Your Health Online | How to Read Food Labels

It seems the trend of obesity never ends. And worse than ever, it has become a super-sized world in which larger than needed serving sizes are the norm. While keeping a food scale in your pocket is not practical, it is important to have an understanding of what a healthy serving size is.

Just a basic gram scale, dry and liquid measuring cups, and an understanding of food labels will get you started on the path to better portion sizes. Food labels provide an efficient way of determining the right kind of food to be bought in the supermarket. The “Nutrition Facts” section in a particular item in the grocery, you can identify the amount of serving sizes provided in that product.

Food labels include information about the amount and kinds of nutrients that are provided in the item. In most cases, the information on saturated fat, sodium, total fat, fiber, and cholesterol amounts are listed “per serving.”
However, simply reading that information does not necessarily help one understand how a diet will be affected if the serving guide is followed.

That’s why I have included the following list of information:

Serving size – the amount of servings stated in the food label refers to the quantity of food that is a healthy serving size. However, this does not necessarily mean that it reflects your own preferred serving size.

Very important though is the fact that the serving size listed is what the rest of the information is based on. This means that if you consume strictly what the serving size is, you will benefit from the nutrients and percentages according to the label listing.

However, because we often consume more than the serving size listed we are also consuming additional nutrients, fat, and calories. For example, if we eat two servings, the numbers are doubled.

Nutrients

Food labels list available nutrients in a particular item as well as the recommended daily dietary allowance are stated. Usually, the nutritional amounts are based on both the 2,500-calorie diets and the 2,000 recommended dietary allowances.

In order to understand the numeric value of each item, it is important to know that the “% daily value” indicated on the label is in most cases, actually based on how a particular food corresponds to the recommended daily dietary allowance for a 2,000 calorie.

Ingredients

The list of ingredients refers to the ingredients that were used to create the product. The listing is usually arranged from the main ingredients that have the greater amount by weight down to the ingredients in the smallest quantity.

Label claim

The label claim refers to the types of nutritional claims of a specific food item. For example, if an item says it is sodium-free, that means it has less than 5 milligrams per serving, and a low fat item actually contains 3 grams of fat or less.

When you first begin reading food labels it can be a bit time-consuming and tedious. But soon you will be able to instantly get value from a label and the benefits will be will substantial.



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Even when we try to eat well, we're disadvantaged. The nutritional content of most food has been compromised over the years, not only by deficient soils and modern production, transportation, storage and processing methods, but also by the enormous amounts of chemical and artificial substances added to promote growth, storage life, taste and appearance.

It's for this reason that more and more medical authorities are advocating the use of vitamin and mineral supplements. However, finding them in the right combination can be both confusing and costly.

The nutrition products I am going to recommend you make use of knowledge gained from the botanical world's 6,000 year history. They incorporated health building nutritional herbs with the best modern technology to help our bodies cleanse and detoxify so that the cells - the tiniest living units - can be as fully nourished as possible.

This allows the cells to grow, repair and to perform their functions with the best possible efficiency so that we feel and look better and are more able to prevent and fight disease. Once the body begins to clear itself of toxins it can more efficiently absorb nutrition.

Further reading through our articles on health issues will give you a body of information that will help you decide what options you have to deal with the underlying causes of your problem through giving your body the nutrition products that will assist you body to heal from the inside out.



You can visit our health food products page here: Herbalife Health Nutrition Supplements and learn more about our core nutrition program, the Cellular Nutrition Advanced Program and also check out these targeted products, Florafiber to replace your healthy flora and Aloe Vera Juice to help cleanse your system.

We wish you well in your search for solutions to this problem and your movement towards better health in all areas.