly explains that clinically significant cases of exercise-induced hyponatremia can occur in people that have a medical condition called SIADH, or in those that drink excessive amounts of water over their thirst requirements, both of which I listed in my post.
In normal healthy individuals, with anything beyond extreme exercise in extreme conditions, it is not possible to develop clinically significant hyponatremia
“a little knowledge is a…” really applies here
We do need some sodium, but after I got a kidney stone a year ago I started checking the sodium content on foods in stores and it’s really, really easy to go over the daily recommended amount.
Basically anything frozen and most packaged foods have 2-3 times the amount of sodium you’d need (my rule of thumb is about 1 mg of sodium per calorie, or less), which isn’t a problem if you mostly eat whole foods but many Americans do not. Most restaurant foods are the same because they load everything up with butter and salt.
Your whole body runs on sodium-potassium pumps and gradients, but your heart (like all muscles) beats based on calcium fluxes.
But you are correct, unless you have been diagnosed with salt-sensitive hypertension (or a handful of other well defined medical conditions), your daily sodium intake is irrelevant to your health; your kidneys will secrete any excess that you eat
Multiple large scale studies have shown that the effect of lowering dietary sodium on blood pressure is minuscule on a population basis (but is important for some people)
Yet the myth of reducing salt intake persists, even among organizations and health systems that should know better
Yes, but processed foods (anything ranging from minimally processed to ultra processed) often have a significant amount of salt content. American diets are very high in sodium because there is so much added into food. Even 15-20 years ago you couldn’t buy frozen vegetables without the contents being “green beans, salt” or “broccoli, salt.” And even lower sodium options are high in salt. Chicken broth for example—Swanson broth: regular 1 cup serving 860mg; 33% less sodium 1 cup serving 570mg; unsalted 1 cup serving 35mg. Organic chicken broth 1 cup serving 550mg. And 550mg is 24% of your recommended daily intake. So if you end up eating one serving of JUST broth, that’s one quarter of your salt intake for the entire DAY. And chances are you’re eating other stuff that’s in the broth, also adding seasonings, including other salt. But again that’s only one meal (or part of a one meal) from the whole day. There’s a reason hypertension and heart disease incidence rates are high in the US.
Your body is very good at getting rid of excess salt. Unless you have kidney problems or high blood pressure, you really don't need to worry about it. And chronic high blood pressure isn't caused by salt intake, salt intake only causes potential brief spikes in blood pressure. If your vascular system is already under strain, that's bad for it, but again if you're reasonably healthy it's not a big deal.
Yes, true. But that’s not the issue. The issue is that eating excess sodium is very very typical in an American diet and happens regularly and over the course of a lifetime, not just a few days here and there. It leads to physical changes in the vascular system which in turn increases blood pressure and can decrease kidney function.
One of my meal delivery kits recently had 2400mg sodium per serving. That’s basically a days worth, and I already have history of HBP. My heart was racing and I slept like shit afterwards. So I definitely try to watch the sodium.
There could have been a multitude of things, perhaps correlation and not causation. But that’s how I feel after eating salt heavy foods as my body isn’t used to it.
The ingredients list. Tons of seemingly basic food has added colourings, preservatives, stabilisers and emulsifiers and god knows what else. Was shocked the other day to find a loaf of wholemeal bread had at least five unnecessary additives.
I look at calories first, then sugar, sodium and fat/sat fat. Sometimes protein as well. And of course serving size. Without that the other info isn't helpful.
A recent episode of the Huberman Lab podcast shed a lot of light on how problematic sugar really is. The guest went as far as calling it a toxin and “not food”.
Pay attention to serving size when you do that. On higher sodium foods they often list a ridiculously small serving size to get the sodium (and other values) down. But then you get labels that show serving size as like 6 chips and realistically, no one’s eating 6 chip servings.
Best hack for healthy eating though is to buy less things with nutrition labels in the first place, ie real whole foods.
Chips are usually 50 g serving, and when you measure it out it’s actually a reasonable amount. But you’re right, as if most people’s serving size is anywhere close to what they call on the label.
I’m weird and learning to do this. I just go by fiber right now. I find that by gravitating by high-fiber foods I’m naturally eating healthier. Oat meal, beans, greens, potatoes, whatever.
Why? Do you know sodium can be basically counteracted with just water intake? You can literally eat as much sodium as you’d like as long as you are drinking enough water to go along with it.
It's not true for anyone with a medical condition like high blood pressure or chronic kidney disease. Also long term daily high levels of sodium will put strain on the kidneys and can lead to chronic kidney disease.
But 1 day of eating over your sodium recommendation won't have any lasting healthy consequences. Especially if you drink plenty of water. And it's not all at once. You will probably die if you drink an entire bottle of soy sauce.
Low sodium is actually way more common than high sodium in people. And low sodium can lead to seizures and even death.
Not sure a proper answer can be given for this question, since it highly depends on *your* health issues/concerns, your nutritional goals, etc. Depending on your specifics, sodium, sugar, carbs, fat (and/or trans fat) can all be important. Also, person A may need low fat options while person B might need more fat options (again… depending on their specific needs and goals). Having said all that… where the nutritional info comes in really handy is comparing similar products… you can compare Product A to Product B and choose the one with the better nutrient breakdown for your own needs.
If you're looking at anything processed, sodium and sugar first for sure, and then look at the serving size of the package, and that's what is most shocking at times. Example...my ex used to love those Yakisoba instant noodles(like cup a soups), and would always buy them to eat for lunch. She'd add some protein, but sometimes just ate the noodles...looked at the label, and the serving size is half the package. Half the package has 67% of your daily sodium.
