How to Read Nutrition Labels (Key Things to Note for Healthy Eating)
Key Takeaways:
A nutrition label shows the nutritional facts of a packaged food or beverage.
Learning to read a nutrition label helps you see through misleading food claims and make wiser food choices that align with your health goals.
There are minor differences in nutrition labels’ appearance (depending on their country of origin), but they typically follow the same structure.
As a rule of thumb, you should choose products that are higher in dietary fiber and lower in calories, total sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium.
© O'Dea at Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
You flip the cereal box over, and — numbers (so many numbers!) jump at you.
Twelve grams of added sugar per serving … is that bad? And what does “serving size” mean? Is it a standardized thing? “Eh, whatever, it can’t hurt. The packaging has ‘low sugar’ on it,” is what you think as you shrug and chuck it into your grocery cart.
Oh, but it can hurt. Not knowing how to read nutrition labels could result in a higher consumption of unhealthy foods that endanger your health and weight management goals.
Thankfully, the degree of difficulty involved in understanding nutrition labels is less rocket science and more learn-your-ABCs.
We’ll walk you through the whole process below.
What is a nutrition label?
It’s a label required on most packaged foods and beverages in many countries that provides the product's nutritional facts. A nutrition label tells you exactly how much of a macronutrient, nutrient,the product contains.
Why is understanding nutrition labels important?
Knowing how to read nutrition labels effectively helps you see through misleading claims food companies cook up.
For example, did you know that “sugar-free” doesn’t mean no sugar? Or that all “lower sugar” stands for is ≥ 25% less sugar than a reference food.
So, hypothetically speaking, a company that’s manufactured a drink that contains 46 grams of added sugar per serving could label another with ≤ 34.5 grams (0.75 x 46 grams) of added sugar per serving as “lower sugar” — even though it’s:
Exceeding the recommended daily added-sugar limit for women (at 24 grams) and
Toeing the line of the recommended daily added-sugar limit for men (at 36 grams)
It's a clever marketing technique for them but dangerous for you. So, it’s a good thing that you’re about to learn …
How to read nutrition labels
While there can be minor differences in nutrition labels' appearance (depending on the country of origin), they typically follow the same structure.
To read a nutrition label, start at the top and work your way down.
Servings per package and serving size
The servings per package lists how many servings are in the entire container, box, or bag. On the other hand, the serving size reflects the quantity of one serving. Both are provided in units, such as ml, grams, or pieces.
Note that the nutritional information listed is reflective of one serving.
So, if you consume more or less of the serving size, you must do the appropriate math.
To illustrate, let’s say your cereal says it contains 100 calories per 30-gram serving. If you eat three servings, you’d have to multiply the calorie count by three, which comes up to 300 calories.
Energy
Immediately underneath the serving size information, you’d find the amount of energy you’d get 1) per serving and 2) per 100 g (or ml or the relevant measuring unit), expressed in kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ).
If you’re wondering, yes, the terms “calories” and “kcal” are used interchangeably.
This means a product containing 100 kcal per serving essentially contains 100 calories per serving. The concept of kilojoules may be arguably tricker to grasp; 1 kcal = 4.184 kJ, but you don’t have to worry about the math.
The nutrition label does it for you already. Besides, most people (along with nutrition trackers) do fine with only tracking kcal/calories.
Nutrients
To make it simpler for you, we’ve highlighted nutrients most people should get more of* in green and nutrients most people should limit in red:
And in order of how they’d appear on the nutrition label (also with their energy values expressed per serving and 100 g/the relevant measuring unit.
Protein
Total Fat, broken down into Saturated Fat and Trans Fat
Cholesterol
Carbohydrate, which include Dietary Fibre and Total Sugar (consisting of two different types of sugar, added sugars and natural sugars)
Dietary Fiber
Sodium
*Taking this as a guideline rather than a hard-and-fast rule is important.
For example, protein is generally considered a health-promoting macronutrient as it regulates appetite and promotes lean body mass.
But it still contains calories.
An overconsumption of protein could still cause you to become overweight or obese, in turn increasing your risk of developing a slew of associated conditions, from type 2 diabetes to heart disease.
A Note on % Daily Value
Sometimes, you may run into a nutrition label that lists the nutrients in terms of something called “% Daily Value”. Don’t panic; it’s nothing complicated.
Instead, it’s just a system created by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make it easier for people to meet their nutritional needs. Daily Value (DV) refers to how much of a nutrient you should consume daily based on a 2,000-calorie diet (we’ll talk about this later).
