Is This Really Good For Me?

One of the most important things that a lot of people don’t do when they shop for groceries is read the labels.

If you are person who has certain food allergies, needs to watch cholesterol or sodium intake, counting calories, or just want to know what you are eating, it is important to learn how to read the food labels.



Food Label Image from MSWord clip art



Start with the serving size.  How much is a serving?  Then look at the calories per serving.  Most breads list the serving size as one slice.  So, if a slice of bread has 160 calories, two slices would be 320 calories. Remember to look at the calories from fat.  If a food item has 150 calories and 140 of those calories are from fat, you might want to rethink eating it.

The next thing you want to pay attention to are thing you really want to limit in your diet.  That is fats, cholesterol, and sodium.  You want to limit your fat intake to no more than 58-78 grams of fat per day.  Keep the saturated fat down to 16 grams or less and your cholesterol to less than 300 mg per day.  (This is for a 2000 calorie per day diet.)

Many people get too much sodium in their diets.  The recommended sodium intake for sodium is 2300 mg per day.  The human body only requires 1500 mg per day that is less than a teaspoon of salt. Look at your food labels and calculate how much sodium you are taking in per day.  Are you surprised?

Now look at the good stuff, the vitamins and minerals that the food provides. 

Compare the percent (%) of daily values.  A value of 5% or less is low so you want things like sodium, sugars and fats to be less than 5% and vitamins and minerals to be higher.


This video from the American Diabetess Association shows how to read the "Nutrition Facts"

For more information about reading food labels, go to the American Heart Association’s website article Reading Food Nutrition Labels or the Mayo Clinic’s website article Nutrition and Healthy Eating.

In the comment section below, please feel free to discuss your opinions on nutrition labels and if you read them.