What are cosidered "red flag" ingredients when I look at the nutrition labels to live a healthy lifestyle?

Question

What amount is too much of Saturated Fat?
What amount is too much of Trans-Fat? Non at all, right?

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Answer 1

To figure total saturated fat calories a day take 10% times 2000 calories; 200 divided by 9 for grams of fat. in this example 22 grams of saturated fat.
A heart healthy diet consists of the following:

Consuming 10% of the day's total calories from saturated fat.
Consuming 30% or less of the day's total calories from fat.
Limiting sodium intake to 2400 mg a day.
Comsuming just enough calories to achieve or maintain a healthy weight and reduce your blood cholesterol level.


A reasonable number of calories for someone differs from person to person. More details about you would help me ascertain your ideal caloric intake. Things like weight, height, age, activity level and sex (m) or (f) should just about do it. Feel free to e-mail me with that information and I can figure whether or not you should lose or gain weight.

Answer 2

I have a question for you. When you say "healthy" lifestyle are you talking about the standard "I want to feel healthy" type of a diet or "I want only natural healthy food items"? This could be a simple answer or I could go on all day mentioning all artificial ingredients and any non-organically gown foods.

Everyone has their own definition of healthy from the common to the obsessive. Since I will assume that you just want to get a bit healthier and a bit fitter so that you can live a better life, I'll list the most standard objectionable ingredients.

Trans-fat: as you have already mentioned you should be having zero trans fats.

Saturated fats: you should try to keep to 20 grams or less a day. It really doesn't matter if the food item has 1 gram or 20, just remember that 20 is your limit so you should choose wisely.

Mono & poly unsaturated fats: The jury is out on how much of each one you should have daily. Both are good for you so most people don't restrict their levels but remember that they can sometimes be high in calories.

Partially Hydrogenated Oils: Most of these are listed as trans fats in products but sometime it won't be. They are basically the same thing so stay away.

High fructose corn syrup: The devil may wear Prada but we also know that he concocted this disaster of a food. It's basically a cheaper version of sugar which is chemically altered to provide the densest sweetness possible. It packs a whallop of calories with no nutritional value at all.

Carragean: This is a thickener made from Irish moss (sea weed). Most people that are eating better just to lose a few pounds don't care whether or not this is in their food but those who are real "health nuts" would never eat anything with carragean due to possible link to cancer. It's used in ice creams, coffee creamer, puddings--it's used like a corn starch to thicken but has less calories. I don't avoid it but some will.

Artificial Flavors & Colors: Again this is a personal preferance. They are hard to avoid in foods but if you are looking for real healthy then be on the look out for these.

Sodium: Many foods have added salt to give them flavor. Now if you are eating chips or pretzels you should expect to find a high sodium level and that's acceptable but if you are looking at soups and it has a high salt content stay away. Use your daily sodium allotment for something that tastes salty, not just salt added for taste.

MSG: More and more products are having MSG added to them for cheap flavorings. Not only is it high in sodium but many people have different degrees of allergic reastions to it. Anything from a headache to breathing issues. Years ago they use to call the reaction to MSG a "Chinese Headache" since at the time usually only Chinese food had MSG added. Now however it's used in almost everything and a little here and there can add up.

BHA, BHT, Nitrites & Nitrates: These are preservatives and can be harmful-they have been related to cancer. Sometimes you can't avoid them, so you have to decide when it's ok.

Artificial Sweeteners: Again this is a personal choice. I do what ever I can to stay away from them but every once n a while you want a low calorie drink and more than likely it will have an artificial sweetener.

I could probably go on and on but I think that I hit the major ones above. What you decide to eat will really be your choice and you could get fanatical about it so start with the above and advoid when you can--when you can't-it's probably not that big of a deal since the air that you breathe is probably crappy anyway.
So choose your poisons well.

Answer 3

the five foods u should totally avoid
SUGAR--- When you eat or drink sugar the sudden energy surge your body experiences is followed by an insulin surge that rapidly drops the blood sugar level—so two hours later, you feel famished and tired
High fructose corn syrup---- it alters ur appetitte and makes u feel u r not full even wen u r making u eat more...
Enriched wheat flour (white flour)--- it is actually poor in nutrition because most of the grain's nutrients are destroyed in the refining process. look for whole grains on the label
Saturated fat---Found mainly in animal products avoid saturated fats that are solid at room temperature, like lard.
Hydrogenated oil---To increase their shelf life, certain oils are hydrogenated. This process turns the oil into a solid at room temperature, but it also makes the oil unhealthy. "This stuff is great because it doesn't go bad, but it's very bad for you," . Avoid food products that contain hydrogenated oil, often labeled as "trans fats."

trust me if u rduce or better if u eliminate these 5 things ull be much more healthy and live longer... BEST OF LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

I avoid foods with these ingredients: Corn syrup high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, enriched flour (especially if it's the first ingredient) artifical, and any word that looks as though man made it in a lab, not God in nature. There is no okay level of trans or saturated fat for me. Also, if the list says there is no trans fat, look at the ingredients, as companies can legally list a food as having no trans fat if ther is less than 0.5%. To me, that is still 0.5% too much.

I don't normally watch Oprah, but this one interested me, though I didn't hear much more than what I already knew. http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml
However, I thought some of the visuals were interesting.

Answer 5

CORN SYRUP!
If it has corn syrup it's probably of little nutritional value.

This excludes about half of the available food in America!