According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the easiest tools to help with making healthy food choices is the Nutrition Facts Label. The label provides information on calories, fat, protein, and vitamins and minerals, based on the suggested serving size. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires labels to list nutritional information for items packaged and prepared. "Prepared" refers to the food item as it should be eaten. Reading the additional prepared column can be confusing to some consumers.
Step 1
Look at the serving size of the item. Serving size is an important component of the Nutrition Facts label and may differ from the serving size provided by My Pyramid, according to the RD 411 website. The serving size listed is for both unprepared and prepared, according to the FDA.
Step 2
Scan down the label and find the three columns. You will see "amount per serving," "as packaged" and "prepared." The "amount per serving" lists the nutritional information in grams or milligrams of one serving of the food item unprepared. The "as packaged" column lists the calories and percent of daily values for the item unprepared. The "prepared" column lists the calories and percent of daily value (designated "% Daily Value") of the food item with the suggested added ingredients, as required by the FDA.
Step 3
Look at the packaged column and the prepared column. Note the differences in calories and the percent of daily values. The prepared food item with the additional ingredients will be higher in calories than the unprepared food item.
Step 4
Scan further down the label to the information located below the nutritional data, note the asterisk (*). This indicates the recipe that the prepared nutritional information is referring to. Many cereal nutritional labels now have a prepared column that includes the added milk; this would be noted in this section.
Tips and Warnings
- The American Dietetic Association recommends paying close attention to the number of servings in the package. Small packages can have more than 1 serving, making it easy to eat too many calories. The percent of daily values is an average of nutritional requirements. based on a 2,000 or 2,500 calorie diet. It takes into account needs for the entire day, not the one meal or food item.
- If the preparer has altered the suggested recipe, then the nutritional information will be different. For example, if a recipe calls for whole milk and you are concerned with fat in the diet and use low-fat milk instead, both calories and fat of the prepared food item will be decreased.
Things You'll Need
- Food label
- Calculator
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