You Become What You Eat:
Reading Food Labels

The many chemical substances contained in foods are invisible to the naked eye. How, then, can you find out what compounds are in foods? Nutrition labels, required by the federal government, give us some information about the major nutrients in the food. If all the compounds were included it would mean immensely long lists for many foods. And, remember, many of the chemical names would not mean much to people unfamiliar with chemistry. You won't find any of the phytochemicals listed on these labels, but you can still learn a lot. What can you find out about a food by reading its a nutrition label?

Serving Size: Given in familiar units and metric or SI units (in parenthesis). All other information on label is given in terms of this serving amount. Servings per Container: Try to relate the number of servings with how much of this food you actually eat at one time. Calories: This part of the panel tells you how many calories are produced if you eat one serving. Since most health agencies recommend limiting calories from fat to less than 30% of your total, the panel gives you the number of calories from the fat content. Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium: A good rule of thumb is to limit your intake of these. Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron: Be sure to get enough of these in your diet. Many people do not. Percent Daily Value (%DV): These numbers are on the label to help you manage how much of each nutrient you eat. The numbers are expressed as percents of the amounts recommended for a whole day. The recommendations are based on a 2000 calorie-per-day diet (see the bottom part of the label) Most people do not know their average daily calorie intake so the percent daily values are just guides. A rule of thumb for %DVs: 5% is low and 20% or more is high. Remember: %DVs are per serving. If you have two servings, you double the percent. Calories per Gram: These numbers are the rounded off number of calories produced as 1.0 g of each nutrient is burned in the body. Label numbers may not add up due to rounding.

Questions

1. How many servings are there in this container?

2. On the sample label, what is the total volume of the product?

3. Calculate the total calories from all the food in this container.

4. You might think about % Daily Value as your "allowance" of that nutrient. The number on the label tells what part of your allowance this food uses up. Give the percent of your daily allowance remaining after eating one serving of this food:

   a. total fat
   b. sodium
   c. cholesterol

5. From the numbers on this label, what is the allowable daily weight of

   a. sodium intake?
   b. dietary fiber intake?
   c. total carbohydrate?