MORE ABOUT NUTRITION LABELS
We want foods to be high in fiber, vitamins, calcium, and iron. We want foods to be low in fat, cholesterol and sodium.
All nutrition labels include an ingredients list. The list goes in order from largest quantity to smallest.
Someone with food allergies should be extra mindful of this list because it is where all the allergens are located.
Companies try to trick people by listing ingredients multiple times, but with different names. Sugar is a great example of this; there are over 200 hundred different types of sugar listed on food labels. Some examples are corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, agave nectar and almost any word ending is -ose.
SCREEN TIME
A significant reason Americans are more overweight than ever before is because we are spending more and more time in front of a screen and less time doing physical activity. The average preschooler is spending over 32 hours in front of a screen every week. Screen time is anything that has you looking at a screen, so TV, movies, video games, computer time, even texting or playing on your phone count as screen time. Everybody should be limiting screentime to no more than 2 hours a day. Too much screen time can lead to obesity, irregular sleep problems, impaired academic performance and violence.
Aside from the lack of physical activity that comes from screen time, it also exposes people to advertisements for unhealthy food. The average child is exposed to over 4,000 ads for food every year. Of those ads 98% are for foods that are high in either fat, sugar or sodium. These ads are often misleading and boast that they are high in vitamins and minerals giving people a false sense of their nutritional quality.