Elisa Zied MS · RD · CDN

The ZIED GUIDE ™

At the end of the day, most people just want to be happy and healthy. I’m here to help you steer your own course towards a more fulfilled, enriched, delicious, and fit life.

– Elisa Zied

Do You “Read It Before You Eat It?”

August 29, 2010

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I recently spoke with my friend and colleague Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, author of the new book Read It Before You Eat It (Plume) which just hit book store shelves. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation….

What inspired you to write a book about food labels?

Reading food labels is often confusing and sometimes downright misleading. So many of my patients say “I wish I could take you shopping with me,” so I decided this was the best way to accomplish this task! Not even one brand or manufacturer is mentioned within its over 250 pages, so my book allows consumers to be able to shop in any food store anywhere.

What’s the biggest misconception people have when it comes to reading food labels?

Although you shouldn’t feel like you need to be dietitian or mathematician to buy food, or feel as though a supermarket is more like a library, a big problem is that so many of us rush when we go food shopping. We don’t take the time to read labels and compare products. We spend more time buying shoes and clothes – items that go ON our bodies instead of IN our bodies. Consumers need to learn how to not be fooled by the flashy front of the package and instead, flip the box or bag over to check the facts…the Nutrition Facts Panel…to see what’s really in the food they spend their money on.

What about food labels is the most confusing to consumers?

I have a whole chapter dedicated to “Tricky Terms” in my book because consumers are often mislead by words like “organic,” “natural,” and “local,” as well as labels that boast “sugar-free” or  “fat-free.” These foods aren’t always quite what they seem!

Even the listing for “serving size” can be misleading. For example, a serving may appear as “1/2 muffin” or “1 cookie,” but to most of us, that portion is unrealistic and many people don’t realize that you have to multiply the numbers on the label by the amount of servings you actually eat.

Another confusing label term is the one listed as “zero grams of trans fat;” many of these foods are actually allowed to contain up to 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. “Zero” should really mean zero. If consumers see hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats listed on the package’s ingredient list, that means the product actually contains some trans fats. I could go on and on about these claims…

What should people expect to get out of your book? How should they best use it?

My book breaks down the lingo to show consumers how to sidestep tricky marketing ploys and shop smart. It’s reader-friendly and gives an aisle-by-aisle guide to picking the best foods in each section of any grocery store. It makes great company at the supermarket; readers will find that food shopping will never be the same!

About the Author:

Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN is the owner of BTD Nutrition Consultants with offices in Long Island and in New York City. She was a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and is a regular guest on national television and radio programs and in the press. For more about Bonnie and her work, visit www.bonnietaubdix.com.

Would you like to WIN a copy of Read It Before You Eat It? You can enter for a chance to win by doing one or more of the following; ONE winner will be selected at random on September 7th, 2010.

1) Post a comment on this blog post (please provide your email address as well);

2) Follow me on twitter at @elisazied; if you’re already on twitter, send me a nutrition question you’d like answered in a future blog post or ZIED GUIDE newsletter. And/or you can RT any post that mentions this giveaway.

3) If you’re on Facebook, post a question or comment to me at http://bit.ly/3XQucL. And/or you can repost any of my posts on Facebook that mention this giveaway.

Thank you, and good luck!! :)

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the author’s publisher. My book Nutrition At Your Fingertips is also mentioned as a reference, and I am thanked in the acknowledgements section of the book.

category: Blog, General Info, Nutrition tags: , , ,

6 Comments

Leave a Comment

Keegan
August 30, 2010

I find I spend too much time looking at nutrition labels. I’m always looking for organic, serving size, ingredient list, ect.. and I’m doing this for one product such as granola. I just get frustrated with too many choices and the burden of weighing out which has the best nutritional value. I do wish the NuVal system would be incorporated at my grocery stores in Texas. It would save a lot of time.

Lauren Slayton
August 30, 2010

Sadly, sounds like a much-needed book. Although, I guess another option is to eat fewer foods with labels and thus avoid all the associated confusion.

alyssa
August 31, 2010

Bet a lot of people will find this book useful, there is certainly a lot of confusion around food labels.

Megan Skinner
August 31, 2010

I think this book sounds like a great guide for consumers to have with them while they shop. Food marketers always seem to come up with the trickiest wording in order to make their product seem healthier than it is, so hopefully this book will help to educate people in terms of what all those misleading claims mean. Great giveaway!

Alysa Bajenaru, RD, CPT
August 31, 2010

I write about this topic on my blog each week and call it “Supermarket Swap”. I am excited to check out this new book!

Joan Metzner, RD, LDN, CDE
September 5, 2010

I teach label reading as a component of a diabetes self management education program. I can tell you that participants are very confused about labels, and with good reason. My pet peeve is the claim that a food is made with whole grain, but often it is a very tiny amount such as 8 grams, about a third of an ounce!

Thanks for helping to educate consumers about good nutrition!

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