“Health Food vs. Healthy Food”

Lecture from Health Expo ‘07

   Jeff  Novick was Director of Nutrition at Pritikin Center in Florida before working with Dr. John McDougall’s program inCalifornia. With five degrees, Novick taught nutrition on a college level, and was employed with Kraft Foods. His lecture focused on the deception of product packaging.

   Novick reported that health/low fat foods entered public consciousness in the late 70’s and early 80’s. However, since that time obesity has doubled in adults in theU.S.There are more overweight 6-11 year olds than ever before. He questions how this has happened with so many ‘health foods’ flooding theU.S.market. His answer – ‘There’s myth regarding health foods.’ Too many so called ‘health foods’ are just not healthy! Label reading is extremely important.

His Rules and Guidelines:

1. Never believe anything on the front of a package.
2. Always read nutrition facts on label and the ingredients list.
3. Check serving size.
4. Check amount of servings per box.
5. Check the calories per serving.
6. Check the calories from fat.

                        Manufacturers do not list the percentage of calories from fat (CFF). To

                  determine the % you divide the CFF by the total number of calories listed.

                  Product should have 20% or less CFF. e.g. If serving has 150 CAL and 50 are from fat,

                  you divide 150 into 50. Your product would have 33% of its calories from fat!!

7. Sodium

Daily goal should be less than 1500 mg. A healthy person needs only 250 Mg/daily.

1 tsp salt = 2200 mg.

Only 10% of salt comes from shaker. Most salt intake from processed and restaurant foods. Salt is hidden in food supply.

In reading labels, the ratio of sodium to calories should be 1:1. If product has 50CAL, sodium should be 50 grams or less; more than 50, not good!

8. Fats

Check the type of fats listed. A healthy product has no saturated, hydrogenated or tropical oils. That includes lard, butter, coconut oil, coconut butter, palm oils, margarine, chocolate and whole and part skim dairy products.

Polyunsaturated fats include safflower, soybean, corn and sesame oils.

Monosaturated fats include olive and canola oils.

All oils, even the good ones, are dense with fat.

9. Sugars

Limit the use of sugars. He recommends no more than 2 T daily.

Sugar products include: corn syrup, rice and maple syrups, molasses, honey, malted barley, any term ending in ‘ol’ – such as sorbitol or maltitrol or ‘ose’ – dextrose, fructose. Important to read ingredients list. Ingredients on packaging are listed according to weight in descending order. So if a sugar is posted at list end, it has a lower content in product. He recommends that sugars should not be among the first three ingredients.

10. Refined Carbohydrates

Stay away from unrefined carbs – the white flours and white rice.

Grains should be listed as ‘whole’ grains. He noted that a product might say ‘organic unbleached semolina’, and one would think, ‘That sounds healthy.’ However, in reality that’s white flour. So look for ‘whole’. Bread should have as its first ingredient ‘whole wheat’ or ‘stone ground whole wheat’.

Unhealthy Products Noted During his Lecture:                Healthy Products:

Spectrum Organic Shortening                                                      Kavli Crackers           

Certain tofutti products – full of saturated fat                         Tabatchnik Pea Soup

Pam Spray (he explained the “Pam Scam”)                                 Eden Rice and Beans Soup

Hain’s Veggie Broth                                                                      Walnut Acres Sauce

Mazola Cooking Spray                                                             Pritikin 6 Grain Cereal