HOW TO READ a nutrition label
Before you pick up your next snack or meal, understanding nutrition labels can help you make healthier choices. This article will guide you through the process, step by step.
Why Nutrition Labels Matter
Understanding how to read nutrition labels is a critical skill for making healthier food choices. With the abundance of packaged foods available today, nutrition labels provide key information about what we are consuming. By learning to interpret these labels, you can make better decisions that align with your dietary needs and health goals.
Understanding Recommended Daily Intake
As a general rule, adults should source 45-65% of daily calories from carbohydrates, 20-35% from fats, and 10-35% from proteins. These numbers are just ranges, and as you can see the low-ends and high-ends of the ranges do not even add up to 100%. These are just a guide of the range of calories from carbohydrates, fats and proteins to consume daily. As an example, if you derived 50% of calories from carbohydrates, 20% from fats, and 30% from proteins, you would be within the recommended range, and that total would be 100%. I am not suggesting you count calories daily, but these ranges could be used when deciding what items to purchase at the food store. For instance, if you were looking for a breakfast cereal to buy, you could use these ranges to help select a cereal that you would enjoy and that would potentially satisfy these ranges. The pertinent question is how can you read a nutrition label to determine the ranges of the product you are contemplating purchasing.
Reading a Nutrition Label
Most nutrition labels show the amount of calories in the food product, and the amount of grams of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The issue becomes converting the grams of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins into calories from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. This is easier than you may think. Carbohydrates and proteins provide 4 calories per gram, while fat provides 9 calories per gram.
Practical Example: Cereal with Milk
Consider the following nutrition information for a potential cereal with whole milk:
| Description | Cereal | Milk | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Calories | 201 | 152 | 353 |
| Total Fat | 1g | 8g | 9g |
| Total Carbs | 41g | 12g | 53g |
| Total Protein | 7g | 8g | 15g |
If we multiply the grams of fat by 9 (to arrive at 81 calories from fat), the grams of carbohydrates by 4 (to arrive at 212 calories from carbohydrates), and the grams of protein by 4 (to arrive at 60 calories from protein), we arrive at the calories from fats, carbohydrates, and proteins in the cereal with the whole milk. We can then divide these resulting calories by the total calories of 353 to arrive at the percentage of calories from fats (22.95% from fats), the calories from carbohydrates (60.05% from carbohydrates), and the calories from proteins (17% from proteins). As you can see, these all fall within the recommended ranges above (and they all add up to 100%).
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Please be aware that when multiplying the grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fat by the applicable calories per gram, you will often not arrive at the exact calories noted on the nutrition label. Due to rounding, etc. they may be up to 10% off (or a bit more). Use the number of calories you arrive at and not the calories on the label when calculating the percentage of calories from protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Also, be careful of common mistakes, such as overlooking serving sizes or misinterpreting %DV. Additionally, watch out for marketing terms like “low-fat” or “natural,” which don’t always mean healthier. Finally, always consult your doctor before making changes to your diet in any way, shape, or form.
Conclusion & NEXT STEPS
You can now calculate whether the foods you are selecting adhere to the recommended ranges of daily intake for fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. In future articles we will discuss the different types of fats and the different types of carbohydrates (particularly dietary fiber – soluble and insoluble). Once again, my intention here is not to attempt to make people count calories all day. That can become difficult and even counter-productive. However, knowing these recommended daily ranges for carbohydrates, fats, and proteins (and knowing how to calculate them) my help in selecting which of several food choices to potentially opt for when visiting the food stores.
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