YOU’RE READING NUTRITION LABELS WRONG, AREN’T YOU?

Google “how to read the nutrition labels”, you will definitely get millions of results back. Of course, you can feel confused about which method is the best, even some food and vitamin written on the labels are not just misleading, but downright wrong.

How many of you do understand nutrition facts labelled on packages?

Assuming a small package is a single serving

Do you think your favorite snack-sized packages of nuts, candy, and chips…are all single servings? The truth is that they often contain up to three servings! You have to look at the line “Servings per Container” on the nutritional label then do math or discover some truly single-serving snack. Therefore, you should by multi-serving containers and split servings into individual bags.

Trusting too-good-to-be-true numbers

Sweet lovers may find they’re living in the real world whenever they see their delicious muffins at the corner bakery only containing 120 calories and 1 gram of fat. Watch out, all cases are not created equal, especially if they’re from a small, mom-and-pop brand. The lesson is to trust your instincts. If you find it hard to believe the information on the label, then put it down, err on the side of caution and stick with tested-and-true products.

Disregarding portion weight

The true serving size is listed by weight. Therefore, if you are enjoying your favorite whopping 18 chips snack, you might be shocked to know a right serving is only 12 or 13 chips. Many labels have a count of “about” chips/pieces/cookies on the package, but they also use this word loophole when describing the servings per container. “About 2 servings” on the package doesn’t mean you can eat half and call it a single serving.

Buying into no-calorie labels

Think twice whenever you add no-calorie spray butter to your veggies or change your kitchen into a store of zero-calorie salad dressing. The official FDA (Food and Drug Administration) rule is that the label can claim a product has 0 calories if it contains less than 5 calories per serving. Still a calorie bargain, but obviously not calorie-free.

Spending no time reading the actual ingredient label

Although the ingredient label does have its limitations, it will at least tell you if the food item which you’re going to buy contains something you’re really fond of consuming. It will tell you if the food is made with real sugar or HFCS, if the product contains MSG or hidden MSG. You also can see how many additives and fake ingredients in the processed foods to make a decision to buy them or not.