Reading Food Labels

Introduction

Food labeling first came about in the 1930’s, following the previous couple decades where there were several separate instances of people getting sick or dying due to the foods they consumed. At that time though, the only requirements of the food label were that it contained the name of the food, net weight, and the name and address of the manufacturer or distributor. A list of ingredients was required only on certain products, and the law prohibited false or misleading statements related to information on food labels and prevented the introduction of adulterated or misbranded foods in interstate commerce. This, in part, was to improve the standards around foods and increase safety of the public.

It wasn’t until 1990 that congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which gave the FDA the authority to set nutrition labeling standards. This required information such as serving size, calories, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber to be listed, and also allowed for content claims to be made.

Since the 90’s the food label has continued to evolve, with more standardization and more information for the public. This has all been a response to concerns regarding food safety threats, general health status, economic issues, agricultural protection, and environmental issues.

What’s included and definitions

Serving size: This tells you how much of the food you can eat, to give you the number of calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, etc., that are listed on the food label. The nutrition facts panel will also tell you how many servings are in the container. This is a good value to check when purchasing foods to see if it’s worth it for you to consume or not. Is the serving size so low that it won’t be worth it to consume, or is it quite large, and how does it compare to the nutritional value of the food. In other words, are you getting a lot of bang for your buck?

Calories: This is the number of calories that you get by eating 1 serving of the food. If you double the amount that you eat, you need to double the calories consumed.

Total fat: This is the total fat that you get by eating 1 serving of the food. There are different kinds of fat however and some are healthier than others. The total will add up saturated fat, unsaturated fat (mono- and poly-unsaturated fats), and trans fats.

Cholesterol: This is the total amount of cholesterol that you’ll get by eating 1 serving of the food.

Sodium: This is the total amount of sodium that you’ll get by eating 1 serving of the food.

Total Carbohydrate: This is the total carbohydrates that you get by eating 1 serving of the food. Carbohydrates consist of fiber, sugars, and starches, so you will see these broken down further, below the total carbohydrate heading. Something to be mindful of is “Added sugars”. Many foods contain sugars naturally, like fruit for example. That is normal and fine to consume. Often times, manufacturers will add sugar into foods to increase the flavor, improve the color or appearance, or improve shelf-life. Take dried fruit for example. Because it is fruit that had the water removed, it still has sugar in it. However, many of the dried fruit products you can find in the store will have sugar added. Eating a lot of added sugar can lead to health concerns like diabetes, heart disease, inflammation, poor immune response, and the list goes on. Look for added sugars on your food labels to get a better sense of what you’re consuming!

Another rule of thumb is to purchase products, more often than not, which contain fiber at a level of 3 grams or more per serving. If you have the option between two different types of breads, choose the one with more fiber per slice.

Protein: This is the amount of protein that you will get by eating 1 serving of the food.

DV: Food labels were recently updated with a requirement that manufacturers list vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. Some manufacturers will list many more micronutrients than these, however these four are now a standard. You will find them listed as a DV.

DV stands for Daily Value, and these will be listed as percentages. These percentages are based on a 2000 calorie diet, however, not everyone needs 2000 calories. Some people may need more, and some people may need less. The recommendation is to use these as more of a guideline.

When it comes to DV, something that offers 5% of a DV is considered a “low” contributor, and something that offers 20% or more is considered a high contributor. You may find a food that has Fiber listed at 14% of the DV, this would not be considered a low or high source of fiber, however it may be a better option than a similar product which only contains 2% of the DV from Fiber.

Let’s say you find a product that offer 25% saturated fat as the DV. This product is going to be a high source of saturated fat in your diet. As saturated fat isn’t one of the fats that is supportive of health, this would be a product that you’d want to stay away from or consume less of.

The DVs also work in helping you understand how much you have left to “spend” in our day. Let’s say a product offers 37% DV from sodium. This is a high sodium product, so maybe not the best option. However, let’s say you eat 1 serving of it. Now you have roughly 63% of the DV remaining for sodium that day. Again, this may not be accurate as you may not need 2000 calories, however, this is how you can use the DV as a guideline. Now, let’s say you have two servings of that food. Now you’ve consumed 74% of the DV in sodium, and you only have roughly 26% left to spend.

