Decoding Labels: What Are You Really Buying?

When shopping, most of us check the product's kosher certification and the price, but I ask you to check the ingredients too.

For example, I found two types of whole wheat pita bread for school sandwiches:

Both claim to be healthy whole wheat options, with a recommendation from the health ministry on one, yet—can you spot the differences:

Both packages state that the flour is 100% whole wheat.

In a future post about flour, I will explain why it's important to switch from white flour to whole wheat and generally, what the differences are between simple and complex carbohydrates and how they affect our children's behavior and our own.

Now, take a moment and read the ingredients.

Which of the two types would you put in your shopping cart?

The first type on the right contains whole wheat flour, water, sugar, salt, and yeast—great, if asked how to make pita, these are likely the ingredients we'd mention.

On the other hand, the second type contains the same ingredients plus white flour (!), added gluten (beyond the natural gluten protein in flour), emulsifier E471 (what is that?), flour treatment agent E920 (and what about that?!), enzymes (???)—all these additives are unnecessary, proving we can do without. Overall, why introduce things we don't recognize into our family’s bodies?

On the ingredients side of the left pita, it says "Possibly Healthy"—so, let's heed the advice and choose the first type on the right, without all the unnecessary additives.

Here are more examples, spot the differences:

• Condensed Milk, a staple for desserts.
  Naturally, opt for the one in the middle:

• Vanilla Extract, only the one in the middle truly contains vanilla.
  The others are filled with flavorings (which ones? why no details?), propylene glycol (what is it? is there a Hebrew name for it?), and the controversial food coloring E-150.

What's Wrong With These Additives?

Not all are harmful. Some can indeed be very harmful (carcinogenic, causing allergies, attention disorders, and more), while others are neutral and a few even beneficial.

I am not asking you to abstain. I am asking you not to put things into your body that we don't know.

There are apps, books, and articles on this topic.

In the beginning, I used to walk through the supermarket with my phone open to Google. Every ingredient I didn't recognize was searched and checked.

Gradually, I started recognizing and building my pantry from the finest quality raw materials, without all those ugly and unwanted additives.

• Oil Spray, now that we're ingredient experts—which spray would you choose?

• Sil'an—Noa, my lecturer in naturopathic nutrition (a name I'll likely mention many more times), talks extensively about this wonderful natural sweetener that contains antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals (mainly potassium and magnesium).
  Which sil'an do you think Noa meant?
  The one on the right - which is less than half dates and the rest sugar, water, and other additives?
  Or the one on the left, which is pure dates?

Coconut Milk, fantastic for creamy meat dishes or pareve desserts. Which coconut milk would you choose?

And one last example....

Juice – Drink Concentrate.

While both contain apple concentrate, the one on the right also contains other ingredients....

That's it for now.

Next time you go shopping, only choose items with ingredients you know and are comfortable putting in your body and your family's.

Wishing you good health,

Chen Tovi