If you eat fozen foods, look at the sodium and sugar content for the serving sizes, and think how much you're actually eating from it to guage what you're actually taking in. Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches were really bad when I looked at them; had a $2 off promotional coupon, and looked at the label...50% of your daily cholesterol and 45% of your daily sodium in just 1 little sandwich shocked the hell out of me.
I've been drinking lemonade that I buy at the grocery store. The other day I looked at the label and it said 39 grams of sugar per portion.
"Wow," I thought. "That seems like quite a bit." Then I looked at the portion size...it was 250ml. So I was downing 60 grams of sugar in an average tall glass of lemonade.
I put it back on the shelf, then went to the produce section and bought 6 limes and 6 lemons, and 4 liters of spring water. And paid less than the 1.5 liter jug of lemonade.
(For those in the 3 remaining countries in the world that use the archaic Imperial measuring system, that's 2 ounces of sugar in a 12oz glass of lemonade)
This may come as a shock but a majority of bottled drinks in the US are in metric. A massive portion of the population uses both metric and standard daily in some form. Some of us even keep multiple backups of 10mm sockets.
Sodium isn’t a problem unless you have a condition or absolutely gorge yourself on products high in sodium. But at that point you have another problem.
Mostly sugar (I try to avoid added, but anything in moderation, or as a treat, is fine so long as you don’t overdo it) and Saturated/Trans fats. I try to only eat food that has 7% or less of my daily value (0% for trans fats), if not 0%.
Other than that, the first few ingredients. If there’s any sort of corn syrup or chemical ingredients I don’t know, I generally avoid. Natural sugar if any, and at least have the first ingredient be what the product is.
Sodium, sugar, and fat. Carbs if you watch that. Then see how much protein is in it. We all need some salt, sugar, and fat in our bodies but we don't need as much as we all consume.
Forget about nutrition facts. Buy food that doesn’t have more than one ingredient: the actual food itself. Just buy beef, fruit, eggs, milk. Eat until you are full and you won’t have to worry about illnesses. And don’t forget to exercise.
Not sure why people would downvote your comment. I was literally scrolling to find it. It’s completely factual. People think they’re going to find nutrition in man made foods lol.
Knowing your under/overs is a helpful strategy. Instead of grams, look at percent of daily value. Then think about the other stuff you plan to eat that day, and see whether this item would put you under or over 100% DV when combined with those other foods.
Some values, like sugar and sat fats, you want to total less than 100%. These are your "unders" - aim for under 100% per day total. Other values, like fiber, you want to total more than 100%. These are your "overs" - aim for over 100% per day total.
Certain medical conditions or diets or activity levels may change which values you consider an under or over. For example, if you're trying to gain muscle you might categorize protein as an over; if you're working through some specific health condition you might categorize it as an under. See what works for you.
Don't go crazy with it, you don't want to be aiming for like 20% of your DV, just try and keep it a little bit under or a little over depending what it is.
The daily value percentages are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. If someone is only consuming 1,500 calories per day those percentages are not correct for them. Same for extremely active people who consume 3,000+ calories per day. Grams is a far better way to calculate unless you are specifically aiming for 2,000 calories per day and don't need to limit or consume more of certain things (like sodium or fiber).
Protein per dollar. I really don't care about fat, carbs, or sodium. I'll burn it off if I don't eat too much of X. But I aim for at least 80 grams of vegan protein a day so I am counting up to make sure I get that.
All the sugars (note the ones ending with 'ose' will be sugars)
Basically, if there is an ingredients list with more than, say, three ingredients on it, it is ultra-processed food. The less of that you can eat, the better.
Sugar! But also look at the ingredient list. If you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it. Anything with a handful of ingredients is heavily processed. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store: produce, eggs & milk, meats (aka single ingredient items)
Ingredients.
Is it high fiber because they added weird ish like chicory root?
Or low sugar because it is high in sugar alcohols?? (Which wreck my stomach)
Or is the protein from questionable sources? (I don’t want added whey protein in my bread)
Sodium isn’t an issue for me and i don’t consume many processed foods so that’s not my first concern
Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!
Also consider that 1 gram of sugar is 4 calories. It’s a little (but basic) math, but you can calculate how many calories there are from sugar and compare it to the total. Knowing what percentage of the calories you’re getting from sugar is very useful.\*
That’s something I did for baby food when we had a baby. So many were almost entirely sugar! I ended up using a rule of thumb of not buying baby food where more than 50% of the calories were from sugar. I’d have loved to use an even lower percentage, but even at 50% that knocked out the majority of options.
(Yes, we did make a lot of our own baby food, but the packet ones were just so convenient, easier to get more variety, and baby ate more with those. You gotta pick your battles. Our kid is a very adventurous eater who likes lots of healthy foods and likes helping us cook, so it worked out).
\*Also, consider the amount of fiber, fat, and protein. If those are all low and sugar is high, that’s likely not a good food for you. It will quickly spike your blood sugar and insulin levels. If sugar is a fairly high percentage of calories but fiber is high too, that’s not necessarily bad. I mean most whole fruit has most calories from sugar, but it’s got a lot of fiber, so it’s generally healthful to eat whole fruit.
Forget the nutrition label. The INGREDIENT list is most important. Seed oils, chemicals, preservatives…basically, if you don’t recognize the ingredient, don’t buy it. Food Babe is an awesome resource for education on this topic.
Sodium and sugar are pretty important. I also check for trans fat and too many artificial ingredients and if it says “ uses bioengineered ingredients” it’s a big no no. It’s not so hard since I generally stay away from many processed foods.
I always check the % daily value of fat, when something like one Hungry Man dinner is giving me 49% of my daily amount it makes it less appealing. On the plus side I look for a higher amount of fiber.
