Do you find that understanding food labels is like learning a foreign language? Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to give you an easy tip to identify health-derailing ingredients to avoid when reading nutrition labels.

For starters, did you know that there are 3 letters on food labels to avoid, especially if they’re at the beginning of the list of ingredients?

Those letters are OSE.

Let me explain.

You see, spotting sugar on food labels isn’t quite as easy as it once was. Yep, now that food manufacturers are aware that consumers of the current day are much more discerning than those of yesteryear, they’re doing everything they can to disguise sugar on their lists of ingredients.

These days, it’s not likely that you’ll see “sugar” at the forefront of an ingredients list. Instead, you’ll see these code names:

• Fructose
• Maltose
• Glucose
• Sucrose

And the worst of the worst, high fructose corn syrup.

If you see any of the above words ending in –ose in the first 3 or 4 ingredients on a food label, rest assured that product is LOADED with sugar, and you should be avoiding it. It’s no secret that excess consumption of foods with added sugars like these can lead to weight gain and increase the risk of obesity and variety of health issues.¹

Beyond that, I’ll go so far as to say that if a product contains high fructose corn syrup (the worst of the worst man-made sugars) in ANY amount, you should avoid it like the plague. Simply put, the invention of high fructose corn syrup is one of the leading causes of obesity in this great country of ours.