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Ever since major food companies caught wind of the term “organic” and noticed that it lulls consumers into a buying trance, it has become the hottest word in their vocabulary. They have worked overtime to stamp the organic sticker on everything from peanut butter to baby’s diapers. But here’s the twist: All we did was hear the word, and we jumped on the bandwagon. Did we know what organic really meant? Likely not. But we sure liked the sound of it.

While the term gets used and abused, simply stated, the organic sticker earns produce and ingredients the right to say they have been grown without the use of pesticides, chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, sewage crap, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation.42

Eight Tips for Understanding What’s in Your Food

You stand there in the frozen-food section, underdressed and unprepared for the polar temperatures that fill the aisle. Shit! Of all times to go braless, you chose today. But you’ll be quick. You just need to check the calorie count on the Lean Cuisines and you’ll quickly sashay to warmer pastures.

Stop right there! Reading the back of a box purely for its calories will get you nowhere. Low calories may seem like the yellow brick road to getting skinny, but they’re not the path to getting healthy. Read your labels. Packaged snack foods, canned goods, frozen dinners, and boxed meal mixes can all promise a slashed calorie count, but they’re crawling with preservatives and scary ingredients.

Study these tips and you’ll become a pro at judging your foods with care:

1. LESS IS MORE: Check the number of ingredients. As a general rule of thumb, the lower the amount of ingredients, the better. Healthier, minimally processed foods tend to contain the fewest ingredients.

2. THE FINICKY FIVE: If fats, sugars, partially hydrogenated oils, or high-fructose corn syrup are in the first five ingredients, back away. Nobody will get hurt. Except for the company that was stupid enough to put it in your food. Now we’re talking.

3. COOL IT ON THE CHOLESTEROL: The daily recommended intake is between two hundred and three hundred milligrams a day. Since your liver makes about 80 percent of it for your body to operate as usual (and is capable of making all of it), you don’t need to get it through your diet.39

4. MONITOR YOUR SODIUM: Sodium is necessary, but when consumed in large amounts, it can stimulate high blood pressure. Choose foods that contain five hundred milligrams or less, with a healthy daily intake of two thousand milligrams or less.40

5. THE GOOD FATS, BAD FATS, AND LOW FATS: In general, you want five grams or less per serving, but invest some time in identifying what types of fats your food contains. Saturated and trans-fatty acids are not your friend. The healthy fats, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, help to keep your heart healthy and lower overall cholesterol. Keep in mind, if the package preaches “low-fat,” it usually means that refined starches and sugars are used as replacements to ensure tasting pleasure.

6. THE SECRET OF SUGAR-FREE: Don’t let them trick you. Unless it’s from a health food store and it’s fruit-juice sweetened (agave nectar), it likely contains artificial sweeteners. Sugars, like high-fructose corn syrup and refined sugars, are the devil in disguise.

7. DON’T BE FOOLED BY ADVERTISING JARGON: The terms “all-natural” “fresh,” and “no additives” carry little weight. Since these terms are loosely regulated by the FDA, they are tossed around like dollar bills in a strip club.41

8. NAMES THAT REQUIRE AN INTERPRETER: If you cannot pronounce it, it is likely to have spent some good time in a laboratory. Don’t throw away your spelling bee ribbon just yet. Words like butylated hydroxyanisole, and propylene glycol are hard enough to pronounce, let alone spell (see page 32, The Skinny: Processed Foods).

Benefits of Buying Organic

When you buy organic, you are:

• Limiting your food’s travel from production to plate

• Protecting yourself against nasty chemicals and pollutants that