Nutrition Facts Part 2: Understanding Nutrition Labels
What you eat is what you get. This statement may just be a silly mix up of two clichés but it can be your principle in choosing which food item to buy and eat.
Nutrition education should not only aim to show the relation of diet and health, but should also help develop skills for making informed food decisions.1 If your students know the specific nutrient and how much of it will they get from a slice of bread or from a serving of their favorite chocolate bar, then they will learn how to make food choices that will promote their health.
Since the 1970’s, nutrition labels have been a source of consumer information. In the early 1990’s the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revised the food label and starting in 1994, food manufacturers were required to put the new food labels on their products.2
Because of nutrition labels, consumers get easy-to-read nutrition information such as percent Daily Values, serving sizes, and nutrition claims of almost every packaged food. By understanding nutrition labels and what their contents mean and by knowing your nutritional requirements, you can incorporate your favorite foods into a nutritious diet. The sample label below, provided by FDA, can help you learn more about nutrition labels. Just click on the images to read more about the nutrition label components.
What’s in a Nutrition Label?3
- Serving size. The serving size shows the amount of the product which you can actually eat. This serves as your guide in knowing how many servings are there in the food package and how much of the product are you consuming.
- Calories and Calories from Fat. Calorie is a unit of how much energy you get from a serving of the food package. The calorie section can help you manage your weight. As a general guide, 40 Calories is low, 100 Calories is moderate, and 400 Calories is high and can lead to overweight and obesity.
- Limit These Nutrients. Too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium in the diet may increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, like heart disease, some cancers, or high blood pressure.
- Get Enough of these Nutrients. These nutrients will help you reduce your risks of some diseases and conditions such as osteoporosis heart diseases, and indigestion.
- The footnote shows the recommended dietary allowance for consumers.
- % Daily Values. DVs are recommended levels of intakes. For each nutrient listed in the nutrition label footnote, there is a DV. If you follow this dietary advice, you will stay within public health experts' recommended upper or lower limits for the nutrients listed, based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. You can use the %DV as a guide in whether or not you consume more or less than 2,000 calories.
For more information and resources on nutrition labels, check out the links below:
USFDA: How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Label
FNRI: What is in your nutrition label?
For teachers, use these classroom activities, games and lessons:
IFIC: Teaching Teens About the New Food Label
IFIC: Get the Nutrition Facts!
USFDA: Make Your Calories Count
USFDA: Spot the Block! Using Nutrition Label Facts to Make Healthy Food Choices
USDA: Are You Label Able? (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
USFDA VIDEO: The Food Label and You
USFDA: Test Your Food Label Knowledge Quiz
Sources:
1-2International Food Information Council. “Label Matters: Teaching Teens About the New Food Label”. Retrieved on July 10, 2007 from http://ific.org/publications/other/tnfloverview.cfm
3US Food and Drug Authority. “How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Label”. Retrieved on July 10, 2007 from http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab.html#see5
