78 Part I: Eating Right with Every Bite
As with the weekly meal planning, getting the information you need from
labels takes a little time at first. You already know some buzzwords to look
for that determine whether or not a food is something you want to eat (to
name a few, remember hydrogenated fat, enriched flour, and high fructose
corn syrup?). In this section we go over some other basics to take the
mystery out of nutrition and ingredient labels.
Finding out what all those numbers mean
Information about a food product gives you what you need to make good
decisions about what you eat. Think it is a little too much information? The
good news is that the numbers on the food label, by law, have to conform
to a standard format. So once you get used to the label, it will be easy to
compare similar products to make good choices. Figure 4-1 shows a label for
granola cereal.
Figure 4-1:
Nutrition
label for a
box of
granola
cereal.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1/2 cup (75g)
Servings Per Container 6
1
7
9
8
2
3
4
5
6
Amount Per Serving
*Percent Daily Values are based on a
2,000 calorie diet.
% Daily Value*
Calories 280 Calories from Fat 110
Total Fat 12g 18%
Saturated Fat 1.5g 9%
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Total Carbohydrate 43g 14%
Dietary Fiber 10g 38%
Sugars 5g
Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 6% • Iron 20%
INGREDIENTS: Oat Bran, Rolled
Oats, Barley, Rye, Sunflower
Seed, Flax Seed, Chia Seed,
Lecithin, Dried Apple, Apricots,
Raisins, Walnuts, Almonds,
Nutmeg, Vanilla
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 20mg 1%
Protein 10g
- Serving Size. This bag has six servings (not one!). Each serving is ½ cup.
Measure, measure, measure! All the rest of the nutrition information per-
tains to a single serving.
