Reading Food Labels 101
Overview:
So, let’s talk about food labels. Food labels are something that we all see almost everyday and yet they can still be extremely confusing to look at. The helpful thing about food labels, is that all of the information is right in front of you. Decoding it is the hard part. Together, we are going to tackle how to accurately read and fully understand food labels one easy step at a time. Here are 4 simple steps to always remember when faced with a nutrition food label.
#1. Start With Serving Size
A serving size is one single serving in any package you are looking at. The serving size also includes how many servings are in the total container.
Serving sizes typically reflect the amount that the general population eats or drinks.
WARNING: *This is not a recommendation of how much you should eat or drink.*
Take note that the serving size you look at is different than a “portion size”.
A portion size is simply the amount of food you chose to eat.
Let me simply all of this for you by giving you an example. Say you have a bag of Original Lay’s Potato Chips in front of you. Take your eyes over to the serving size and notice what the package tells you. It says:
The serving size for Original Lay’s Potato Chips are about 15 chips.
It also tells you that there are 8 servings in the entire bag.
That means, if you were to sit and eat the whole bag of those Original Lay’s Potato Chips, you would be consuming approximately 120 chips. That’s a lot of chips!
SUMMARY
It’s easy to get confused with nutrition labels. Always remember that the first step to reading a nutrition label is starting with the serving size. This will tell you how many servings are in the package and how much the general public typically eats in one serving.
#2. Look At The Calories
Let us start with what a calorie even is. This word comes up so often, but do we really know what it is? Put simply, a calorie:
Is a measure of how much energy we get from a serving of food.
Calories provide energy in the form of heat, so that our bodies can function.
Letting our bodies store & “burn” calories for fuel.
Now, let’s look at what information calories can give you on a nutrition label. Calories are easy to find when looking at a food label because it’s written in the biggest font size. When you look right above the word calories, you will see the words “amount per serving”. This means that the amount of calories you are looking at, is for just 1 serving.
Assuming we are looking at the same bag of Original Lay’s Potato Chips that we spoke about earlier, the nutrition label tells us:
There are 160 calories in 1 serving of about 15 chips
If you were to calculate the total amount of calories in the entire bag, that would be 1,280 calories.
To get that number, you would multiply 2 things.
The amount of calories per serving.
The number of servings per container.
SUMMARY
A calorie is just a fancy word for energy. Calories are easy to find on the food label due to the large print. Make sure to pay attention to the calories per serving and how many calories you are actually consuming.
#3. Look For “Good” Vs. “Bad” Nutrients
When looking at a nutrition food label, most of the label consists of all the nutrients in the package. When I talk about nutrients, I am referring to not only the vitamins and minerals but the fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, sugars and protein. A lot of the time we think about nutrients only being the “good” on the food label, rather than the “bad”. Recognizing which nutrients will benefit your body and which nutrients won’t, is the key.
Nutrients you want to get less of: (in no particular order)
Saturated Fat, Sodium, & Added Sugars.
Saturated Fats and Sodium are nutrients that are associated with an increased risk of developing certain health conditions.
Added Sugars are sugars added into the product in the production stage. These sugars are unnecessary for consumption and should be avoided at all costs.
Nutrients you want to get more of: (in no particular order)
Dietary Fiber, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Choline, Magnesium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D & Vitamin E
All of these nutrients are typically what the general population lacks in their everyday diets.
Getting a variety of nutrients can help prevent diseases later on in life.
SUMMARY
Remember that the food label is made up of “good” and “bad” nutrients. Be able to recognize nutrients to get less of: Saturated Fat, Sodium & Added Sugars and the nutrients to get more of: Calcium, Choline, Dietary Fiber, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D & Vitamin E.
#4. Understand % Daily Value
The % Daily Value (%DV) is how much of one nutrient you should consume per day (based on a 2000 calorie per day diet). When looking at the %DV, it helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient.
There are 2 general guidelines when looking at the %DV.
The 1st guideline is, 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered LOW.
The 2nd guideline is 20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered HIGH.
What does all of that mean? More often than not, you want to chose foods that are:
Higher in %DV in the beneficial nutrients we talked about earlier.
Lower in the %DV in the nutrients that don’t benefit your body.
SUMMARY
The %DV is how much of one nutrient you should consume per day. Chose foods higher in %DV for Dietary Fiber, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron & Potassium. Choose foods lower in %DV for Saturated Fat, Sodium & Added Sugars.
Tips to remember!
Remember that the information shown on the label is based on a diet that is 2,000 calories a day. YOUR body might need more or less than that, depending on a bunch of factors.
The number of servings that you consume determines the number of calories that you actually eat. Eating too many calories per day is linked to being overweight.
Get less of Saturated Fat, Sodium & Added Sugars.
Get more nutrients such as Dietary Fiber, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron & Potassium.
Use nutrition food labels to support YOUR personal dietary needs.
