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What Does It All Mean?
By law, most items in the grocery store must have a label with all the
nutrition information printed right on it. Be sure to check the foods you
eat to make sure you keep to a reduced-calorie diet with no more than 30%
calories from fat. Here are some important points to remember when you read
nutrition labels:
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- Serving Size: It's the first line of the label, and the most important,
because all the nutrition facts listed are based on it. Be careful, because
some packaged foods contain more than 1 serving. So compare the portion
you're eating with the serving size and adjust your calories and fat
accordingly. "A serving size for this product is 1 package (13 grams)."
- Servings per Container: This refers to the number of servings included
in the package. "This package contains 6 servings."
- Calories and Calories From Fat: The calories listing is the total
number of calories you will consume in one serving. "There are 50 calories
in this product." (Calories measure the amount of energy supplied from
food.) The calories from fat listing reflects the number of fat calories
the product provides per serving, not the percentage of calories from fat.
"This product has 10 fat calories."
- % Daily Value: This will help you see how a food fits into a
2000-calorie reference diet. It tells you how much of a nutrient the
food contains. "One package of this product contains 2% of the daily
value for grams of fat, which is relatively low."
- Daily Values Footnote: This reflects the current nutrition
recommendations for both 2000- and 2500-calorie diets. For example, the
daily value for fat is 65 grams for 2000 calories and 80 grams for 2500
calories. These examples are probably higher than the target calories and
fat-gram daily totals prescribed by your doctor.
- Total Fat: This is the amount of fat, in grams, per serving. "This
product contains 1 gram of fat." Remember that your diet should contain
approximately 30% of calories from fat at each main meal.
- Important Nutrients: These include saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium,
total carbohydrate and protein. Check this information if your doctor has
instructed you to limit any of these.
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