The Graphite Blog

Weight Loss & Portion Control: It’s All About the Food Label

“Ya wanna Super Kingsize Combo Meal for only fifty cents more?” Aww ... the world in which we live. Extra big orders of french fries ... a baked potato the size of your head. It’s out of control portions, no matter where you turn. No wonder it’s hard to lose weight!?

For those of us who are tackling not only portion control in order to get healthy, but also the fat, calorie or nutritional breakdown of what we consume, the all-important food label is key. But how do you read it, and more importantly, how do you understand it?

There’s hardly a packaged food available in the U.S. that doesn’t have a food label, which shows the serving size of the product, along with the “Nutrition Facts.” But believe it or not, we all weren’t born with a Food Label deciphering code in our brain. So for those who need a basic lowdown on how to read the labels, or for those who want a deeper understanding in order to make healthy choices, here are the facts:

Serving Size: This is really important, because this is based on the amount of food that is an average amount for a typical consumer. This does not support the “burrito as big as a car” theory. So start here on the label, and then see how many servings per package. This size, and this size alone, is then reflected in the other nutritional information. For instance, if a package has two-and-a-half servings, and you eat the entire contents, then you’re over doubling the fat and calories that you have just digested.

Calories and Calories From Fat. Pretty straight forward ... it’s the number of calories and grams of nutrients that are contained in the stated serving size. This is the part of the food label where you will find the amount of fat per serving.

Nutrients. This section is vital for those who are pre-diabetic, diabetic or dealing with chronic diseases that require specific amounts of daily nutrients. You’ll find here the nutritional content of each serving, plus daily values that are set by the government and are based on current nutrition recommendations. Some labels list daily values for both 2,000 and 2,500 calorie diets.

"% Daily Value" shows how a food fits into a 2,000 calorie/day diet. For diets other than 2,000 calories, divide by 2,000 to determine the % Daily Value for nutrients. For example, if you are following a 1,500 calorie diet, your % Daily Value goal will be based on 75% for each nutrient, not 100%.

For fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, choose foods with a low % Daily Value. For total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, try to reach your goal for each nutrient.

Ingredients. Okay, I didn’t know this information until recently: Each product not only lists the ingredients on the label (I knew that part), but then lists them from largest to smallest amount, by weight (I didn’t know that part). This means a food contains the largest amount of the first ingredient and the smallest amount of the last ingredient.

Label Claim. Another aspect of food labeling is label claims. Some food labels make claims such as "low cholesterol" or "low fat." These claims can only be used if a food meets strict government definitions.

You might not want to sit down and read food labels for pleasure, but knowing how to read them is vital for making healthy food choices and adapting positive eating habits. You can find more information about food labels by visiting www.fda.gov.

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