When you go to a food market, how do you choose your food, just the price, calorie, or the appearance of the box or cartoon ? I know lot of us just look at the nutrition fact for the amount of calorie per serving. If the calorie is less we feel satisfied. But have you ever thought of the other facts that are mentioned in that tiny list. Those are important too.
If you carefully look at that list, you will see they always mention saturated fat and sodium. Because this two things are important. You have to avoid saturated fat and sodium both. Also you need to check whether your calorie is coming from Protein, fat or carbohydrate. If it is coming form protein, then you should be happy, if it is coming from carbohydrate then be cautious, and if it is coming form " fat' then be alert.
But actually there are many things we need to know.
Let me discuss the technical terms they use in food labels.
Understanding Food Labels
Many food labels demand their food is free of fat or calorie, free doesn't necessarily means the food is completely free of fat or calorie.
they can write that if certain conditions are fulfilled, as set by US FDA.
- Calorie free means when the food is fewer than 5 calories per serving
- Fat free if the food contains less than 0.5g of fat per serving
- Cholesterol free means the food contains less than 2mg cholesterol per serving and 2g or less saturated fat per serving
- Trans fat free means the food contain less than 0.5g of trans fats per serving
Also we see food with low calorie, low fat or low cholesterol. Let's see what they mean by LOW.
- Low fat - Fat < 3 grams of fat / serving
- Low Saturated Fat - Saturated fat < 1g or less and 15% or less of calories from saturated fat
- >Low calorie - < 40 calories per serving
- Low Cholesterol - <20mg per serving and < 2g saturated fat per serving