Get Jacked with Basics Part II: Ingredient Lists - Jacked Nerds Issue #007

👋 Welcome Back, Jacked Nerds!

Big welcome to the 67 new readers who hopped on board last week! Stoked to have you here 💪.

How was everyone’s week? Mine was a short one, Friday was a company wellness day (yep, one of those tech perks). It hit 28°C (82°F) and sunny in Toronto, which made it the perfect day for some ice cream with my girls. #BalanceIsKey

Last week, we cracked the code on nutrition labels, learning how calories and macros are calculated and what they actually do in your body.

But numbers only tell part of the story.

The nutrition label tells you how much of something (calories, protein, sugar, etc.) are in the food. The ingredient list tells you what is in it. Only with both can you get the full picture.

So this week, we’re diving deeper into the ingredient list: the scroll of truth that reveals what’s really under the hood.

Because here’s the secret many people miss:

Let’s equip you with the tools to spot filler, fluff, and formula tricks — and find the foods that actually align with your goals.

To make it even easier, I put together a quick-reference guide:
👉 The 7 Rules for Reading Ingredient Lists Cheat Sheet

In today's issue, you'll find:

• 🔬 How Ingredients Lists Are Developed

• 📊 How Ingredient Order Is Determined

• ✅ General Principles for Reading Ingredient Lists

• 🤓 My Favourite Nerdy Thing of the Week

• 🍖 My Favourite Viral Recipe of the Week

• 📣 Share with a Friend!

• 🧠 Final Thoughts

To really understand how to read ingredient lists to your advantage, it helps to first know how they’re developed.

🔬 How Ingredients Lists Are Developed

In the U.S. and Canada, ingredient lists on packaged food are regulated by government agencies:

• FDA (U.S.) – The Food and Drug Administration is the U.S. government agency responsible for regulating food safety, labeling, and packaging standards.

• CFIA (Canada) – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency oversees food labeling and safety in Canada, ensuring products meet health and consumer protection laws.

How it works:

• Manufacturers are required to list every ingredient used in the formulation of a product.

• Each ingredient must be its common or usual name, so “sugar” not “sucrose,” unless it’s a specialized form.

• Compound ingredients (like “chocolate chips” or “bread crumbs”) must also have their own mini-ingredient list.

For example, on the Chips Ahoy! ingredients list, Mondelēz is required to disclose ingredients used to make the semi-sweet chocolate chips that go into the cookies.

Manufacturers submit their label content during product approval or inspection. They are expected to formulate recipes carefully and consistently, then maintain accurate labels that reflect those formulations.

📊 How Ingredient Order Is Determined

The order of ingredients on the label matters a lot.

✅ Rule: Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight.

• The first ingredient makes up the largest portion of the food by weight.

• The last ingredient is the smallest by weight.

• Important nuance: This is based on the weight before processing or cooking. So a product could list “chicken” first, even if it’s mostly sauce or filler, because raw chicken is heavy due to water content.

So if sugar is in the first 3 ingredients? That’s a flag.

Here’s an example: Nature’s Path, a brand generally perceived as “healthy”, has “Sugars” (plural, which means a combination of different types of sugar) listed as the second ingredient on the Honey Almond Granola variety. Each cup (103g) has 24g of sugar.

If something like spinach powder or chia seeds is listed last? It’s only a sprinkle.

The list only tells order, not amount. Unfortunately we can’t tell the exact quantities or percentages of each ingredients, unless they are disclosed voluntarily or in few special cases, like infant formula or specific regulated claims. Because of this, you also won’t be able to tell how big the gap is between ingredients.

✅ General Principles for Reading Ingredient Lists

So now we know the fundamentals, here are some general principles I adhere to when I read ingredient lists.

1. Shorter is usually better

• A shorter list often means less processing.

• I want to be able to recognize most of the ingredients as actual foods, not additives.

2. Be wary of sugar’s many disguises

Manufacturers know “sugar” up front looks bad, so they split it up:

• Look for: cane sugar, brown rice syrup, maltodextrin, glucose, dextrose, fructose, agave nectar, corn syrup etc.

• Trick: They may appear lower in the list individually, but together they add up to a lot.

3. Avoid ultra-processed oils

• Refined vegetable oils like soybean oil, corn oil, and palm oil are cheap fillers.

• They're high in omega-6 and heavily refined. Look for whole food fat sources instead.

4. Watch out for “flavours”

• “Natural flavours” or “artificial flavours” are black-box terms. They can contain dozens of lab-made compounds, often used to mimic or enhance taste.

5. Preservatives and stabilizers

• Not all additives are bad, but some are red flags for unnecessary processing:

  • BHA/BHT, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate (preservatives)

  • Carrageenan, xanthan gum, guar gum (thickeners/stabilizers)

• For people with gut issues or autoimmune concerns, these might be problematic.

6. Whole food ingredients come first

• Look for items like beef, oats, egg whites, almonds, dates, lentils, rice at the top of the list.

• If water, sugar, or flour are dominating the list, you’re often looking at a filler-heavy food.

7. Allergens are usually listed at the bottom

• Especially in the U.S. and Canada, allergens like milk, soy, wheat, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish must be declared.

8. Some “clean” labels are marketing hype

• “Organic,” “natural,” “gluten-free,” “no added sugar” doesn’t always mean healthier.

• A gluten-free cookie made with corn syrup and tapioca starch is still junk.

We’ll go in more detail around marketing claims in the next issue.

🫵 Your Action Step of the Week:

Next time you hit the grocery store, or raid your pantry:

1. Pick any 2 packaged foods you eat regularly.

2. Read the first 5 ingredients out loud.

3. Ask yourself:

   • Do I recognize most of these as real food?

   • Are sugar or refined oils listed early?

   • Does this match what I thought I was eating?

Even just scanning the top 5 tells you 80% of what you need to know. Make it a mini side quest every time you shop.

🤓 My Favourite Nerdy Thing of the Week

Speaking of side quests, this one is for all my TOTK nerds. A Redditor posted screenshots of their beautiful weapons compendium, where all the weapons are positioned the same way. Apparently they did this by fusing each weapon to stabilizers.

Absolute galaxy-brain move. Also the dedication 🙇.

🍖 My Favourite Viral Recipe of the Week

This one is for all the egg lovers, and is a banger. Egg is one of my go-to protein staples, and this recipe takes them to the next level. I have made this countless times, and it is especially perfect for any rice dish for a boost of protein and that added hit of creaminess.

Written recipe here. Video recipe below.

kwokspots

1M followers

View more on Instagram

📣 Share with a Friend!

I hope you’re getting real value from this newsletter!

If you are, it would mean a lot if you shared it with a friend, family member, or anyone you think could benefit from the frameworks and tips I share here.

Thanks so much for being part of this — I appreciate you! 🙏

My mission: 10,000 like-minded legends in the Jacked Nerds crew by end of year.
Help me get there 💪

🧠 Final Thoughts

Reading ingredient lists isn’t about being perfect.

It’s about being aware — so you can choose your food with clarity, not confusion.

The more you practice, the more fluent you’ll become. And soon, you won’t just know what to avoid or reduce — you’ll know exactly what to look for to fuel your day, your training, and your goals.

Next week, we’re closing the loop with Part 3 of this mini-series:
🎯 Decoding food marketing claims like “high protein,” “no added sugar,” and “natural” — and learning how to tell when they’re total BS.

Until then: stay sharp, stay nerdy, and read those labels like a boss. 🤓

Catch y’all in the next one! ✌️ 
Dave Chen
(aka your Jacked Nerd guide)