Having Calorie and Other Nutrition Information Available Can Save Lives

To a lot of people, food labels can be an intimidating prospect to understand, especially when they have little experience with nutrition in general. But what few people may realize is that these food labels actually have the potential to save lives by educating them of what they’re eating, and they don’t even need to be health conscious about it, either.

Whether you’re trying to limit your sugar intake, lessen the calories you eat, improve the amount of fiber you take, or simply avoiding an ingredient you’re deathly allergic to, we’ll help you make sense of it all, and by the end of this article, you’ll be more aware of the nutritional information packed in whatever food you’ll be indulging in from here on.

What are Food Labels?

To understand the benefits of reading the nutritional facts better, we’ll first need to understand what we’re looking at. Basically, food labels contain information on what’s inside the food you plan on getting, as well as how much of it your body is likely to need on a daily basis. By law, everything that is sold to you which is intended for consumption, must have this food label, and is expected to be accurate. Otherwise, the company making them is liable to huge fines.

To find what you’re looking for, just pick any type of food container in your pantry. The nutritional facts panels are usually found on the back. For fast food restaurants, the nutrition information for fast food products are usually available if you ask the staff for it. If that is unavailable or not up to date for some reason, you can always find information of this online. This will be your first step to understanding what you eat.

What’s Listed?

Here is a list of what information you can find on the food labels. Bear in mind that each food item may have different sections, depending on what ingredients that food item actually has.

• Serving size

This lists the amount of product that is typically consumed in one go. Serving size may be measured in weight, volume or by cup, if it’s a liquid. Most food labels will compare the food’s individual components against the serving size, not the actual amount of food inside the container.

• Calories

This lists the number of calories or energy the food will provide per serving. For most people, they’ll only need 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day, depending on their body type, age, height, weight and overall health levels. If you’re planning on losing weight, you’ll need to consume calories less than your daily recommended amount.

• Daily Nutritional Value

Normally listed as percentage, this area of the food label provides information on the amount of nutrients one should aim per day. For example, a food that lists fiber at 15% means that by eating one serving of this item, you’ve already fulfilled 15% of your daily requirement of fiber. Paying attention to the values listed here will help you keep track of what you’re taking in and how much of it is in there.

• Nutrients

This area lists the amount of trace nutrients and vitamins the food has, and how much of it you’ll need daily. Information on the food’s fat content, carbohydrate content, protein and cholesterol may be found here. You’ll also find information on select vitamins and minerals here.

What You Should Aim For

Understanding what is listed on the nutritional facts is just the first step. These numbers are just reference points, and in order to live a healthier life, you’ll need to make sure that you’re not consuming more than 100% of each individual component of the food, unless you’re trying to increase your intake purposefully, like consuming higher fiber or a certain number of vitamins.

Calories that are unused, for example, is stored as fat, so consuming more than 100% of what your body needs means you’ll actually gain weight. Anybody who’s been at the gym will tell you that burning calories is a lot harder than just not eating them in the first place.

How Food Labels Help

Numerous studies have shown that a lot of Americans eat an average of 3,600 calories a day, which is almost twice the recommended daily requirement. This is a huge contributing factor to the obesity problem plaguing the US and is one of the reasons why obesity-related diseases like heart failure, diabetes and high blood pressure are on the rise. Worse still is the fact that only 1/3 of these daily calories are from food that are prepared at home, which means the vast majority of food Americans eat are from restaurants or fast food joints.

While it may seem like the higher amount of calories being consumed is a result of lower quality lifestyle choices, it has been found that Americans prefer to choose healthier options whenever they are available. A number of surveys have found that a lot of people will make use of food labelling whenever it’s available on certain restaurants. This has led to Americans choosing foods with lower caloric intake. It has been shown that the problem wasn’t that people preferred to eat food high in calories, but rather they had fewer choices to begin with.

This conscious choice of Americans gravitating towards lower calories have recently forced certain establishments to provide healthier alternatives to their customers. This trend has also spilled over from restaurants to grocery stores and convenience stores, where most Americans get their food.

How Food Labeling Impacts Weight

A study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration has shown that the presence of food labeling has had an impact on the choices people make when finding food. These choices tend to point towards a population losing weight as well. Even low-income families, that are normally forced to eat cheaper, and generally less healthy, fast food are willing to pay a bit more to eat healthier. While the effects of weight loss are already seen, it’s too early to tell if there is an actual impact on the health of the individuals that food labelling has. The prospects are good, however.

Food labeling itself isn’t enough to have an impact. Like many other aspects in life, being well-researched and educating yourself is just half the battle. What a person does with the information they’re given is much more important than actually having that information. Now that you know what you need to know about food labels, however, you’re already halfway to making a healthier life for yourself.

Related Article:

• Key Elements of Good Nutrition and Fitness
• The Role of Nutrition in Managing Chronic Conditions: Tips and Guidelines