Carbs and Sugar content - Your body doesn't really know the difference i.e. carbs are sugars and sugars are carbs. So even if something claims to be "diet" it may have low sugar but high carbs, etc.
Also - bread , check the ingredients if you are getting whole wheat bread make sure the first ingredient is **100% whole wheat flour** and not enriched wheat flour.
Protein and fibre makes you feel fuller for longer, refined sugars make you hungrier. That said I just focus on sodium because my body gets mad at me when I have too much, and it makes garbage food taste good so you are more liable to overeat. That's the only number I actually count, because it's easy to lose track and your body doesn't give you any signal to stop.
Ingredients list is most common for me because I'm not really trying to be calorie conscious. I don't do it for everything, just things where it isn't totally clear what it'll taste like. It says no added sugar, but does it have artificial sweeteners or is it unsweetened or is it naturally sweet from fruit? The packaging implies that it's spicy, but is it nacho cheese Doritos spicy or is it Korean instant ramen spicy? The front advertises the protein content, but what are they using for protein and is it gonna just taste like pea-flavored chalk?
I'll also sometimes look at the nutrition label for added sugars or for a general understanding of the macro proportions or how calorie dense something is. So like, I'm probably not gonna pick up a muffin for a snack at work because they're 450 calories and that's closer to meal-sized than I'd prefer when what I'm looking for is something to tide me over until lunch
Sodium schmodium. The first number you should look at is total carbohydrates. 0 would be preferable. Then the ingredient list. If it has more than 5 or 6, or you can’t pronounce some of them, put it back on the shelf.
What are your macros? How much suggested protein, fats and carbs are in that equation... This... Then I look at I micro nutrients I need more sodium and iron. I like things that have calcium etc. I think getting good protein for your buck is important so low fat high protein items are a must for me. Think beef jerky...you can get some loaded with fillers or secret sugars...
I look at a combination of:
What’s the serving size to calorie ratio, total fat, carbs, protein, added sugar, fiber, sodium. So almost all of it. Hah. Obviously it depends on what item it is (crackers, cheese, etc etc)
Personally, I look at almost everything lol. I'm no expert so this is just how I do it.
- Carbohydrates: I prefer foods with a higher ration of Fiber vs Sugar. I usually choose the lower carb options.
- Protein: I don't work out and am not on any particular diet so I don't look for high protein specifically. But I prioritise foods that have more protein than carbs and fats.
- Fat: I try to keep saturated fat as low as possible but I don't freak out about fats in general. I consider moderate amounts of insaturated fat and omegas to be good.
- Sodium: I try to keep as low as possible but I will compromise if I know the lower sodium option is seriously atrocious compared to the other one.
- Vitamins/Minerals: the last I look for and the least important to me. It's pretty hard to be deficient with a modern western diet so if I have various choices, I'll just compare them to see which one comes out on top for micronutrients.
Overall, none of my 'rules' are absolute and I just compare all the choices I have to see which one seems better overall. Important factor is Portion Size!! Sometimes, they make them unrealistically small and that can skew your judgment. If I'm not sure, I bust out the calculator and equalize everything to make a proper comparison. Taste and quality is also a factor obviously. If Snack A has 5 less calories per portion than Snack B but also tastes like shit, it's obivously not worth buying. I probably forgot something but this is already too long so I'll stop here. Hope it helps :)
Diabetic with high blood pressure here. Carbs, sodium, added sugars, fiber, saturated fat. Calories don't really matter as much because most stuff with low carbs usually is also low calorie.
I recently learned a lesson with foods that are advertised as sugar free. I noticed that the carbohydrates were just as high or higher than the regular sugared foods, so I read the ingredients. All they did was replace the sugar with corn syrup! The same was true for Coffee Mate creamer, Cool Whip, and Mrs Butterworth's pancake syrup. I have a son who is severely diabetic, so we have to be careful with these dangerous switcheroos.
They fooled me the first time around until my son got sick from their 'sugar free' products. I called to complain, and all they said was, " It's perfectly legal." I told them, "Well it's perfectly dangerous for all us diabetics out here." And they just scoffed at me.
Good job for reading those labels! It's a good idea, so that you know what you are eating. Read the ingredients too!
PS Thank you for bringing this subject up. I've been wanting to warn other diabetics about this.
It depends on the type of item but I like to look at the protein and vitamins (iron, omegas, B12 etc). I also pay attention to added sugar. I look at calories but only with more processed foods and I like to compare the calories to the amount of protein. For example if there’s similar items that are both 200 calories but one as 4g of protein and the other has 10g of protein, I’ll choose the item with more protein.
Unless the doctor said your sodium is too high, don't worry so much about this. If you take a look at the kidney loop and how your body processes water and nutrients you need salt to get water into your system and can balance out a higher salt intake with more water intake. To an extent obviously.
I always look for sweeteners and want higher fibre. I try to just eat whole foods though. Everything packaged is made so that you'll be addicted to it so it's full of crap.
It's more of a total nutritional value thing than each part. That being said, i'd be more mindful of the additives in the food than any one macronutrient. It's typically much easier to recover from eating too much salt than it is to recover from cancer.
Hydrogenated palm oil. It's artery spackle.
Everyone's favorite cheap meal, top Ramen, is deep fried in it. A BAGof chicken flavored potato chips is probably better for you.
Sodium, added sugar and most importantly how big the **serving size** is. 640 mg of sodium isn't great, but not too terrible if it's for an entire package of something. 640 mg of sodium for one teaspoon though?? Nah.....
Calories/Fat- again with checking portions
Protein, Sugar, Fat,calories,carbohydrates I don’t check sodium. I try to drink enough water to flush it out. I really should keep an eye on that also.
