First Author: Alan Hardcastle

Second Author: Jennifer Schneider

Article

Reading a Food Label

Think of a nutrition label as the table of contents to your food. The nutrition label provides useful facts such as the ingredients, calories, and grams of fat to name a few. 

Serving size:

Serving sizes are listed in standard measurements like cups or ounces. Be sure if you are counting calories that if you double the serving that you double your calorie intake as well.

• Serving sizes are often hard to picture. Use the following to help visualize a serving size.

^[1]

Calories:

The amount of energy in the food.  

• The total amount of calories is determined by adding all of the calories from the macronutrients carbohydrate, protein, and fat.
• How many calories are in each of the macronutrients^[2]?
  • Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram
  • Proteins contain 4 calories per gram
  • Fats contain 9 calories per gram

Nutrients:

Companies must list the nutrients in their product and provide the percent daily value. Remember to limit foods that are high in total fat, trans fat, sodium, and sugar. ^[3]

Foodlabel Picture^[4]

How to read a food label? Watch this video

Copy and paste this URL in browser to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyhKRVM0LvY

Tips from the Video:

• Dietary fiber and Sugar are part of the total carbohydrate
• Dietary fiber is recommeded for healthy diets
• People with diabetes should watch their carbohydrate intake ^[5]
  • They should mostly consider their sugar intake