|
When was the last time you read a food label? Not the special offers for free Pokemon
key-chains on your kid’s cereal box, but the Nutrition Facts label? If you’re not a
regular reader, you’re missing important information that could help you fight disease
and maintain a healthy weight—provided you know what you’re looking for.
“Food labels are a great way to make smart food choices,” says Liz Ward, R.D., a
spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and author of the book Super Nutrition
After 50 (Publications International, 1999). Because the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) requires food labels to be standardized, it’s easy to compare, say, how much saturated
fat there is in an Oreo vs. a Fig Newton.
Know your body
To get the most from a food label, however, you need to know a few things about yourself,
and not just about the food inside the package. That’s because the label gives information
on how that food fits into the diet of the average person—for example, how much of a day’s
saturated fat it provides. It’s a great idea, but unfortunately, many of us are not the
average person that the label is designed for, and we require either more or less of the
listed nutrients. “Food labels cannot be all things to all people,” Ward says. “You need to get personal and know your parameters.”
The trick to reading food labels intelligently is knowing what to focus on. Ward, who reads
food labels carefully when grocery shopping for herself, her husband, and her three children,
shares some tips on what you need to know to make the most of the information on the food
labels you read:
- Serving sizes. Be sure to pay attention to the number and size of the serving. Sure,
the bottle of iced tea you grab at the convenience store may be only 80 calories a serving,
but did you notice that the bottle contains 1.5 servings?
- Calorie count. The food label tells how many calories are in a food, which is helpful,
but it’s even more useful if you know how many calories you should be eating each day to maintain a healthful weight. Use this guide to
determine your own daily calorie count: Multiply your ideal weight by 10 if you’re sedentary,
13 if you’re moderately active, or 15 if you’re very active. So if you weigh 130 pounds
and moderately active, you need about 1,690 calories a day to maintain your weight. (If
you’re trying to lose weight, figure the calorie count for the weight you’d like to
be.)
- Fat counts. Food labels give lots of information about fat—especially saturated
fat, which boosts heart disease risk—but if you don’t know your dietary fat targets, the
information can be misleading. Here’s why: Most of the fat counts on the food label are based
on the needs of a person who eats a 2,000-calorie diet, so if you’re a moderately active
person who weighs about 150, the fat counts are just right for you. (There’s also some
information for a 2,500-calorie diet.) But if you’re more or less active, or weigh more or
less, the counts won’t fit. “You have to know what your own fat budget is,”
Ward says. Here’s how: To figure total daily fat count: Multiply your daily calories by .033,
and to figure daily saturated fat count, multiply your daily calories by .01. So if you eat
1,500 calories a day, you should eat no more than about 50 grams of total fat, and 15 grams of
saturated fat.
- Upper limits. It’s important to know that the fat counts on the food label are the
highest you should go—they’re based on the recommendation that our diets contain no more
than 30% of calories from fat. However, some nutrition experts say 30% is too high, and that 20%
is a healthier target.
- Heart health. People who have or are at high risk for heart disease should eat less
saturated fat and cholesterol than is listed on the food label. For more details on the Step I and
Step II diets for people with high cholesterol, check out the American Heart Association’s
Web site: http://www.americanheart.org.
- Trans fats. Food labels currently offer no information about the amount of trans fats
found in a food. Trans fats are a type of fat formed when unsaturated fat goes through a process
called hydrogenation. The FDA is currently considering a proposal to list trans fats under the
saturated fat heading, since trans fats are believed to cause as much damage to the heart as
saturated fats. Until that label change is put into effect, however, look for the words
“hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” in the ingredient list, and if
you’re trying to reduce your risk of heart disease, go easy on foods in which they’re
found.
- Vitamins and minerals. Food labels list the percent of daily value of any vitamins or
minerals in the food. Again, these percentages are for the average person, and if you have
different dietary needs, you should know this when you read food labels. For example, some women
(teens, those who are pregnant, nursing, or at risk for osteoporosis) need extra calcium. And if
you have high blood pressure, the sodium count on the food label, 2,400 mg a day, is probably
too high. Check with your doctor about adjusting your daily sodium target.
- Missing information. Food labels aren’t required on raw foods such as meats,
fish, and vegetables, although some growers and manufacturers do provide nutrition information
for these foods either on the package or on cards in the grocery store. And restaurant foods
tend to come without labeling, although some restaurants do post some nutrition
information.
|
