How to Interpret Food Labels

It is not often that we can measure the food we eat, but it is still an excellent though to know how much we consume. This is especially important when we dine out. A lot of individuals are amazed to learn that single serving is in fact two or more.

There are a lot of tools that can be used to determine your total daily food and nutrient intake. However, the most helpful way of ascertaining the appropriate kind of food to be purchased is reading the food labels. Food labels give nutritional facts about foods such calories, fiber, total fat, vitamins and minerals “per serving”. You can also compare foods and choose the healthier ones. However, reading and interpreting food labels can be confusing and most of the time annoying.

You must be aware of the following things to have a clear and more in-depth comprehension of the items specified in the food label in order to make smart food choices.

1. Serving Size

This is the fundamental item you notice in a food label. The serving size tells you the size of each serving. The quantity of servings specified in the food label indicates the amount of food people normally eat. In addition, the amount of nutrients that goes into the body is determined by serving size. Nonetheless, this does not exactly suggest that it indicates the amount of your very own food intake.

For example, if the food label states one serving size is equivalent to 54 grams, this indicates you have to weigh 54 gram and consume that and you have just consumed one serving. In other words, the amount of nutrients stated in the food label is the same amount that has just got into your body taking into account the fact that you have just consumed 54 grams.

Nevertheless, if the food label states that every pack is equal to 4 servings and you have consumed all of it, you have to compute the quantity of nutrients that you have consumed. Therefore, if the food label says 250 calories per serving, you have to multiply it by four to determine the total calories you have consumed.

2. Nutrients

This section refers to the list of nutrients available in the food package. You can find the nutritional claims of the product here. Normally, the nutritional amounts are on based on both the 2,500 and 2,500 calorie diets.

You must know that the “% daily value” indicated in food labels shows how a particular food corresponds to the recommended daily dietary allowance for a 2,000 calorie diet in order to understand the value of each item.

If the dietary allowance of the item that you bought is different from the 2,000 calorie diet, all you have to do is divide the specified quantity by 2,000 and you will be able to determine the “% daily value”.

3. Ingredients

Each product should indicate the ingredients that were used to make the product. These ingredients are usually listed from the greatest to the smallest amount by weight. To simply put it, a food contains the biggest quantity of the first ingredient and the smallest quantity of the last ingredient.

4. Label claim

This denotes the types of nutritional claims of a certain food item. Examples of these claims are low cholesterol (at least 25% less cholesterol and 2 g. or less of saturated fat), sodium-free (has less than 5 milligrams per serving), low fat (3 g. of fat or less), cholesterol free (less than 2 milligrams (mg.) cholesterol and 2 g. or less of saturated fat), fat-free or sugar-free (less than 0.5 gram (g.) of fat or sugar), low calorie (40 calories or less).

Without a doubt, reading food labels can be confusing and boring. Even so, once you become good at it, watching what you eat is a lot easier because now you can control the amount of food that you take.