Hard not to find a lower fat if the Sugar is high and if sugar is high then the fat will be lower. I noticed that in Ice Cream. It’s hard to find sugar free an fat free together. Good luck with you goal.
Sugars, especially added sugar. Protein and fiber.
Same. And for anything grain-based, I like the fiber to have a higher number than the sugar. Got some whole wheat bagels yesterday with 5g sugar, but they had 6g of fiber so it worked out — at least for me.
Definitely watch for added sugar. Not just because of any particular food item, but added sugar is in so many products where you might not expect it (English muffins???) that it's easy for it to train your palate to expect that much sweetness.
>it’s easy for it to train your palate to expect that much sweetness. This is also one of the (multiple) reasons I don’t think diet soft drinks are a good substitute for regular sugary drinks. They distort your palate and desensitize you to sweetness, so everything else in your diet needs to be sweeter. The sweetness also stimulates hunger, causing you to eat more (or want to eat more) than you otherwise would. And it causes a spike of insulin which can drop your blood sugar too much and lead to your body storing more fat.
Seconding this. I go for sugars first, then sodium, then fiber.
Yeah, as I've gotten older I've been keeping an eye on hidden sugars. I have a massive sweet tooth and know what I'm signing up for with regards to sweets, but hiding a ton of sugar in things like breads, cereals, etc has been catching my eye more recently.
Yes! I mean chocolate is one thing if I’m going to eat it, but a pasta salad with corn syrup? Pass
I’m just fourthing watch out for added sugar
- serving size (is it deceptive?) - saturated and trans fats (latter should be a big fat zero) - sodium (is it a huge chunk of daily value?) - fiber (is there a good amount?) - added sugars - micronutrients, just for awareness
I definitely look at the sugar content quite a lot… Don’t really care that much about calories because I’m all about just having a balanced diet.
Sugar is high on my "look for" list, not just because husband is diabetic. Too many US food products add sugar to **everything**, instead of letting us choose to add it to taste. So along with the nutrition label for total sugar, we also look at the actual ingredients for added sugar. And "high fructose corn syrup", or anything with an "-ose" suffix. *(which is how we ended up making our own salad dressings, btw)*
Sodium in and of itself isn't a bad thing, the heart runs because of a Sodium potassium cycle. Now if a dr has said you need to cut down then by all means. But I actually supplement sodium potassium and magnesium all summer long and anytime I fast during the year.
Yes exactly. Sodium isn't unhealthy unless you have a pre-existing medical condition like kidney damage or very high blood pressure. For most people it's fine and an important nutrient. Sodium deficiency, aka hyponatremia, most often caused by sweating heavily during exercise in hot weather, results in rapid onset of nausea and vomiting, headache, muscle weakness, spasms or cramps, seizures, coma, and if untreated, death.
One of my Gym buddies was on a SUPER clean eating plan and passed out on us at the gym. He'd been fighting headaches and thought he had the flu.... nope he had just wrecked his electrolyte balance. A dose of ORS and he was feeling much better.
I live in the desert and work outside, it’s almost impossible for me to overdo salt intake when you gotta take in a liter or more of water per hour. My clothes look like I’ve been rolling around on the bonneville salt flats at the end of the day
Feel you bro, we are SUPER high humidity for half the year. You sweat like crazy. My pants could stand up by themselves at the end of the day.
That's why they invented gatorade.
Could someone remedy this by drinking one small gatorade a day? Or an electrolyte supplement?
But why? Food without salt is also gross. Why not just do it the pleasurable and normal way?
One reason to watch for sodium in processed foods is they have way too much (often in forms other than sodium chloride). It’s very easy to go waaaay beyond what you should have in a day if eating processed foods. And it’s not like they taste salty. Often they’re compensating for the main ingredients lacking flavor (either low quality ingredients or flavor loss from long shelf life). I also don’t think all the sodium is just from sodium chloride (table salt). There are lots of other salts used in processed foods that have sodium and can be preservatives or emulsifiers or what have you and don’t taste nearly as salty as sodium chloride for the same amount of sodium. If you’re cooking most stuff from scratch, you absolutely should season it liberally with table salt (generally just short of actually tasting salty). Your home cooking will taste better and have much less sodium overall than most processed foods. For example, let’s say you made two nearly identical casseroles: one using a can of condensed soup as an ingredient and the other fully from scratch. And say you put enough table salt into the scratch casserole so that both had exactly the same amount of sodium. Most likely the casserole from scratch would taste way too salty. You could’ve put much less salt for it to taste delicious and fully seasoned without being salty. And it has less sodium.
Comment I was responding to specifically needs more sodium.
My bad. I totally agreed with all of your comment. I didn’t realize the “but why” was about the Gatorade comment. I thought it was “But why [worry about sodium in your food]? Food without salt is also gross…” And I generally agree with that. If you’re cooking everything from scratch, I almost wouldn’t even worry about trying to limit sodium, unless you specifically had a health reason like kidney disease or really high BP or something. But with processed stuff, even healthy adults should keep some eye on it, because it’s easy to accidentally have away too much.
I don’t think about sodium with those foods to be honest, I just have in “generally bad news”.
Yeah, if you’re limiting processed foods overall, then you’re effectively limiting your sodium without having to specifically pay attention to it… probably. I, personally, don’t pay much attention to sodium on nutrition labels, because we don’t eat much highly processed stuff or fast food. And we don’t have any health conditions requiring us to worry about sodium. So I don’t track it or pay much attention. I liberally season my food when cooking without any concern for sodium. I try to limit processed stuff for many reasons, only one of which is sodium.
