How to Understand What Healthy Food Really Is

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) — We see the labels and hear about the benefits, Organic, all natural and gluten free, but what do they really mean?

“You know you look for organic if you look for something healthy, and you look for gluten free if you’re looking for something without gluten or all natural, those are tag lines, that consumers look for,” says Author Alison Beuhler.

She says navigating the world of labels can be confusing, because they may only seem healthy.

“Something can be organic and full of sugar, something can be gluten free and full of preservatives,” she says.

She says the key to buying the best foods is knowing the ingredients, if you can’t pronounce it, don’t buy it. And it’s important to also know where your food comes from.

” Free range eggs, and that could mean chickens walk around in a little 8 by 8 square foot pad, which is not exactly the same thing as walking around out on a farm, where they’re getting all the omega 3’s from the grass and the insects, and that translates into your food,” Beuhler says.

If you think eating right is too much dough, Beuhler says it’s worth the cost.

” It is more expensive, organic is defiantly more expensive, but you’ll pay it now or later. You pay it now on your food or you pay it later at the hospital, and that’s your choice,” she adds.

Beuhler says many farmer’s markets are now taking EBT cards so that more people can have access to healthier foods.