Nutrition Labels

NUTRITION LABELS

THE BEST WAY TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE EATING A HEALTHY DIET IS BY READING THE NUTRITION LABELS

Every nutrition label tells you what a serving size of that food is. One of the problems is people think that a portion size and a serving size is the same thing.

PORTION SIZE- is the amount a person chooses to eat

SERVING SIZE- is the amount the nutritional label is based off of.

So, if you were to eat a portion size of 8 thin mints and the box says a serving size is 4, you would have to double everything on the label to correctly understand the nutritional information of what you just ate.

The next thing on a nutrition label is the amount of calories that food contains. A calorie is not good or bad, it is just a unit of energy. Foods that are more calorie dense we should try to consume less of.

To maintain a healthy weight, we want the number of calories we consume to equal the number of calories we burn off in a day.

Nutrition labels have a % daily value located on the right side. This number is based off a 2,000-calorie diet. The 5 and 20 rule is a good way to determine if something is high or low in certain nutrients. If something is 5% or below it is considered low. If something is 20% or above, it is considered high.