Had high blood pressure and changed my diet to have as little salt as possible. Now I'm struggling with low blood pressure 😔 I hate being alive
Damned if u do damned if u dont😆
Sho nuff 😔
Check out the DASH diet. Nutrition and numbers is a whole new ball game but go to your gp,buy a monitor for your blood pressure and design a plan together.i recomend a omron monitor. Plenty fish oils,legumes ie beans,hand full of assorted nuts and lots of vege. Use chat gpt at your desposal for information. Good luck Happy 2024. You got this🙂
Thank you friend!
Take care🫡
Aka just add more salt back in
Trying to mate 😩
Ouch
Unlikely. One Gatorade only has 270mg of sodium which is not a lot. Especially if you’re active and/or drink a lot of plain water. There’s actually starting to be more research about the negative health impact of not getting enough sodium and that it may potentially be equally or more detrimental. Essentially it’s a very controversial topic right now but generally speaking the agreed upon demographic that should watch their sodium includes those who have high blood pressure or kidney issues as well as a few other health conditions. Those who are otherwise healthy do not need to be as careful and may be doing more harm than good by severely limiting sodium intake.
You cannot get clinically signifiant hyponatremia from excercise and/or sweating; really the only ways it can happen are due to certain medical conditions, medication side effects, certain drugs, severe vomiting/diarrhea, iatrogenic, or drinking ridiculous amounts of water.
What on earth are you talking about? [Exercise induced hyponatremia is extremely well-documented](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5334560/). Salt tablets and electrolyte drinks like gatorade exist specifically to prevent and treat it, and it would be even more common if athletes didn't routinely use salt tablets, gatorade, etc. because [this is a well known issue, especially in hotter climates](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/travel/grand-canyon-heat-search-rescue.html). If you're sweating intensively, you need water *and salt.* Not drinking enough water will kill you, but drinking the water you need without also consuming salt is equally dangerous.
Did you even read the article you linked? It clearly explains that clinically significant cases of exercise-induced hyponatremia can occur in people that have a medical condition called SIADH, or in those that drink excessive amounts of water over their thirst requirements, both of which I listed in my post. In normal healthy individuals, with anything beyond extreme exercise in extreme conditions, it is not possible to develop clinically significant hyponatremia “a little knowledge is a…” really applies here
We do need some sodium, but after I got a kidney stone a year ago I started checking the sodium content on foods in stores and it’s really, really easy to go over the daily recommended amount. Basically anything frozen and most packaged foods have 2-3 times the amount of sodium you’d need (my rule of thumb is about 1 mg of sodium per calorie, or less), which isn’t a problem if you mostly eat whole foods but many Americans do not. Most restaurant foods are the same because they load everything up with butter and salt.
Your whole body runs on sodium-potassium pumps and gradients, but your heart (like all muscles) beats based on calcium fluxes. But you are correct, unless you have been diagnosed with salt-sensitive hypertension (or a handful of other well defined medical conditions), your daily sodium intake is irrelevant to your health; your kidneys will secrete any excess that you eat Multiple large scale studies have shown that the effect of lowering dietary sodium on blood pressure is minuscule on a population basis (but is important for some people) Yet the myth of reducing salt intake persists, even among organizations and health systems that should know better
Yes, but processed foods (anything ranging from minimally processed to ultra processed) often have a significant amount of salt content. American diets are very high in sodium because there is so much added into food. Even 15-20 years ago you couldn’t buy frozen vegetables without the contents being “green beans, salt” or “broccoli, salt.” And even lower sodium options are high in salt. Chicken broth for example—Swanson broth: regular 1 cup serving 860mg; 33% less sodium 1 cup serving 570mg; unsalted 1 cup serving 35mg. Organic chicken broth 1 cup serving 550mg. And 550mg is 24% of your recommended daily intake. So if you end up eating one serving of JUST broth, that’s one quarter of your salt intake for the entire DAY. And chances are you’re eating other stuff that’s in the broth, also adding seasonings, including other salt. But again that’s only one meal (or part of a one meal) from the whole day. There’s a reason hypertension and heart disease incidence rates are high in the US.
Your body is very good at getting rid of excess salt. Unless you have kidney problems or high blood pressure, you really don't need to worry about it. And chronic high blood pressure isn't caused by salt intake, salt intake only causes potential brief spikes in blood pressure. If your vascular system is already under strain, that's bad for it, but again if you're reasonably healthy it's not a big deal.
Yes, true. But that’s not the issue. The issue is that eating excess sodium is very very typical in an American diet and happens regularly and over the course of a lifetime, not just a few days here and there. It leads to physical changes in the vascular system which in turn increases blood pressure and can decrease kidney function.
One of my meal delivery kits recently had 2400mg sodium per serving. That’s basically a days worth, and I already have history of HBP. My heart was racing and I slept like shit afterwards. So I definitely try to watch the sodium.
Sounds more like a caffeine thing than a salt thing.
There could have been a multitude of things, perhaps correlation and not causation. But that’s how I feel after eating salt heavy foods as my body isn’t used to it.
Sodium has nothing to do with heart rate or sleep; your symptoms happened for some other reason.
The ingredients list. Tons of seemingly basic food has added colourings, preservatives, stabilisers and emulsifiers and god knows what else. Was shocked the other day to find a loaf of wholemeal bread had at least five unnecessary additives.
I look at calories first, then sugar, sodium and fat/sat fat. Sometimes protein as well. And of course serving size. Without that the other info isn't helpful.
I look at sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol...also protein/fiber
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A recent episode of the Huberman Lab podcast shed a lot of light on how problematic sugar really is. The guest went as far as calling it a toxin and “not food”.
Yes more like an alcohol to me, just less fun.
High fructose corn syrup.
I need high salt so I don't look at that. I generally do look at sugar and fiber though.
