Part of the mystery behind eating is KNOWING what you are eating. A lot of people go with the theory of “I don’t know how to read it, so I will just go by the fancy box labels”! This route is only going to lead you into a pit of options that lead nowhere ! You need to be educated on how to read a label and what you should really be looking at. I will discuss some of the common things that your looking for and how to decipher past the fancy colors and wording on the big name box titles !
Start with the serving information at the top of the label.
This will tell you the size of a single serving and the total number of servings per container. If you happen to notice on many packages it will say the serving size for a quantity of that item. That means the food label is for just one serving. This gets tricky when your looking at foods that have multiple servings. You then need to multiply everything by the number of servings you are going to be consuming!
Limit these nutrients.
AHA recommends limiting these nutrients: Based on a 2,000 calorie diet, no more than 11-13 grams of saturated fat, as little trans fat as possible, and no more than 1,500 mg of sodium. Be very cautious and aware of these numbers as they are huge indicators of what to consume in terms of healthy / clean eating.
Get enough of these nutrients.
Make sure you get enough of beneficial nutrients such as: dietary fiber, protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and other nutrients you need every day.
Quick guide to % Daily Value (DV).
The % Daily Value (DV) tells you the percentage of each nutrient in a single serving, in terms of the daily recommended amount. As a guide, if you want to consume less of a nutrient such as saturated fat or sodium, choose foods with a lower % DV of 5 % or less. If you want to consume more of a nutrient such as fiber, seek foods with a higher % DV of 20 %t or more.
Ingredients label.
When looking at the ingredients you have one objective, only eat foods with 5 or less ingredients that you can pronounce and that you know what they are. IF you see a word that you have to look up what it is, it is already heavily processed and you might want to reconsider that choice ! Think like a caveman and go minimal !
Remember that the information shown on the food label is based on 2,000 calories a day. You may need to consume less or more than 2,000 calories depending upon your age, gender, activity level, and whether you’re trying to lose, gain or maintain your weight. Find out your personal daily limits and track your food on an app like MyFitnessPal.