Food without a label?
Good day, I’m going through the lectures and there is a lot of good information, but what I am having a harder time understanding is what is meant by food without a label? I try my best to eat good, healthy food and to cook at home as much as possible, but everything that I get has a nutrition label on it, unless I go to the farmer’s market (and it’s winter right now here in Sask). It is useful to know what is listed on it, but it is still a label. I can also go to Burger King and buy a burger that doesn’t come with a label attached, so I’m just a little confused.
Thanks for your help.
Hi Allie,
Thanks for your question. We’re happy to hear that you’re enjoying the Course.
When we’re talking about nutrition, we try to set simple goals that are pretty much unattainable. Just for clarity, we describe that as aiming for Mt. Everest. If our goals are high, we always have room to improve. So when we say, “avoid food with labels”, we are simply saying that fresh, local food is always going to be your best choice.
We want people to obviously avoid fast foods, convenience foods and the vast array of highly processed foods, which is where you will find labels filled with incomprehensible ingredients, oftentimes with the word “healthy” on the packaging. We want people to make the best decisions they can make within the circumstances that they find themselves. As we noted, economic situation, geographical location and seasonal implications all come into play.
When a nutritionist says, do all your shopping on the perimeter of the supermarket and stay out of the aisles, they are simply saying the perimeter is where you will find fresh produce, etc. The fact that you can actually find horrible food in the perimeter and excellent food in the aisles takes away from the simple concept that they are trying to convey. From the way you worded your question, it appears you are not confused at all because you picked out those types of examples. So in conclusion, you are being just a little too literal in the conceptional meaning. Trust yourself. It sounds like you’re probably doing fine!