By Staff
How many times have we heard: make sure you read the labels on what you eat so you know how many grams of fat and calories you are taking in.
How many of us have no clue how to read these labels? Well, if you do not know, do not feel alone. There are many of us that do not understand the meaning behind the dreadful food LABEL! In fact, many of us may not want to know. If you know, then you are more conscious about what you are taking in your mouth. One reader did want to know, so I will try my best to simply explain the basics.
First let's go through the basic steps of reading a food label:
1. Always check your serving size
This way you can adjust the other numbers accordingly if you eat more or less than the serving size. For example, if it is stated that the serving size is _ cup and you eat one cup, then you have had two servings and need to multiply the calories and nutrients by two.
2. Servings per container
For example an eight-ounce bottle of salad dressing says it contains 16 servings per container. So in the bottle you could equally split the dressing in 16 equal portions.
3. Percent Daily Value
This is set on a 2000-calorie diet with 30 percent of calories coming from fat (67g).
It will tell you how much of a day's worth of fat, sodium, vitamins, etc, the food provides. For example, if the label says there is 36g of fat and the percentage is 56 percent, then the 36g uses up 56 percent of your fat intake for that day based on the consumption of 2000 daily calories.
4. Calories from fat
If the food has 330 calories from fat, and a total of 500 calories per serving, then about 66percent of this product comes from fat!
How to read the label lingo:
Dietetic
This means the same as diet or dietary on the label. These terms mean that at least one ingredient has been substituted, changed, or restricted in the product. It does not automatically mean that the food is low in calories or good for weight loss.
Enriched
This refers to the process, which the nutrients riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, and iron are added to refined grains and grain products at levels specified by law.
Fortified
This refers to a food item that has had nutrients added to it, where it may not have been present before. For example: salt, extra vitamins, minerals etc.
Reduced
If a food item has been nutritionally altered and contains 25 percent less of a nutrient or calories than the original then it is reduced. If it is already low in fat or calories then it cannot be stated as reduced.
Imitation
This is where one food is duplicated to look like another one.
Light
It can refer to a products calories being reduced by 1/3 of the original. The product has half the fat of the original. The sodium content has been reduced by 50 percent.
If the product is only light in salt and not in calories or fat then it must state that.
A main dish can say it is light if it is lower in fat or calories than the original. It Can be used to describe the color or texture of a food for example “light brown sugar”.
Unsalted
This means that no salt was added to the product during the processing.
Sugar-free or Sugarless
Sucrose can not be added to a product to make it able to be sugar-free or sugarless. These products are not necessarily low in calories because they can still include sweeteners such as honey, fructose and corn syrup.
The fat content of meat will have fewer than 10g of fat, 4g of saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.
Percentage of Fat Free
The amount of the food that is fat free and can only be based on products which are low in fat or fat free to begin with. If a food says that it is 98% fat free with one serving supplying 75 calories, those 2 grams of fat still will provide 24 percent of the calories from fat.
Do not be fooled. Just because a food says it is fat free does not mean it has 0 fat. There is a certain percentage that producers can still get away with putting in and calling it fat free.
Natural, Organic or Healthy
These food claims are not regulated by law.
Even though it may take a little bit of time to learn to read food labels, it can be helpful to your health. When you start to know what is going into your body it usually helps people become more aware of what and how much they are eating.
Thought of the week: You can only be as healthy as you let yourself be!
Do not forget to sign up for Fit Kids and Ballroom dance this week!!!!!