While you’re shopping, understanding the nutrition labels on food can help you make smart choices for your family. We can help you make the most of them.
New Food Label for a New Era
In May, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new Nutrition Facts label with some important improvements:
When you see them side by side, you can see that the new label calls out the actual serving size and calories per serving much bigger. At the store, this can quickly help you see how good for you something is in terms of calories, and how much bang for your buck you’re getting in what you buy.
It also calls out added sugars, which are sugars (like sugar, honey, or corn syrup) that are added to packaged food. Fresh fruit has natural sugars, so juices don’t list the sugar that’s naturally occurring from the fruit as added sugar.
And now it calls out the exact amount of nutrients, like vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium.
The FDA’s new labels have also changed serving sizes to better show how much people actually eat of certain foods:
While a half a cup of ice cream used to be the recommended serving size, most people are scooping out closer to a cup, so the FDA wanted to make sure you know how many calories you’re actually eating in that bowl of ice cream.
Making the Most of Food Labels
1. Serving Size
When you pick something up at the store, start with the serving size on the Nutrition Facts label.
It will tell you the total number of servings in the package, and the new serving size, which better shows how much of it you actually eat.
These serving sizes are standard, so it’s easier for you to compare the calories and nutrients in similar foods to find the healthiest brand for you. Serving sizes also come in measurements you know, like cups, followed by grams.
2. Calories
Next, look at the number of calories per serving. Calories are a measure of how much energy you’ll get from food.
Many people eat more calories than they need to, so keeping track of how many you eat can help you with your weight. Most people should eat around 2,000 calories per day.
When you’re looking at the calories, if you’re eating around 2,000 calories a day, then 40 calories is low for a serving, 100 calories is in the middle, and 400 or more calories is high. In fact, you should shoot for whole meals to be around 400 calories.
3. Nutrients to Limit
The nutrients listed first are ones that most Americans get plenty or too much of.
Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, or sugar can raise your risk of certain diseases, like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
The bold headlines are most helpful for you when you’re shopping, so you can quickly see how much of these is in something, while the subheads, like saturated and trans fat, can help you focus on a nutrient you’re interested in.
The percentages along the side tell you how much of your 2,000 calorie diet this food takes up. So in this image, the total fat in this food takes up 10% of all the fat you should eat in a whole day.
Dietary fiber and protein that are mixed into this list are good for you and important to keep an eye on. Fiber can help you better process food and reduce the risk of heart disease, and protein can help you stay full longer and is important if you’re trying to build muscle.
4. Nutrients You Need
The bottom section of nutrients are ones that many don’t get enough of, so they’ve been highlighted to help you buy foods rich in them.
These are nutrients that can help you improve your health and help lower the risk of some diseases. For example, calcium and vitamin D can help you build strong bones and lower your risk of getting osteoporosis later in life, and potassium can help lower your blood pressure.
5. Footnote
The footnote is more simple in the new design, too. It just reminds you that the percentages are based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.
Now that you know what the different sections of the Nutrition Facts label are telling you, it will be easy to look for food with good calorie counts, limited salt, fat, and sugar, and plenty of healthy nutrients, like calcium.
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