HO, HO,
HO!

Learning to use those
Jolly Good Food Labels

by Lin Stone

Since 1994 food manufacturers have been required by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include food labels
(or Nutrition Facts labels) on product packaging so that
consumers have accurate nutritional information about the food
they purchase. Once you understand the information they provide,
you can use food labels as a guide to planning healthier meals and
snacks for your family.

Whether you're concerned about cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or simply losing weight, you want to eat a healthy diet and focus on foods that are high in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and balanced in fats, carbs, proteins.

There is only one way to incorporate healthy foods into our diet and that is to make the decision to do it! Practical information about the nutrition and safety of the foods we consume is absolutely vital in making this decision.		   YOU can help the seventy Five Million people who are suffering from being overweight, underinsured, pregnant, unable to afford insurance, or afflicted with pre-existing conditions that NOBODY will cover. You can really help. Click HERE and tell your friends all about it.

One way to learn more about what we eat, is to snoop around the supermarket with a little notebook in your hand. Start with the food you actually eat plenty of.  Check-out package labels to see what manufactures are adding

(or removing)

from the foods we eat. Read the information on the packages and start making comparisons to other brands and other foods to determine which foods are the best for YOU.  You will want to be aware of the nutritional labeling and the sometimes sneaky ways that manufacturers have of hiding what is in the food they package. This little report will help you Know and Understand the ingredient declarations you are looking at, how they are used, and what a few of the "technical" terms mean.

The question you want to resolve is:
Are the unfamiliar ingredients good or bad for your health?
Since 1994 food manufacturers have been required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include food labels (or Nutrition Facts labels) on product packaging so that consumers have accurate nutritional information about the food they purchase. But food labels are more than just a federal requirement – once you understand the information they provide, you can use food labels as a guide to planning healthier meals and snacks.

Food labels are required on almost all foods, except those that don't provide many nutrients anyway -- such as coffee, alcohol and spices.

Although some restaurants do go to the trouble to provide information about the food they serve, they aren't required to have labels on the food being served.

The FDA recommends that sellers provide nutritional information on produce, meat, poultry and seafood, but again -- it's strictly voluntary.

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How Much Is a Serving?

That puzzles the dickens out of everyone, doesn't it?  One company can call it an ounce and the next one call it two.  When you are making comparisons you must be more accurate than that.  At the top of a food label under Nutrition Facts, you'll see the serving size and the estimated number of servings in the package. The rest of the nutrition information in the label is based on how much that one serving is supposed to be.

Counting Calories,
Calories From Fat
and Perceived Percent Daily Values

This part of a food label provides the calories per serving and the calories that come from fat. If you need to know the total number of calories you eat every day or the number of calories that come from fat, this section provides that information. Remember that this part of the label doesn't tell you whether you are eating saturated or unsaturated fat.

On the right side of a food label, you'll see a column that lists percentages. These percentages refer to the percent daily values (%DV). Percent daily values tell you how much of something, whether it's fat, sugar or vitamin A, one serving will give you compared to how much you need for the entire day.

It will help you gauge the percentage of a nutrient requirement met by one serving of the product. One way to use this section of the label is when you comparison shop. For example, if your health needs demand you be concerned with the amount of sodium you take into your system, you can look at two foods and choose the food with the lower % DV.  Are you trying to eat a low-fat diet? Just look for foods that have a lower percent daily value of fat.

The %DV is based on how much or how little of the key nutrients you should eat if you are limited to 2,000 or 2,500 calories a day. So if you are on a 2,000-calorie per day diet, the grams of fat in all the foods you eat for the day should add up to LESS than 65.

Consequently, if you're eating 12 grams of fat in your one serving of macaroni and cheese (remember that's just one cup), you can calculate how much fat you can allow yourself during the rest of the day. You can use the bottom part of the food label in white to compare what you are eating to the % DV your diet allows for that nutrient, whether it's fat, sodium or fiber. If you need more or less than 2,000 or 2,500 calories, you'll need to adjust these figures accordingly.

