How To Read Food Labels

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How To Read Food Labels

The Nutrition Facts Food Label

Do you know how to read food labels? Ever stop to read the Nutrition Facts food labels when you shop? Ever wonder what’s really in our food? Here’s a quick primer on those labels.

Since 1994, the FDA has required food labels called food Nutrition Facts to be placed on most food packaging. The Nutrition Facts food labels are easy to find, right next to the ingredients list.

People look at food labels for different reasons. Food labels provide information to help you make informed food choices. Knowing how to read food labels you: - Evaluate a food's nutritional value - Know more about the health or nutrition benefits of products - Compare the nutritional value of similar food products - Identify ingredients that may cause a reaction if you have a food allergy - Choose foods that are right for you

Food Nutrition Facts labels may be formatted vertically or horizontally on some packages and small packages may have an abbreviated version of the Nutrition Facts label. Most often, you will find vertical Nutrition Facts food labels. For example, this is a food label like one that you would see on a can of condensed chicken noodle soup.

Nutrition Facts - Serving Information

The top of the Nutrition Facts label gives you serving information – the food serving size. This is very important, because the information that you learn from the rest of the Nutrition Facts label depends on the serving size. There are two parts to the serving information on the Nutrition Facts label, the food serving size and the number of servings.

When you know how to read food labels you understand what the actual package size is and that it's not the same as the serving size. This can be very misleading.

If a package of cookies contains six cookies and a serving size is two cookies, the entire package contains three servings, not one.

On the chicken noodle soup example above, it is important to note that a serving is one-half cup of the condensed soup as it comes in the can and not one-half cup of the soup after it has been mixed with water. Always look here to see if the serving size should be measured or counted before the product is prepared or after.

Sometimes, the number of servings may be easier to understand. On the chicken noodle soup Nutrition Facts label, the number of servings is given as about 2.5. That means if you prepare the can of soup with any amount of water and eat the whole thing yourself, you have eaten two and one-half servings...and that doesn't include any crackers.

Nutrition Facts - Calories, Fat, Carbohydrates, and Protein

The next section of the Nutrition Facts food label contains information about calories, fat content, amount and types of carbohydrates, and amount of protein. The label shows the amounts in grams (g) or milligrams (mg) and it gives us the percentage of the daily value needed for each of these nutrients. This is based on a 2000 calorie per day diet, so it won't be exactly right for everybody, but will give you an idea of how the food item will fit into your energy nutrient needs.

A calorie is a unit of energy, a way of expressing how much energy you would get by eating a certain food.

When you look at this part of the Nutrition Facts label, you need to make a mental note of how these nutrients fit into your diet and meal planning. These Daily Value Percentages are based on the USDA's suggestions that your diet be made up of 50 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fats, and 20 percent protein. If you are on a low carbohydrate diet or a low fat diet, these percentages won't work for your diet, and you will have to do the math yourself.

Notice that sodium information is located here rather than with the other minerals down lower on the Nutrition Facts label. Sodium has been linked to high blood pressure and since so many people eat way too much sodium, this information is displayed prominently. In the chicken noodle soup Nutrition Facts food label above, you can see that one serving of condensed chicken noodle soup has 37 percent of our daily need for sodium. If you eat the whole can of soup, you would get almost all of your sodium need for the whole day, around 92 percent.

This part of the Nutrition Facts label also contains information on fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that we cannot digest and we need it for healthy bowel function and normal cholesterol and blood sugar levels. You can see from our example, chicken noodle soup from a can doesn't contain much fiber.

LOOPHOLE! % of calories

The % of daily value is assuming you eat the same proportion of foods the rest of the day. In other words, it’s assuming you will eat foods with the same nutritional breakdown. That’s not likely to happen.

The best way to truly understand how a food’s calories are broken down between Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats is to only measure it against itself. This is done with a simple formula.

For protein and carbohydrates use the number of grams and multiply by 4. Example: Carbohydrate = 8g X 4 (calories/gram) = 32 calories.For fats multiply the number of grams by 9. Example Total Fat = 1.5 g X 9 (calories/gram) = 13.5 calories.

Additional Sources for Nutritional Data

The information in Nutrition Data's database comes from the USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference

Since its launch in 2003, Nutrition Data has grown into one of the most authoritative and useful sources of nutritional analysis on the Web. Nutrition Data's continuing goal is to provide the most accurate and comprehensive nutrition analysis available, and to make it accessible and understandable to all.