What about what's not on the label? Like whether the animal product comes from an animal that was in a factory farm never seeing sunlight, body parts clipped off and eating genetically modified soy and corn, or given antibiotics. Or, does the label tell you whether your produce was sprayed with cancer causing, hormone-disrupting chemicals that can't be washed off completely? Does the label tell you that the lining of the can contains BPA, an ingredient that the FDA just admitted is very harmful, but can't regulate due to some loopholes in legislation. The bottom line, is that even if you are pretty good at reading labels, there are things you will never know for sure about your packaged foods. Not unless you call the company, talk to the farmers and do your homework.  So, feed your child food that doesn't have a label most of the time and make sure you know where it comes from. Don't believe us? Watch Food Inc.

It feels like you need to hire a detective to find out if a loaf of bread is truly whole grain or not. Packages often feature words like 'whole', 'multi-grain', 'natural', and 'fiber'. Sometimes we think just because a bread is brown, it is whole grain. For the REAL story, read the ingredients. If you see 'enriched flour' leave it on the shelf - it's not whole grain.  Look for a loaf that has fewer than five ingredients and 4 to 5 grams of fiber in each slice. Avoid breads with high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors, flavors, or additives. And, if you like dense, chewy breads, try sprouted grain breads. The sprouting is a traditional method of preparing grains and makes them more digestible. Sprouted breads are great for French Toast or toasted sandwiches. Food for Life is a favorite brand.

When a product lists Enriched Flour in the ingredients you should leave it on the shelf. Enriched flour is flour that has been stripped of all its beneficial nutrients with a few vitamins added back in during processing. This is done to create a smoother texture and increase the shelf life of the product, which is better for the food industry but not for your child's health. Replace these refined grain products with REAL foods such as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, and homemade, whole-grain baked goods and you will be increasing your child's odds for better health.

Be wary of products labeled Sugar-Free or Fat-Free. These are often red flags for fake foods. Sugar-Free foods are often loaded with enriched flours and other fake food ingredients like artificial sweeteners.  Fat-Free foods are often full of unhealthy carbs including sugar and enriched flours. Stick to REAL foods and if they are packaged go for foods with 5 or less ingredients on the label that you recognize as something your great-grandmother would have had in her kitchen!

"This food has 100% of the RDA for Vitamin C." or "11 Vitamins and Minerals!"  It's tempting to look at these marketing ploys on packages and think, 'Wow, this is great for my child!'  Remember though, that most packaged food is not REAL food.  It may have some good things, but remember to read the label and see what else is in there - added sugars, artificial ingredients, enriched flour, etc. Just because there is 100% of the RDA for vitamin C, it's not the same as eating the unprocessed REAL food, which has all the enzymes, phytonutrients, and minerals that work synergistically with vitamin C in the body. Food companies can't outsmart Mother Nature no matter how hard they try! 

Some of the benefits of REAL food do not show up on a label - like phytonutrients, the nutrients that give plants all their colors.  Or, enzymes, the proteins that are catalysts for speeding up and facilitating the cellular reactions in your body. Your child needs to be eating lots of raw foods to get the health benefits of living REAL food - that you just won't find on any food label. Fill your cart with lots of raw foods - not labels! 

If you want to improve your child's health by ensuring he or she is eating more REAL food, make sure any packaged foods you purchase have 5 or less ingredients AND make sure the ingredients are food items you recognize and would have been able to find in your Great-Grandma's Kitchen!  Empower your child to take control of his or health by teaching him or her how to read food labels. 

Sports drinks are full of empty calories – no nutrition for your growing child. Even worse, they are loaded with sugar, usually the worst kind – high fructose corn syrup. Often they have artificial colors and flavors and other fake food ingredients. If you feel your child needs sports drinks for some reason, check the serving size, calories per serving and sugar per serving. Read the ingredients. After doing all that, if you still feel your child needs a sports drink you may want to consider limiting them to once per week, or try coconut water loaded with electrolytes, naturally. 

Packaged foods that have canola, corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean or sunflower oils are contributing to your child's most likely unhealthy balance of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids ratio. Substitute foods with processed vegetable oils with REAL food like fruits and vegetables, or homemade cookies and muffins that are made with REAL fat.

Although most cleaners don't list ingredients (because they are not required to!), you can learn something about a product's hazards by reading its label. Most labels bear a signal word, such as Danger, Warning or Caution, which provides some indication of a product's toxicity. Products labeled Danger or Poison are typically most hazardous; those bearing a Warning label are moderately hazardous, and formulas with a Caution label are considered less toxic. If you find these words on your cleaning product labels, make a decision to replace them with nontoxic products like Naturally It's Clean enzyme based cleaners.

