Horwath Spa Consulting

As we all walk down the shopping aisle, there is one important bit of information that appears (or should appear) on every packaged food item. This information is the content and nutrition label. As many of us find it all too difficult or time consuming to prepare a meal from fresh ingredients, we resort to the commercially prepared items. This is acceptable in some instances, and perhaps even necessary in others, but as a standard practice should not be accepted. Fresh foods MUST be a major part of your diet plan. If you are missing out on this and resorting to the commercial products, BE WARNED. Have you read the content and nutrition label on the package that you have just put in your shopping trolley? Or more to the point have you EVER read it? What does all this fine print mean?

Once you have read the label, can you believe it? Is it correct? A report from the Food & Drug Authority (FDA) in 1996 says that on average 92% of the information is correct. This is perhaps less than you or I would have expected, but if you think about it when manufacturing a few million items while the big batch may contain 20% this and 15% that and 12% something else when it is broken down into a saleable portion if may well contain 18% this, 16% that and 14% something else. After all, the law of averages is at work here. This is something to keep in mind. The label is an average, not an exact science. It does give you a listing of the ingredients and a good idea as to the proportions of these ingredients in the total product. Is it mostly sugar, how many chemicals, does it contain nuts? Also ingredients must be listed in their order by volume. Ingredients to look out for especially if listed in the first few items on a label are: Sugar, High Fructose corn syrup, Oil, Shortening, Butter, Lard, Artificial ingredients (the ‘E’ numbers) and Sodium (salt)

Foods which do not make nutritional claims or foods that contain only very small amounts of nutrients which are considered important need not have labels. To be sure if it is a full label detailing all the information you need to make an informed decision, the information must be entitled ‘Nutrition Facts’. This label may be in the form of a nutrition table or on smaller items where space on the total label is an issue may be listed.

Nutritional labeling is base on a ‘serving size’. Consequently some less scrupulous manufactures put this at much less than you might reasonably expect. Take breakfast cereals. A common serving size here is 30g – however if you actually measure out 30g you may find that you have less than half of the portion that you would normally eat.

The number of servings per pack is also important. If you consume half of the pack and the label says the pack contains four portions, then you need to double the all the nutritional data for an accurate consumption level. You are only fooling yourself if you eat two or more of the manufactures servings and stick to the single serving nutrition information.

Once you have this mastered, then you can start to work out the ‘special labels’ that some foods contain. These have become more and more common as the marketing companies become more aggressive in their sales pitch to us. But, be warned – that no-fat label may still mean the food contains fat. To be labeled as ‘no fat’ or ‘fat free’ the food only needs to contain less than 0.5g per serving. Question – How big is the serving?

In the table below are further definitions of special labels.

Information on a label relating to the percentage of daily value is also important. While it is important to check the serving size, and keep items such as fats and sugars at a low level, you should look for products with high levels of total carbohydrates, dietary fiber and vitamins for optimal health benefits.

Many people have problems when they first read the nutrition labels, but persevere as you will quickly learn which are the right foods for you - nutritionally or financially. After all if the item is very high in fat, sugar or water, then if might be cheaper to buy a packet of butter, sugar or a bottle of water at a considerably cheaper price.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 10:28 pm and is filed under General health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.