Low Cholesterol - Learn to Read
Labels
Food labels are something you will have to pay attention to when
you go shopping.
Manufacturers of foods in South Africa are required to provide
accurate information about their food products. You can find this information on food labels, and most food
labels today are made to be easy-to-read.
There are several elements to a food label:
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Information about the
Manufacturer. Most food packages will tell you
where a food was made, who imported it (if the food was imported) and how you can contact the
manufacturer or importer. This information can be useful if you want to contact someone about the
exact food value content of a product or if you a question or compliant about the food.
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Logos, Advertisements, and
Claims. Many foods will have logos or claims on
the front of the label or food package. These may contain terms such as “light,” “the best,”
“healthy,” “natural,” and others. These will likely catch your attention when you are looking for
heart-healthy choices. However, you should never take this information at face value. Treat these
claims as advertisements rather than as facts. Many foods that claim to be “low-cholesterol” are
full of saturated fats that are terrible for your cholesterol level. Many foods that claim to be
“low fat” still have plenty of fat or have small portion sizes.
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Ingredients. This is where the information starts to get really useful. Almost all packaged
products have lists of ingredients used in the making of the product. To know how really healthy a food
is, you should start here. Ingredients are listed in order of amount. That means that if a label reads
“peanut butter, sugar, chocolate solids”, the product contains mostly peanut butter, with less sugar
than peanut butter, and less chocolate solids than sugar. Ingredients listed in brackets are
ingredients that are part of something else or contain more information about an ingredient.
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