Nutritional Labels??

rachelhaueter

What are the important numbers to look at on a nutritional label? I'll pull something off the shelf and look at the nutritional contents, be happy with one number then screech at another number. I'm staring to feel extremely discouraged while trying to shop for foods that aren't crappy. It's making me want to throat punch someone then divebomb the junkfood aisle and go nuts.

Sugars for example are throwing me off. All the labels just say "Sugar", and I don't know if 21g of sugar in a bag of fruit is the same as 21g of sugar in a candy bar. I really wish they would break it down and tell me what percent of those sugars are natural or processed and refined sugars. I try to avoid things that will tank my calorie count for the most part. I also try not to buy anything with an insane amount of sugars in it.

When I realized that about 60% of my daily intake of everything was coming from just one of my latte's I was very sad. I like my latte's, but they are 960 calories with an enormous amount of sugar due to the chocolate syrup and half and half (curse you Starbucks!). I sat down and really thought about it and decided that while I do like the taste of my lattes, I can get what I need it for in other ways. Because I work night shift, sometime when I get home in the morning (usually after my walks) I would make a latte for the caffeine needed to keep up with my 6 year old until I can catch a cat nap. I decided that the yummy taste was something I could sacrifice just as I did with soda a few months ago. I only have one upon occasion. For the caffeine, I picked up some caffeine pills to keep the migraines away and for the boost when I need it.

I think I got off topic. Oops! This morning I decided to make my very first smoothie. I had one heaping cup of Dole* Brand frozen strawberries and bananas, one cup of Minute Maid Calcium + Vitamin D pulp free Orange Juice, and one scoop of orange sherbert. The serving size ended up being 16oz (2 cups) with 320 Calories with 56g of sugars. The fruit had 12g of sugars, the juice had 23g of sugars, and the sherbert had 21g of sugars. I'm not even sure that the smoothie was good for me despite the fact it has fruit in it, and that's why I made the stupid thing to begin with, so I could have fruit in my life without gagging.

So if anyone who has made it to the end of my babbling has any insight into my sugar issues (is it okay to go over on the MFP numbers?) or what is important on a nutritional label, I'd be forever grateful for the advice.

Stopin_da_yoyo

Depends on your POV....yes sugar intake is important.I I try to completely cutout All simple carbs.

The nutrition label has info on it but do not forget about ingrediant list. The ingrediant list shows what its made of ...items are listed in accordance largest amount of ingrediant to lowest.

Just remember to log.