How To Read Food Labels

It is probably no surprise to you that many ingredients in the packaged foods you buy are unhealthy. This is why learning how to read food labels can be vital to the nutrition of you and your family.
Many health problems are now coming to light and are directly linked to these 'unknown' or 'secret' ingredients in many packaged foods. Read ahead and learn what foods to avoid if any of these ingredients are contained in the food item:

1. Fully or Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Soybean, rapeseed, cottonseed, etc.)- this is a preservative to ensure longer shelf-life, which it does, but the bad outweighs the good by causing fat build-up in the arteries and heart chambers. This build-up can increase a person's risk for heart disease and obesity.
2. Sugar, Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup Solids, Corn Starch, Modified Corn Starch- these are all basically different forms of sugar which the body does not need! Besides its' addictive qualities, it can also increase a person's risk for diabetes, which nearly guarantees the likelihood of this disease for a person when coupled with family or relatives who have diabetes.
3. Colorings and/or numbers- we don't know what these are or what harm they can do to our body, so why risk?
4. Enriched- this is a clever way of saying, hey, we added lots of nutrients to replace all the natural ones we took out to make it taste better, so it's still good for you! The truth is it is not! We would be wise to keep our rice, bread, and all other grains kept brown as that is their natural color. White rice, bread, and other similar products are depleted of their fiber, causing us to feel hungry sooner.
5. Monosodium Glutamate (aka: MSG) or 'Flavorings'- This ingredient is the sodium salt of the amino acid glutamic acid, and found mainly in soups, gravies, and crackers. A more ideal and truthful term for this ingredient would be poison! FDA results show an "unknown percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop MSG symptom complex, a condition characterized by one or more of the following symptoms:

burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest
numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back
tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
facial pressure or tightness
chest pain
headache
nausea
rapid heartbeat
bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma
drowsiness
weakness."

Nobody can eat everything they should all the time. Afterall, we are only human. But in striving to eliminate these ingredients from our diets, we can not only feel better, but also be confident that we are doing the best we can to avoid later health problems.