When I would diet in college, the first thing I would look at on any nutrition label is the calories and fat per serving.

Then the year I did low-fat, low carb, I started paying attention to not only the calories and fat, but also the number of carbs listed.

Since starting Primal, I rarely ever look at nutrition labels. Actually, most of the foods I eat don’t even have nutritional labels on them since they aren’t prepackaged.

And when I do eat a prepackaged food, the first thing I look at isn’t the nutrition label – it’s the ingredients.

If all the ingredients are natural, then I shouldn’t have to worry about what the nutrition label says. Plus, nutrition labels can be extremely misleading.

For example, let’s take two different diet sodas. Both have no calories and no sugar.

Size: 8 fl. oz.

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Both sodas basically only have a little bit of sodium in them. And because both sodas don’t have calories, most people would pick the Fresca since it is a light soda, which is supposedly a bit better for you.BUT if people looked at the ingredients, they would realize that these sodas are FAR from the same.

Diet Dr. Pepper Ingredients

CARBONATED WATER, CARAMEL COLOR, ASPARTAME, PHOSPHORIC ACID, ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL FLAVORS, SODIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVATIVE), CAFFEINE. PHENYLKETONURICS CONTAINS: PHENYLALANINE

Fresca Ingredients

Carbonated Water; Citric Acid; Concentrated Grapefruit Juice; Potassium Citrate; Potassium Sorbate; Potassium Benzoate and EDTA (to protect taste); Aspartame; Acesulfame Potassium; Acacia; Natural Flavors; Glycerol Ester of Rosin; Brominated Vegetable Oil;Carob Bean Gum PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE

There is one specific ingredient in Fresca that makes it a bazillion times worse despite the fact that the nutrition labels on both sodas look almost identical. That ingredient is Brominated Vegetable Oil.

Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) is composed mainly of bromine, a poisonous chemical whose vapors are considered both corrosive and toxic. BVO has been banned in over 100 countries because it is a potential carcinogen and causes a number of disorders starting from simple headache, fatigue, weight-gain to cancer, heart and kidney diseases.

So what the nutrition label on Fresca doesn’t tell you is that it contains a chemical that is corrosive and toxic and has been banned in OVER 100 countries!

So if you only look at nutrition labels, you may want to start reading the ingredients to find out what you are really consuming.

OR best of all…just eat all whole, natural foods so  you don’t even have to worry about it! Check out this week’s Recipe Box Recipe for a great meal with a very simple list of ingredients!