Health Tip of the Day Read the Nutrition Fact label on food products before you decide to buy them. With our busy lifestyles it might be easy to convince ourselves that we dont have time to read the Nutrition Fact labels of the food that we buy. We owe it to ourselves and to our family to make the time to read them in order to choose the healthiest food. Once you get into the habit of reading the labels it will eventually become second nature. Nutrition facts labels not only can help us limit the bad nutrients such as fat, sugar, salt, etc, but it can also help us to choose the food with the most healthy nutrients such as fibre, iron, protein, vitamins and minerals. If you need help in making sense of the information provided on Nutrition Fact labels below is an example of a typical label and a step by step explanation of the different parts of the label. When reading a Nutrition Fact label youll notice the first bit of information is about the serving size and the number of serving in the food package. Youll want to pay close attention to this as the nutrition values will be based on the serving size. If you eat more than the serving size you will need to adjust the values of the nutrition information accordingly. For example, if you are eating crackers and the serving size is two crackers and you eat four crackers, then you would need to double the nutritional values to determine how much you are actually consuming. Next on the label is the amount of calories per serving. Calories are a measure of how much energy you get from that particular food or drink. Calories come from protein, fat and carbohydrates (fibre, starch and sugar). Based on a 2,000 calorie diet the general guide to calories is as follows: 40 calories is low. 100 calories is moderate 400 or more calories is high. After the calorie value comes the values for the nutrients. The order of the nutrients may vary depending on what country you live in. So in no particular order Ill touch upon the various ones. The label will tell you the amount of fat contained in a serving of the food or drink item. You will also find the amount of saturated fat (bad fat) and sometimes the amount of trans fat (also bad fat) and unsaturated fat (good fat). Trans fats might not always be listed on the nutrition fact label so be sure to check the ingredients list and watch out for the words, partially hydrogenated as they are trans fats. Other names for fat that might show up in the ingredients list is butter, dripping, lard, milk fat cream, vegetable oil, vegetable fat, peanut oil, other types of nut oils, monoglycerides and hydrogenated fat. Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium increases your risk of chronic diseases, like heart disease, some cancers and high blood pressure. The label will also tell you the total amount of carbohydrates that are found in one serving of that food/drink item. Carbohydrates are used to make glucose, which gives you energy and helps keep everything working. Your body can either use it immediately or store it in your liver or muscles to use later on. Carbohydrates are broken down into two types: complex carbohydrates which is fibre (soluble and insoluble, both are good for you) and starch and simple carbohydrates which is all kinds of sugar. Complex carbohydrates must be broken down through digestion before it can be turned into glucose. Starch is found in some vegetables i.e. potatoes, dried beans, corn, peas, breads, cereals and grains. Fibre is found in fruit, vegetables and whole grain foods. Soluble fibre is found in most fruits, oatmeal, oat bran, nuts, seeds, dried beans and peas. Insoluble fibre is found in whole wheat bread, barely, brown rice, couscous, whole grain cereals, wheat bran, most vegetables, fruits and seeds. Getting enough fibre along with vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron as well as other vitamins and minerals is important. Calcium reduces the risk of osteoporosis while high fibre promotes healthy bowel function. Sugar total on the nutrition fact label includes naturally occurring sugar (like in fruit and milk) as well as those added. This is why it is important to check the ingredient list for sugar that has been added in addition to natural occurring sugar. Avoid food that has additional sugar added. Some other names for sugar to look out for on the ingredient list are as follows: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, maple syrup, glucose, glucose-fructose syrup, maltodextrin, invert sugar, golden syrup and molasses. Also on the nutrition fact label is the total amount of protein, sodium, salt, sometimes cholesterol, iron and the vitamins and minerals found in a serving of that food/drink. To sum it all up you want food that is high in fibre, vitamins, calcium and iron. Limit or avoid altogether fat/saturated fat/trans fat, cholesterol, sodium/salt and sugar. Now lastly, other than the list of ingredients, the other thing you will notice on a nutrition label is the % daily value. This tells you the percentage of that nutrient for one serving of the food item that goes towards your total recommended amount of that nutrient for the day based on a 2,000 calorie diet. The % daily value can be a useful tool to compare one product or brand to a similar product. Just make sure the serving sizes are similar especially the weight (e.g. gram, milligram, ounces) of each product. You can also use the % daily value to check out a nutrient claim such as reduced fat vs light or nonfat. Just compare the daily value percentage for Total Fat in each product to see which is higher or lower in that nutrient. Also works for all nutrient claims e.g. less, light, low, free, more, high, etc. Daily value percentage can also help with dietary trade-offs with other foods throughout the day. For example if you eat a food that is high in fat, balance it with foods that are low in fat at other times of the day but pay attention to how much you eat so the total amount of fat for the day stays below 100 % daily value. Sometimes there will even be a little chart, like the one below, giving you standard daily value and percentages based on a 2,000 calorie diet. % Daily Value based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Nutrient DV %DV Goal Total Fat 65g 100%DV Less than Saturated Fat 20g 100%DV Less than Cholesterol 300mg 100%DV Less than Sodium 2,400mg 100%DV Less than Total Carbohydrates 300g 100%DV At least Dietary Fibre 25g 100%DV At least
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 08:41:38 +0000
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