Nutrition Labels

Nutrition labels are meant to give us helpful information about a food’s nutrient content to help us make informed choices about the foods that we are eating. That’s great! However, nutrition labels can often be confusing and sometimes downright tricky. Once you know how to read the details of a nutrition label, it will be easier to make healthy choices.

All processed foods are required to have a label listing the serving size, number of servings in a package, and basic nutrition information. In addition, there is also an ingredient list (we’ll get to that later).

Serving Sizes

I have found it easiest to start from the top of the label and work my way down. Before you take a look at the calories or anything else, you need to know what the serving size is - everything you read on the label is going to be for that one serving. Take a look also at the number of servings per container; this is an area where we are often tricked. Take a 32 oz. bottle of a sports drink, for example. Most people will typically drink this during one workout. But, if you look closely at the servings per bottle, you will see that there are 2.5 servings in that one bottle, with each serving being only 12 oz. Therefore, all the calories, sugars, fats, proteins, etc. that are listed are for just one serving and not the whole bottle. If one serving has 80 calories and you drink the whole bottle, you are actually drinking 200 calories!

Improved Nutrition Labels

Old label on the left - new label on the right

In 2016, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) released a newly formatted nutrition label to make labels easier to read and understand. You can see the differences between the old label and the new label in above.

• Larger and bolder (therefore more noticeable) listing of servings

• Serving sizes have been updated to be more accurate (tip: knowing the weight of the serving size is great if you use a food scale!)

• The calorie number is written much larger

• A new “added sugars” category has been added underneath the total sugars

When reading a nutrition label, you will want to read everything but some things are more important than others (and what is important to us can vary… depending on our dietary needs or preferences, we may all look for separate things).

Nutrition labels can be difficult to understand

I’ve highlighted a few items on the following nutrition label to show you some of the things I think you (and generally everyone) should pay attention to.

Servings: At the very top you see the servings per container. As I mentioned earlier, this is super important because all the other nutritional information is based on that one serving... not the whole box or bottle or package. And the serving size listed might not always be the realistic serving size - just the other day I was looking at boxed pizzas in the frozen food aisle, and one serving size was a ¼ of a (very, very) small pizza. It looks liked a personal pizza. Who is really going to just eat ¼ of that? If you ate the whole pizza then you would have to multiply the nutritional information by 4.

Calories: You may have heard the old saying “calories in vs. calories out.” If not, it goes something like this… on a very basic level, if you consume more calories (“calories in”) than you burn, the extra calories turn into extra weight. On the flip side, if you burn more calories (“calories out”) than you consume, you burn stored body fat and lose weight. Therefore, it is wise to know the amount of calories you are consuming. It is also a good idea to know the calories you are burning, and there a variety of apps out there where you can log your food to see your calorie count (and other nutritional info) and log your physical activity.

Daphne's tip: Many apps will calculate the amount of calories you should be consuming each day and let you log your food (MyFitnessPal, My Macros+, Carb Manager, Fitocracy, MyPlate, just to name a few). The more you know, the better!

Total fat: If you are eating a ketogenic diet, then you will be looking for higher fat content. If you are eating a moderate or lower fat diet, then you will want this number to be on the lower side. Healthy fats are good; saturated and trans fats are not.

Sodium: Salt! We love some salty food. But you will want to keep that on the lower side, since too much salt can make us hold excess fluid in our bodies and can increase the risk of high blood pressure (amongst many other things). The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) a day.

Carbohydrates: Carbs have gotten a bad reputation lately, and there are all kinds of low-carb diets that are currently popular (Atkins, Keto, for example). But not all carbs are bad! We just have to choose the right kinds of carbs. Good carb choices include whole carbohydrates, which are unprocessed and full of fiber - fruits, vegetables, legumes, potatoes, and whole grains. Bad carb choices include processed foods full of sugar. When you look at a nutrition label, those with higher sugar content in the product will typically have higher carb content as well. Candies (including chips, baked goods, ice cream), sodas, fruit juices, and white breads will typically have higher carb content (and not the good kind of carbs).

Sugars(!): Some foods (such as fruit) have natural sugars, which aren't bad. But most processed foods have added sugars to make it taste good. Ever heard the slogan “you can’t eat just one”? It's true! And it was because of the added sugar. How much sugar should you have? According to the American Heart Association, the max amount of added sugar for men should be 38g and for women should be 25g in ONE DAY.

To put this in perspective, one 12 oz. can of regular Coca-Cola contains 39g. Drink one can, and you are already over for both men and women (WAY over for women!).

Protein: Important for repairing muscles! When we strength train, we damage our muscles and protein helps them rebuild.

Good nutrients: In the yellow box you will see any good nutrients found in the product listed. You want to make sure you get enough of these throughout the day.

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It’s important to know what you’re eating. Reading and understanding a nutrition label will help you know what you’re putting in your body and help make healthy choices. Looking for a particular product? Take two different ones and compare the nutrition labels - this will help you determine which item is healthier and better for you and your health goals.

Ingredient lists

Lastly, I want to take a quick moment to talk about another very important component of a food package - the ingredient list. The ingredient list lets you know what is in the food you’re eating. The lists are all organized the same way; the items in the most abundance are listed first.

Here's an example - if you are looking at an ingredient list for whole wheat breads, you may find a list that reads like this: whole wheat flour, water, unbleached wheat flour, honey, yeast, sea salt, flaxseed, oat bran. The ingredient with the most is whole wheat flour. The ingredient with the least is oat bran.

In comparison, you might read a similar whole wheat bread list that looks something like this: whole wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup, wheat gluten, sugar, yeast. Whoa, whoa, whoa! The most abundant ingredient is still whole wheat flour…. But the next one is high fructose corn syrup. And sugar isn’t even the last on the list, so there’s a decent amount of sugar in that particular bread.

Make it a habit to read nutrition labels - now that you know what to look for and how to analyze them - and ingredient lists. You might be surprised with what you find, and it will help you make good choices when it comes to how you’re fueling your body.

It can be tricky, I know! If you have any questions, let me know :)