Nutrition
Nutrition Fact Label: The Key to Good Health and Weight Loss!
To achieve and maintain good health, educate yourself about nutrition fact labels and use them regularly when shopping. They provide valuable information that will help you make wise food choices. When guessing and estimating just aren’t getting the job done, let the facts speak for themselves. Arm yourselves with the valuable information you need to stay on track and make good health a priority in your home.
Serving size and the number of servings per container are the two most important pieces of information that you will find on the nutrition fact label. Everything else depends on this information being accurate! Looks can be deceiving and it is essential to know how much you consume.
Another essential piece of information found on your label is the total calories and the number of calories from fat. In order to reach and maintain your ideal weight, you must expend more calories than you consume. A calorie is a unit of measure that tells you how much energy is provided per serving of that food. If your package provides two servings, and you eat both, you must double the information.
Nutrition numbers are the next piece of information provided. These include total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, total carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, protein, cholesterol, and sodium. Sometimes you will see monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats as well. Even though manufacturers are not required to do so, many also include potassium, vitamins, and minerals on their labels.
Notice that the first several nutrients are the ones you want to limit in your diet. Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium may increase your risk of heart disease, cancers, and high blood pressure. The nutrients listed next are the ones that you need to make sure you get enough of. Most people don’t get enough fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. Getting enough of these nutrients can improve your general health and reduce your risk of some diseases and conditions.
A footnote is included on the bottom of many nutrition fact labels. Depending on the size of the label, some footnotes provide more information than others. Basically, the footnote teaches us that the recommended dietary amounts for all Americans are based on a 2,000-calorie diet. This is standard information that does not change according to the food item.
An addition piece of data that is very helpful is the Percent Daily Value or %DV. This computes how much of each nutrient one serving provides, based on the 2,000-calorie diet. It isn’t necessary to consume 2,000 calories each day to benefit from this calculation. The %DV makes it easy for you to use these numbers to achieve your 100% total of each nutrient.
You will notice that trans fat, protein, and sugars do not have %DV. Research links trans fat to high LDL cholesterol levels and should be avoided! %DV only has to be listed for protein if the product claims to be “high in protein” or if the product is for children under the age of four, and there is no daily recommended amount for sugar. Keep in mind that sugar has many synonyms, such as sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, honey, syrup, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, or fruit juice.
When nutrition fact labels are available on food packaging, they provide essential information that should be studied and utilized. Unfortunately, these labels aren’t always provided. For those times, an Eat Smart Nutrition Scale would be a valuable addition to your kitchen. This food scale instantly calculates essential nutrients just by entering a three-digit code. This “food guidance system” helps you steer your eating patterns in the right direction for overall health and wellness.
