Ignore the product label and head straight for the ingredients list!

Ok so this series of “How bad is it?” has been interesting and a little frustrating for me.  You can find just about anything on the Internet, including just what ever it is you want to hear.  This week I decided to research whole grains, triggered by my search on good carbs, bad carbs.  I used to think that complex meant good and simple meant bad, well if you read my article last week you found that both categories have both good and bad.  So how in the heck do you make your grocery list and keep your sanity without spending hours and hours at the store?  Ignore the front labels and looking at the back.  The nutrition label is helpful but the real test is the ingredients. 

The less ingredients the better if you are looking at something like bread.  You hear a lot about whole wheat bread, so I switched to whole wheat bread.  Then that wasn’t the right stuff it needed to be 100% whole wheat. Now I am finding even that is not truly the best.  Here are some examples:

This is ingredient list on a package of 100% Whole Wheat bread

“Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Gluten, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Yeast, Cracked Wheat, Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Molasses, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Ethoxylated Mono-And Diglycerides Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Honey, Soy Lecithin.”

Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the partially hydrogenated and we hear about fructose corn syrup all the time and these are towards the beginning of the list meaning they have a greater proportion in the mix.  If you are unaware of ingredient lists here is a little tip.  The ingredients are listed in order of proportion so whole wheat flour has the largest measurement of all the ingredients listed and soy lecithin has the least.

So another option, this loaf of bread said Natural 100% Whole Wheat:

“Unbleached Enriched Wheat Flour [Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Reduced Iron, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Folic Acid], Water, Cracked Wheat, Whole Wheat Flour, Yeast, Barley, Honey, Fructose, Wheat Gluten, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Wheat Bran, Malt, Ethoxylated Mono-And Diglycerides, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Caramel Color, Whey, Soy Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Soy Lecithin, Nonfat Milk.”

Here is the third example:

Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Salt, Calcium Propionate

Catch the differences? I bet you did. They both have partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup...junk.  But if you didn’t notice the second option says unbleached enriched wheat flour, this is borderline fake whole wheat bread.  The difference with this and white bread is probably one process, which removes the color.  I don’t know that for a fact I did not research the process.  The third example is the best for three reasons that come to my mind immediately.  There is only 5 ingredients, I know what they are and how to pronounce them and it does not include the partially hydrogenated and fructose.  Had we just looked at the product label we likely would have migrated towards the Natural 100% Whole Wheat, right?

Next time you go to the store check out the ingredients…if you don’t know what they are your body doesn’t either.