Daily Living

The Food Label—A Tool for Staying Healthy

You have probably seen the "Nutrition Facts" section on food packages. Understanding this information can help you make healthy food choices. In this article, LifeBeat Online gives you useful tips for reading food labels. We'll also clarify what nutritional claims on packages really mean. First, let's go over how today's labels came to be.

New Standards Are Born

For more than 70 years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been monitoring the safety and quality of food. In 1990, the FDA implemented the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA). The NLEA set strict industry standards for food labeling for the first time. These guidelines are meant to help shoppers know more about the food they eat.

According to the NLEA, all food packages must include the:

Common name of the product (for example, bran flakes)
Name and address of the product's manufacturer
Product quantity in terms of weight, measure, or count
Ingredients list for the product
Serving size of the product (the size of one serving)
Nutrition facts about the product (the quantities of specified nutrients in one serving)

The Facts About Nutrition Facts

By reading food labels, you can make healthy decisions about your diet. To help you learn more about the different sections of a food label, we will refer to a label for Quaker® Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal. You can apply this knowledge to any food label.

Used with permission
of the Quaker Oats Company

1. Serving Size
At the top of the label is the serving size. For instant oatmeal, a serving size is one packet. If you eat two packets of instant oatmeal, then you are consuming twice as much of each nutritional amount listed. So, checking the serving size is important.

2. Amount Per Serving
When looking at the calories per serving and the calories from fat, you will notice that the oatmeal has 160 calories per serving. Of these calories, only 20 calories come from fat. That's a little more than 10% of the total calories. For other foods, fat can make up a much greater percentage of calories. In macaroni and cheese, for example, 50% of the calories can come from fat. Knowing this information can help you monitor the amount of fat in your diet.

Just remember, if you eat two servings, you're getting twice as much fat as it says on the label.

3. Nutritional Amounts
The nutritional amounts per serving are measured in grams (g). To give you an idea, one pat of butter, or one level teaspoon, has about 4 g of fat. Oatmeal has 2 g of total fat and 32 g of total carbohydrate.

4. % Daily Value
Each value is the percentage of the daily recommended nutrients you get in one serving. The recommended amount for each nutrient is determined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These amounts are based on a diet of 2000 calories per day. Depending on your individual needs, you may require more or less than 2000 calories per day. You may also benefit from more or less of a specific nutrient. Your doctor or a registered dietitian can help determine what calorie and nutrient levels are right for you.

5. Vitamins and Minerals
The USDA recommends how much of each vitamin and mineral healthy adults should consume. One serving of instant oatmeal has 10% of the recommended amount of calcium.

Other Things to Keep in Mind
The first few lines of the label show total fat (saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat), cholesterol, and sodium. These are nutrients that you should watch out for. Eating too much of these substances may increase your risk of certain conditions, including heart disease and high blood pressure. Remember, it is important to talk with your doctor. He or she may want you to eat more of certain nutrients and less of others.

Is Your Food Package Trying to Tell You Something?

Why can some foods make claims about nutritional content? The FDA sets regulations for such claims. So these statements can appear on food packages only if the product meets FDA standards.

Here are the facts on some common claims on food packages:

Calorie-free: Means fewer than 5 calories per serving
Sugar-free and fat-free: Both mean less than 0.5 g per serving

The lowdown on "low"

The FDA allows foods that can be eaten often—without exceeding dietary guidelines—to be described as "low." Here are some examples of how "low" is used on labels:

Low-fat: 3 g or less per serving
Low in saturated fat: 1 g or less per serving
Low-sodium: 140 mg or less per serving
Low-calorie: 40 calories or less per serving

Other words/phrases commonly used on food packages:

Excellent source: Means that one serving contains 20% or more of the Daily Value for a single nutrient. You may have seen this term on the label for orange juice, which is an excellent source of vitamin C.
Good source: Means that one serving contains 10% to 19% of the % Daily Value for a single nutrient. You may see this term on the label for instant oatmeal, which is a good source of calcium.
Reduced: Means that the product contains at least 25% less of a nutrient or 25% fewer calories than the regular product.
Fortified/Enriched: Appears when ingredients like vitamins and minerals have been added for a health benefit. A good example is orange juice, which can be fortified with calcium.

More work is being done to make food labels and packages even more accurate. If you have further questions about reading the food label, look at the resources listed below. Also, talk to your doctor or meet with a registered dietitian to determine appropriate dietary intakes.

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Food Labeling and Nutrition (FDA)

The Food Label (FDA)