Do you know how to read food labels?

Posted on Monday June 13th, 2011 by FranRodriguez

Food packaging contains a lot of nutritional information. But do you know how to interpret what is on the labels of the foods you buy?

¿Sabes leer las etiquetas de los alimentos?

Labels tell you about the quantity of the product inside. They also tell you about the composition and quality of the product\’s ingredients, including information on calories, protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, sodium content, vitamins, minerals, and more. This enables you to compare foods, helping you decide which foods are beneficial to your health and which are not.

Here\’s an example of a product label (a can of vegetable soup):

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1/2 can (205 g)

Servings Per Container  2
Amount Per Serving
Calories 130               Calories from Fat 30
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3.5 g                                        5%

Saturated Fat  0.5 g                  3%

Trans Fat  0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg                                   0%
Sodium 240 mg                                  12%
Total Carbohydrate 19 g                     6 %

Dietary Fiber 5 g                   20%

Sugars 4 g

Protein 6 g
Vitamin A 30%            *       Vitamin C  15%

Calcium 4%                *         Iron 15%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

At the top of any food label, you\’ll always find the total calories that the food contains per serving, as well as the total calories in the package overall. With respect to the above product, if you eat the entire product in the package you will be taking in a total of 260 calories (130 calories per serving x 2 servings). Bear in mind that an hour of dancing burns off approximately 370 calories, an hour of jogging burns off approximately 675 calories, an hour of brisk walking burns off approximately 300 calories, while an hour of sleeping burns off approximately 45 calories.

Always look for foods with relatively low percent daily values of sodium and trans fat, relatively high percent daily values of fiber, and relatively high percent daily values of protein.

Some food labels, especially those for sports and nutritional supplements, will also tell you how much of certain key nutrients you should consume each day. This will give you a good idea of whether you\’re taking in enough of a certain nutrient or not.

At Sportize.me, we always recommend that you read the labels of everything you eat. It will help you stay healthy.

If you\’d like more specific information on carbohydrates, proteins, fats, or vitamins and minerals, feel free to look up our other Blog articles on nutrition.

Take care of yourself, and remember that you are what you eat!

 

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  • Lisa Wright

    A service in my Training Studio is Healthy Supermarket Shopping Tours. Here is a link to my Quick Reference Guide to Food Labeling.

    http://www.ypbtrainingstudio.com/tabid/1661/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/78/Quick-Reference-Guide-to-Food-Labeling.aspx

  • Jennifer Buntz

    In the US, we get serving size, # servings per container first, which is important. All the subsequent information is based on this serving size. Typically the serving size is pretty small, so the information that follows may need to be increased if the person consumes a larger amount. Calories per serving comes next – total calories per their stated serving size. Then total fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrates and protein. Where applicable, total fat will be broken down (saturated, trans fat, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated). If these were listed in order of best to worst, it would be polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, then saturated and trans fat tied for last. Carbohydrates are given as total, and a sub category of sugars. Sugars are the simple carbohydrates, which typically you want to minimized in your diet. To get complex carbohydrate amount, subtract sugars from the total. This is the number you want to be larger.
    Then, when applicable, the label will give amounts of nutrients and the % RDA, recommended daily amount. This is based on the amount recommended for an adult eating a 2000 calorie diet – doesn’t reflect increased needs for women or children for some nutrients.
    There are some other points – how much information are you interested in?

  • Harish Srivastava

    interesting and useful article…

  • http://premierluxuryrentals.com luxury limousine

    You may have given all of us a fresh look on this. I’m going to ensure that is stays in the mind. Looking onward to the second review.