How To Read Food Labels

Have you noticed over the past seven or eight years that our world has become super-sized. Every fast food restaurant tries to get their customers to buy and consume more food than they need. A single super-sized serving is actually the same as two or three normal helpings. Even family restaurants are falling into the trap of giving more to try to keep their customers coming back. Unfortunately, you don’t always know what nutrients or how much you’re actually getting.

If you are interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you need to know what you’re eating. Reading food labels is the most effective way of determining the right kind of food to buy in the supermarket. All products sold have a label that gives specific information about the product. Reading the labels lets you make sensible food selections. By using the “Nutrition Facts” section of a label, you can identify the size of the serving and the number of servings provided in that product.

When you know how to read food labels, you can clearly understand the amount and kinds of nutrients that are provided in the item. The label will contain information on total fat, saturated fat, unsaturated fat, sodium, fiber, sugar and cholesterol amount “per serving.”

However, reading and understanding food labels can be somewhat perplexing. Most of us don’t know what the numbers mean. A typical consumer would probably have to ask what those numbers mean and how the serving size will affect a person’s diet if the serving guide on the food label was followed.

To help develop have a more clear and comprehensive understanding of the items stated on the food label, here is a list of things that you should know:

1. Serving size and Number of Servings

This is always the first items you will see in a food label.

The number of servings stated in the food label refers to the quantity of food people usually consume. However, this does not necessarily mean that it reflects your very own amount of food intake.

Serving size always determines the amount of nutrients that enters the body. A lot of small packages will contain more than one serving size. This means that if you eat only what the serving size is, you will get the same amount of nutrients listed on the label.

For instance, if the serving size says one serving size is equal to 54 grams, that would mean you have to measure 54 grams and eat that and you have just eaten one serving.

Many packages will have more than one serving. If the food label says that each pack is equivalent to 4 servings, and you eat the whole thing, you have to calculate the amount of nutrients that have entered your body. If the food label says 250 calories per serving that means you have to multiply it by four to get the total amount of calories you have taken.

2. Nutrients

This is the list of nutrients available in a particular item. This is where the nutritional claims of the product based on the recommended daily dietary allowance are listed. Sometimes, the nutritional amounts are based on both the 2,500-calorie diets and the 2,000 recommended dietary allowances.

The “% daily value” that the label indicates is based on how much of a particular nutrient in a serving corresponds to the recommended daily dietary allowance for the nutrient.

For example, if a serving of food has 16 grams of fat and you eat four servings, then you have consumed 64 grams of fat.

3. Ingredients

This refers to the list of the ingredients that were used to manufacture the product. The listing is usually arranged from the most to the smallest quantity of ingredient. This really means that the actual quantity of the food includes the biggest quantity of the main ingredient or the first item and the minimum amount of the very last ingredient.

4. Additional label claims

This label will list some kind of additional nutritional claims for a food item. For instance, the label could state that the item is sodium free or fat free. If label says the item is sodium-free, this usually means it has less than 5 milligrams per serving and a low fat item can have up to 3 grams of fat or less.

Reading food labels can be tedious and confusing. But it is an important part of eating healthy. Once you get in the habit of reading label, it will be easier to watch your diet because you know and can control what you eat.

A great resource on nutrition is available from Markethealth.com. Check it out and click on nutrients. This is a free resource that offers some guidelines to healthy nutrition. It will help you make healthy food and lifestyle choices for you and your family. You’ll also find topics that will help improve your overall health and sense of well-being related to weight loss, relationships, diet, exercises, nutrition, vitamins, prevention, and more.