stLouISTKnowing Food Labels Pays Off
This is part one of a two-part story on reading food labels. Visit the OSF Newsroom later this month to read part two on reading nutrition facts. Carly Zimmer admits it’s tough. You walk down the grocery store aisle looking for healthy food. Bright colors and buzzwords like “organic” and “gluten free” catch your eye. The people who market food are good at what they do, after all. But Zimmer, a registered dietitian-nutritionist at OSF HealthCare, says when you master reading food labels, finding your desired morsels gets easier each shopping trip. “Label reading can be very tedious when you first start, especially when it goes along with a new diagnosis,” Zimmer says. “But once you get in a rhythm and know what foods are suitable for your diet, it does get easier. It becomes habit.” Front of the package Zimmer outlines some of the common words and phrases used to market food: Natural: Zimmer says the United States