Sodium free -- Contains less than 5 mg of sodium per serving
Very low sodium -- 35 mg or less per serving
Low Sodium -- 140 mg or less per serving
Reduced Sodium -- Contains at least 25 percent less sodium than the original product
Without added salt -- No salt is added during processing to a product which would normally have salt added
No salt added -- Unsalted

Yellow 5, Red 40, and six other widely used artificial colorings are linked to hyperactivity and behavior problems in children. Whenever you see these and other artificial colors listed in the ingredients label, a good rule of thumb is to leave these products on the shelf. Choose an alternative without the harmful food dyes. See Petition to Ban the Use of Yellow 5 and Other Food Dyes to see references for the numerous scientific studies that show Yellow 5 and other food dyes can adversely affect the behavior of some children.

Read beyond the front of the package. Food companies are masterful at marketing their products to you. The front may say, "Made from Real Fruit" or "Water Blasters" but a look at the label will tell more of the story. Real Fruit may be a very small portion of the actual ingredients, overshadowed by artificial flavors, sweeteners and colors. Or, there may be some water, but the 2nd ingredient is High Fructose Corn Syrup! Don't be fooled by labeling gimmicks Take the extra minute to actually read the ingredient list.

If your family drinks milk or other foods fortified with Vitamin D you will want to make sure that the Vitamin D added to the products is in the form of Vitamin D3. Often Vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, is added and that form is not active and is not as easily utilized by the body. Also, levels of Vitamin D in milk and products may be inconsistent. Learn more about vitamin D: Is Your Child's Vitamin D Optimal?. 

A lot of children's snacks and beverages are loaded with different forms of sugar. Check the serving size on packaged foods. Then see how many grams of sugar are in one serving. Every 4 grams equals one packet (1 tsp.) of sugar. Take the grams of sugar and pide by 4 to see how many sugar packets your child is eating per serving. Then mulitply that number by the number of servings your child is consuming. For many packaged foods, kids are eating 8 or more packets of sugar per serving! That is a sure recipe for poor health. Here are some quick examples:

Read more: Sugar

Check the Serving Size information at the top of the Nutritional Information Section on all packaged foods. The information about sugar, fat, calories, nutrients, etc. refers to One Serving Size. Often children (and adults) are eating 2 or 3 servings of a packaged food and that means more sugar or other fake food ingredients than you might realize. Teach your child to look at serving sizes and measure out one serving - put it on a plate or in a cup. Having this visual is very helpful - a picture is worth a thousand words! The best idea is to eat nutrient-dense foods, which are often not in a package, and don't have all the taste-enhancing ingredients that trick our taste buds into eating even more after you are full.

When buying organic, look for the following regulated terms on food labels:

Food labeled "100% organic" has no synthetic ingredients and can legally use the USDA organic seal.

Food labeled "organic" has a minimum of 95% organic ingredients. It is eligible to use the USDA organic seal.

Food labeled "made with organic ingredients" must contain at least 70% organic ingredients. It is not eligible for the USDA seal. Meat, eggs, poultry, and dairy labeled "organic" must come from animals that have never received antibiotics or growth hormones.

A calorie is a unit of measurement - measuring energy.  Calories come from food and drinks and get burned up by your body. Calories are a concern when they are 'empty' calories, meaning they don't deliver good nutrition, or when kids are likely to overindulge in a particular food. REAL food has nutrient-dense calories instead of the 'empty' calories found in most fake and heavily-processed foods. The calories in REAL foods deliver Powerful Protein, Friendly Fat and Colorful Carbs, along with enzymes and phytonutrients. It's best to teach kids about high-quality ingredients, with nutrient-dense calories, instead of just focusing on calories.

If a food label lists 0 grams of Trans Fats, you still want to read the ingredients. Food manufacturers are allowed to have 0.5 grams of trans fats and still be able to label the product as having zero trans fats. Look for partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and/or vegetable shortening in the ingredients. If you see these, you may want to consider putting the package back on the shelf for the sake of your child's health. Learn why we Toss Out Partially Hydrogenated Fats.

The ingredients on a food label are listed in order from greatest to least. If sugar or corn syrup is listed first or second, the product is mostly sugar. Also, remember to check the ingredients for other names sugar hides behind. Often a product will have two to three forms of sugar listed by different names, but if they were combined then sugar would be first on the list of ingredients!