So, as its name suggests, “% Daily Value” (%DV) tells you the percentage of the Daily Value you’re getting for each nutrient.
Here’s an example. If the % Daily Value on a chocolate bar says 10% saturated fat, one serving will provide you with 10% of your FDA-recommended saturated fat intake based on a 2,000-calorie diet.
Why the continued emphasis on the 2,000-calorie bit?
Well, that’s because your energy needs may differ from the “average adult” — depending on various factors, such as age, weight, height, physical activity level, and health status.
This means the % Daily Values indicated on nutritional labels may not be accurate for your individualized needs. Regardless, they can still serve as a rough gauge of a food’s and/or beverage’s nutritional profile. Ideally, you’d want to prioritize products that are:
Higher in %DV for dietary fiber
Lower in %DV for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars
Using nutrition labels to make wiser food choices
Beyond reading a single product’s nutrition label in isolation, it is most helpful when you compare several labels to pick the product most aligned with your health goals.
The key thing you’ll want to focus on here is the nutrient listing per 100 g/ml/relevant unit of measurement.
Every food company defines its serving size differently (e.g., one serving of Post Great Grains Cereal — Blueberry Morning is 59 g, while one serving of Milo cereal is 30 g); so this helps standardize your comparison.
In general, for:
Overall health reasons: Choose the product lower in energy (i.e., kcal and kJ), saturated fat, sodium, and total sugar.
Individuals with diabetes: Choose the product lower in total sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Look for options higher in fibre
Individuals trying to lose weight: Choose the product lower in energy (i.e., kcal and kJ).
Other helpful information you can find on a food label
Beyond the nutrition label, you should also pay attention to the following on a food label and/or the packaging:
Ingredient list: This shows all the ingredients that make up the product in descending order by weight. Besides helping you check for food allergens (if any), it’ll also give you a good idea of the product’s overall quality. For example, chocolate biscuits with sugar as the first ingredient on the list tell you they’re crammed with the blood-sugar-raising ingredient — best to avoid. In fact, avoid products that list any of the following as one of the first three ingredients:
Sugar: sucrose, maltose, fructose, maple syrup, corn syrup, cane sugar, honey, etc.
Fat: milk solids, hydrogenated fat, shortening, cream, etc.
Salt: monosodium glutamate (MSG), sea salt, stock cubes, baking soda, sodium bicarbonate, etc.
Healthier Choice Symbol (HCS): Products with the symbol are generally lower in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar and higher in dietary fiber, calcium, and whole grains than similar products within the same food category. Each HCS also carries a tagline that focuses on the nutritional aspect of the product (e.g., “Lower in Sugar”) so you know the specific criteria the product has been awarded for. Please note that the HCS symbol is only on products made in Singapore. Yet, it does not mean that another product made in other countries is less healthy. Similarly, the Nutri-Grade label is only applicable for beverages sold in Singapore.
Date marking: There are two types of dates:
The best-before date refers to food quality; food stored in the recommended way will remain of good quality until that date. Once the best-before date has passed, the food may still be safe for consumption but may have lost some quality and nutritional value.
The use-by or sell-by date applies to foods that should not be consumed once that date has passed for health and safety reasons.
Understanding HPB nutri-grade labels
A final, helpful label you should watch out for on packaged beverages, such as coffee, is the Nutri-Grade mark.
Source: https://www.healthhub.sg/
Nutri-Grade “grades” your drinks based on their sugar and saturated fat levels. And, as you’d expect, drinks with the lowest sugar and saturated fat content are graded “A,” while drinks with the highest are graded “D”:
A: ≤ 1 g sugar, no sweetener, and ≤ 0.7 g saturated fat per 100 ml
B: > 1 to 5 g sugar and > 0.7 to 1.2 g saturated fat per 100 ml
C: > 5 to 10 g sugar and > 1.2 to 2.8 g saturated fat per 100 ml
D: > 10 g sugar and > 2.8 g saturated fat per 100 ml
What does this mean for you? Limit your consumption of Nutri-Grade C and D drinks.
Reading food labels isn’t the only proactive way to take charge of your health. There’s also health screening, which could help detect risk factors and health issues early — even when there are no symptoms — so you can nip them in the bud.
For an all-in-one, personalized health screening package complete with an in-depth follow-up review of your results, check out NOVI Assessment.