This week's small experiment costs nothing and takes about five minutes. Go to your cupboard and read the labels on the things you reach for most. Really read them. You will probably be surprised by what is, and is not, there.
What has to be on the label
Every packaged food in Australia has to carry a nutrition information panel, and that panel has to list a specific set of things: energy, protein, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars, and sodium. That is the legal minimum, set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Every product has to tell you these, so seeing them is not a sign a product is doing anything special. It is a sign it is meeting the baseline that all packaged food must meet.
Beyond that mandatory set, a product only has to list a vitamin or mineral if it makes a claim about it. In other words, if a product is not shouting about its calcium or its iron or its B vitamins, the law does not require it to tell you anything about them at all.
Where this gets interesting
Plenty of products in the health food and wellness space stop at the mandatory basics. They will give you the macros, energy, protein, fat, carbs, and very little else. No vitamins. No minerals. No detail about the micronutrients that actually do the work of filling the gaps in a woman's diet.
This is worth noticing because the macros are rarely the reason you are reaching for a health food in the first place. If you are buying something to support your nutrition, the interesting question is what micronutrients it delivers, and in what amounts. A panel that shows only protein and carbs is telling you almost nothing about that.
The five-minute audit
Pick up the things you take or eat regularly for their health benefit. The greens powder, the protein product, the wellness blend, whatever it is. Look at the panel and ask: does this go beyond the mandatory basics? Does it tell me what vitamins and minerals are in here, and how much? Or does it stop at the macros and leave me to assume the rest?
Then ask the more pointed question: if a product is built to support my nutrition, why would it not tell me what nutrients it contains?
Once you start reading labels this way, you cannot unsee it. It changes how you shop, and it changes what you expect a good product to tell you.
The takeaway: Every packaged food must list energy, protein, fat, carbs, sugars and sodium, but vitamins and minerals only have to appear if a product makes a claim about them. Many health foods stop at the macros and tell you nothing about the micronutrients. Read the labels on what you reach for most, and notice which products are willing to show you the full picture.