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How to Read Food Labels to Check What You’re Really Eating

Lois Grey

Food labeling includes ingredients list, the Nutrition Facts label, and nutrition claims on products. Reading labels can be tricky as manufacturers use misleading tricks to convince people to buy their products. Understanding how to read food labels can be a great guide to help you choose foods for healthy eating. This article will talk you through the types of food labeling and what to look for to help you differentiate between mislabeled highly processed food and really healthy foods.

The Nutrition Facts label

The Nutrition Facts label on packaged food is based on food science and dietary recommendations. It is mandatory for all packaged food made and imported from most countries to have a Nutrition Fact label.

Here are a few key elements on the Nutrition Fact label you should know about:

Serving size

Usually, there will be a total serving for the whole package and a recommended serving size. For example, a container of low-fat milk covers 8 servings each of which is 1 cup (240ml). The former number indicates a total serving of the whole package while the latter indicates a recommended serving size, that is, 1 cup is recommended to be drunk each time.

Calories

The calories on the label represent the number of calories in 1 recommended serving. For example, if you eat 1 serving, you’ll get 100 calories from that serving size. Or sometimes there is a second column that displays the total calories for the whole package. Therefore, the per-unit should be focused on when calories are figured out before the food or drink is consumed.

% Daily Value

The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet of 2,000 calories is used for general nutrition advice. It is a simple guide to use to assess nutrition value.

The data in this part of a nutrition label accounts for a majority and how to understand the data is quite important.

Total Fat

This shows you the types of fat in the food. There are usually two types of fats that are further specified in Total Fat, saturated fat and trans-fat. Generally speaking, both saturated fat (animal fat) and trans-fat (hydrogenated oil) are unhealthy fat, high consumption is led to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. When it comes to the specific amount of intake per serving, it’ll be accurately introduced in the latter part of the article below.

Total carbohydrate

This shows you the types of carbohydrates in the food, including sugar (total sugars & added sugars) and dietary fiber. Generally, the higher amount of dietary fiber a type of food contains, the better and the lower amount of sugar it contains, the better.

Cholesterol, sodium, protein, minerals, and vitamins

The amount of each nutrient in the food is also labeled. Only protein doesn’t have a % Daily Value.

After understanding what these values on the Nutrition Facts label mean, you can now start to check all your packaged food in the pantry or on your grocery shopping. Here is a quick guide on how to use all these values from the Nutrition Facts label.

Step 1: Start with the serving size.

Step 2: Count calories.

Step 3: Use %Daily Value (DV) as a guide for nutrients.

Ingredient list

All food ingredients, addictive, and colors must be listed in the ingredient lists by weight in descending order, from the highest to lowest weight.

The first ingredient listed is what was used in the largest amount by weight (the main ingredient). A good and simple way to compare a packaged food is by checking its first three ingredients.

  1. If the top 3 ingredients include refine carbohydrate (added sugar), hydrogenated oils, saturated fat, salt or stocks are likely unhealthy.
  2. Instead, choose the food whose first ingredients have whole foods (non-processed food), such as fruits, vegetables, grains, meats…
  3. Choose products that has a ingredients list with less than two lines. More ingredients listed suggests the product is highly processed with more food additives.

Added sugar

Food manufacturers use added sugar by many different names to their products. The top ingredients may be healthier ingredients with a few different types of sugar further down the list to hide the actual amount of sugars added in the product. The leading types of sugar to be introduced below contribute to the added sugar category:

Nutrition Term

Nutrition terms are claims made by the manufacturer to highlight product features. Some claims are a good guide to identify the nutrient value of the product, while some are misleading claims made by the manufacturers to increase sales.

Here are some of the most common claims — and what they mean:

These are good indications for lower or very calorie products, but you should still look at the serving size and compare it to your actual portion to avoid a serving size scheme. Some products are simply watered down or reduced in serving size to reach the claim. There are also foods that are naturally low in calories or don’t have any such as flavored water, some diet soft drinks, etc.

Both the above are good indicators when you’re looking for specific nutrients or fortified products. However, being a good/excellent source doesn’t mean it is healthy straight away.

For example, breakfast cereals are fortified with added vitamins and minerals with higher %DV. But you should still look at the labels, whether they are added with a large amount of sugar.

This can be tricky when most products on the market are likely to have reduced or fat-free marketed at the cost of adding more sugar. Same logic when labeled low or sugar-free with added fat. So be very careful and read the ingredients list.

These claims are good indicators when looking for specific nutrients in a lower value. However, being lower in one specific nutrient doesn’t mean it is healthy. You should still look at the ingredient list and other nutritional values to get the whole picture.

Other claims:

So we have talked about all food labeling and claims, here is a quick summary of what you should check at each food group.

Finally, if in doubt, aim for these three:

Summary

Reference:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/reading-food-labels

https://www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels/the-basics-of-the-nutrition-facts-label

Lois Grey

Lois Grey has a BSc in Nutrition and Dietetics and worked as a clinical dietitian to help her clients to manage their nutrition and healthy weight. Lois is part of the Fastyle professional team and helps running the Fastyle blog where she shares nutrition articles on Intermittent Fasting, Healthy Eating, and sustainable lifestyle changes to help Fastyle user achieving their personal goal.

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