Reading Food Labels: The Basics The best way for us to protect ourselves from harmful foods is to learn how to read labels. For the most part, if we ate clean, whole foods, we would not even need to be able to read labels because we would just simply be pulling the carrot off the counter, rather than having it disguised in a frozen microwavable lasagna. The reality is, for many of us, we will at least be buying some convenience foods from time to time. Before you can begin to decipher what is in a product, by reading its nutritional label, you need to first understand the basics of your daily requirements. These are the basics: CALORIES A 125 lb. woman needs around 2000 calories to maintain her weight and a 160 lb. male needs around 2400 calories per day to maintain his weight FAT Fat intake should be kept at or below 30% of total calorie intake, so that’s a maximum of 67g fat per day for average women and 80g for an average man. Saturated fat intake should be kept as low as possible and should not exceed one-third of the total daily fat intake. Low fat products should contain less than 5g fat/100g and fat-free should contain less than 0.5g fat/100g CHOLESTEROL This should be kept to less than 300 milligrams/day. If you have heart disease, limit your daily intake to less than 200 milligrams. SODIUM Sodium intake should be around 1,100-3,300 mg per day, and keep to the lesser amounts if you have hypertension. Your nutrition label will generally list the amounts of calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, cholesterol and sodium per serving and per 100g of product. Use the per serving calculations to see how much of the product you are going to eat and use the per 100g to compare different products in terms of the percentages from each nutrient that it contains. Another useful comparison to keep in mind is: 1 serving of carbohydrate = 15g carbohydrate (food equivalent= 1 slice bread or 1 medium apple) 1 serving fat = 5g fat (food equivalent = 1 tsp oil) 1 serving protein = 7g protein (food equivalent = 1 oz of meat) The Ingredients List A nutrition label will always list ingredients in the order in which they appear. For example if sugar is in the first three ingredients in a long list, the product is relatively sugar dense but if sugar appears as one of the last ingredients, the product is not as sugar-dense. Look for products that contain the most natural ingredients. Also, if a product contains organic ingredients, it was most likely list them as such. For example, organic tomatoes. Questionable ingredients to look out for and avoid as much as possible include monosodium glutamate (E621) butylated hydroxy anisol, potassium nitrate (processed meats), sodium nitrate (processed meats), sodium benzoate (soft drinks, margarine) and sulphur dioxide (dried fruit, fruit juice). Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat indicates the presence of trans fatty acids in the product. Processed and artificial sugars like sugar, fructose, high fructose corn syrup and matodextrin as well as artificial sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame should also be avoided as much as possible. Other additives to stay clear of include yellow colorings- E102 (tartrazine), E104, 107, E110, red colorings- E120, 122, 123, 124, 127, 128, 129, 180, blue coloring- E131, 132, 133, Green coloring- E142, black coloring- E151, 153, Brown coloring- E154, 155, natural orange coloring- E161
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 22:06:38 +0000
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