Nutrition labels provide information regarding the contents of a packaged food or beverage or menu item, including data on calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates, sodium and other nutrients. Knowing what the different listings mean will help you make healthy food choices to meet your dietary goals.
Serving Size
Nutrition labels provide their information based on a serving size of the food or drink being examined. For example, instead of giving the total calories in a box of cereal, the information is provided based on one serving to better help consumers understand what nutritional benefits (or detriments) they'll be getting from eating a single portion. Since few people eat an entire box of cereal at once, or all three liters of a soda bottle, this measurement provides a more realistic and helpful guide for planning daily menus.
Calories
Nutrition labels provide the total number of calories for one serving of the food or drink under consideration. These labels further break down calorie information to provide the total amount of calories that come from fat. For example, a single serving (two tablespoons) of peanut butter may have 180 calories. The amount of those calories from fat, however, might be 140. This means that 78 percent of the calories in peanut butter come from fat.
Nutrients
Nutrition labels provide a wealth of information on specific nutrients in foods, such as cholesterol level, types of fat contained (saturated vs. trans), sodium, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, calcium, niacin, iron and vitamins. This information is given in grams or milligrams as well as the percent of a particular nutrient's daily recommended intake a serving provides.
Daily Values
In order to let you see how much of your recommended daily allowance you are getting of any one nutrient in the from a single serving of a particular food item, nutrition labels give the percent daily value (%DV) of various nutrients. For example, on a peanut butter jar, the nutrition label will show that one serving provides two grams of dietary fiber, which is 9 percent of your recommended daily intake of that nutrient. On the label, this would read:
Amount Per Serving %DV
Dietary Fiber 2g 9%
These recommended daily allowances are based on a daily recommended intake of 2,000 calories.
A Note on Servings Sizes
Manufacturers and marketers of high-calorie, high-fat foods are not always consistent with their serving sizes so as to put a better face on these unhealthy foods. For example, a spaghetti sauce-maker may list its 10-oz. jar of meatless sauce as containing three servings while listing its 10-oz. jar of meat sauce as five servings to make the calories and fat seem less per serving.
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