How to Read a Food Label Correctly

Knowing how to interpret what’s in your food can be tricky – here’s a quick guide on how to read a food label:

The first thing you need to know when buying products is that anything written on the outside of the box or bag may or may not be true, it is mostly marketing used to get you to buy it. The only regulated information is what is on the label. Use this label as an example as you read.

1. Serving Size – Look at this first, this is the most important information on the label. All information contained in that label will be for whatever serving size is listed. Compare this to what serving you usually consume of this item. If the serving size is half a cup and you usually consume 1 cup, you’ll need to multiply everything on that label by 2 to accurately figure what you are eating/drinking.

2. Calories – Calories are the amount of energy provided in a food. The total amount of energy provided from each macronutrient (carbohydrate, fat and protein) is added up to tell you how much you get from that serving. Eating too many calories is associated with overweight and obesity.

• Low calorie foods – 50 calories or less
• Moderate calorie – 100
• High calorie 400+

3. Total Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium – these three items you’ll want to limit. Under total fat you’ll see items that are not bolded and are slightly shifted to the right (saturated, polyunsaturated, trans fats) these are simply what make up the total fat number together.

Total fat will vary on the person. For the average person, you’ll want to limit cholesterol to less than 300 mg a day and sodium under 1500 mg a day (per the American Heart Association).

4. Total Carbohydrate – I separate this one from the pack because this is the most often misunderstood part of the label. Here, again you will see that fiber and sugar are not bold and are slightly moved to the right, just as they were in the Total fat. That means that the fiber and sugar amounts (along with other items that food companies aren’t required to list) make up the total in the total carbohydrates. Fiber and sugar are both carbohydrates so that is why they are listed as they are.

This is particularly important for people with diabetes. Often people with diabetes solely concentrate on the amount of sugar in a product. Sugar is not the only thing that will raise your blood sugar – all carbohydrates will. So when looking at a product, be sure to focus on the total carbohydrates.

This is especially important when buying sugar-free foods. If you look on a sugar-free food label, you might notice there is no sugar, but there may still be carbohydrates. These will affect your blood sugar.

5. Sugar – Sugar is found in most foods. Unfortunately, the label does not tell you what is natural occurring in the product and what is added.

6. Fiber – As I mentioned before, fiber is one of the components of the total carbohydrates, however, it is an indigestible carbohydrate, so if you have a high fiber item, you can actually subtract all of the fiber from the total carbohydrates.

If a food product has 5 g of fiber or more, you can subtract all of it from the total carbohydrates. So if a food has 29 grams of total carbohydrates and 9 g of fiber, that would mean that really only 20 g of carbohydrate will affect your blood sugar – this can be significant when counting carbohydrates.

7. Protein – This is simply the amount of protein listed in a food.

8. Vitamins and Minerals – The FDA requires food manufacturers to list amounts for vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron found in the food product. Others listed are voluntarily provided by the company.

9. Footnote – Under the vitamins and minerals you will see a foot note that gives information based on a 2,000 calorie and 2,500 calorie diet. This does not pertain to everyone so it is not useful for all people.

10. Percentage of Daily Value – You may have noticed, and perhaps used, the percentages that run down the right side of the label. These percentages are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. I usually tell people to ignore these since not everyone is on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Mandy Seay is a registered and licensed dietitian. She works as a nutrition consultant in Austin, Texas specializing in diabetes, weight loss, lipid control and preventative nutrition. For more health articles and nutrition information, check out Mandy’s website Nutritionistics.

Advertisement