Nutrition labels can make it easy to determine whether a particular food is a good fit for your healthy diet. The Daily Values column of a food label can seem confusing at first, but learning how to read it can help you make healthy eating choices and ensure you're getting the nutrients you need every day.
Identification
When you look on a nutrition label, you'll find the Daily Value listed as a percentage in the label's righthand column. Some nutritional components, including protein and carbohydrates, will have a measurement in grams or milligrams beside them in addition to the percentage DV. Vitamins and minerals usually just have the DV percentage. The percentages in the column won't add up to 100 percent because they are based on the total recommended intake of that particular nutrient for the day and not on what percentage of the product that nutrient makes up.
Significance
The Daily Values section helps you to see whether a particular food is a healthy addition to your diet. You can use the DV to quickly compare the nutritional content of different foods. The recommended Daily Values are based on information provided by public health experts.
Interpretation
There are two sections of nutrition components on a food label. The top section contains fat (including saturated and trans fat), cholesterol, sodium, and carbohydrates (including sugar). These nutrients are listed first because most Americans get plenty of them in their diets and may need to limit their intake of them. You should use the DV percentage on these nutrients to help you keep your daily intake below 100 percent.
The second section of nutrition components focuses on nutrients such as dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron, which most people don't get enough of from their diet. With these nutrients, use the DV percentage to help ensure that your diet includes at least 100 percent of these nutrients.
Considerations
On most nutrition labels, the Daily Value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet. If your diet contains more or fewer calories, you will need to adjust the DV percentage to match your diet.
Expert Insight
If you're having trouble using the Daily Value on a nutrition label to decide whether a particular food is a good fit for your diet, the State of Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services suggests giving a food one point for each nutrient it contains more than 10 percent of the DV for and subtracting one point for a fat DV higher than 10 percent. If the food's total score is 1 or higher, that food can be considered nutritionally dense and is a good choice.
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