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Do you know how to read food labels?
With March being National Nutrition Month, it’s a great time to talk about the nutrition labels found on most of the foods we buy at the store.
Food labels can be a helpful guide to healthier eating, but many of us don’t understand what the serving size and percent daily value mean for us.
Take it from the top
The first place to start on the labels is the serving size and servings per container. Servings sizes, for the most part, are standards expressed in familiar amounts such as ounces, grams, cups, etc.
Although you may eat more than one serving of any food at a time, remember that the calories, grams of fat, carbohydrates, and other nutrients listed on the label are based on the serving size listed on the food item.
For example, you might think a can of soup is one serving, yet the nutrition label says it is two servings. In this case, if you eat the entire can of soup, then you need to double the values listed on the nutrition label, such as calories, fat, protein, etc.
Go to the side and bottom
The percent daily values are based on the daily recommendations for key nutrients based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. Many of us have requirements that are higher or lower than 2,000 calories a day based on our age, gender, activity level, and overall health.
Do you know how many calories you need each day to maintain your health? You can discuss this with your doctor, and several sites on the Internet can help. CVS Caremark, a company the WEA Trust works with on pharmacy benefits, provides an easy tool for anyone to calculate daily calorie needs:
https://www.caremark.com/wps/portal/HEALTH_RESOURCES?topic=calneed
Once you know your individual needs, the serving size, servings per food item and percent daily values featured on the nutrition label will become an even better guide to healthier living.
Other useful resources:
Download a brochure on nutrition labels from the FDA. A 10 page .pdf titled How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label is also available online.
Want some fun?
Take a quiz on
Nutrition: Fact or Fiction? You can also play Food Suduko or do a Word Search online at eatright.org, sponsored by the American Dietetic Association.
Enter the BAM! Game Room for even more healthy online fun. (Sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
