The nutrition facts on food labels reveal how much of each nutrient is included in food products, based on FDA diet recommendations. Your body needs adequate vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids and other nutrients from food for metabolic performance. You'll see a food's content of these elements per serving listed in metric weight or as a percentage of the FDA's total recommended daily value, or DV. Build toward your 100 percent DVs by adding up the percentages of nutrients in the foods on your daily menus.
How Much Food Energy
Your weight depends on balancing your caloric intake with expenditure through activity. For many people, this means following an average 2,000-calorie diet. Daily value percentages are based on that figure, and suggested serving sizes are based on a reasonable portion of food to eat at one sitting. Therefore, a 1-cup serving that contains 200 calories should represent 10 percent of your total caloric energy from food for that day. The National Women's Health Information Center notes that you should adjust these amounts if your diet varies from the average.
Which Nutrients to Restrict
On food labels, the next listing groups nutrient contents that can harm your health if you get too much them. These include cholesterol, fat and sodium, elements that are often contained in high-calorie foods. A food serving that boasts 20 percent DV or more of total fat, for instance, affects your diet with high content of one or more types of fat and the attendant calories. Suggested servings with 5 percent DV or less of any nutrient are considered low in content, and in the case of these "risky" nutrients, healthier for you to eat.
Which Nutrients to Watch
Definitive DV amounts of protein, sugar and trans fat have not been set by the Academy of Sciences, and therefore, the FDA leaves these nutrients to your discretion. If your fitness plan or a medical condition requires more, less or no protein, sugar and trans fat in your diet, you can determine which foods to eat based on their nutrient content expressed in grams. For example, the American Diabetes Association suggests choosing cereals with 5 g of sugar or less per serving. Food labels are required to post this information.
Which Nutrients to Promote
To reach your total DVs of beneficial vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, look at the next grouping on the FDA labels. To get your full measure of 60 mg of vitamin C and 25 g of fiber for the day, eat a few foods with high DV percentages, such as fruits, or several servings of moderate-content foods that add up to 100 percent. Additional nutrients to promote in your diet include vitamins A, D, E, K and all seven B vitamins, as well as calcium, potassium, iron and other minerals.
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