EASY WAY TO READ FOOD LABELS FOR REAL FAT AND CALORIE CONTENT
Most people visit supermarkets between 2 and 3 times each week, and quite often those shopping trips are confusing because of a lack of information about product labeling. While many manufacturers are meeting the public’s demand for healthful low-fat, nonfat, and low-salt foods, others have attempted to take advantage of consumer health concerns with deceptive labeling practices. For example, the word natural as it appears on some food labels can be quite misleading. Many consumers would expect the word natural to at least suggest that the food so labeled is low in calories. The fact is, a food may contain sugar in a different form, such as honey or molasses, and still be high in calories. In order to find and select truly healthful foods both parents and children should learn to read and understand the information on food labels.
When studying food labels, the key items to look for are size, grams of fat, and calories. While most serving sizes listed on labels are correct, some are unrealistically small, misleading some consumers into believing the fat content or calories contained in the product are low. You should be wary of products that list serving sizes that are smaller than is generally the custom.
While serving size is important, it can be confusing, so your ultimate decision may be better based on this easy to remember guideline: 3 grams of fat per 100 calories per serving. Remember, the total allowance of fat is recommended to be about 30% of your caloric intake. At 9 calories a gram, 3 grams would be about 27 calories, or 27 percent of the 100 calories, which falls within the recommendation for total fat. Keep in mind that those guidelines are for your entire diet and not each individual food. But a food containing more than 3 grams of fat per 100 calories will have to be offset by other low-calorie foods.
*30\27\8*
