What kind of nutrients do you look for when selecting food?

I'm not sure where you are, but nutritional labels in the US don't show the percentage of saturated fat to mono-unsaturated fat to poly-unsaturated fat, nor do they show omega-3 fatty acids. Nor is the glycemic index listed for the carbs., though it would be fabulous if they were. So basically, I'll check the calories and fat, maybe, but mostly I just read the ingredients panel. The more I learn about food, the more I see how the standard US nutritional labeling is not only insufficient, but can be downright misleading.

I also check to make sure there is little or no food coloring- most "food grade" coloring agents in the US were "grandfathered in" without sufficient testing when the standards for testing were being passed. Many popular ones in the US are banned in other countries as known carcinogens. Also many people are sensitive to yellow 5 and get hay fever like symptoms or hives from it.

Basically I try not to buy things with ingredients that I wouldn't put into the food myself, if I were struck with a sudden, rare, urge to cook.

oh, it's romkey! So you're looking at the same labels I am? So when you look for glycemic index and fat types and all, you just meant looking at ingredients and doing the translation in your head?

I don't look for content as much as I look for lack of content.

topper - I wasn't really looking at labels, except for the ingredients. Knowing that certain kinds of fats are largely saturated, or knowing the glycemic index for some ingredients is enough to figure out it out in your head. You won't get exact figures but usually if you want to know you can work it out roughly.

romkey- I just read your question too quickly, and took it to be literally, "what do you look for..." I think I was also conflating your survey with the one on reading labels in the store.

Have you read Dr. Weil's new book Eating Well For Optimum Health yet? It's excellent. mandy, I think you might like it, too, based on things you've said in the past about dealing with carbohydrate issues. It's really quite informative and readable.

Thanx topper
I'll check it out

I look for absence of certain things (chiefly animal byproducts) more than I look for nutrients. But I do look at fat, calories, and carbs.

I am vitamin C and A fiend and try to consume them
everyday. I probably should care more about the whole
fat-carbo-protein amounts.

I eat a condensed variety. Cream, cheese, dates, nuts, etc. I always read the ingredients & seek non-filler (sugars, oils, etc.). Keep in mind if something has 7 ingredients (say guacomole), even if the first ingredient is avocado, it could have as little as 1/7th avocado; and if three of the ingredients are oils, it could be as much as 3/7th's oil; If avocado is the 4th ingredient, the first three ingredients could occupy 99% of the content. From what I've read, mineral life is now used to produce (pre-digest) fructose from carbos. And everything contains soy, of which over half the worlds supply is genetically engineered. Remember the Simpsons 'tomacco's'?

The best advice on eating I ever read was 'Deepak Chopra' who pointed out that a diet based on numbers was silly. That even erring by a tablespoon of peanutbuttur a day could throw you off 10 pounds (over a year, I believe). He suggested that the moment the thought pop's in your head that you've probably had enough, don't finish your plate. Your body knows what it needs, when, and how much. Listen.

Total protein, carbo and fat.

I tend to buy minimally processed foods and don't check the nutrients except for breakfast cereal when I first moved here.

topper - yeah, I have read it; that's what got me wondering what people look for, if they look.

I also look for calcium.

Hmm. Where's the ``total sugar'' check box?

sugar is a carbohydrate

I look at all of them. In the morning I look for vitamin B12 and caffeine, with a very low calorie count and VERY low fat. At lunch I usually go with the liquid diet, like wheat grass vitamin packed fat free smoothies and that lovely tobacco. I usually forget to eat dinner and just munch on something sweet.
The first on my list is the fat content though.

Sugar content. I won't buy cereal more than 1/3 sugar by grams, probably less. I try not to buy anything with bad fats.

picky aren't we? C6H12 breakdowns & such.

My kittens grow fast on 1/5 of their recommended diet. One small meal a day is usually all I do, but I have a lot of coffee & cola.
Sometimes during a ceremony I feel compelled to have a variety of tidbits that ground me to all the earth has to offer, color energy is the key.

romkey: So is dietary fiber, which has its own check box. U.S. food labels have carbohydrates subcategorized into starches, sugars and fiber. If I'm buying, say, breakfast cereal, I know without looking that it's almost 100% carbohydrates, but I need to read the label to find out how much of that is sugar. Sometimes the answer is scary. Here's an excerpt from the label on Quaker Sweet Puffs cereal:

Serving size 34g
Total Carbohydrate 30g
Dietary Fiber 2g
Sugars 16g
Other Carbohydrate 12g

That's 47% sugar by weight. Yuck.

The cereal I buy nowadays usually has no more than a gram or two of sugar per serving. And no, I don't put sugar on it when I'm eating it.

okay, good point

putting sugar on cereal never works as well for me as cereal that's already sweetened. I'd like to like unsweetened cereal but it usually tastes like cardboard to me

A lot of ``healthy'' foods take some getting used to. Learning to enjoy unsweetened or lightly sweetened foods would require cutting back on sweet stuff for a while. The same sort of thing is true for low fat foods. The simple truth is that fats and sugars taste good, and if you're used to having foods rich in them, ``diet'' foods will taste bad by comparison. Luckily for me, I've found it fairly easy to break out of this pattern and learn to enjoy low fat, low sugar foods. I think my breakfast of lightly sweetened oat bran flakes with skim milk is actually quite tasty, though it a much more subtle way than a bowl of Cap'n Crunch in whole milk would be.

unfortunately, beyond just tasting good, fat, sugar and salt really help bring out the flavor of a lot of things. Most spices are fat-soluble and won't really work very well without any fat. And a lot of vitamins are also fat-soluble and the body can absorb them more easily in the presence of some fat.

I put the food container up to my stomach, and listen carefully.

You are so sweet.

Dr. Weil is a dumpy old crack pot! Is dumpyoldcrackpot.com taken yet?

Kristal_Rose: Was that for me?

bill - apparently not!

Yes.
Dr. Andrew Weil's first books were on halucinogenic mushrooms, if anyone remembers that far back.
I often look for the things people avoid. It's funny how they talked us into lower & lower fat milks so they could make more cream products. When it's cheaper than cream & sugar, I buy cappucino ice-cream for my coffee. Sometimes frozen yogurts are closer to real ice-cream than products called ice-cream.

lol

Actually, I think I eat wrong! People are always telling me that I am going to die or something because all I eat is Power Bars and oranges. That is all I am in the mood for, for the past 3 months that is all I have eaten, but I eat frozen meals from healthy choice in the evenings sometimes.
WHOA!!!!!! Talk about weird!
A Courier just walked in to the front desk and gave me a whole bag full of power bars for free!!!!! I guess I wont be changing my diet yet!

Not that wierd, self-acceptance is strong magic.

I am alergic to some stuff so I have to make sure!!!

Pineapple & peppers. Few foods are complete without it.

KR -- I beg to differ, I'm allergic to pineapple and have some form of intolerance to peppers (a little bit every once in a while is ok, but hot/spicy food is right out, if you pardon me my pun).

Not for this chick. Favorite foods are extra spicy thai or mexican. A solid layer of jalapeno's is fine. I enjoy straight wasabi. I make a fire sauce by steeping the hottest peppers in scotch & olive oil over a wood stove for days. I also love hot russian & english mustards in abundance.

KR: I love spicy/hot food too

Caffeine is important too when I'm on my all coffee/coke diet.

I dont know, it really depends...