Nutrition Label How-To

Modern supermarkets represent an abundance of choice: aisle after aisle of products, all competing for your eyes, shopping cart space, and eventually a place in your diet. With so many options, we often end up deciding what to eat based on brand awareness, packaging claims, or simply price. One easy step towards a healthier lifestyle is to pay attention to what is in the food you choose, and that means turning the package over, and taking stock of the ‘nutrition facts’ label.

Some packages hold more than one serving.

The first thing to note is the serving size and servings per package – subsequent nutritional information is provided "per serving", rather than per package – so glossing over the servings per package could completely throw out your diet if you assume that that bag of chips has one serving per pack, when it actually has four.

Check the calories per serving.

The next thing to note is the total number of calories (remembering these are per serving). If you’re not sure about your calorie intake, a healthy ball park of calories per day for a moderately active American adult is around 2000-2500. The more active your lifestyle, the more calories you need, but if you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll want to minimize your caloric intake.

Identify the "bad" nutrients.

The table of nutrients comes next, presented with percentage daily values (% DV) for a 2000 calorie diet. Values are presented for five macronutrient groups: fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and proteins. Of these, fat, cholesterol, and sodium are the "bad" nutrients, those you want to limit your intake of. Note that the Nutrition Facts labels list saturated and trans fats – the "bad" fats, as opposed to "good" poly- or monounsaturated fats.Also pay attention to sugars under total carbohydrate, which can be excessive, even in products marketing themselves as healthy.

Identify the "good" nutrients.

Dietary fiber however, also under total carbs, is a ‘good’ nutrient. Underneath protein are the rest of the "good" nutrients, those that you want to make sure you’re consuming enough of: vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron. Other "good" nutrients that may appear here are thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. An easy rule of thumb to quickly gauge whether a product is suitable for your needs: a % DV value less than 5% is low, and more than 20% is high. This applies to both good and bad nutrients; you’re aiming for low amounts of bad nutrients and high amounts of the good ones.

Understand your personal dietary needs.

Those with particular liver problems may have to pay special attention to certain nutrients, depending on their condition and their doctor’s advice – for instance, cirrhosis sufferers should avoid sodium. Understanding the nutrition label can help you better assess the claims made on the front of the packaging:generally "free", as in "cholesterol free", means the product contains the least possible amount of the nutrient. ‘Reduced’ or "less", mean that the product has around 25 % less of the nutrient than the regular version. "Very low" or "low: generally means somewhere between "free" and "reduced". As such, cirrhosis sufferers should opt for sodium free (less than 5 mg per serving) over low sodium (140 mg or less per serving) products.