Nutrition Label Reading Made Easy

Nutrition labels are your secret weapon for making healthier choices. They help you compare products, manage portion sizes, and avoid hidden sugars, sodium, and unhealthy fats. They can also help you avoid substances and additives that are linked to cancer or chronic diseases.

What to Look for on Nutrition Labels:

• Serving Size: Everything else on the label is based on this, and it helps to understand the total number of servings contained

• Calories: This is where you will want to compare calories per serving with the total number of servings

• % Daily Value (%DV): 5% or less is low, 20% or more is high

• Limit these: Saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, and added sugars

• Get more of these: Fiber, vitamins, calcium, and iron

  
  

When Looking at Ingredients:

• Avoid: high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, nitrates/nitrites, MSG (monosodium glutamate)

• Limit: Seed oils (canola, soybean, sunflower, etc), carrageenan, sugar alcohols (sorbitol, maltitol, erythritol)

• Look for: Whole wheat, whole fruits & vegetables, olive oil, honey, brown rice, and oats

Pro Tip: Ingredients are listed in order of quantity. If sugar or salt is one of the first three ingredients, consider a healthier option. Also, in general the less ingredients the better.