Start With the Ingredients, Not the Slogans
The front of a package is marketing. The back is information. The most crucial part of any food label is the ingredients list. In India, as in most places, ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. This means the first two or three ingredients make
up the bulk of the product. A good rule of thumb is to look for whole foods you recognise at the top of the list. If sugar, maida (refined flour), or various oils are among the first ingredients, it’s a sign that the product is highly processed, regardless of what the flashy claims on the front may say. A shorter ingredients list is often better, as it usually indicates less processing and fewer chemical additives.
Serving Size: The Sneaky Detail
The nutrition information on a label—calories, fat, sugar—is not for the entire packet. It's based on a single serving size, which is often unrealistically small. For instance, a small bag of chips might contain three servings. If you eat the whole bag, you need to multiply all the nutritional values by three. Always check the serving size and the number of servings per container first. This single step provides crucial context for the rest of the numbers on the panel and prevents you from consuming double or triple the calories, sugar, and salt you intended.
The Big Three: Sugar, Salt, and Saturated Fat
Instead of tracking every single nutrient, focus on the ones most linked to lifestyle diseases. Pay close attention to added sugars, sodium (salt), and saturated or trans fats. FSSAI regulations are cracking down on misleading claims, but sugar can still be hidden under names like corn syrup, dextrose, or fructose. Similarly, look for 'partially hydrogenated oil' in the ingredients list, which indicates the presence of trans fats even if the label claims 0g per serving. For sodium, aim to keep your total daily intake below 2,300 mg. Choosing products with lower amounts of these three components is a simple and effective way to make a healthier choice without complex calculations.
Using the % Daily Value (DV) as a Quick Guide
The Percent Daily Value (%DV) column tells you how much a nutrient in a single serving contributes to a total daily diet. It’s a handy tool for a quick assessment. As a general guide, 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low, while 20% DV or more is high. You can use this to your advantage. Want more fibre? Look for products with a high %DV for dietary fibre. Trying to cut down on sodium or saturated fat? Choose foods with a low %DV for those nutrients. You don’t need to make the percentages add up to 100; just use it as a simple 'low' or 'high' indicator to compare products quickly.
Beware of Misleading 'Health Halos'
Words like 'multigrain,' 'baked, not fried,' 'natural,' or 'healthy' can create a 'health halo' around a product that might not deserve it. Recent action by FSSAI has highlighted that many brands use such terms in a misleading way. A 'multigrain' biscuit may still have refined flour as its main ingredient, and a 'baked' snack can be high in sodium and refined carbs. Similarly, a 'cholesterol-free' claim on a vegetable oil is redundant, as plant-based products do not contain cholesterol naturally. Always rely on the nutrition panel and ingredients list, not the marketing slogans on the front.
