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Know your food label
Food and ingredient decisions are more difficult than ever. Food companies often misrepresent or mislead us into buying products with little or no nutritional value. The food label is where you go for the real information. Use it to compare products and discover what they truly contain so you can make healthier choices.
Serving size. Calories and nutrients on the label are listed per serving. But serving sizes are usually smaller than you think. Very often you’ll consume more than one serving, so increase the nutrients and calories proportionately.
Look for a low (5% or less) Percent Daily Values for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Most of us eat too much of these things. Diets high in these nutrients can increase your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
Trans fat. You may also see the term “partially hydrogenated fat.” This type of fat is said to do the most damage to our arteries. It’s found in cakes, cookies, fried foods, salad dressings, snack foods, and stick margarines. Look for products that are “trans-fat-free.”
Sugars. There is no recommendation for the amount of sugar to eat per day. Sugars on the label include naturally occurring ones (those found in fruits and milk) and added sugars such as corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, molasses, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, brown sugar, invert sugar, raw sugar, turbinado, honey, and maple syrup. It’s not good to consume too much added sugar, regardless of the source.
Look for a high (20% or more) Percent Daily Values for dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron (especially for children, teens, and postmenopausal women). Eating adequate amounts of these nutrients can improve your health and may reduce your risk of certain chronic diseases. No one food has a high Percent Daily Values for every nutrient, so a varied diet is essential.
Recommended daily intake numbers. Nutrients that have upper limits, such as fat, cholesterol, and sodium, are listed first. The lower limit of other nutrients, such as fiber, are listed next, meaning we should eat at least this amount per day. Bear in mind these figures are based on a 2,000-calorie and 2,500-calorie diet, which covers most adult females and males, respectively. Our individual calorie requirements differ greatly depending on many factors—principally age, activity level, and gender.
Ingredients are listed by weight, from highest to lowest.
Ingredients: Whole-grain oats, honey, canola oil, almonds, raisins (raisins, glycerin), sweetened dried cranberries (cranberries, sugar, glycerin, sunflower oil), coconut, walnuts, pecans, maple syrup, oat bran, ground flaxseed, toasted sesame seeds.