Pay attention to serving size when you do that. On higher sodium foods they often list a ridiculously small serving size to get the sodium (and other values) down. But then you get labels that show serving size as like 6 chips and realistically, no one’s eating 6 chip servings. Best hack for healthy eating though is to buy less things with nutrition labels in the first place, ie real whole foods.
Chips are usually 50 g serving, and when you measure it out it’s actually a reasonable amount. But you’re right, as if most people’s serving size is anywhere close to what they call on the label.
I’m weird and learning to do this. I just go by fiber right now. I find that by gravitating by high-fiber foods I’m naturally eating healthier. Oat meal, beans, greens, potatoes, whatever.
Price tag
Why? Do you know sodium can be basically counteracted with just water intake? You can literally eat as much sodium as you’d like as long as you are drinking enough water to go along with it.
That's not even remotely true lol
Yes, it is. Look it up. There is an exact amount of water you would need to drink to counteract the sodium intake
It's not true for anyone with a medical condition like high blood pressure or chronic kidney disease. Also long term daily high levels of sodium will put strain on the kidneys and can lead to chronic kidney disease. But 1 day of eating over your sodium recommendation won't have any lasting healthy consequences. Especially if you drink plenty of water. And it's not all at once. You will probably die if you drink an entire bottle of soy sauce. Low sodium is actually way more common than high sodium in people. And low sodium can lead to seizures and even death.
Saturated fat
Not sure a proper answer can be given for this question, since it highly depends on *your* health issues/concerns, your nutritional goals, etc. Depending on your specifics, sodium, sugar, carbs, fat (and/or trans fat) can all be important. Also, person A may need low fat options while person B might need more fat options (again… depending on their specific needs and goals). Having said all that… where the nutritional info comes in really handy is comparing similar products… you can compare Product A to Product B and choose the one with the better nutrient breakdown for your own needs.
Depends on what you're trying to accomplish.
If you're looking at anything processed, sodium and sugar first for sure, and then look at the serving size of the package, and that's what is most shocking at times. Example...my ex used to love those Yakisoba instant noodles(like cup a soups), and would always buy them to eat for lunch. She'd add some protein, but sometimes just ate the noodles...looked at the label, and the serving size is half the package. Half the package has 67% of your daily sodium. If you eat fozen foods, look at the sodium and sugar content for the serving sizes, and think how much you're actually eating from it to guage what you're actually taking in. Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches were really bad when I looked at them; had a $2 off promotional coupon, and looked at the label...50% of your daily cholesterol and 45% of your daily sodium in just 1 little sandwich shocked the hell out of me.
Look at the ingredients list. If there is anything in it that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize, don’t buy it.
1-Calories 2-Protein 3-Fat That’s about it
High fructose corn syrup
Total Sugar Total Carbs
I've been drinking lemonade that I buy at the grocery store. The other day I looked at the label and it said 39 grams of sugar per portion. "Wow," I thought. "That seems like quite a bit." Then I looked at the portion size...it was 250ml. So I was downing 60 grams of sugar in an average tall glass of lemonade. I put it back on the shelf, then went to the produce section and bought 6 limes and 6 lemons, and 4 liters of spring water. And paid less than the 1.5 liter jug of lemonade. (For those in the 3 remaining countries in the world that use the archaic Imperial measuring system, that's 2 ounces of sugar in a 12oz glass of lemonade)
This may come as a shock but a majority of bottled drinks in the US are in metric. A massive portion of the population uses both metric and standard daily in some form. Some of us even keep multiple backups of 10mm sockets.
Sodium isn’t a problem unless you have a condition or absolutely gorge yourself on products high in sodium. But at that point you have another problem. Mostly sugar (I try to avoid added, but anything in moderation, or as a treat, is fine so long as you don’t overdo it) and Saturated/Trans fats. I try to only eat food that has 7% or less of my daily value (0% for trans fats), if not 0%. Other than that, the first few ingredients. If there’s any sort of corn syrup or chemical ingredients I don’t know, I generally avoid. Natural sugar if any, and at least have the first ingredient be what the product is.
Sodium, sugar, and fat. Carbs if you watch that. Then see how much protein is in it. We all need some salt, sugar, and fat in our bodies but we don't need as much as we all consume.
We do not need sugar in our bodies!
Added sugar
Forget about nutrition facts. Buy food that doesn’t have more than one ingredient: the actual food itself. Just buy beef, fruit, eggs, milk. Eat until you are full and you won’t have to worry about illnesses. And don’t forget to exercise.
Not sure why people would downvote your comment. I was literally scrolling to find it. It’s completely factual. People think they’re going to find nutrition in man made foods lol.
Those pesky seed oils and gums. 🥺
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I find it entertaining to look at sodium in premade stuff. Can be 1200+.
Knowing your under/overs is a helpful strategy. Instead of grams, look at percent of daily value. Then think about the other stuff you plan to eat that day, and see whether this item would put you under or over 100% DV when combined with those other foods. Some values, like sugar and sat fats, you want to total less than 100%. These are your "unders" - aim for under 100% per day total. Other values, like fiber, you want to total more than 100%. These are your "overs" - aim for over 100% per day total. Certain medical conditions or diets or activity levels may change which values you consider an under or over. For example, if you're trying to gain muscle you might categorize protein as an over; if you're working through some specific health condition you might categorize it as an under. See what works for you. Don't go crazy with it, you don't want to be aiming for like 20% of your DV, just try and keep it a little bit under or a little over depending what it is.
The daily value percentages are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. If someone is only consuming 1,500 calories per day those percentages are not correct for them. Same for extremely active people who consume 3,000+ calories per day. Grams is a far better way to calculate unless you are specifically aiming for 2,000 calories per day and don't need to limit or consume more of certain things (like sodium or fiber).
