If you go to the neighborhood supermarket , you have definitely seen this logo before.
And you probably think, “That’s the Healthier Choice! So this food be healthy for us!”
Naturally we all think like that as well, until I saw this and almost fell off my chair.
You must be kidding.
What is the Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS)?
It is a label that is awarded to food that are generally lower in fat, saturated fat, sugar, sodium, dietary fiber, calcium and wholegrains. Today, the Healthier Choice Symbol can be seen on about 4000 different food products, spanning across over 100 food categories such as convenience meals, sauces, beverages and breakfast cereals.
Then the food should be healthy or “the healthier choice” , isn’t it? Not really!
Because these are food product that is way better in the above criteria from the same food category.
Which means that they are relatively healthier than other food in the same category but that does not mean that they are healthy.
We cannot deny that the food below are “Health-IER”
- Higher in calcium
- Higher in wholegrains
- Lower in sodium
- Lower in sugar
- Lower in saturated fats
- Trans-fat free
Higher in Calcium
Higher in whole grains
Lower in Sodium
Lower in Sugar
Lower in Saturated fat
Trans-fat free
Are they healthy?
Do these “healthier choice” foods look healthy to you? What do these food have in common?
The above food examples are indeed “better” as compare to alternatives in the same food category.
However, they may not be “Healthy” because they may be
- High in calories – more calories in smaller amount of food
- Highly processed – means that they may have lost some nutritional value and less satiating (you will not feel as full from eating them)
- Addictive – makes you eat more (Nobody stops at one piece of potato chips)
- Loaded with sugar – and usually energy dense and hidden, means that you can be eating more than you can realise.
If you want to lose fat, lose weight and get healthier, food with the above criteria will make it a very difficult task. You can learn more about weight loss here: https://rawactivesg.com/fat-loss-training/keeping-in-shape-understanding-fat-loss-vs-weight-loss/
The Heathier Choice Symbol (HCS) is a quick method to help you make a better decision than the other food options in the same category which can be worse for you.
What you can learn from this article is that these may not be exactly healthy to you and you can make even healthier choices than HCS labeled food.
How you can make healthy food choices
These are the ways that you can look out for to make healthier food choices
- Low in processed ingredients such as palm oil and sugar
- High in fibre
- Plenty of minerals and vitamins
- Not pre-cooked/pre-processed
Can you guess what type of food these are? *Hint: They often don’t come with label*
Yes, they are whole, natural food. Food that come in their natural state – such as rice (vs rice cakes), vegetables (vs kale chips), fresh meat (vs bacon) etc.
But remember – Better is better than Perfect
Ultimately, it is about making better choices, so start by doing ONE of these steps today
- Have more whole, natural food
- Eat more vegetables and fruits
- Have more fibrous food such as bran in whole grains
- Eat less processed food
- If you have to eat processed food, make better choices – HFS can be used but learn how to read food labels (you will learn how to in the next article)
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