Generally speaking, there are several things you want to look for on the food label, the below DV chart can serve as a guideline. Based on a 2000 calories diet, the number of grams and mg of certain nutrients that you will consume through the day are listed below. Each of these amounts equals 100% of the DV. Some of these nutrients though you need to be cautious in consuming, like saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. Therefore, a good guideline is to get less than 20g of saturated fat, less than 2300 mg of sodium, and less than 50 g of added sugar daily. Again, that’s based on a 2000 calorie diet, if you know you eat less, than your daily amounts of these foods are less!

Claims

Manufacturers will also add certain claims language to their products, which they’re allowed to do to try and sell their products. The definitions can be confusing and it's important to become familiar with them.

Light or Lite: May refer to calories or fat. This is often seen on products related to the fat content, however. For foods where 50% or more of the calories come from fat, this term can be used if fat content is cut by at least half as compared to original or standard version of the food. Foods that derive <50% kcal from fat can use this claim if they reduce calories by 33% or reduce fat by 50% as compared to a standard product. Beware of this one though and compare the standard/regular product to the light/lite one. Often times manufacturers will remove the fat, however they need the product to still taste good, so they’ll add something else, like sugar!

Low: This is a term that can refer to calories, fat, sugar, or cholesterol. Products can claim “low” if they meet the below guidelines based on the different nutrients.

• Low Fat: 3g or less per serving

• Low Sat Fat: 1g or less per serving + no more than 15% of kcal from Sat fat

• Low Sodium: 140mg or less per serving

• Very Low Sodium: 35mg or less per serving

• Low Cholesterol: 20mg or less per serving + 2g or less of Sat Fat per serving

• Low Calorie: 40 calories or less per serving

Free: This term can refer to calories, fat, sugar, and cholesterol. Products can claim “free” if they meet the below guidelines based on different nutrients. Again, same as the “light/lite”, check the label against the regular product as manufacturers will likely add something to make the product taste good, when the remove something else.

• Fat & Sugar: <0.5g/serving

• Gluten: <20ppm

Gluten is another one you need to be careful of. For someone who is diagnosed with celiac disease, you need to ensure that something calling itself “gluten free” actually contains no gluten containing ingredients and is not processed on equipment that is shared with gluten containing products without first being cleaned.

No Antibiotics: A producer must provide proof that an animal was raised without the use of antibiotics (milk is excluded from this rule).

No Hormones: A producer must provide proof an animal was raised without the use of hormones (pigs and eggs are excluded from this rule).

Organic: This can be displayed on a product as long as 95% of the ingredients used in the product come from an organic certified source. “Made with Organic” claims require the product to contain at least 70% of the ingredients from organic sources.

GMO: This is not currently enforced by the FDA.

Natural: The product should contain nothing artificial or synthetic (this rule excludes pesticides and pasteurization).

“Good” source: A product claiming this must contain 10-19% of the DV of the nutrient.

“Excellent” source: A product claiming this must contain 20%+ of the DV of the nutrient.

The Ingredients

The ingredient list on food and beverage products can often be long and intimidating because it often times includes the scientific name for micronutrients and complicated names for additives ad preservatives.

One thing to know is that the ingredients are listed in order from the most to the least. A product that lists sugar as the first ingredient, has more sugar in it than the other ingredients listed.

Also, based on the above definitions, a product could claim 0 g trans-fat. Trans fat is a public enemy number one nutrient. Even though a manufacturer might claim 0 g trans-fat on the food label, you may want to check the ingredients. If you find an ingredient called “partially hydrogenated…”, it is likely partially hydrogenated oil, which means the product actually contains trans fats!

Bottom line

Food labels are complex, and you can and should work to become more familiar with them. As you do, they will become less intimidating. Reading food labels is not only a good way to help keep you safe, but it can give you so much more power in protecting your health by allowing you to make more informed decisions about what you purchase. Manufacturers conduct market research to see what consumers want. You have so much more power over what manufacturers put on the market than you think, therefore read food labels, and make decisions that are good for your health and support your longevity. In this way the population at large can slowly encourage manufacturers to launch products that are actually good and supportive of health!

Happy food label reading!

References:

The National Agricultural Law Center. (n.d.). Food Labeling – An Overview. Retrieved from https://nationalaglawcenter.org/overview/food-labeling/