Read Nutrition Labels

Reading nutrition labels can help you make informed choices about the foods you buy. Since serving-size information is standardized throughout the food industry, nutrition labels make it easy to compare the nutritional content of different brands. Reading food labels carefully will help you:

• Compare products more easily.
• Understand the nutritional value of the foods you eat.
• Increase or decrease specific nutrients in your diet (e.g. increase omega-3 fatty acids or decrease saturated fat).
• Make food choices that are good for your health.

What does a food label tell you?

Food labels provide important information that you can use to shop wisely.

The Nutrition Facts table includes:

The serving size for the food product. It is usually given in measurements that you will recognize, like cups or number of pieces. Always compare the serving size on the package to the amount of food that you actually eat. Ask yourself "How many servings am I consuming?" If you double the serving size, you double the calories and all the nutrients, including fat, sugar and sodium.

The nutritional content of the product. It lists the number of calories and the actual amount of 13 key nutrients in each serving.

The % Daily Value for each nutrient is based on recommended amounts for a healthy diet. This tells you whether there is a little or a lot of a nutrient in one serving. The Daily Value percentages are based on widely accepted recommendations for a healthy diet and are presented on a scale from 0% to 100%. You can use the % Daily Value information to help you choose foods that are high in healthy nutrients (15% of Daily Value or more) and low in unhealthy nutrients (5% of Daily Value or less).
 

• The ingredient list itemizes the ingredients used in the product by weight. The ingredient used most is listed first and the other ingredients follow in descending order. If sugar is the first item on the list, the food is high in sugar.
   
• Nutrient content claims draw attention to the amount of a specific nutrient in a food (e.g. "reduced in fat"). Here are some explanations of other common nutrient content claims on food labels:
  

  Nutrient content claim	What it means*
  Cholesterol-free	less than 2 mg cholesterol, low in saturated fat, usually restricted in trans fat
  Fat-free	less than 0.5 g of fat
  Low-fat	3 g or less of fat
  Low in saturated fat	2 g or less of saturated and trans fat combined
  Free of trans fatty acids	contains less than 0.2 g of trans fatty acids
  Source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids	0.3 g or more of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids
  Sodium-free	less than 5 mg of sodium
  Low calorie, calorie reduced	at least 25% less energy than the food to which it is being compared
  Low calorie	40 calories or less
  Calorie-reduced	at least 25% less energy than the food to which it is being compared
  Source of fibre	2 g or more of fibre
  Light	allowed only on foods that are reduced in fat or reduced in energy (calories)

  * per serving size or reference amount.
   
• Health claims highlight the relationship between diet and certain health conditions (e.g. "A healthy diet low in saturated and trans fats may reduce the risk of heart disease").