Nutrition labels help consumers make healthier choices.
The first nutrition labels came out in 1986 with the intention of educating people about the connection between heart disease and diet. Since then, the nutrition labels have constantly been evolving to address our changing needs. Information about calories as well as calories from fat were added when the concern on obesity became very apparent. Of late, several key vitamins and minerals have likewise joined the nutrition labels.
The main purpose of the nutrition labels is to assist consumers to make healthier choices on the food they eat as it lists down the calories per serving size of the product. For people who are conscious about the amount of calories they take in each day, the nutrition labels prove to be a very useful tool.
But translating the nutrition facts from the label into your daily diet can be a bit difficult if you do not understand what it is that you need to look out for. Of the items found in the nutrition labels, only a few items really matter. Needless to say, most of the items on the nutrient facts can be ignored.
Here are the items that you should look out for:
1. Serving Size
Of the information found in the nutrition label, this is the most critical information of all as this is used for interpreting the rest of the numbers on the label. So, pay close attention to this.
The standard serving size of the product as well as the number of servings a package contains can usually be found at the top of the nutrition label. Do note that a single package do not always translate to one serving of the product.
For example, a bottle of juice may only have 75 calories per serving. However, that bottle may contain two and a half servings. This means that if you drink the whole bottle, you are actually consuming 225 calories and not 75 calories. Calories add up as you consume more servings.
Serving sizes are based on standard measures agreed upon by the USDA and the FDA. As mentioned above, almost all of the information on the nutrition label is based on the serving size indicated, from calories to grams of fat. To know how much calories you are actually consuming, it is important that you know what a serving is.
2. Saturated Fat and Trans Fat
Nutrition labels indicates the amount of the following fat facts of the product:
- Total fat: matters if you are trying to lose weight and want to follow a low-fat diet.
- Saturated fat: choose a product with low saturated fats if you want to prevent heart disease as this can increase cholesterol levels as well as the risk of heart disease.
- Trans fat: like saturated fat, trans fat can increase cholesterol levels as well as the risk of heart disease. Do note that product which contain half a gram or less of trans fat can still claim to be trans fat free. To check whether a product contains some trans fat, always check the ingredients list. If the product contains partially hydrogenated oils, then you know that it contains at least some amount of trans fat.
To keep you healthy, always look for foods that are low in both saturated fats and trans fat.
We will discuss more things to watch out for when reading Nutrition Labels on the next post.
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