RNS: Heart-smart shopping cart, February 2008
TIME: 3:42
URL: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2008/hmfoodlabels.htm
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
How to be heart smart with your shopping cart
U-M dietitian offers advice on navigating nutrition claims and food labels
Suggested lead: What you eat can have huge impact on your heart health. That’s why nutrition experts at the University of Michigan Health System say it’s important to read labels before putting food in your grocery cart. Here’s Andi McDonnell with more.
It’s not always easy to decipher what food is – and isn’t – considered healthy as you steer through grocery store aisles filled with a potpourri of products, labels and claims. And it can be even more confusing when it comes to finding foods to help manage your heart health.
But Cathy Fitzgerald, a registered dietitian with MFit, the University of Michigan Health System’s health promotion division, says that taking the time learn how to incorporate a heart-healthy diet into your lifestyle can pay off by improving your cholesterol, blood pressure and weight.
“Heart-healthy eating is making good choices. A basic way to do that is to use the government approved food guide pyramid because that emphasizes the food groups that we need to think about including in a heart-healthy diet. And more specifically, what you want to do is work to include more whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, low-fat and no-fat dairy products, as well as lean protein sources.”
To help, she offers these tips on what to look for when it comes to heart-healthy eating:
- First, look for the claim: “May reduce the risk of heart disease.” When you see this on a label, you can be assured that you are buying a beneficial product. A company can only make this claim with FDA approval.
- Next, look for nutrient content claims such as “high,” “low” or “reduced.” Fitzgerald explains…
” The second kind type of claim is called a nutrient content claim and it uses words like ‘low in fat,’ ‘high in fiber,’ ‘excellent source of fiber,’ ‘low fat, reduced fat;’ those are all telling you about specific nutrients within this product and those type of claims you can check out on the nutrition facts panel on the side or the bottom of the product to get the rest of the story about those things. So look for the health claims first, the ones that include ‘may reduce the risk of heart disease,’ and secondly look for the nutrient content claims, the high end, low end, reduced or low fat type of products.”
- Then there are foods with fiber to be on the look-out for. Fitzgerald says beans, whole grain breads and cereals, oatmeal, and products with barley in them are all considered good sources of fiber.
- Also, don’t forget Omega-3 fats. Omega-3 fats are considered healthy fats to eat, and research has shown that they can benefit the heart. Fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel and trout are good sources of omega fats and are low in saturated fat.
- Finally, make sure you have products with sterols and stanols in your grocery cart. Sterols and stanols can help reduce cholesterol. Fitzgerald tells us…
” Plant sterols and stanols are useful substances that have been extracted from plants and added to products like margarines, salad dressings and now they’re even coming in chews and products that are more liquid that you can drink and take in quickly. But the hard part with these is they’re not always labeled clearly so you have to go and look for them in the store.”
And Fitzgerald offers this final piece of advice…
“Reading the labels is a great way to be guided toward healthier choices for your heart and for general reduction of all chronic diseases today. So think about using the front of the package as well as the nutrition facts panel on the back. Health claims on the front are really important; they’re proven scientific evidence that that product will help you reduce heart disease, if that’s what it says. And those nutrient content claims that say things like ‘low fat’ or ‘high fiber’ are believable; they’re backed up by government definitions and you can count on those to guide you as well to heart-healthy products.”
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News. |
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