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Achieve Health
Better Eating
Know Your Food Label
Whether you're concerned about cancer, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes, or simply losing weight, you want to
eat a healthy diet and focus on foods that are high in
vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and balanced in
fats, carbs, proteins.
There is only one way to incorporate healthy foods into
our diet and that is to make the decision to do it!
Practical information about the nutrition and safety of
the foods we consume is absolutely vital in making this
decision.
One way to learn more about what we eat, is to snoop
around the supermarket. Check-out package labels to see
what manufactures are adding (or removing) from the
foods we eat. Read the information on the package and
start making comparisons to determine which foods are
the best for YOU. Know about nutritional labeling and
the sometimes sneaky ways that manufacturers have of
hiding what is in the food. Know and understand
ingredient declarations, how they are used, and what a
few of the "technical" terms mean. Are the unfamiliar
ingredients good or bad for your health?
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Although some restaurants provide information about the
food they serve, they aren't required to have labels.
The FDA recommends that sellers provide nutritional
information on produce, meat, poultry and seafood, but
it's strictly voluntary.
What Is a Serving?
At the top of a food label under Nutrition Facts, you'll
see the serving size and the number of servings in the
package. The rest of the nutrition information in the
label is based on one serving.
Calories, Calories From Fat and Percent Daily Values
This part of a food label provides the calories per
serving and the calories that come from fat. If you need
to know the total number of calories you eat every day
or the number of calories that come from fat, this
section provides that information. Remember that this
part of the label doesn't tell you whether you are
eating saturated or unsaturated fat.
On the right side of a food label, you'll see a column
that lists percentages. These percentages refer to the
percent daily values (%DV). Percent daily values tell
you how much of something, whether it's fat, sugar or
vitamin A, one serving will give you compared to how
much you need for the entire day. It will help you gauge
the percentage of a nutrient requirement met by one
serving of the product. One way to use this section of
the label is when you comparison shop. For example, if
you're concerned with sodium, you can look at two foods
and choose the food with the lower % DV. Are you trying
to eat a low-fat diet? Look for foods that have a lower
percent daily value of fat.
The %DV is based on how much or how little of the key
nutrients you should eat whether you eat 2,000 or 2,500
calories a day. So if you eat a 2,000-calorie diet, you
should eat less than 65 grams of fat in all the foods
you eat for the day. If you're eating 12 grams of fat in
your one serving of macaroni and cheese (remember that's
one cup), you can calculate how much fat you have left
for the day. You can use the bottom part of the food
label in white to compare what you are eating to the %
DV you're allowed for that nutrient, whether it's fat,
sodium or fiber. If you need more or less than 2,000 or
2,500 calories, you'll need to adjust this accordingly.
Nutrients - Fat, Sugar, Sodium and Carbohydrate
The sections on a food label show the name of a nutrient
and the amount of that nutrient provided by one serving
of food. You may need to know this information,
especially if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or
are eating a diet that restricts certain nutrients such
as sodium or carbohydrates.
Food labels also include information about how much
sugar and protein is in the food. If you are following a
low-sugar diet or you're monitoring your protein intake,
it's easy to spot how much of those nutrients are
contained in one serving.
Nutrients - Vitamins, Minerals and Other Information
The light purple part of the label lists nutrients,
vitamins and minerals in the food and their percent
daily values. Try to average 100% DV every day for
vitamins A and C, calcium, iron and fiber. Do the
opposite with fat, saturated fat, sodium and
cholesterol. Try to eat less than 100% DV of these.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Reading a Food Label
Until you become accustomed to reading food labels, it's
easy to become confused. Avoid these common mistakes
when reading labels:
-A label may say that the food is reduced fat or reduced
sodium. That means that the amount of fat or sodium has
been reduced by 25% from the original product. It
doesn't mean, however, that the food is low in fat or
sodium. For example, if a can of soup originally had
1,000 milligrams of sodium, the reduced sodium product
would still be a high-sodium food.
-Don't confuse the % DV for fat with the percentage of
calories from fat. If the % DV is 15% that doesn't mean
that 15% of the calories comes from fat. Rather, it
means that you're using up 15% of all the fat you need
for a day with one serving (based on a meal plan of
2,000 calories per day).
-Don't make the mistake of assuming that the amount of
sugar on a label means that the sugar has been added.
For example, milk naturally has sugar, which is called
lactose. But that doesn't mean you should stop drinking
milk because milk is full of other important nutrients
including calcium.
Reading Label Lingo
In addition to requiring that packaged foods contain a
Nutrition Facts label, the FDA also regulates the use of
phrases and terms used on the product packaging. Here's
a list of common phrases you may see on your food
packaging and what they actually mean.
No fat or fat free - Contains less than 1/2 gram
of fat per serving Lower or reduced fat: Contains at
least 25 percent less per serving than the reference
food. (An example might be reduced fat cream cheese,
which would have at least 25 percent less fat than
original cream cheese.)
Low fat - Contains less than 3 grams of fat per
serving.
Lite - Contains 1/3 the calories or 1/2 the fat
per serving of the original version or a similar
product.
No calories or calorie free - Contains less than
5 calories per serving.
Low calories - Contains 1/3 the calories of the
original version or a similar product.
Sugar free - Contains less than 1/2 gram of sugar
per serving.
Reduced sugar - at least 25% less sugar per
serving than the reference food.
No preservatives - Contains no preservatives
(chemical or natural).
No preservatives added - Contains no added
chemicals to preserve the product. Some of these
products may contain natural preservatives.
Low sodium - Contains less than 140 mgs of sodium
per serving.
No salt or salt free - Contains less than 5 mgs
of sodium per serving.
High fiber - 5 g or more per serving (Foods
making high-fiber claims must meet the definition for
low fat, or the level of total fat must appear next to
the high-fiber claim).
Good source of fiber - 2.5 g to 4.9 g. per
serving.
More or added fiber - Contains at least 2.5 g
more per serving than the reference food.
With a little practice, you will be able to put your new
found knowledge about food labeling to work. Reassess
your diet and decide what needs to be changed. Start by
eliminating the foods that don't measure-up to your
nutritional wants and needs, and replacing them with
more nutritional substitutes.
And while you're at it, visit the FDA website and learn
about the labeling requirements, including those for
"trans" fat. Like saturated fats, trans fats can raise
levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and increase
your risk of heart disease. The "Nutrition Facts" panel
on food packaging must provide this information.
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