This document discusses different people's priorities when looking at food labels and provides information about the key sections of food labels. It finds that friends and nutritionists most commonly look for ingredients, fat, sugar, salt or calories. It then explains the serving size, calories, nutrients and percent daily value sections of labels. Finally, it comments on ingredients, fat, sugar and calories; recommends filling plates with vegetables, protein and fat; and advises this holistic approach avoids label confusion.

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Jennifer
Quest for Real Food Labels
weightlesschronicles.com/quest-for-real-food-labels
What is the first thing you look for on food labels? This is the
question I posed to my community and their answers surprised me.
Of the 24 people who weighed in, few were looking for the same thing. Most of my friends are
very health-conscious and have either lost weight or maintain healthy lifestyle habits. Some
of my friends are also nutritionists or health advocates.
But, they still did not agree on what is the most important inforation on food labels.
Here is the breakdown of what they said:
6 look for real ingredients (no additives, flavoring agents, etc)
5 look for fat or fat calories
4 look for sugar
4 look for salt
3 look for calories
2 look for serving size
1 look for protein
1 look for macronutrients
*Many looked for a combination of the above.

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What can be learned from this informal study is that everyone has a different priority when it
comes to nutrition. Not to mention, some were not aware of how to interpret the nutrition
facts on food labels.
Before we explore how to make some of these nutrition facts work for you, let’s understand
what food labels actually tell us about the nutrition in our food.
There are 4 distinct sections on a food label. They are:
Serving information
The serving size reflects the amount that people typically eat or drink. Paying attention to
serving size of what you are eating is critical to learning portion control, especially if you tend
to overeat. Some serving sizes may be as low as a few pieces, or the entire packet.
Calories
2,000 calories a day is used as a general guide for nutrition advice. However, if you are not a
6′ tall man of approximately 175 pounds, this calorie guideline may not be appropriate for
you. If you aren’t certain how many calories you should shoot for, let’s connect on a phone
call.
Nutrients
Next are key nutrients that may impact your health. The top half of this section of the label
includes the macronutrients of fat, carbs, and protein, and breaks those down farther into
different types of fat or carbs that may be less beneficial for health (such as saturated or trans
fat, sugar and added sugars). The second half of this section focuses on nutrients that many
Americans are insufficient in, such as vitamin D, iron, calcium and potassium. How much of
each of these you require depends on personal factors.
The Percent Daily Value (%DV)
The % Daily Value (%DV) is the percentage of the Daily Value for each nutrient in a serving of
the food. The %DV helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient.
5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low
20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high
There are also dual-column variations of food labels that may show up on products with
multiple serving sizes. For more on food labels, please visit this Federal Drug Administration
article.
Below are my comments on how to make some of these work for you.
REAL FOOD

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I was shocked at how many people look at ingredients first. This is probably due to the
popularity of food documentaries like Fed Up and books like Sugar, Salt, Fat. The whole
foods movement is a powerful one that is gaining traction in many communities.
There is no bad side to looking for real food ingredients. However, if real food is an important
criteria, perhaps you should check out some healthy recipes to try out.
FAT
I was blind-sided that so many people look for fat. Studies have shown that high-fat diets
such as the Mediterranean Diet can be heart-healthy and help you lose weight. I have
several friends who eat up to 40% of their daily nutrition in the form of fat, and they are the
slimmest people I know. It is also popular amongst people who are actively building their
muscle to eat at least 30% fat a day.
However, history is hard to ignore. If you grew up in the 80’s like me, you remember the
low-fat diet craze. Our mouths crave the texture from fat, so food manufacturers replaced
that texture with sugar. I used to eat boxes of those darn Snackwell’s devil’s food cookies.
After all, they were low-fat.
We now know that fat does NOT make you fat. Healthy fats come from oils like coconut,
olive, and flaxseed and from foods such as nuts and avocadoes. Most healthy sources of fat
would not find their way on a food label.
If you are eating lots of meat and dairy, then it is a good idea to go for leaner varieties.
Please note, though, that low-fat or reduced fat cheeses or yogurts might have added sugars.
SUGAR
Most processed foods have some form of added sugar. Added Sugars on the food label
include sugars that are added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose),
foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and
sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices.
Some tips on identifying the many aliases for sugars, both added and naturally-occurring
include:
Any ingredient ending in –ose is most likely another form of sugar. Examples are high
fructose corn syrup, sucrose, maltose and dextrose
Inulin, Maltodextrin, dextrin, ethyl maltol, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, honey,
molasses, coconut palm sugar, stevia, agave
Here is a list of up to 46 aliases for the sweet stuff.
Natural sources of sugar are still sugar, and some may even distract your digestive system. It
has been my experience that using stevia or agave in baking results in inferior quality as well.
CALORIES

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It’s encouraging that so few people pay attention to calories.
However, if you are trying to lose weight, you need to at least
be aware of how many calories you are eating. This can be
through calorie counting, portion control, or serving sizes.
If you eat at restaurants at least several times a week, you are
probably eating (and drinking) more than you know!
When I first started losing weight, I focused on calories. That
was the only way I knew how to eat less. There is a better way.
FILL YOUR PLATE
Every time you eat, aim to have at least 40% of the plate filled
with carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, fruits or whole
grains, 30% of the plate filled with protein, and 30% of the
plate filled with fat. These are the 3 macronutrients.
This recommendation is slightly different from
traditional low-fat or low-carb diets. Instead,
filling up your plate in this way focuses less on
single nutrients, and looks at a holistic view
of nutrition.
It also allows you to select foods you actually
enjoy.
♥If you don’t eat salmon, then your protein
source can be eggs.
♥If you have a nut allergy, have an olive-oil
based dressing on your salad and throw some
sunflower seeds for fat.
♥If broccoli makes you gag, just find any other vegetable that tantalizes your taste buds.
This is what helped me maintain my 100-pound weight loss, and helps you avoid all the food
label confusion.