You’ve seen them before. Foods boldly labeled Organic! Vegan! Gluten free! Keto friendly! Let’s break down what each of these actually means.

• Organic: it is produced using sustainable farming methods, without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, growth hormones, or genetically modified organisms (GMO), and meets USDA standards for soil quality, animal care, and pest control.

• Vegan: it does not come from any animal source, including dairy, eggs, meat, poultry, or seafood.

• Gluten Free: The food does not contain any wheat, rye, barley, or crossbreeds of these grains, any ingredients derived from these grains that have not been processed to remove gluten, and less than 20 parts per million (ppm) of gluten.

• Keto Friendly: if it fits into the low-carb, high-fat eating pattern of the ketogenic diet.

All of these labels are intended to give you the impression that the food product is healthy, so you can feel good about buying and eating it.

Guess what? Sugars and oils can be organic, vegan and gluten free. Oil fits into the keto diet, and there are plenty of artificial sweeteners, which don’t increase the carbohydrate count, that can be added to a food product. As a result, there are plenty of readily available organic, vegan, gluten free, keto friendly junk foods for you to choose. 

Now, you can take the time to read the nutrition facts and ingredients, and I encourage you to do this for packaged foods you’re consuming, or you can try to make the majority of your diet real, whole foods. Bananas don’t need a label telling you they’re vegan. Raw meat and eggs don’t need a label saying they’re keto friendly. Processed packaged products are going to carry these labels. Real, whole foods won’t. 

The simplest way to shift your diet towards real food is by, as much as possible, limiting your shopping to the perimeter of the grocery store. This is where you’ll find produce, the butcher, seafood, and the dairy section. All real foods with relatively short shelf lives.

Next time you’re at the grocery store, can you do all of your shopping on the perimeter? If you do venture into the aisles, check out the nutrition facts and ingredients on the packages, especially those with the pseudo-healthy labeling. You may be surprised by what you find.