You don't have to be on a diet to learn plenty from the nutrition facts on food labels. While the calorie information can help you control your weight, the ingredients list and nutrient contents can help you make healthy selections related to everyday life. Whether you're diabetic, have heart issues or simply like to know what you are consuming, the label info required by the FDA lets you compare prepared foods and choose those that are best for you.
Ingredient Selection
If you have a food allergy or ingredient preference, you may first read the ingredients list on a food label. Besides telling you what elements a food product contains, the ingredients list gives you an idea of their proportions to the whole. The FDA requires packagers to list food ingredients in descending order by weight. This means that the first ingredient will represent the greatest amount among the items in a prepared food. For instance, in a can of beans labeled, "Pinto Beans, Water, and Salt," beans are the primary ingredient, followed by water and then salt.
Portion Control
The Nutrition Facts box on food labels lists the suggested serving size and number of servings per container at the top. Calorie contents are listed directly below the serving size, for a quick view of the impact that a portion of food will have on your daily diet. The FDA bases the remaining information on the percentage of nutrients recommended in an average 2,000-calorie daily diet that one food serving contains.
Nutrients to Limit
The second section of the nutrition facts groups together the nutrients that you should limit in your overall diet. Saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium can harm your cardiovascular system and raise your risk for some types of cancer. Foods that list 5 percent daily value, or DV, of these nutrients or less are considered low content. Twenty percent DV or greater indicates high content. Proteins and sugars are expressed in grams per serving instead. You can compare brands or food varieties to make informed choices.
Nutrients to Increase
FDA guidance reports that many American diets provide low intake of fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C. The third section of the nutrition facts includes the percentage of these nutrients, and may add other vitamin and mineral contents as well. If you're looking to increase your dietary fiber for colon health or calcium for bone health, a glance at this section of the label will tell you how much nutrition a serving of food will contribute to your everyday diet.
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