Nutrition Labels!

I'm that guy in the supermarket squinting at the nutrition label on every package. And of course I read the ingredients as well. Some things hide in the ingredients. Anything "partially hydrogenated", for example, is trans fat. Be sure to note "hydrogenated" is not trans fat. Partially hydrogenated is trans fat.

I don't eat products with HFCS. HFCS is converted directly into triglycerides bypassing the Krebs cycle and I am of the opinion that's a bad thing. And don't confuse corn syrup with HFCS. Corn syrup and HFCS are two different things. And beware of glucose syrup. Glucose syrup is what they call HFCS in Europe and it often appears in the ingredients lists on imported products.

So. What has me carrying on about nutrition labels?

I stumbled across this nutrition label calculator on the web. You input your recipe in the space provided and it displays a nutrition label for your recipe. It's very cool! I found a couple of issues with it. It doesn't know about kosher salt, for example. It insists on using table salt data. And, after calculating the label, changing an ingredient or a serving size doesn't always work. Either delete the ingredient and add it back or just start over again.

The most interesting thing however is that one can use these labels to compare their homemade food with supermarket products. So, for example:

My homemade 100% whole wheat personal pizza. The serving size is one whole pizza.

My homemade cabbage soup. Serving size is one and a half cups.
I think that's very cool and I find it fun just to satisfy curiosity as I wonder sometimes is homemade really the most nutritious option?