10-16-2006, 10:36 PM
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Figuring out Food Labels
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Can You Crack This Confusing Code?
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Sometimes you eat without thinking much about it, right? And the next thing you know, the whole bag of popcorn is gone, or you've eaten three pieces of bread instead of one. It's easier to take control when you know exactly what you're consuming. To do that, you'll have to become a detective - and solve what can be a real meal mystery: a product's food label. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) make sure that a product's Nutrition Facts label (which is imprinted on virtually all commercially packaged foods) clues you in to such essential information as serving size, calories and nutritional content. The USDA regulates all meat products, while the FDA handles non-meat food regulation.
The problem is that deciphering food label data can be difficult if you don't know what to look for. Here are the primary pieces of the puzzle you should pick out (to make sure you're not pigging out!)
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 1. First check the Serving Size, and then the amount of Calories per serving. Calories are important when it comes to controlling your weight, since you'll put on pounds if you consume more calories than you need! So study and compare labels carefully while you're food shopping. When you are comparing products, the key is to look for fewer calories per serving, so always compare the serving size to the calories per serving, and choose products wisely!
2. Knowing how many servings the product contains is key to avoid overeating, so be sure to check out the Servings Per Container on all of the foods you plan to purchase. Some products may appear to contain only one serving when there are really two or more servings per package. For example, a bag of chips may state 110 calories on the label, but when you look a little closer, it actually has 110 calories per serving, and there are 16 servings per container. If you decided to plow through the entire package, you would eat a whopping 1760 calories! So if you are prone to eating straight out of the box, plan to pre-portion servings and to place each serving in a baggie. That way, you'll be more likely to stick to one serving at a time.
3. Select products that contain Dietary Fiber, the part of carbohydrate-rich foods that is indigestible within the human body. Dietary fiber is virtually calorie-free and is also a bulky substance, so you'll stay satisfied for longer - perfect for your pound-shedding efforts.
4. The Total Fat in a product includes Saturated Fat, Trans Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat and Monounsaturated Fat. You should limit saturated fat and trans fat in your diet, as they have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Try not to get more than 10% of your total daily calories from saturated fat and keep total fat to about 30%. You may not yet see trans fats listed on Nutrition Facts Labels, but you will soon: Manufacturers have until January 1, 2006 to list the amount of trans fat per serving on their labels.
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5. Check out Total Carbohydrates, and keep in mind that all carbohydrates break down into sugar. Sugars are made up of naturally occurring sugars and added sugars. Naturally occurring sugars include lactose (found in dairy products) and fructose (found in fruits). Complex carbohydrates (e.g. rice, potatoes) are also broken down into sugars by the body.
6. Percentages are everywhere on your average food label: They represent how much of the recommended amount per day is provided in a particular product. For example, it is recommended that most adults (ages 18-50) get 1000 mg of calcium per day. So if you ate one cup of this product, you will receive 40 mg of calcium, or 4% of the total daily recommendation. When you know how much you get, you'll know how much farther you have to go to meet your daily diet needs!
For more information about food labels from the Food and Drug administration or the USDA, go to Food and Drug Administration Home Page or United States Department of Agriculture - Home
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