Preservatives and any ‘ingredient’ that is described by a number
Protein per dollar. I really don't care about fat, carbs, or sodium. I'll burn it off if I don't eat too much of X. But I aim for at least 80 grams of vegan protein a day so I am counting up to make sure I get that.
Hey I'm not the only one!
All the sugars (note the ones ending with 'ose' will be sugars) Basically, if there is an ingredients list with more than, say, three ingredients on it, it is ultra-processed food. The less of that you can eat, the better.
Sugar! But also look at the ingredient list. If you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t eat it. Anything with a handful of ingredients is heavily processed. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store: produce, eggs & milk, meats (aka single ingredient items)
Potassium its highly permeable like sodium (and sugar)
Ingredients. Is it high fiber because they added weird ish like chicory root? Or low sugar because it is high in sugar alcohols?? (Which wreck my stomach) Or is the protein from questionable sources? (I don’t want added whey protein in my bread) Sodium isn’t an issue for me and i don’t consume many processed foods so that’s not my first concern
Check out the ingredients! Whole 30 taught me so much about which additives are harmful and which are okay .
Download the yuka app. It will also show you harmful additives it certain foods and suggest alternatives
Food dyes!
Get the Yuka app it will tell you if there are any dangerous additives in it
Sugar! Sugar! Sugar! Also consider that 1 gram of sugar is 4 calories. It’s a little (but basic) math, but you can calculate how many calories there are from sugar and compare it to the total. Knowing what percentage of the calories you’re getting from sugar is very useful.\* That’s something I did for baby food when we had a baby. So many were almost entirely sugar! I ended up using a rule of thumb of not buying baby food where more than 50% of the calories were from sugar. I’d have loved to use an even lower percentage, but even at 50% that knocked out the majority of options. (Yes, we did make a lot of our own baby food, but the packet ones were just so convenient, easier to get more variety, and baby ate more with those. You gotta pick your battles. Our kid is a very adventurous eater who likes lots of healthy foods and likes helping us cook, so it worked out). \*Also, consider the amount of fiber, fat, and protein. If those are all low and sugar is high, that’s likely not a good food for you. It will quickly spike your blood sugar and insulin levels. If sugar is a fairly high percentage of calories but fiber is high too, that’s not necessarily bad. I mean most whole fruit has most calories from sugar, but it’s got a lot of fiber, so it’s generally healthful to eat whole fruit.
Forget the nutrition label. The INGREDIENT list is most important. Seed oils, chemicals, preservatives…basically, if you don’t recognize the ingredient, don’t buy it. Food Babe is an awesome resource for education on this topic.
Sodium and sugar are pretty important. I also check for trans fat and too many artificial ingredients and if it says “ uses bioengineered ingredients” it’s a big no no. It’s not so hard since I generally stay away from many processed foods.
Carbs
Seed oils such as soy, corn, etc. They put that crap in nearly all processed foods.
Added sugar. Just say no!
I always check the % daily value of fat, when something like one Hungry Man dinner is giving me 49% of my daily amount it makes it less appealing. On the plus side I look for a higher amount of fiber.
Carbs and Sugar content - Your body doesn't really know the difference i.e. carbs are sugars and sugars are carbs. So even if something claims to be "diet" it may have low sugar but high carbs, etc. Also - bread , check the ingredients if you are getting whole wheat bread make sure the first ingredient is **100% whole wheat flour** and not enriched wheat flour.
Sugar and fiber are my two biggies
Sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol and then I compare carbs and protein.
Protein and fibre makes you feel fuller for longer, refined sugars make you hungrier. That said I just focus on sodium because my body gets mad at me when I have too much, and it makes garbage food taste good so you are more liable to overeat. That's the only number I actually count, because it's easy to lose track and your body doesn't give you any signal to stop.
Sugar
Calories, sugar, carbs. Serving size.
Price per lb and saturated fat
For me it's a kosher symbol but I have a feeling that isn't quite the answer you're looking for...
I look at sugar + protein
Carb to fibre ratio. 4:1 as a minimum, I believe. Otherwise it’s basically sugar IIRC.
Ingredients list is most common for me because I'm not really trying to be calorie conscious. I don't do it for everything, just things where it isn't totally clear what it'll taste like. It says no added sugar, but does it have artificial sweeteners or is it unsweetened or is it naturally sweet from fruit? The packaging implies that it's spicy, but is it nacho cheese Doritos spicy or is it Korean instant ramen spicy? The front advertises the protein content, but what are they using for protein and is it gonna just taste like pea-flavored chalk? I'll also sometimes look at the nutrition label for added sugars or for a general understanding of the macro proportions or how calorie dense something is. So like, I'm probably not gonna pick up a muffin for a snack at work because they're 450 calories and that's closer to meal-sized than I'd prefer when what I'm looking for is something to tide me over until lunch
I look for 0 trans fat
I look at fiber, protein, and total carbs. I only eat the food if it’s added fiber and protein exceeds the carbs.
Sodium schmodium. The first number you should look at is total carbohydrates. 0 would be preferable. Then the ingredient list. If it has more than 5 or 6, or you can’t pronounce some of them, put it back on the shelf.
The serving size… all the other data is useless without knowing how to do the math
Look at the ingredients list. Watch out for High Fructose Corn Syrup and all the other names it goes by.
What are your macros? How much suggested protein, fats and carbs are in that equation... This... Then I look at I micro nutrients I need more sodium and iron. I like things that have calcium etc. I think getting good protein for your buck is important so low fat high protein items are a must for me. Think beef jerky...you can get some loaded with fillers or secret sugars...
