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one of the most important skills you can master is

being able to read a food label in order to figure out

exactly what you are getting from your foods.

let’s look at the example to the left and take the

information from top to bottom...

serving size and servings per container:

Pay attention to this closely. Many people assume

that small packages of cookies or crackers, or

medium-sized beverage containers are single

servings. But this may not be the case. An “official”

serving of a beverage is 8 ounces, but many drinks

are packaged in 16 oz. containers or larger. All the

nutrition facts on the label are for one serving. If you

drink a 16 oz. beverage, you will be drinking twice

the number of calories on the nutrition facts panel,

since you’ll be taking in two servings. You will need

to double all the information on the label to

determine exactly what you are taking in.

calories, fat, carbohydrate and protein:

As with all the other nutrients, these are the amounts

per serving. In the example to the left, one cup of

Chunky, Cheesy, Rich and Creamy Broccoli Soup has 250 calories. But if you consume the whole package

(two servings), you will have taken in 500 calories. In addition to the total fat per serving, the label also tells

you the calories from fat, so you can do a quick calculation in your head of what percentage of calories you

are eating from fat. In the example, there are 135 calories from fat out of a total of 250 calories. You can

see right away that more than half the calories in the soup come from fat. The label also tells you how

much of the fat is saturated fat or trans fat.

“Total Carbohydrate” tells you, again, how much carbohydrate per serving. Keep in mind that this includes

natural sources, such as the natural sugars in milk or fruit, so it’s not always easy to tell from the line labeled

“Sugars” where the sugar is coming from without looking at the ingredients list. If a cereal has little added sugar

• but contains raisins – the sugar content may look high, but it’s just from the natural fruit sugar.

SECTION FIVE: Week 5: nutrition labels, Fats, Portion Control

LOOK AT THE LABEL

chunky, cheesy, rich And

creAMy broccoli soup

nutrition facts

Serving Size: 1 cup (250 g)

Servings per Container 2

Calories 250

Calories from Fat 135

% Daily Value

Total Fat 15 g 25%

Saturated Fat 3 g 15%

Trans Fat 0 g

Cholesterol 30 mg 10%

Sodium 750 mg 30%

Potassium 200 mg 5%

Total Carbohydrate 34 g 11%

Dietary Fiber 2 g 10%

Sugars 2 g

other Carbohdyrate 30 g

Protein 5 g 10%

By Susan Bowerman, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D.