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Nutrients

Fat, Sugar, Sodium and Carbohydrate

The sections on a food label has the name of a nutrient and then shows the amount of that nutrient provided by one serving of food. You may need to know this information, especially if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or are eating a diet that restricts certain nutrients such as sodium or carbohydrates.

Food labels also include information about how much sugar and protein is in the food. If you are following a low-sugar diet or you're monitoring your protein intake, it's easy to spot how much of those nutrients are contained in one serving.

Vitamins, Minerals and Other Information

The light purple part of the label lists nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the food and their percent daily values. Try to average 100% DV every day for vitamins A and C, calcium, iron and fiber. Do the opposite with fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. Try to eat less than 100% DV of these.

Common Mistakes to Avoid
When Reading a Food Label

It's easy to become confused. Avoid these common mistakes when reading labels until you become accustomed to reading food labels.

-A label may say that the food is reduced fat or reduced sodium. That means that the amount of fat or sodium has been reduced by 25% from the original product. It doesn't mean, however, that the food is actually low in fat or sodium. For example, even if a can of soup that originally had 1,000 milligrams of sodium has been reduced by 25% then the reduced sodium product would still be a high-sodium food.

-Don't confuse the % DV for fat with the percentage of calories from fat. If the % DV is 15% that doesn't mean that 15% of the calories comes from fat. Rather, it means that you're using up 15% of all the fat you need for a day with one serving (based on a meal plan of 2,000 calories per day).

-Don't make the mistake of assuming that the amount of sugar on a label means that the sugar has been added. For example, milk naturally has sugar, which is called lactose. But that doesn't mean you should stop drinking milk because milk is full of other important nutrients including calcium.

Reading Label Lingo

In addition to requiring that packaged foods contain a Nutrition Facts label, the FDA also regulates the use of phrases and terms used on the product packaging. Here's a list of common phrases you may see on your food packaging and what they actually mean.

No fat or fat free - When you see these words on the label what this means is that it contains less than 1/2 gram of fat per serving.  Lower or reduced fat: Contains at least 25 percent less per serving than the reference food. (A good example of this might be reduced fat cream cheese, which would have at least 25 percent less fat than original cream cheese.)

Low fat - Contains less than 3 grams of fat per serving.

Lite - Contains 1/3 the calories or 1/2 the fat per serving of the original version or a similar product.

No calories or calorie free - Contains less than 5 calories per serving.

Low calories - Contains 1/3 the calories of the original version or a similar product.

Sugar free - Contains less than 1/2 gram of sugar per serving.

Reduced sugar - at least 25% less sugar per serving than the reference food.

No preservatives - Contains no preservatives (chemical or natural).

No preservatives added - Contains no added chemicals to preserve the product. However, you should bear in mind that some of these products may contain natural preservatives.

Low sodium - Contains less than 140 mgs of sodium per serving.

No salt or salt free - Contains less than 5 mgs of sodium per serving.

High fiber - 5 g or more per serving (Foods making high-fiber claims must meet the definition for low fat, or the level of total fat must appear next to the high-fiber claim).

Good source of fiber - 2.5 g to 4.9 g. per serving.

More or added fiber - Contains at least 2.5 g more per serving than the reference food.

***************

With a little practice, you will be able to put your new found knowledge about food labeling to work. Reassess your diet and decide what needs to be changed. Start by eliminating the foods that don't measure-up to your nutritional wants and needs, and replacing them with more nutritional substitutes.

And while you're at it, visit the FDA website and learn about the new labeling requirements, including those for "trans" fat. Like saturated fats, trans fats can raise levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and increase your risk of heart disease. The "Nutrition Facts" panel on food packaging must provide this information beginning January 1, 2006, but most manufacturers will start providing it sooner.

Independently less than wealthy, Lin Stone writes how to articles
to help the writing trade. Along with his contributions you'll find
14,000 resource articles for writers on http://www.talewins.com/
His first book, HOW TO BUY LAND AT TAX SALES, is so good it is still
selling after eight years. Lin's latest contributions are posted on
http://www.talewins.com/StoneSoup.htm

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HO, HO, HO. Learning to use those Jolly Good Food Labels  

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