Using Food Labels to Improve Your Diet

Thanks to the nutrition labels on most food packages, it's easy to follow a nutritious diet.

"The key to healthful and enjoyable eating is to make informed food choices that are right for you, and the labels can help you do that," says Bettye Nowlin, R.D., a nutrition expert in Los Angeles and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "The simplified labels highlight the information most consumers require when assessing a food product."

Reading labels can improve your diet by helping you make more sensible food choices at the grocery store. You also can buy with confidence knowing that foods claiming to be low in cholesterol or fat have met standards set by the FDA.

Start with the package

To assess the nutritional value of a food, start by scanning the package. Check for claims such as "reduced calorie," "low salt," or "fat-free." But don't limit your choices to such foods and don't focus on any single nutrient, or you'll restrict your diet unnecessarily.

Also look for "high fiber" on the label. Foods with this designation contain five or more grams of fiber per serving. Foods claiming to be an "excellent source of" a vitamin or mineral provide 20 percent or more of the Daily Value of that nutrient.

Then check the serving size—serving sizes have been redefined to more accurately represent the amounts of food an adult normally would eat.

If you eat more or less than the serving size given on the box, you'll need to refigure the calories, fat, and other nutrients. For example, if one granola bar has 180 calories and 5 grams of fat, and you eat two bars, you have consumed double the serving amount, or 360 calories and 10 grams of fat.

Next, look at the figures given under the "% Daily Value." This nutrition tool lets you determine whether a food contributes a lot or a little of a particular nutrient. The "% Daily Value" on all food labels is based on a diet of 2,000 calories a day. For example: You can get 100 percent of the daily value for fiber by consuming a serving of beans that provides 55 percent of the daily value, a serving of prunes that provides 20 percent, and a baked potato that provides 25 percent.

Understand the fat terms

Be aware, however, that the "% Daily Value" for fat given on the label is not the same as the "% of calories from fat." To determine the latter, divide the calories from fat by the total number of calories per serving. For example, a breakfast cereal with 225 calories and 81 calories from fat gets 36 percent of its calories from fat: 81/225 = 0.36. < /FONT >

Finally, look at the ingredient list. The ingredients are listed in order, from the greatest to the least by weight. A cereal is mostly sugar if that is the first ingredient listed. A more nutritious cereal would have a whole grain such as whole wheat flour, oats, or rice listed as its first ingredient.

If reading food labels prompts you to improve your diet, don't try to make too many changes at once.

"You might start by choosing a fat-free salad dressing instead of regular dressing or choosing a nonfat yogurt instead of regular yogurt for a snack. Make other positive changes when these substitutions become habitual," Nowlin says. "The important thing is to find a balance between good nutrition and good taste, thereby creating a healthful diet you enjoy eating and can stick with for life."