MHS cares about you and your family! Making good food choices is essential to healthy living. In order to eat healthy foods, it is important to look at labels for the foods you buy. Most people buy food because the label tells us it is loaded with vitamins. But does that mean it is healthy? Probably not; vitamins are not the only thing to look for. In order to tell if the food is healthy we need to know how to read the label. Here are few tips to help you do that.
- Calories The first thing to look for on a label is the number of calories per serving.
- Serving size and number of servings per container. This information is critical to understanding everything else on the label.
- Dietary Fiber It helps fill you up, and you need at least 25 grams daily. To be considered high in fiber, a food must contain least 5 grams per serving. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains provide fiber.
- Fat Fat has more calories per gram than carbs or protein, and all fats have 9 calories/gram. Choose unsaturated fats whenever possible, and limit foods with saturated and trans fats (also called trans fatty acids).
- Sodium per serving Sodium should be restricted to 2,300 mg per day (that’s less than 1 teaspoon of salt) for healthy adults, and 1,500 mg for those with health problems or family histories of high blood pressure. To reduce your sodium intake, choose less processed foods.
- Sugar Often listed on the label in “alias” terms, like “high fructose corn syrup,” “dextrose,” “invert sugar,” “turbinado,” etc. Choose foods with less than 5 grams per serving.
- % Daily Value (% DV) This reflects the percentage of a certain nutrient that the food supplies, based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
- Ingredient List Manufacturers are required to list all of the ingredients contained in the product by weight. A jar of tomato sauce with tomatoes as the first ingredient lets you know that tomatoes are the main ingredient. The spice or herb listed last is contained in the least amount.
Source: Web MD
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