The Food and Drug Administration requires food manufacturers to label products with the nutritional content. People use food nutrition labels to avoid allergens, count calories and increase vitamin intake. A food label helps people manage diet for better health.
Significance
Nutrition labels help people identify what types of foods they are ingesting. Food labels help people avoid fatty foods, lose weight and avoid sugars. Reading nutrition labels also help people count calories.
Structure
The first part of the food label identifies the portion size and the number of servings. The next section identifies the amount of calories contained in one serving. This section also identifies the amount of fat calories. The third section identifies the nutrients and vitamins in the food item.
Features
Nutrition labels identify the proteins, fats and carbohydrates in a food item. Nutrition labels also identify how many grams of each nutrient are contained. These features help dieters calculate calories.
Misconceptions
Some people inaccurately calculate the amount of calories in a nutrition label. Although an item might list 200 calories, it's important to calculate the serving size as well.
Fun Fact
When calculating calories from a nutrition label, each gram of fat is 9 calories, each gram of protein is 4 calories and each gram of carbohydrates is 5 calories. A gram of alcohol is 7 calories.
Member Comments