Understanding food labels

 In 2011 Peter Petrou fitness was rated by WOMOW as one of the top 3 personal training businesses in Sydney Australia and my aim is to make top quality personal training affordable to everyone. Including exercise tips and advice, below is just one of numerous articles published online by me to help try to educate people when it comes to health and fitness.
 Most of my clients train to lose weight and the most obvious way of all is to watch what you eat (exercise is only half the picture, to make a real positive effect on body fat levels you need to have a sensible diet), you try to consume less fat, you try to eat at the right times etc. Which are some of the things I try to explain to my personal training clients on a regular basis. I want to try to help them and you understand why you eat so you don’t just eat to eat.
  “Nutrition is the science of food; the nutrients and the substances therein; their action, interaction and balance in relation to health & disease and the process by which the organism (i.e., the body) ingests, digests, absorbs, transports, utilizes & excretes food substances” quote; the council of food & nutrition of the American Medical Association.
The first thing I start with is to try to help my clients to understand what they are reading when they are reading food labels as I am sure all of you have on occasions read the food label on the packets, saw it said low fat and so decided it was okay to eat. Without realizing that food companies, knowing consumers don’t want to consume foods that are high in fat will get around labelling fatty substances as fat by calling them by their technical name.
This will be more than just one article as there are a few things to explain about reading food labels and today I will only get into the different names for fats & sugars that food manufacturers use to hide the total amount of fat in their product.

Other names for fats in food include-
Lard
Animal fat
Animal shortening
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Vegetable oil
Butterfat
Whole milk solids
Copha
Tallow
Chocolate
Chocolate chips
Shortening
Margarine
Cocoa butter

Other names for sugar in food include-
Succrose
Maltose
Lactose
Dextrose
Fructose
Glucose
Sorbitol
Mannitol
Glucose syrup
Corn syrup
Golden syrup
Disaccharides
Monosaccharides
Polysaccharides
Modified Carbohydrate
Raw sugar
Brown sugar
Molasses
Honey
Treacle
I hope you have found this article handy. Other topics I will get into in the future (provided enough interest is shown) will include- eating functional foods, Choosing your carbohydrates, Snacking, The GI index, Eating for performance, Keeping the fluids up, fad diets, bulking up, cutting up, Supplements, I will explain about Calories and Kilojoules and more.
Peter Petrou
Peter Petrou fitness Pty Ltd
www.peterpetroufitness.com.au
Remember: it’s easy to get fit, it’s just hard work