Understanding Food Label
Understanding Food Labels
SCI/241
09/7/2012
Understanding Food Labels Understanding how to read food labels is important and also healthy. This can help you to maintain a healthy diet. Reading food labels at first can be confusing, however it will help you to select foods that will provide you with the accurate amount nutrients and energy that your body needs. Eating healthy can offer your body the energy and nutrition that it needs to function. Eating healthy can also have health benefits as well.
According to the “Food Label and You” video the 5/20 rule is “a food that has 5% or less of the daily value of a nutrient, say a bottle of juice that contains less than 5% calcium, then that food is not a good source of that nutrient, calcium in this case. But a food with 20% or more of a nutrient means is a good source. So, a glass of milk that has 25% calcium is an excellent source. This rule also works for nutrients you may not want a lot of, like saturated fat or sodium”. Reading the nutrition labels is the key to calories, serving sizes and daily values that follow the 5/20 rule. Calories and serving size should be checked. Checking the label will tell you how many calories and nutrients you are getting. An example of the 5/20 rules from the pantry is a fiber one bar that contains 35% of fiber, which is an excellent source of fiber. Another example would be peanut butter, which contains 10% of vitamin C. In this case it is not a good source of vitamin C.
There are six food label facts presented in the “How to Understand Nutritional Food Label” article that can help consumers understand food labels more effectively. The first is the serving size, which are standardized to make it easier to compare similar foods; they are provided in familiar units, such as cups or pieces, followed by the metric amount, e.g., the number of grams. The serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the
SCI/241
09/7/2012
Understanding Food Labels Understanding how to read food labels is important and also healthy. This can help you to maintain a healthy diet. Reading food labels at first can be confusing, however it will help you to select foods that will provide you with the accurate amount nutrients and energy that your body needs. Eating healthy can offer your body the energy and nutrition that it needs to function. Eating healthy can also have health benefits as well.
According to the “Food Label and You” video the 5/20 rule is “a food that has 5% or less of the daily value of a nutrient, say a bottle of juice that contains less than 5% calcium, then that food is not a good source of that nutrient, calcium in this case. But a food with 20% or more of a nutrient means is a good source. So, a glass of milk that has 25% calcium is an excellent source. This rule also works for nutrients you may not want a lot of, like saturated fat or sodium”. Reading the nutrition labels is the key to calories, serving sizes and daily values that follow the 5/20 rule. Calories and serving size should be checked. Checking the label will tell you how many calories and nutrients you are getting. An example of the 5/20 rules from the pantry is a fiber one bar that contains 35% of fiber, which is an excellent source of fiber. Another example would be peanut butter, which contains 10% of vitamin C. In this case it is not a good source of vitamin C.
There are six food label facts presented in the “How to Understand Nutritional Food Label” article that can help consumers understand food labels more effectively. The first is the serving size, which are standardized to make it easier to compare similar foods; they are provided in familiar units, such as cups or pieces, followed by the metric amount, e.g., the number of grams. The serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the