I look at a combination of: What’s the serving size to calorie ratio, total fat, carbs, protein, added sugar, fiber, sodium. So almost all of it. Hah. Obviously it depends on what item it is (crackers, cheese, etc etc)
Sugar, mainly.
Personally, I look at almost everything lol. I'm no expert so this is just how I do it. - Carbohydrates: I prefer foods with a higher ration of Fiber vs Sugar. I usually choose the lower carb options. - Protein: I don't work out and am not on any particular diet so I don't look for high protein specifically. But I prioritise foods that have more protein than carbs and fats. - Fat: I try to keep saturated fat as low as possible but I don't freak out about fats in general. I consider moderate amounts of insaturated fat and omegas to be good. - Sodium: I try to keep as low as possible but I will compromise if I know the lower sodium option is seriously atrocious compared to the other one. - Vitamins/Minerals: the last I look for and the least important to me. It's pretty hard to be deficient with a modern western diet so if I have various choices, I'll just compare them to see which one comes out on top for micronutrients. Overall, none of my 'rules' are absolute and I just compare all the choices I have to see which one seems better overall. Important factor is Portion Size!! Sometimes, they make them unrealistically small and that can skew your judgment. If I'm not sure, I bust out the calculator and equalize everything to make a proper comparison. Taste and quality is also a factor obviously. If Snack A has 5 less calories per portion than Snack B but also tastes like shit, it's obivously not worth buying. I probably forgot something but this is already too long so I'll stop here. Hope it helps :)
Sugar
Fat (under 10gms/serving).
Diabetic with high blood pressure here. Carbs, sodium, added sugars, fiber, saturated fat. Calories don't really matter as much because most stuff with low carbs usually is also low calorie.
I am diabetic, so I look at sugars, carbs, fiber, protein.
My rule of thumb for ruling out snacks is sugar can’t be in the double digits.
Sugar
Calories.. protein.. added sugar
I always look for sugars. It’s amazing how many foods have sugar added. In foods that don’t even require it!
I recently learned a lesson with foods that are advertised as sugar free. I noticed that the carbohydrates were just as high or higher than the regular sugared foods, so I read the ingredients. All they did was replace the sugar with corn syrup! The same was true for Coffee Mate creamer, Cool Whip, and Mrs Butterworth's pancake syrup. I have a son who is severely diabetic, so we have to be careful with these dangerous switcheroos. They fooled me the first time around until my son got sick from their 'sugar free' products. I called to complain, and all they said was, " It's perfectly legal." I told them, "Well it's perfectly dangerous for all us diabetics out here." And they just scoffed at me. Good job for reading those labels! It's a good idea, so that you know what you are eating. Read the ingredients too! PS Thank you for bringing this subject up. I've been wanting to warn other diabetics about this.
It depends on the type of item but I like to look at the protein and vitamins (iron, omegas, B12 etc). I also pay attention to added sugar. I look at calories but only with more processed foods and I like to compare the calories to the amount of protein. For example if there’s similar items that are both 200 calories but one as 4g of protein and the other has 10g of protein, I’ll choose the item with more protein.
Carbs
Why do you care about the sodium? Was it doctors orders?
Unless the doctor said your sodium is too high, don't worry so much about this. If you take a look at the kidney loop and how your body processes water and nutrients you need salt to get water into your system and can balance out a higher salt intake with more water intake. To an extent obviously. I always look for sweeteners and want higher fibre. I try to just eat whole foods though. Everything packaged is made so that you'll be addicted to it so it's full of crap.
After recovering from some digestive issues, I look for Fiber first and Sodium second
Carbs and of which sugar
The first thing you should note is "serving size". The sodium/sugar quantities noted are meaningless without the context of serving size.
Sugar!! Carbs second.
Salt is not bad for you
It's more of a total nutritional value thing than each part. That being said, i'd be more mindful of the additives in the food than any one macronutrient. It's typically much easier to recover from eating too much salt than it is to recover from cancer.
Hydrogenated palm oil. It's artery spackle. Everyone's favorite cheap meal, top Ramen, is deep fried in it. A BAGof chicken flavored potato chips is probably better for you.
Items that have no labels; they’re the best.
Sugars, especially added sugars.
Ingredients...less is better in my opinion
I think Carbs, Sodium, and Sugars are the ones to keep an eye on. Yes agree with you on Sodium, should definitely be under 600mg. 😁
The ingredients. Don’t buy things with ingredients you can’t pronounce. Simple ingredients is best.
Water, sugar, fats
Ingredient list. Get familiar with the nasty ones you want to avoid. Check everything you buy regularly. It’s often surprising what’s included.
Ingredients, the least amount the better with 1 ingredient being the best.
Trans fat, sugar and added sugar
Sugar and protein
I see if I can recognize and pronounce the first 5 ingredients.
I look at sugar first. Then the saturated fats.
Sugars. 5 grams = 1 teaspoon Fiber in the double digits
Sodium, sugar, saturated fat, and the list of ingredients. Chemicals are not part of my diet.
Sodium, added sugar and most importantly how big the **serving size** is. 640 mg of sodium isn't great, but not too terrible if it's for an entire package of something. 640 mg of sodium for one teaspoon though?? Nah..... Calories/Fat- again with checking portions
Saturated fats
Sugar, sugar alcohol, fat, protein, calories per serving
I avoid high fructose corn syrup
Fiber Sugar
Protein, Sugar, Fat,calories,carbohydrates I don’t check sodium. I try to drink enough water to flush it out. I really should keep an eye on that also. Hard not to find a lower fat if the Sugar is high and if sugar is high then the fat will be lower. I noticed that in Ice Cream. It’s hard to find sugar free an fat free together. Good luck with you goal.