You may notice that there is a lot of information on this label. Here are some of the basics that you may want to pay attention to when reading a food label.
1. Serving Size--This is the first thing you will see. Notice on this particular label the size is 1 Cup. (this label is for Skim Milk) Many people do not realize how much a cup of liquid is by using the eyeball method...so I implore you to pull out the trusty measuring cup and use it for all liquids that have a calorie content.
2. Servings Per Container--This will give you an idea of how many servings you will get from this particular product. If the servings per container is 10 then over the course of 10 days you could have 1 serving of the item per day. Cereal is one of the best examples for servings per container abuse. Most people never measure their cereal. Next time you sit down to a bowl of your favorite cold cereal pull out the measuring cup again and stick with the serving size as listed on the label. You will be surprised by how "little" the amount seems to be. But don't be discouraged...You can have a serving of cereal, milk and a piece of fruit which will round out the meal quite nicely plus you won't feel deprived from not over filling your cereal bowl. :-)
3. Calories--These are very important because if you are trying to lose weight or maintain your current weight you will need to know how many calories you are consuming and expending daily. (expended calories will have to be covered on another day) In this example the total Calories for 1 cup of skim milk is 80. You would write this down in your food journal because you have measured the 1 cup you know it was 80 calories. You will need to determine your overall daily calorie goal and create your menu to meet the goal.
4. Total Fat--Seems like something very straight forward but many times people aren't sure how much fat they should have in a day. Plus there is the issue of healthy fats versus bad fats. I will tell you this...if you read the ingredient list on the package and it has hydrogenated anything listed you should avoid it. Some of the worst offenders to our body are the hydrogenated oils in many products. In the end you should have a good healthy ratio of fats/carbs and proteins. This varies with each person but over time you can figure out what is best for your body.
5. Saturated Fat--In most cases the lower the better. ;-)
6. Trans Fat--In all cases 0 is the best for this.
7. Cholesterol--Some people need to really watch this number...but we also have to be aware that our body does need some cholesterol to function properly. The healthiest way to obtain cholesterol is probably eggs. If you stick to healthy options for your main nutrition plan cholesterol intake should not be a problem.
8. Sodium--This can be one of the hardest things to control if you are purchasing processed foods. Processed foods are boxed and canned items that have long ingredient lists with lots of chemically processed ingredients. I highly recommend avoiding processed foods if you can. If you follow a nutrition plan that involves you preparing most of your meals from whole healthy ingredients the sodium levels should not be an issue.
9. Total Carbohydrate--Sadly our country has allowed the market to be over-run with carb induced foods. Carb rich foods are cheaper to process and purchase but they can cause problems for our health if we over indulge in them. What are carbohydrate rich foods you ask? Breads, pasta, rice and cereals to name a few. Personally I feel that having 150 grams or less of carbs each day is a good amount for allowing weight loss. As you will find once you start studying your food labels...it does not take a lot of any particular carb rich food item to add up to 150 grams. Many people consume around 300 or more per day which hinders the body's ability to properly burn fat. It also causes insulin spikes which is not something you want.
10. Dietary Fiber--This is a good thing to have...but to much can be harmful. On average women should consume around 25 grams at max per day. Men can get by with around 35 grams. These numbers can be difficult to reach but once you begin to add fiber rich foods into your diet you will see that it is possible and you will feel more full by consuming the fiber rich foods.
11. Sugars--Sugar is something our body uses for healthy brain function. But again as with anything else the amount of sugar needed is not very much. Sugars are essentially carbs and will turn to fat if not burned by the body. Burning these requires physical exercise. We should all try to keep our total sugar intake fairly low and by eating whole natural foods you should not have a problem with sugars.
12. Protein--This is one of the best things we can do for our body. Protein is a basic building block for our muscles. We need it to maintain our muscles which in turn support our body functions in a healthy manner. Protein grams as recommended add up to about 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. Lean body mass is not your total weight. To get an accurate measurement you would need to get your body fat measured. Once you know the total body fat weight you can subtract that from your total weight to find your lean weight. As an example: a 100 pound person with 20% body fat would essentially have 80 lbs of lean muscle mass...this person would do well to consume 60-80grams of protein per day to maintain their muscle mass. If they wanted to build muscle they would add a little more to their diet and workout to keep their muscles in a constant state of growth.
The rest of the food label will have vitamins and minerals. Over time you will learn about which foods are good for calcium, vitamin C, iron, etc. Don't expect to learn it all at once or you may just give up.
Let's take it one step at a time. The next time you go shopping remember to look at those food labels and ingredient lists.
HINT: The perimeter of the grocery store is where most of the natural healthier foods are. :)
You can also find more information on the fda.gove site: http://www.fda.gov/food/labelingnutrition/consumerinformation/ucm078889.htm
As always...if you have questions or comments please feel free to post them and I will get back to you.
