Making sure your family eats right doesn’t have to be a difficult task.

With all the research that shows eating a well-balanced, nutritious diet reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, strokes, some cancers, and osteoporosis, we’re sure you understand the importance of making good choices. The key is to know what’s in the food you’re eating. Food labels can help you do this.

Food Labels Information

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) require labels on almost all packaged foods that include nutrition information in readable type. The information usually appears on the back or side of packaging under the title “Nutrition Facts.” It’s also displayed in grocery stores near fresh foods, like fruits, vegetables, and fish.

The nutrition facts usually include:

- a column of information, “% Daily Value,” that shows what portion of the amount of daily recommended nutrients the product provides
- information about saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, fiber, sugar, and calories from fat
- serving sizes that are close to the amount that people actually eat
- health claims, such as “light” or “low fat,” that must meet strict government definitions so that they are accurate and consistent from one food to another

Learning Label Language

At a glance, it may appear as though everything on the shelves either adds fiber to your diet or reduces fat intake. In order to make healthy, informed food choices, it’s important to understand: food label claims; serving sizes; calorie requirements; percent daily values; and important nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

Food Label Claims. Manufacturers often make claims about the healthfulness of a food on the front of a package – like “fat free” or “no cholesterol.” Many people wonder if they can trust these claims to be true. The fact is, the FDA does require food makers to provide scientific evidence in order to make those claims. Even so, it’s a good idea to carefully read the claims and understand what they mean.

- Reduced fat means that a product has 25% less fat than the same regular brand.
- Light means that the product has 50% less fat than the same regular product.
- Low fat means a product has less than 3 grams of fat per serving.

Even if a food is low in fat, the food may not necessarily be nutritious. Even a low-fat food can be high in sugar. Food companies also may make claims such as “no cholesterol” (meaning there is no animal fat used in making the product), but that does not necessarily mean the product is low in fat.

Serving Size and Servings Per Container. At the top of each food label you’ll see an amount listing for serving size. These are determined by the food manufacturer, and they’re based on the amount that people generally eat. All of the information about the nutritional value of the food that is listed on the label is given according to the serving size. So if a serving size is 2 crackers and you eat 4 crackers – which would be two servings – you need to double all of the nutrition information.

The number of servings per container tells you how many serving sizes are in the whole package. So if one serving is 1 cup, and the entire package has 5 cups, there are 5 servings per package.

Calories. A calorie is a unit of energy that measures how much energy a food provides to the body. The number of calories that’s listed on the food label indicates how many calories are in one serving. Calories From Fat. The second number, calories from fat, tells the total calories in one serving that come from fat. The label lists fat so that people can monitor the amount of fat in their diets. Dietitians generally recommend that no more than 30% of calories come from fat over the course of the day. That means that if the food you eat over the course of a day contains 2,000 calories total, no more than 600 of these should come from fat.

Calories Per Gram. These numbers show how many calories are in 1 gram of fat, carbohydrate, and protein. This information must be printed on every Nutrition Facts label for reference. Percent Daily Values. Percent daily values are listed in the right-hand column in percentages, and they tell how much of a certain nutrient a person will get from eating one serving of that food. Ideally, the goal is to eat 100% of each of those nutrients each day. If a serving of a food has 18% protein, then that food is providing 18% of your daily protein needs if you eat 2,000 calories per day.

Percent daily value is most useful for determining whether a food is high or low in certain nutrients. If a food has 5% or less of a nutrient, it is considered to be low in that nutrient. A food is considered a good source of a nutrient if the percentage is between 10% and 19%. If the food has more than 20% of the percent daily value, it is considered high in that nutrient.

Keep in mind that the information found on food labels is based on an average diet of 2,000 calories per day. The actual number of calories and nutrients that your child requires is going to vary according to your child’s age, weight, gender, and level of physical activity. For more guidance on this, check with the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid.) So use food labels as a guide to determine whether a food is generally nutritious, but don’t worry so much about calculating the nutrients down to the exact ounce of the serving size, as long is your child is healthy and growing well. If you have any concerns about your child’s nutrition, talk to your child’s doctor.