Healthier eating starts at the grocery store

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Nutrition notes: The skinny on reading nutrition labels

Healthier eating starts at the grocery store

Elaine Hastings • Elaine@... • March 16, 2010

Good eating habits begin not at your family dining table, but at the grocery store where you make the choices about which products to purchase, cook, serve and eat.

While reading nutritional labels on a package might seem like a simple task, there are a number of items to consider when selecting the healthiest and most nutritious foods for yourself and your family.

Key items to consider when reviewing food labels include the following:

- Serving size and calories per portion

- Total fat content

- Cholesterol

- Salt (sodium)

- Carbohydrates

- Amount of dietary fiber.

Food and nutrition labels are all based on an average 2,000 calorie diet. Here are some guidelines:

- Food products that contain 40 calories or less per serving are considered to be low calorie items.

- Foods that contain about 100 calories per serving are considered moderate.

- Those foods that contain 400 calories or more per serving are considered to be high-calorie "belly busters."

What to look for when food shopping

When it comes to understanding the nutritional information that you need to know, it all begins in the first couple of lines and includes the serving size and number of servings per container or package.

For instance, a loaf of bread may list two slices as a single serving.

The next line will let you know exactly how many servings are in the package.

The number of calories per serving, along with the number of fat calories follows.

The next items tallied on the label are the nutrients that you should limit in your daily intake and include the following:

- Total fat (grams)

- Saturated fat (grams)

- Trans fat (grams)

- Cholesterol (listed as mg. or milligrams)

- Sodium (listed as mg. or milligrams)

- Total Carb count (listed as grams)

To the right of these items you will find the percentage of daily value that each contributes to your recommended daily allotment based on a standard 2,000 calorie diet and a moderately active lifestyle.

As you continue to scan down the ingredient list, it will include the amounts for the following:

- Dietary Fiber (grams)

- Sugars (grams)

- Protein (grams)

These items on the label are usually followed by a chart that shows the percentage of certain essential vitamins and minerals the packaged product contains.

It is very important that you are providing your body with enough of the right kinds of vitamins and minerals as well as adequate amounts of fiber.

Vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin are essential to maintaining optimum health and energy levels.

Nutrition guidelines for healthier eating

The calories and nutrients listed are per recommended serving size. You can double or triple these amounts depending on how many servings you are eating.

Here are some guidelines:

- A person's total daily fat intake should not exceed more than 25-30 percent.

- Your diet should not contain more than 3,000 milligrams of sodium.

- Daily fat intake should contain fewer than two grams of trans fat and 16 or less grams of any saturated fat.

- Calculate dietary fiber to consume 25-30 grams daily.

- For less cholesterol, fat or salt, choose foods that list these as less than 5 percent of daily value.

- Increase your intake of vitamins, iron or fiber by choosing foods that contain 20 percent or more of these nutrients.

- Trans fat is not included on product labels since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet determined what the value should be so the current recommendation is less than two grams/20 calories of trans fat daily.

Becoming a wise and observant consumer is important when shopping and planning meals.

With a little practice you will find that reading food labels will become a matter of habit and the results will translate to improved health.