Healthy People, Healthy Planet: More Packaging=Less Nutrition
added 05/12/09
Our personal health and the health of our planet are critical components of our well-being. Decisions made in the Co-op aisles can have lasting effects on both. From packaging to production, ingredients to meal planning, food choices are an everyday way to make a change for the better. Through this series, “Healthy People, Healthy Planet,” Co-op Dietitian Mary Choate and Sustainability Coordinator Emily Neuman offer their insights on how to choose wisely, for personal and planetary health, as you shop for food. Drawing upon the latest science, common sense, and practical experience, they hope to bring some clarity to the often-challenging subject of “what to eat.”
by Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D.
Co-op Food and Nutrition Educator
For the best quality nutrition, choose the least or simplest packaging. You’ll find the best quality and value in the produce aisle, dairy, meat, poultry, and seafood departments and in the bulk department’s grains, beans, and nuts. The simplest way to locate these foods is by “shopping the perimeter”— the outside walls of the store—where you’ll find the majority of fresh, unprocessed, package-free foods. Then it’s just a quick zip down the bulk foods aisle for the non-perishable whole foods found there.
Whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains, as well as low fat dairy and lean proteins consistently have been found to help prevent diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, and some cancers. According to the latest Dietary Guidelines, we need to eat more of these nutrient-dense whole foods. The guidelines state, “Nutrient-dense foods are those foods that provide substantial amounts of vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) and relatively few calories.” I would add that nutrient-dense foods are usually available without packaging or with minimal packaging, and they have short ingredient lists.
Foods that are packaged are often processed to remove important parts of the food, such as the fiber- and phytochemical-rich skins of fruits and vegetables, and the bran and germ of whole grains. Supplemental vitamins, minerals, and fiber are sometimes added back in, but study after study has shown that isolated vitamins and minerals don’t seem to have the beneficial effects of the nutrients in their natural state.
It is easy to fall into the marketing trap of nutrition claims and labels shouting out from food packages. Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food, suggests actually avoiding foods with nutrition claims on them. I would suggest that you look at a claim as a red flag and a reason to look further, and not as a signal that this is a food that is automatically a good choice.
For example, some brands of multi-grain bread list the first ingredient as enriched wheat flour. (If it doesn’t say “whole” before the word “wheat,” it isn’t whole.) This means the predominant flour is white flour.
Some Pop-tarts® now claim “One Serving of Whole Grain,” which while better than no whole grain, certainly pales by comparison with a 100 percent whole-grain English muffin or cereal which, if chosen carefully, would be free from the hydrogenated oils and multiple sugars in this highly processed breakfast pastry.
A claim of “0 grams trans fat” in an eye-catching starburst graphic on a package of instant soup needs a closer inspection of the ingredient list to reveal the hydrogenated oils present. The law allows a product containing less than ½ gram of trans fat to list it as “0” grams.
The popular “health waters” are simply fruit-colored sugar solutions with great ad copy on the label, insignificant vitamin levels, and a high price tag.
Coming in the next Co-op News: “Finding Nutritious Whole Foods in a Package.”
For more information:
- Learn all about whole grains at the Whole Grains Council website.
For more ideas on feeding your child healthfully:
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 106, Issue 1, Supplement, Pages 5-152 (January 2006) Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study II
- Books: Child Of Mine: Feeding With Love And Good Sense and Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family, by Ellyn Satter
Web:
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