Simple tips to read food labels
The ground rules
- There is no right or wrong way to read a food label.
- How you interpret the information on a food label will largely depend on your specific needs, goals and preferences.
- What is an acceptable food choice to one person, may not be to another.
- The higher up you go in the level of food processing, the more trade-offs you may need to make.
Anatomy of a food label
Front-of-package
Food packaging is considered to be one of the most important factors influencing consumers' perceptions and purchasing behavior.
72% of American consumers say that product packaging design influences their purchase decisions.
Ignore everything on the front of the package!
It is full of marketing gimmicks designed to “sell you” on the product.
Nutrition facts panel
Nearly 80% of US adult consumers regularly refer to the nutrition facts panel when shopping.
Only 28% find food labels easy to understand.
Look at these:
- Serving size and servings per container
- this is where perception and reality collide
- Calories
- don’t judge a food by calories alone
- Fats
- make sure it says 0 grams trans fat
- some saturated fat from otherwise nutrient-dense foods such as dairy and unprocessed meats is okay
- monounsaturated fats are best
- Sodium
- find the lowest you can for that product type
- Dietary fiber
- the more the better, generally speaking
- Added sugars
- find the lowest you can for that product type
- if added sugars are low, look on the ingredient list for non-nutritive sweeteners
- Protein
- the more the better, generally speaking
Don’t sweat these:
- % DV (percent daily values)
- Vitamins/minerals (unless you have a specific need)
- Cholesterol
- cholesterol only comes from animal products and is not typically added to foods
- Total carbohydrates
- focus more on the fiber and added sugar values
- Protein
- most people get enough with a normal diet
Ingredient list
62% of consumers are paying more attention to ingredient lists now than they did five years ago.
- Focus on the first few ingredients
- Product ingredients are listed by weight, from highest to lowest
- Look for shorter ingredient lists
- long ingredient lists can indicate higher levels of processing
- Look for lists with ingredients you recognize
- this can indicate a lower level of processing
Final thoughts
- The absence of “bad” stuff in a food doesn't make it ”good” choice.
- Consider a food in its totality. Generally speaking, do not include or exclude a food based on just one criteria.
- Consider how nutrients made it into a food. Do they occur naturally, or are they added? As often as possible, choose foods that are naturally nutrient-dense.
- Choose foods that resemble their natural form as closely as possible (i.e. baked apple chips vs. apple pie).
- Choose foods that you could (theoretically) make at home using household culinary methods and ingredients (I don’t know anyone that has made homemade Cheetos).
- Define your nutrition priorities and make the best choices you can to honor those, knowing some tradeoffs may need to be made.