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Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Fruits/Veggies

See which produce items contain the most pestisides, needs washed before consumption. 
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How to understand a nutrition facts label

• 4 Steps to Understanding Nutrition Facts

The FDA has developed a 4-step process to reading and understanding the nutrition facts label. 

Serving information

At the very top of the label, you will see how many servings are in a container and the size of a serving, usually represented in cups or tablespoons (volume) and weight. For most people, it’s easier and more practical to estimate a serving with the volume of kitchen measurement tools than by weight. 

Servings are most relevant to the nutrition facts label because the nutrient information is based on the per-serving information. 

In other words, if a container of yogurt contains two servings, but you eat the entire container, you’ve consumed double the nutrients it reports on the label. 

Expert tip: Sometimes, food companies will list that one package of a certain food contains more than one serving, but the package doesn’t allow for easy resealing, or the quality of the food or drink will decline after the package has been opened. The food packaging design makes it so that the consumer eats the packaged content all at once, but listing two or more servings allows the food company to display lower daily values on the package. This is common in sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, like sodas and packaged pastries. 

Calories

Calories are perhaps the most famous element of the nutrition facts label. Calories are a measure of energy that a food provides, and in the context of the nutrition facts label, it reports how many calories a food provides per serving. 

There is no need to be scared of calories! All living beings need calories to survive and thrive. 

Knowing how many calories a food has gives little information about the nutritional quality of a food. Modern Western society has encouraged us to look for “low-calorie” foods and shun “high-calorie” foods with little consideration for nutrient makeup. 

In short, knowing the number of calories in a serving is most useful when also considering the nutrients a food provides. Nutrient-dense foods are those that contribute a significant amount of a variety of nutrients for the calories. Some examples include a vegetable lasagna, a caprese salad, or natural almond butter. Nutrient-poor foods, popularly called “junk foods,” are those that contain lots of energy from one or two macronutrients but provide little to no other nutrients.

Nutrients

The nutrients included in the nutrients facts label are those that the FDA deems to have the most impact on your health. 

In general, public health experts make the following recommendations when it comes to nutrients: 

Nutrients to get less of: saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. These are the nutrients that research has shown to be most associated with chronic disease development. They also tend to be nutrients that are abundant in the Western diet. 

Nutrients to get more of: Dietary fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium. These are nutrients that have added benefits when you consume more of them. Additionally, when your diet is lacking in these nutrients, it results in significant negative effects on your health. 

Keep in mind that you can use the label to meet individual needs. Your client’s diet may be lacking in unsaturated fats or protein, or they may benefit from identifying foods with B12, so you can guide them toward this area of the label. 

Bonus tip: The FDA has developed an interactive tool to explore and understand the nutrition facts label. You can use this free tool with your clients who might benefit from understanding nutrition facts labels more in detail. 

The Percent Daily Value (%DV)

This part of the nutrition label is the most complex and also the most scrutinized by nutrition and dietary experts. Debatably, however, it also contains the most valuable information on the nutrition facts label.  

Daily Values are reference amounts of nutrients to consume or not exceed each day for a person that requires about 2,000 kcal a day to meet energy requirements. 

It can be an aim, in the case of the nutrients to get more of (see above), where it is safe and even encouraged to exceed the reference amount. 

In the case of nutrients to get less of, the %DV is generally a safe upper limit. In other words, regularly exceeding these nutrients may result in health issues. Falling short of these limits is generally considered safe or even recommended for people who are at risk of heart disease and metabolic issues. 

However, the %DV for each individual is likely different than what is displayed if a person needs fewer or more than the 2,000 calories used to calculate label values. For most people, however, the %DV gives them a good general idea of how a food contributes to nutrient needs and recommended limits. 

Credit: AFPA 

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