How to Read Nutrition Labels on Food

It's not always easy to interpret nutrition labels on food packages. Here's how to decipher the serving size, calorie count, and daily value information on these labels. It might be difficult to decipher food labels. Learning how to decipher them, on the other hand, might help you make more informed food choices, especially if you're attempting to stick to a balanced diet. You're not alone if you have problems reading food labels. It turns out that a lot of people have trouble understanding them.

In a 2013 survey of over 3,000 persons in the United States who looked at an ice cream nutrition label, nearly a quarter couldn't figure out how many calories were in the entire container. We'll go through the different components of food labels and how you may utilize them to your advantage in this article.

Size of the Serving

The serving size is listed at the top of the nutrition label and indicates how much of that food or beverage is normally consumed. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States, on the other hand, cautions that "it is not a prescription of how much you should eat or drink."

Serving sizes are stated in conventional units, such as cups or pieces, to make comparing similar dishes easier. "Servings per container" is also mentioned at the top of the product label, which estimates how much of the listed serving size is included in one container or box of that food.

This is significant because, as we'll see later, the rest of the nutrition label's calorie count, nutrient levels, and daily values are normally provided per serving. If you eat more than the recommended serving size, increase the calories and nutrients by the number of servings.

Serving size (calories)

This value indicates how much energy one serving of this dish contains. Calories are energy units. Our bodies burn calories when we exercise, and we acquire calories when we consume foods and beverages. When the number of calories we consume equals the number of calories we burn, we maintain our body weight.

How many calories should you consume on a daily basis? It depends on your age, gender, weight, height, and amount of physical activity you engage in. The MyPlate.gov website of the United States Department of Agriculture can assist you in calculating how many calories you require. While the number of calories required per day varies from person to person, nutrition labels often base their figures on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet.

Tables of nutrients

The majority of the nutrition label consists of a table listing several nutrients, their amounts in the item, and their percent daily value.

First, let's look at the nutrient amounts. These are usually listed in metric units such as grams. Saturated fat, salt, and added sugars should all be limited, according to the FDA. On the other hand, diets abundant in fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium are beneficial because these are nutrients that most Americans lack. "Total sugars" and "added sugars" are indicated on some food labels. Sugars that are added during the manufacturing of food are known as added sugars. Total sugars include both naturally occurring and added sugars in a food.

Daily Value in Percentage ( percent DV)

According to the FDA, daily values are "reference amounts (given in grams, milligrams, or micrograms) of nutrients to take or not exceed each day." So the % daily value tells you how much one serving of that meal adds to the amount of a specific nutrient you should be getting, or not getting in other situations.

A simple way to determine whether a food is high or low in a certain nutrient is to look at the percentages. What constitutes a high or low score? According to the FDA, a food with a daily value of less than 5% of a nutrient is deemed deficient in that nutrient. A score of 20% or higher is considered high.

It's worth noting that the meaning of daily values varies based on the nutrient. A daily value indicates that you should consume at least that quantity of a nutrient on a daily basis in various instances. In some circumstances, it's the amount of that vitamin that you should avoid exceeding.

Furthermore, some components, such as trans fat, which should be avoided at all costs, lack a % daily value.

List of Ingredients

Ingredients are listed at the bottom of the nutrition tables on food labels. These are normally arranged in order of the ingredient with the highest concentration.

Food manufacturers indicate substances that may cause allergies at the bottom of the ingredients list, such as milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.

Food labels come in a variety of styles. Some labels display the % daily value for a single serving as well as the entire container. The FDA has a comprehensive collection of food label modifications available here.