How to Read Food Labels. Interesting Facts to Bear in Mind
You cannot measure every morsel that passes your lips, but it is a good thought to measure most foods and beverages until you get a feel for portion sizes.
It is a supersized world out there, and the largest part of folks are surprised to find that their thought of a single serving is actually two or three.
If you are into bells and whistles, there are food scales that are preprogrammed with nutritional information, as well as scales that will keep a running total of your daily food and nutrient intake for you. The only tools you really need, however, are a easy and reasonably priced gram scale, dry and liquid measuring cups, and idea on reading food labels.
Among all of the mentioned tools, reading food labels seem to be the most successful method of determining the right kind of food to be bought in the supermarket. It lets you make sensible food selections. Through the “Nutrition Facts” section in a particular item in the grocery, you can identify the amount of serving sizes provided in that product.
With food labels, you can obviously know the amount and kinds of nutrients that are provided in the item. More often than not, it contains the information on saturated fat, sodium, total fat, fiber, and cholesterol amount “per serving.”
However, awareness and reading these food labels can be very perplexing. The typical user would definitely ask what those numbers mean and how it will affect her diet intake if ever she will religiously follow the serving guide as stipulated on the food label.
To further have a clear and more comprehensive understanding of the items stated in the food label, here is a list of things that you need to be knowledgeable about:
1. Serving size
This is the major thing you will see in a food label.
The amount of servings stated in the food label refers to the quantity of food folks usually consume. However, this does not necessarily mean that it reflects your very own amount of food intake.
Besides, serving size determines the amount of nutrients that enters the body. This means that if you will follow exactly what the serving size is, you will get the same amount of nutrients according to the serving size that was given in the label.
For instance, if the serving size says one serving size is equal to 54 grams, that would mean you have to measure 54 grams and consume that and you have just eaten one serving. Simply speaking, the amount of nutrients stated in the food label is the same amount that has entered your body considering the fact that you have just eaten 54 grams.
Though, if you have eaten everything, and the food label says that each pack is equivalent to 4 servings, you have to compute the amount of nutrients that have entered your body. This means that if the food label says 250 calories per serving that means you have to multiply it to four to get the sum amount of calories you have taken.
2. Nutrients
This refers to the list of available nutrients in a particular item. It is additionally where the nutritional claims of the product based on the recommended daily dietary allowance are stated. As a rule, the nutritional amounts are based on both the 2,500-calorie diets and the 2,000 suggested dietary allowances.
In order to realize the numeric value of each item, you should know that the “% daily value” that the food label indicates is in point of fact based on how a particular food corresponds to the recommended every day dietary allowance for a 2,000 calorie.
If in the event that you have purchased an item that has a dietary allowance diverse from the 2,000-calorie diet, you just have to divide the stipulated amount by 2,000 and you will be able to identify the “%daily value” for the nutrients.
3. Ingredients
This refers to the list of the ingredients that were used to produce the product. The listing is generally arranged from the main ingredients that have the greater amount by weight up to the smallest quantity. This simply means that the actual quantity of the food includes the biggest amount of the main ingredient or the first item and the minimum amount of the very last ingredient.
4. Label claim
This refers to the kinds of nutritional claims of a particular food item. For instance, if an item says it is sodium-free, it has less than 5 milligrams per serving or a low fat item essentially contains 3 grams of fat or less.
Indeed, reading food labels can be very tedious and puzzling. But, once you get the hang of it, it would be easier for you to watch your diet because you can already control the amount of food that you take.
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