How To Interpret Food Labels

If you need to keep an eye on your diet, and if you do not just now, then you will need to one day, you ought to start learning the caloric values of the different foodstuffs and liquids that you like to consume most often.

For example, you ought to know items like: 100g (4 ozs) of green beans is worth 100 calories. The next problem comes with what 100g of green beans looks like.

This comes with practice, but naturally 100g of green beans looks different to 100g of beef or 100g of pasta. Scales will help here, but they are cumbersome to carry about with you and use in public. The majority of people underestimate their portions, whether by accident or on purpose.Still, practice makes perfect, so the earlier you start the better.

Another useful part of dieting, and controlling allergies for that matter, is knowing what is in your food, especially if it comes out of a tin or jar.

The contents and the additives ought to be written on the label, but it is normally just the non-contentious ingredients that are put in plain English. So, how do you interpret food labels?

The amount of information given and the clarity of description it is given in, varies from country to country, but in general the label will tell you the amounts of: saturated fat, total fat, sodium (salt), sugar, fibre, cholesterol and calories per serving. Naturally, you need to know what they mean by 'a serving' or portion.

It may also give you the nutritional make-up of the contents, for instance: citric acid, B5, B12 and it may even give the RDA (Recommended Daily Amount) of those vitamins. And if you are lucky, you will be informed of the additives too. Additives are controversial, so in Europe they are given in 'E Numbers' so that people cannot understand them.

The more data on the label the more important it is to know the serving size. For instance if you are attempting to follow a sodium-restricted diet and you see that the tin contains 2g of salt, it makes a huge difference whether the can contains one or four servings.

Likewise, if the can contains 500 calories per serving. If the tin contains four servings, it is equal to 2,000 calories or more than most people should be eating in a whole day!

As you discover what a manufacturer means by a serving, it is worth writing the information in a book, because it is fairly possible that Cambells and Batchellors, for example, have different ideas on what constitutes a serving and it may vary from country to country too. A manufacturer of, say, soup may recommend 100 g as a serving in China, but 150 g in America.

The ingredients of the can are listed from the largest amount, which is usually the cheapest, say, water, potatoes or pasta to the smallest, which will be the E numbers, which will be flavour-enhancers, colouring and preservatives. Coming at the end of the list like that, it is simple to think that the quantities must be minuscule and therefore not worth worrying about.

But it is worth troubling yourself about them if you are allergic to them, so once again, if you see an additive that you do not understand, type it into Google and compose a summary in your notebook, which you should take shopping with you.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several topics, but is at present involved with Mattress Bed Bugs Covers. If you would like to know more, go over to our website at Bed Infestation.