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| Nutrition Facts | Food Pyramid | Fats, Carbs and Proteins |

How to read nutrition facts

Have you ever seen the nutrition facts box on the side of your cereal? That box is very important if you want to know what you are eating. It lets you know all the ingredients, fats, calories, sodium (salt), protein, cholesterol, vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates, serving size, and how many servings the food contains.

Ingredients: They are listed from high to low based on weight. For example if sugar is the first ingredient then there is more sugar than any other ingredient. You should not eat foods if fats and sugar are listed early in the ingredients.

Calories: How many calories per serving. An adult woman needs about 2000 and a man needs about 2500 calories a day.

Calories from fat: Percentage of calories from fat. No more than 65g for a woman and 88g for a man.

click image for see full size.An example of nutrition facts on the side of a box. Copyright The Big Problem 2008

Serving Size: It is the amount you should eat in one portion.

Servings Per Container: How many servings are in each package. For example, a large bag of chips could contain 6 servings so do not eat the whole bag.

Total Fat: How many grams of fat per serving
Saturated fat: A fat that raises blood cholesterol often found in animal and dairy products.

Trans fat: This fat raises LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowers HDL (good) cholesterol. Trans fat is made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil. It is often found in fries, donuts and baked food. Avoid foods that have more than 1 gram per serving.

Cholesterol: A fat found in animal foods. A good idea is having no more than 300mg a day.

Sodium: The amount of salt. Sodium can your raise blood pressure. A good rule is less than 400mg each serving. No more than 2,300mg each day.

Total Carbohydrate: This includes starches, sugars and fiber.

Dietary Fiber: A nutrient that helps digestion and is not absorbed by the body. Eating fiber can help make you less hungry. If you eat your fruits and veggies you will easily get the recommended 25g to 35g a day, unfortunately most people eat too little fiber.

Sugars: No added sugars: No sugar was added during the making of the food. This does not mean it has zero calories. For example apple sauce contains fructose, a fruit sugar.

Protein: A nutrient that builds muscle, bone, skin and many other organs. It is found in meat, soy, beans and nuts. It should be no more than 30% of your daily diet.

Living and Eating Healthy. Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield NH, 2007.