Are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer?

At the grocery store today a woman with two children captured my attention...

Picture this:

The younger of the two children stood in the cart, holding a headless chocolate Santa in one hand and a bright red jelly candy in the other, stomping on a box of Fruit Loops crying, "No! No! NO!" The other child, also holding a poor headless Santa and a jelly candy, sang "la, la, la" while pushing packaged items off the shelves... Delightful, no?!?

What then caught my attention was what accompanied the squashed box of Fruit Loops in this woman's cart... Processed, high in sodium and high in sugar foods. She had absolutly no fruits, no vegatbles, no real food...

This made me think... Here I was a healthy woman without children spending time reading labels and thinking about my health. Does this woman know that excess salts and sugars link to high blood pressure, hyper-ness, moodiness and/or ADD and ADHD in both adults and children? Did she read food labels? Did she compare and contrast the nutrients of any products? I needed to know, the Nutritionista in me took over and I followed this 'delightful' little family into the next aisle...

To my horror, this woman read nothing and checked nothing... She was what I refer to as a Grab & Go Buyer. Look at the shelf and grab whatever appeals to you... Grab & Go!

I wanted to SCREAM:

"But that's full of sugar, and that's full of salt, and that one has artificial sweeteners in it, and that pretty bright red one...that's food colouring and the oily one MSG!!!!!"

On my drive home all I could think of was how, when health is so important and illness and disease so high, can people ignore their bodies? What about their childrens bodies?

Has life become too quick and too busy that our health has fallen down the priority list?

Are Label Reading Shoppers turning into Grab & Go Buyers?

Is salt really the new flavour of choice?

This made me think of a newspaper article I read earlier in the week, Cheesy, eggy and packed with 510 calories.  It discussed food labeling and the need for nutritional facts on restaurant menus. If clearly labelled packaged foods at grocery stores aren't being read will nutritional facts on menus make a difference?

I think when you consider calorie and sodium intake, nutritional facts and labeling start to climb up the priority list.

Let me highlight some NuMBeRs...

Calories
Women, inactive: 1,600 to 1,800 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.
Men, inactive: 2,000 to 2,200 calories/day to maintain a healthy weight.

Sodium
Adults 19 to 50: 1,500 mg/day
Adults 51 to 70: 1,300 mg/day
Adults 71+:  1,200 mg/day

Here's the fun part:

A regular sized Greek Salad: 1,040 calories and 1,960 mg of sodium

That's 1/2 your daily calorie requirement and more than a day's worth of salt!

Breakfast Sandwich: 510 calories and 950 mg of sodium

Foot-long Meatball Marinara: 1,160 calories and 3,040 mg of sodium

Makes you think...

Let me rewind for a second...

Why is excess salt BAD for you?

High blood pressure is now an epidemic in our society

Premenstral symptoms may become more severe with too much salt

Water retention

children with high blood pressure are more likely to have learning/attention problems

What can YOU do?

Avoid High-Salt foods and look for Low Sodium and MSG Free foods:

• Salt from the shaker
• All smoked, salted meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, bologna and sausage
• Soy Sauce and MSG
• Brine-soaked foods, such as pickles and olives
• Canned and instant soups
• Salted and smoked fish and caviar
• Processed cheeses
• Condiments
• Ready-made gravies and sauces
• Snack foods such as chips, salted peanuts and popcorn, pretzels and crackers
• Any foods with added soda

You can also use online calorie counters and sodium food charts.

SO are you a Label Reading Shopper or a Grab & Go Buyer???