How to Read Food Labels

“Don’t eat foods that make health claims on the labels,” says Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food. Counterintuitive as this may sound, the best foods for you don’t have labels! If a product is making a health claim, it may be trying to make up for its shortcomings. Not all packaged food is bad, of course, but before you bring it home, read the label! Learning to decipher what’s really in the foods you eat is a key step in eating healthfully.

The Nutrition Facts panel is usually on the back or side of all packaged foods. The first thing to notice is serving size. Keep in mind that the subsequent nutrition information applies only to one serving, not the whole package. Remember to account for this if you plan to eat the whole package!

Next look at the total calories and calories from fat. Divide the calories from fat by the total number of calories to find the percentage of fat. Avoid foods with more than 20% fat, especially if you need to lose weight. Exceptions to this would be avocado or raw nuts and seeds, which are naturally high in the good fats our bodies need to function properly—but eat these good fats in limited quantities!

Next on the list is fat. Manufacturers are required to list total, saturated and trans fats. Some will also list polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. Research shows that both saturated and trans fats raise LDL cholesterol (the bad kind).

Next is cholesterol. If your diet is made up of exclusively plant foods, cholesterol is a non-issue because only animal products contain cholesterol.  If you eat animal products, make sure you get no more than 300 mg of cholesterol per day. If you want to lower your cholesterol, eliminating all cholesterol (as well as saturated and trans fats) from your diet is the surest way to success. Your body produces as much cholesterol as you need, so any you get in your diet can elevate your cholesterol.

When it comes to sodium, your processed foods should contain less than one mg per calorie, and not more than 140 mg total per serving. Even “health foods” can be high in sodium because it is in so many of the additives used in processing. A high-sodium diet is the primary cause of high blood pressure; to lower your blood pressure and minimize your risk of stroke and heart disease, consume no more than 1000 mg of sodium per day.

When evaluating carbohydrates, look for foods with at least 3 grams of fiber per 100 calories. If you have diabetes, subtract the grams of fiber from the total carbohydrates for the number of “available carbohydrates,” or those that will elevate your blood sugar.

With all the high-protein hype these days, you may think protein is the most important nutrient. Studies in the 1950s showed that we only need 20 to 35 grams of protein per day. All your protein needs are easily obtainable on a plant-based diet. Even vegans routinely consume 60 to 80 grams of protein per day. Outside of North America, most of the world’s protein intake comes from plants. Where do you think the cow got its protein? The elephant? The gorilla? The world’s largest land mammals are primarily herbivores. Plants contain all the protein you need!

Finally, read the ingredient list carefully. Ingredients are listed in order by weight from most to least, so the first one to three ingredients comprise the bulk of the product. Avoid foods with sugar in the first three ingredients or with multiple forms of sugar. Corn syrup, brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, honey, fructose and sucrose are all forms of sugar. Only brown rice and oats are typically used in their whole form, so if the word “whole” is not before each other grain listed, your food is not whole grain. Words such as “enriched,” “milled,” “de-germed” or even “wheat flour” do NOT mean whole grain. Unless it says “whole” in the ingredients, wheat bread is simply white bread with a tan. If your product contains vegetable shortening or partially hydrogenated oils of any kind, it will contain trans fats. Don’t buy the product if it contains any ingredient you don’t recognize or can’t pronounce.

Though making sense of the Nutrition Facts labels may seem daunting, with a little practice you can unravel the mystery. And remember, fill your grocery cart with foods without labels!