Understanding Food Labels
What Foods are Really Good for a "Healthy" Diet?
“Fat-Free!” “Sugar Free!” “Low salt!” These are just a few of the many key words food packagers are putting on their labels. They're words designed to encourage consumers, especially seniors being warned to watch out for salt, fat, and sugar, to believe that their product is a true asset in a healthy diet plan.
The good news is more of today’s food choices are good assets in a healthful nutritional program. The challenge is to know what all these words and phrases mean and which ones are most likely to be helpful when one is trying to eat healthfully.
"Low" Fat, "Low" Cholesterol
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) offers these fat and cholesterol guidelines for labels:
- "Low-saturated fat" = 1 gram or less of saturated fat per serving.
- "Low-fat" = 3 grams or less of saturated fat per serving.
- "Low-cholesterol" = 20 milligrams or less, or 2 grams or less, of saturated fat per serving.
Other Hints About Fat Content
“Lean” and “extra lean” are claims used to describe the saturated fat and fat content of meat, poultry, seafood and game meats. Here is what they mean:
- "Lean": less than 10 grams of fat and 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.
- "Extra lean": less than 5 grams of fat, less than 2 grams saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving.
Watch Out for Foods Marked “Free”
This is one of the trickiest designations and probably the one to be most leery of. Food that says it is free of something should literally be free of a certain substance, like fat or sugar. But more often it simply means it is very low in that substance.
For example, “fat-free” doesn’t always mean the food has no fat at all. According to government standards, it has no more than 0.5 grams of fat per serving. Similarly, “calorie-free” food has fewer than 5 calories in each serving. That may be fine for a diet, but don't assume it's a guarantee it's of good nutritional value.
Another trick manufacturers use is the product may not have what it claims to be free from--but has something that might be just as bad in a diet. For example, "sugar free" means a product doesn't have table sugar, otherwise known as sucrose. That doesn't mean it doesn't have other sugar enhancers, like lactose and fructose. (Any ingredient ending in "-ose," by the way, is a sugar of some kind.) Or it may have other sweeteners, like honey, molasses, or corn syrup. Someone with diabetes, or simply watching sugar intakes, might have to be leery of all of these.
Understand Portion and Serving Sizes
Remember that just because something is "reduced fat" or "lighter" in calories, does not mean it's OK to eat more of it. Eating a larger portion of a food low in saturated fat may ultimately mean consuming as much saturated fat and cholesterol as a smaller portion of the "less healthy" variety. Similarly, three servings of a low sodium product could mean exceeding the recommended daily sodium level.
This means it's important to gain a clear understanding about what constitutes a serving in whatever's being eaten. A serving of grain may not be the same as one serving of a vegetable.
Also remember that the nutritional values of a serving may be deceiving. Many labels are misleading because the numbers they show are not for a realistic amount of food. Example: Maybe a pasta label shows only 140 calories and 16 grams of carbohydrates. Now look closer at the serving size. It's only for 1/4 cup of pasta.
So consider this: How many people really stop at 1/4 cup of pasta? Also, those dietary numbers are just for plain pasta. What happens when oil and cheese are added? What about tomato sauce? It's easy to see how quickly one could consume a lot more than the 140 calories indicated--and more carbs, sugars, and fats, too.
Final Food Label Tips
One option for shopping more healthfully is to take advantage of a distinctive food label the American Heart Association (AHA) has been offering for years. It's a red heart with a white check logo, and it means AHA has certified that product as truly being low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
Finally, each person needs to determine which food labels are really right for him/her. Peas marked "low-sodium" might be right for one person, while their best friend might need peas that are totally no salt. Because of that, anyone who has more than just a passing interest in eating better should have a skilled nutritional counselor teach them to what they need to look for when examining food labels. To find a dietitian, check out EatRight.org, the association for dietitians.
What do you think about this article?
More in Health & Wellness
Latest Articles