Chicken Chips are Healthy, Right? The Power of Reading Food Labels
I see you. You’re craving a healthy snack and reading food labels on different packages, trying to make a wise choice. Makes total sense. That’s what I do too. What you might not realize is that sneaky tactics are at play undermining your best efforts.
What do I mean? I read this article on Men’s Health about whether or not chicken chips are a good snack. Hmm. I was intrigued by the concept, so I read on.
The writer asks a dietician if the chips are healthy. The dietician basically says they are fine. Nothing exciting, they are a processed food, end of story.
Here are the ingredients as listed in the story:
chicken chips (natural chicken, tapioca flour, coconut oil, black pepper, garlic (powder),
seasoning blend [coconut palm sugar, tomato powder, sea salt, onion powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, natural smoke flavor, citric acid, spices]
When it comes to reading food labels, details matter:
Reading food labels is one of my major areas of focus with clients. What bothered me about the article was that the dietitian who was asked if the chips were healthy did not really address the complete ingredients list.
Maybe that wasn’t the purpose of the article, but perspectives like this completely ignore the fact that we don’t have a clue what we’re actually eating.
So I have to say, I’d follow up with this point: NATURAL MEANS NOTHING.
Case in point, the ingredients include “natural chicken”.
What is that? Does that mean there is “un-natural” chicken running around somewhere?
That’s the thing — the word natural doesn’t tell us a thing about this chicken. It sounds good though, right? So that’s going to maybe convince an innocent label-reader that it’s a good product choice.
Next up: Natural smoke flavor.
Hmm. Can you show me the way to the smoke flavor tree please? No? How about the large open field where the smoke flavors graze. Oh, really?
Here’s the thing about natural, folks: Real food either grows or has a mom. Period. The end.
Lastly, and this is one of my personal favorites, we have “spices”.
How many spices actually exist in this world? I don’t happen to be an expert on this, so I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say…probably more than 2. So which spices did they use?
It’s extremely easy to simply list what spices you put in something. Unless, of course, you have something to hide.
So what did the article miss in determining whether chicken chips are healthy?
We have NO idea what the actual ingredients in this product are, and it’s most likely a concoction of synthetic items that might not be doing us any favors for our health.
Which would be okay, except that since they are using the “natural” label, they are probably trying to convince us that it must be good for us.
So if a product contains items that aren’t real food — or in other words, that are created by science — that’s okay!! Most of us are not going to live lives 100% avoiding synthetic stuff in this day and age.
The point, however, is that it’s not cool for companies to hide what we are eating. Just tell us.
Reading food labels is easier when the ingredients are transparent (the way it should be)
Feast your eyes on this food label for example:
Sweet Potatoes, Organic Coconut Oil, Sea Salt
Any questions? Kinda not, right? Okay, you say. How about something a little more complicated? Surely not all processed foods can be this simple. Sure. How ‘bout this one:
Ingredients:
Organic Sprouted Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Malted Barley, Organic Sprouted Rye, Organic Sprouted Barley, Organic Sprouted Oats, Organic Sprouted Millet, Organic Sprouted Corn, Organic Sprouted Brown Rice, Fresh Yeast, Organic Wheat Gluten, Sea Salt.
EVERY SINGLE ONE of those ingredients is identifiable. At least if you know what you’re eating, you can make informed choices.
Curious as to what those products are? Drop me a line and I’ll tell you!