Reading Food Labels for Nutrition Facts

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"Using pre-packaged foods is not a bad thing, because food manufacturers are legally required to list everything they add during the manufacturing process. They are also required to establish a baseline for the number of servings in one package and defining what one serving of their product is."

A huge part of meal planning usually tends to emphasize home-cooked meals, because this usually leads to an easier way to control exactly what we are consuming. However, this is not very practical for most people who purchase pre-packaged foods because it is cheaper and more convenient than fresh options. However, using pre-packaged foods is not necessarily a bad thing, because food manufacturers are legally required to list everything that is added to these foods during manufacturing. They are also required to establish a baseline for the number of servings in one package and defining what one serving of their product is.  The information is usually placed on food labels however you need to know how to interpret it for it to be useful to you.

I discovered a gap in my knowledge in reading food labels when I was grocery shopping to start my out meal preparation because I had no idea what to look for on food labels when I was grocery shopping. Before that, the most I used to look for was the percentage of juice in "juices" and the amount of Vitamin C.

Nutrition facts are normally placed at the back of product packaging in a panel. It usually lists the amount of macro and micronutrients present in the product. The amount of these nutrients are then listed in two columns, the amount that a person following a set caloric diet for the day should consume (most times a 2000 calories/day diet) and the amount in the actual package.

The picture tells us firstly that the serving size of the product is 1 cup and this package contains 2 servings meaning that it holds 2 cups worth of product total in that package. The one cup that was listed is usually based on the accepted serving size of that product. It is a standard and therefore is accepted worldwide. So if you were to consume the entire package at once you would be consuming twice of everything listed in the amounts per serving table.

The amount per serving table tells us what we would be consumed by having one serving of food in the package, so you would have to half the contents of the package to consume what is listed. 

The percentage listed to the right of everything is a percentage of your required daily intake. This package is saying if you have everything in the package at once, you would have eaten 20% x 2  of your daily fat intake already.  If you look at the sodium content contained in this package you will realize that it contains more than a quarter of the amount of sodium required for the day. This food does not have to taste salty to have a high sodium content, and the additives added during the manufacturing process could drive up the sodium content. This information is vital for persons who have strict diets for medical reasons, especially if they are diabetic or hypertensive. 

The final part of the Nutritional facts shows the micronutrients and the % present per day. Usually, those that are listed are Vitamin C, Iron, Vitamin A, and Calcium. This label, for example, shows that this product contains 30% of your required calcium per day in one serving, even though the overall package contains two servings. 

I hope that you can now confidently shop comparatively based on the nutrient content found in the options you find on the shelves of your local grocery stores and supermarkets.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to do so in the comment section below. It's now your turn.