Cooking corner: How to understand your food labels

Helen Smith

Guest columnist

Do you look at a package of food and decide that the picture on the front looks good, and buy it for that reason? Or do you read the ingredients list and the nutrition information, and then decide if the product is a healthy choice to buy?

If you said yes to the second question, you are a savvy shopper. But be sure you understand what you are reading.

Ingredient items are listed in order of the quantity the product contains. For instance, listed here is a natural cracker called Wheatines. Ingredients: Organic Whole Wheat flour, Organic Wheat flour, Honey, Expeller Pressed High Oleic Safflower Oil, Leavening (Baking Soda, Cream of Tartar, Yeast), Sea Salt, Oat Bran, Barley Malt.

The first ingredient listed means the crackers contain the most of this item by weight and content; in this, case flour.

In descending order, the ingredients are listed until the last item — in this case, barley malt — which means the crackers have the least amount of this product as an ingredient by weight and content.

If a product lists sugar or corn syrup as its first, second or third ingredient, that should be a signal to pass on the product completely. Another tip is if the ingredients list on a package is so long and in type so small you need glasses to read it, then you can bet it contains a lot of chemicals and artificial preservatives that only benefit the manufacturer for shelf life, and it won’t be of nutritional benefit to your body.

The fewer ingredients listed on a label, the better. By law, all manufacturers must list the ingredients on their products if it contains more than one item. Products made “in-store” do not require labels, nor do products made by small manufacturers or those contained in a very small package.

Some other items not requiring label lists are coffee, alcohol and spices; items that do not offer much in the way of nutrients. Read a label each time you buy a product, regardless of how many times you have bought that product, as manufacturers can change ingredients and information.

A tipoff is if a manufacturer changes the packaging, the ingredients may also be changed. Always read each purchase each time for your health’s sake.

To the detriment of our health, potentially harmful food additives can cause you to be at great risk just to give the food processors better benefits. For each individual, regardless of age, you have to ask just how much exposure to a carcinogen does it take to cause harm to a gene or to cause cancer to develop?

There is no definite answer to this question, as each of us is different. Read labels carefully and work to keep the food you buy void of chemicals and artificial ingredients.

Also note after the ingredients list, many times a packaged product may use the term, “manufactured on shared equipment with” and go on to list food items that, for many people, could cause serious allergic reactions. Buyer beware!

Here’s a recipe using healthy ingredients:

Lemon or lime oil shortbread-style cookie with variations

Using pure oil of lemon or pure lime oil (no extract or flavoring) gives these crispy cookies a delightful tang. Try this one-bowl, quick-and-easy recipe to mix and bake that is cholesterol free, trans-fat free, with no egg or dairy or leavening. The oil is available at Harbor Greens in Gig Harbor, and the Earth Balance is available at QFC or Fred Meyer.

INGREDIENTS 1 cup unbleached flour 1/4 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup evaporated cane juice crystals 1/2 cup Earth Balance spread, softened 3/4 teaspoon pure lemon or lime oil

TECHNIQUE Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Have a 9-inch square pan ready. Do not oil. Set aside. In a 2-quart bowl, place flours and crystals. Whisk to blend. Add softened spread and oil of choice. Mix by hand until the batter begins to stick together. It will be slightly crumbly. Scrape the crumbly mixture into pan and pat evenly using a tamper tool, or a heavy bottomed glass that is lightly dusted with flour. Cut into 25 equal squares before baking. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven. Remove the pan from the oven and insert a knife into each cut to be sure they are all separated. Cool in the pan, then move cookies to a cooling rack or paper towel. Pack cool cookies in an airtight container. After two days, store any leftovers in the refrigerator for best freshness. For crispier cookies, turn off the oven and leave them inside until the oven is cold. Yield — 25 squares

VARIATIONS Using the above recipe, replace the brown rice flour with almond meal, eliminate the lemon oil and replace with 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Before scoring the cookies, sprinkle one-half cup of finely chopped dry toasted almonds over the dough, pressing gently into the cookies, and then cut into squares. Bake as above. Using the above recipe, use 2 teaspoons of vanilla in place of the lemon oil and add one-half cup of finely chopped dry toasted pecans to the mix. Follow the remainder of the recipe.

Reach Healthy Cook Helen Smith at thecook@thehealthycook.com. This recipe is supplemental to and property of “Cooking Healthier with the Healthy Cook” by Helen Taylor Smith. Permission is granted for personal use only. No commercial use permitted without