It is difficult to buy healthy: between the infoxication of the labels with huge letters LIGHT, ECO or BIO, we lose the notion of the concept of healthy. And we also lose some economic health along the way, since all these words automatically surround the products with a halo of “gourmet” that considerably increases their price. But is it true that more expensive products are of better quality? Does eating expensive mean eating healthy?

We give you some tips:

1.- The key make a good shopping list at home.
If we arrive hungry or not very lucid, we will buy worse: more quantity and less nutritional quality. To make a good shopping list, we can start from planning a weekly menu and the intention to fulfill it (and the possibility of cooking it). What is off the list does not exist.

2.- It is important to know how to read the labels.
It is not a waste of time, but a great investment in health. A good rule of thumb for interpreting labels is that the shorter, the healthier and more natural the product is and the fewer additives it contains. Another important thing is to read the components in an orderly way from top to bottom, since the main ingredient always comes first. For example, if sugar appears first, that means that the product should not be part of the daily diet. In general, all fresh products have a higher nutritional quality.

3.- Know, even by sight, the additives.
They are part of our daily diet, and can be of natural origin (animal or vegetable) or chemical. The way to name additives on nutrition labels is the letter E + a code. And that they are very common consumption does not mean that some are not dangerous when ingested in large quantities. For example, known as glucose syrup, glucose fructose syrup, corn syrup or high fructose syrup, whose function is to enhance the sweet taste. Its production is very cheap and that is why we can find it in a multitude of foods, from yogurts of different flavors, ice cream, sweets, pastries, even in soft drinks, alcohol and cereals. A very recurrent consumption of this additive can influence the appearance of diseases such as diabetes or obesity.

4. Beware of zero sugars.
Many people think that acquiring habits such as drinking coffee with saccharin or drinking Coca-Cola zero is more than enough to be healthier. Calories are not indirectly proportional to the nutritional value of a food. For example, almost all sugar-free (and calorie-free) sodas contain aspartame, an additive to cause sweet taste that has become very fashionable lately. However, there are several studies that show that aspartame can influence the work of the nervous system or cause cancer. In addition, we must bear in mind that re-educating eating habits involves not only knowing what to eat but also when to eat it. The body needs all the nutrients to function properly, but they will have to be distributed taking into account our activity throughout the day: fats, sugars and carbohydrates preferably in the morning and proteins at night.

Finally, a reflection on the light. Because normally, although it is true that these products have fewer calories than their equanimous in the original version, they tend to be little or not at all nutritious. In these variations, fat is replaced by chemicals and sugar by unhealthy sweeteners. They produce little satiety and sometimes harm the metabolic system, which is crying out for fewer processed products, even if they are less light.