Thread: Reading Food Labels

It's important that you familiarize yourself with food label information for you to make healthier food choices. Here are the things you need to look for:

1. Serving Per Container - Check for the size of the serving and the number of servings per container. Some packages are small but sometimes contain 2 or more servings.

2. Calories - Calories are important for weight loss. Check the total calories per serving then multiply it with the number of servings. That's how much calories you'll be eating if you eat the contents of the whole package.

3. Total Fat - That's the amount of fat in one serving. You should aim for no more than 65 grams per day (based on 2000 calorie diet). Under "Total Fat", you should see the amounts of saturated and trans fats (these are bad fats).

4. Saturated Fat - Too much saturated fat increases risk of heart disease so the fewer the grams, the better. (to be extra careful, keep your total saturated fat intake below 7% of your total calories)

5. Trans Fat - Aim for the fewest possible grams. Trans Fat increases bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol.

6. Sodium - That's the amount of salt per serving. A healthy meal have no more than 600 milligrams of sodium. For products labeled "low sodium", it should be no more than 140 milligrams per serving.

7. Dietary fiber - It's recommended that you should take 25-35 grams of total fiber per day. products with good source of fiber contains 2.5 to 4.9 grams per serving and high-fiber food products contain 5+ of fiber.


Source: Yahoo Health

Awesome post Kathy. I'm one of those people who always check the labels and I always check for the calories per serving. Now I know I should also check for the fats information.

Me too. It's become a habit of mine to check the label and I don't buy products without label information.

Great post kathy. This is very helpful. Knowing how to read the food labels in important when you are watching your weight. Thanks for sharing this.

Thank mikaela. It's also important for individual who have health problems to know how to read food labels too. They have to know the sodium and fat contents of foods as well so they could foods that are not good for them.