The “Nutrition Facts” label in its current form has been around for a pretty long time, becoming mandatory for most pre-packaged foods in December 2005.
The purpose of the Nutrition Facts labels is to help you make a choice between similar products. For instance, two brands of breads, or cereals, or soups, or cheeses. The objective is to pick the healthier one.
So lets take bagels, for example. The very first thing you need to look at is the serving size on the label. One brand may list a serving as a whole bagel, while another might list a half a bagel. So, the first thing you need to consider is, how much are you likely to eat? If you’re likely to eat a whole bagel, then in order to compare products, you’ll need to do some mental math to multiply the serving size and all the other numbers by 2 to reflect the larger amount of food.
The next thing to note is calories. The average adult needs roughly 1800-2200 calories daily, depending on age, sex, and activity level. So when the cheesecake label says it has 650 calories per slice, you should recognize that that’s potentially a third of your calorie needs for the day. (I know, sad but true.)
The next important group of numbers to understand is the %DV (Percent Daily Value). The daily value for each nutrient is based on the highest requirement across all the demographics for age and sex, and so should meet the needs of anyone over the age of 2. Don’t bother trying to use these numbers to track your intake – too many foods, namely fresh fruits, vegetables and meats, don’t have labels. The numbers are used to determine if there is a little or a lot of something in the food. Typically, if a nutrient meets 5% or less of the DV, it has a little. If it meets 20% or more of the DV, it has a lot.
Nutrients to decrease are saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium. The actual amounts of these are listed, but it’s far easier to use the %DV as your guide. Fibre is also listed, and that’s one to increase. Sugar content gets a little tricky because you can’t distinguish natural sugars (eg. from fruit) from added sugars; it’s best to read the ingredient list to get a good idea or what’s in the product. Finally, the content of Vitamins A & C, as well as iron and calcium are also reported as many of us do not get enough of these nutrients, so it’s a good idea to look these as well.
I hope I’ve helped to make grocery shopping a little easier for you. With a little practice, you’ll be an expert!
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