Healthy Living > Nutrition > Food Labels

It’s easy to find all the information you need from the food you eat every day, but did you know that the average person doesn’t understand the information on the white and black label on everything you eat? It’s true, so to help you out, here is a simple guide to help you out when your head starts spinning trying to comprehend everything:

Start at the Top:

One of the ways some food companies fool you into thinking you’re eating a low-calorie or low-fat food is to manipulate the serving size of the product, and that’s why “servings per container” takes top bill on the label. Look at the number of servings in the container, figure out how many servings you plan to eat and adjust the values accordingly. If you are going to eat two servings, for example, multiply all the values by two.

Just below the Serving Size field, you will see the number of calories in each serving. Remember, it is recommended that you eat about 1,500 calories in a day. If you find that 1,500 calories per day leaves you feeling hungry, then a real, African Hoodia Gordonii diet pill, like Amfedrine™ may help you combat those feelings of hunger.

Fat Content Values: What is Acceptable?

Now that the calories and how much you’re eating are out of the way, let’s turn to the fat content just below. The government mandates a percentage value next to the measured amounts of fat in the food, so you can get a better picture of just how much of your daily intake you are getting, but this can often be misleading. Remember that the values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, which is suitable for daily weight maintenance or for an extremely active person. In order to keep a low-calorie diet that supports weight loss, a simple rule of thumb is to add about 25% to the fat value. So, if the product contains 10 percent of your daily fat intake, consider it roughly 12 or 13 percent.

What are good numbers to see?

As a general rule of thumb, anything below 5% of a daily value is pretty low. For optimal weight loss, you want to limit your total fat, especially saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium levels. Also try to keep the total amount of carbohydrates below 100%, although you don’t need to limit those values as severely as you do the fat, cholesterol, and sodium values.

Any vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, like vitamin C, Chromium, etc. are always good additions to your diet. Dietary fiber and anything below the thick black line in the middle of the label are typically healthy additions to what you eat every day.

Though often confusing, knowing what to look for and where to find it will get easier every time you eat. Before you know it, you’ll be a pro at controlling your diet!

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration