Nutritional Labels, Fats & Portion Control

Nutritional Labels, Fats & Portion Control

Food Labels: Know What You’re Getting

You can start to make healthy choices for your life right now just by getting a few food packages from the kitchen and reviewing the following explanations of “Nutritional Facts.” If you’re counting calories, fats or carbohydrates, it’s important to know how those numbers are calculated in the food you eat.

_ Serving Size: Defines what is considered a normal serving of this food based on portion size or

measurements like cups, tablespoons, etc. Information on calories, amounts of protein, fat, etc., is based on this measured size.

_ Total Fat: Look at the grams of total fat in a serving. A low fat food is defined as containing 3 grams of fat or less per serving.

_ Total Carbohydrate: Look at the grams of total carbohydrate, rather than the indented grams of sugar. If you look only at the sugar number, you may end up excluding foods such as fruits and milks thinking they are too high in sugar, while you may overeat foods such as cereals that have no sugar, but do contain significant amounts of carbohydrate. The grams of sugar and fiber are counted as part of the grams of total carbohydrate. If a food has 5 grams or more fiber in a serving, subtract

the fiber grams from the total grams of carbohydrate for a more accurate estimate of the carbohydrate content.

Sugar alcohols (also known as polyols) include sorbitol, xylitol and mannitol, and have

fewer calories than sugars and starches, although use of the sugar alcohols in a product

does not necessarily mean the product is low in carbohydrate. Always remember to

check the label for the grams of carbohydrate. The grams of sugar alcohols are indented

under the total carbohydrate heading and aligned under dietary fiber and sugars. The

grams of sugar alcohols are required on the label only when a claim is made about

sugar alcohols or sugars when sugar alcohols are present.

_ % Daily Value: Indicates how much of a specific nutrient a serving of food contains

compared to a 2000-calorie diet. A product is considered a good source of a particular

nutrient if one serving provides 10% to 19% of the Daily Value, and is considered high in

a given nutrient if it contains 20% or more of the Daily Value. If the Daily Value is 5% or

less, the food is low in that nutrient.

Source: American Diabetes Association. www.diabetes.org

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