What’s in a Food Label?

Watching weight? Read food labels carefully if you are serious about watching your weight, staying healthy or following a special diet, foodlabels are required reading. Labels provide you with all the information you would ever want to know about the foods you eat.

But food labels can be tricky. Without reading between the fineprint, it may be difficult to tell whether the food inside the packageis right for your diet. Food labels are good sources of nutritional information, but they are only helpful if consumers understand what they mean,” said a registered nurse.

Much of the information we find on food labels appears becauseit is required by government regulations. Food manufacturersmust list the name of the product, net contents or weight, an ingredients list, nutrition information per serving and percentageof U.S. recommended daily allowances of certain vitamins and minerals.

Fresh meats, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables and otherfoods that contain specific mandatory ingredients do not requirea list of ingredients. When ingredients are listed on the label, the one in largest quantity appears first, down to the smaller quantity.

“When an ingredient high on the list is restricted in your diet,such as sodium, it’s probably best to avoid that food,” experts advise.If you are trying to limit your sodium intake, you can also read the label to find out how many milligrams of sodium are in oneserving of a product. The estimated safe and adequate daily dietary intake of sodium is 1100 to 3300 mg.

Reading labels also is helpful if you are following a low-fat diet.You can calculate the amount of fat in a product by multiplying the grams of fat (listed on the label) by nine and dividing the result by total calories per serving. This gives you the percentage ofcalories that come from fat in one serving.

According to the American Heart Association, no more than30 percent of our daily total calories should come from fat.While they tell the truth, labels are puzzling because they can be misleading. Words like “lite,” “low-fat” and “no cholesterol” attractyour attention and make you believe you are buying something healthy. But do you really know what these words mean?

For example, when you see the words “no cholesterol” on a bottleof vegetable oil, you may be inclined to select that brand over another. The label makes you believe you are purchasing something special that is good for your health.

But the truth is, many products that claim “no cholesterol” never had cholesterol in the first place. “Cholesterol is only found in animal products such as red meats, poultry, sea food, eggs and dairy items,” practitioners say. “When you see a jar of peanut butter, loaf of bread or potato chips that say ‘no cholesterol,’ these productsmay have never contained it to begin with. Even when a product is cholesterol free, it still may be high in saturated fat, they say. Margarine, for example, does not contain cholesterol, but has the same amount of fat as butter and also should be used in moderation. The terms “low calorie” and “reduced calorie” also can be tricky. They sound familiar inmeaning but actually have very distinct definitions, according toU.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations.

Low calorie means the product has 40 or less calories perserving, whereas reduced calorie means the product contains one thirdfewer calories than the standard product, experts explain.

Be especially cautious of the terms “Lite” and “Light,” whichare not federally regulated. These words can mean lighter color, lighter taste, fewer calories, less fat or just about anything.

Here are some other common labeling terms and their definitions:

• Sodium-free — less than five milligrams of sodium per serving.

• Low-sodium — 140 milligrams or less per serving.

• Unsalted, no salt added or without added salt — none was

added during processing, but the food may contain some naturally.

• Natural — this word can mean anything — or nothing.