Nutrition Facts Label: How To Understand Them To Make Healthy Food Choices

Ever noticed that every food item you purchase comes with a nutrition facts label on it? To make informed food choices and practice healthy eating habits, these labels can come as a handy tool. In many countries, the nutritional information panel is a must on all packaged foods.

Nutrition facts mentioned on food packages can sometimes be tricky to understand. These days everyone is so health conscious and wants to buy healthy foods without being tricked into buying unhealthy foods. Sometimes manufacturers use misleading tricks in order to convince buyers that their products are healthy enough.

But as long as you understand how to read the nutrition label on food packages, nobody can cheat you. However, food labeling regulations can sometimes be complex and make it harder for people to understand them. In fact, a 2013 study has reported that several consumers find it difficult to interpret nutrition labels.

Here’s how you should read the food labels and make informed food choices:

Firstly, do not trust everything mentioned on the label. The front labels can try to lure you into buying the product by making health claims. The addition of such health claims to front labels could make you believe that a food item is healthier than the same product sold by another brand that doesn’t list it. Understand that manufacturers can sometimes be dishonest about the information they present on food labels.

Although the nutrition label can vary with each food or beverage product, they all contain information divided into four main sections including serving information, calories, nutrients, and percent daily value.

1. Pay attention to the serving size

Serving information refers to the number of servings in the food package alongside the serving size. It reflects the amount that people typically consume and is not a recommendation of how much you really should. It is important to pay attention to the serving size, particularly the number of servings mentioned in the food package.

2. Check out what the total calories are

Calories refer to the measure of how much energy you will get from consuming a serving of the food item. But do not overlook what is mentioned on the label. It might mention the number of calories per serving of the product. So, if you end up consuming the whole packet, you should know how to calculate the total calories you would have consumed.

3. Find out what nutrients the product contains

The label also lists all the key nutrients present in the food product that impact human health. Look for food packages that mention more of the nutrients you want to get more of and less of what you want to limit. Nutrients include fiber, vitamins, minerals, fat, sodium, added sugars, etc.

4. Let the Percent Daily Value guide you

The percent daily value is the percentage of the daily value for each nutrient that each serving of the packaged food contains. It refers to how much of a particular nutrient in a serving of the food contributes to a total daily diet. This detail is crucial to help determine if a serving of the food item is high or low in a particular nutrient that you might be interested in.

5. Look at the ingredient list

Product ingredients will be listed by quantity in descending order. The manufacturer would have mentioned the most used ingredient on the top. Scan the first three ingredients as they are what make up the largest part of the food item. If one of the first three ingredients include refined grains, hydrogenated oils, or sugars, it means the item is unhealthy.