Welcome back to the food package and my blog! Now let’s move on to the Nutrition Facts Label, located somewhere on the package other than the front, a treasure trove of confusion!
The Nutrition Facts Label
The Nutrition Facts label shows the amounts of a specific group of nutrients that a single serving of the food provides and/or the proportion of a day’s needs for that nutrient, for “the average healthy adult.” This “fictitious” person is defined as someone whose daily calorie intake (to maintain weight) is 2000 calories a day. Beginning in 2020 (2021 for smaller food manufacturers), the Nutrition Facts label will look a little different: It’s undergoing some renovation, designed to help us make better purchasing and eating decisions. Throughout this blog, I’ll describe some of the changes you can expect. The photo accompanying this blog shows the old label to the left and the new label to the right of the shopper scrutinizing the label.
Serving Size? Seriously?
The serving size–the definition of a serving–is legally set for each type of food (meat, vegetables, bread, etc.) by a federal committee, no doubt comprising people who don’t actually eat. The most important pieces of information on the Nutrition Facts label are the serving size and the number of servings per container, because the nutrient contents (including calories) are expressed per serving! Manufacturers are free to list the nutrient contents of additional serving sizes as well. The 2020 label will sport serving sizes that are a bit more realistic, AND if you are like me and consume the entire contents of the box, bag, package, or can in one sitting, you will find that the new label shows both the nutrient contents per serving and the contents for the entire container!
The calories per serving on the 2020 Nutrition Facts label will also be more prominent. Why??? Because the legitimate nutrition community is increasingly recognizing that body weight—and total calorie intake—plays a much greater role in our risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis) than does our intake of any particular nutrient.
Amount per Serving
The federal government also specifies the nutrients for which a manufacturer must list the contents, provided the food contains some amount of that nutrient. The amounts must be listed in grams or milligrams. In addition, for fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals (basically every nutrient except protein), the amount of that nutrient must be shown as a percent of the Daily Value for that nutrient. The Daily Value is the amount of that nutrient that the Food and Drug Administration and the National Academy of Sciences have determined—based mostly on scientific evidence—are sufficient to prevent symptoms of deficiency diseases in “the average healthy adult”
When looking at the Daily Value for fats and carbohydrates, you might think the information is based on Rod Serling’s, “The Twilight Zone,” but in fact, research on physiology and metabolism suggests that for healthy people, about 55% to 60% of our calories should come from (mostly complex) carbohydrates and about 25% to 30% should come from (mostly unsaturated) fats. For vitamins and minerals it’s based on how many calories an individual eats because, for the most part, the more calories you eat, the more vitamins and minerals you need to process all that stuff. The suggested intake of protein, in contrast, is based directly on your body weight.
Individual Nutrient Contents
The information provided on the Nutrition Facts label is overwhelming! Which of these nutrients are worth paying attention to depends on your health and your goals. Most of us eat at least as much as, if not more than, we need of most nutrients. With that in mind, I’ll just highlight a few values to check out, with an eye toward limiting how much you are eating, especially if you tend to eat lots of foods with Nutrition Facts labels (I’m talking about those things other than fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses, and meats).
Protein
As I said a few blogs ago, nearly all of us seem convinced we need or could at least benefit from more protein. Forget about it! Protein is found in many foods we’d never suspect (read labels for a few days!), and almost everyone in the U.S., including super-athletes and body builders, consumes more than enough. So, this is a “label” item you don’t need to worry about, unless you suffer from kidney failure and have been advised by your provider and nutritionist to decrease your protein intake. In addition, protein from animal foods often comes with a big dose of saturated fat (see below).
Total fat
The Nutrition Facts label currently lists the “calories from fat” as well as the total content of fat in a serving of the food, which includes the contribution of saturated fat (see below) and unsaturated fat. Dietary guidelines recommend 25% to 30% of our total calories be in the form of (mostly unsaturated) fat and no longer advocate severely limiting unsaturated fats. These are very good percentages to live by. Recognizing that dietary guidelines no longer recommend restricting total fat, the 2020 Nutrition Facts label will no longer require the “calories from fat” to be listed, although the amounts of total fat, saturated fat, and trans fat will still be listed (trans fat is a fat used mainly by food manufacturers that has been linked with higher risk for heart disease but that has largely been removed from the food supply).
Saturated fat
Dietary guidelines recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of your daily calorie intake, less than 5-6% if you have elevated levels of blood lipids (triglycerides or cholesterol), because of the strong associations of higher dietary fat with higher blood levels of fats and risk for heart disease and stroke.
Again, these are probably good percentages, but rather than trying to keep a balance sheet in your head, it’s better just to limit meat, cheese, full-fat dairy (whole milk, butter, and cream), probably coconut oil, and products made with those things (like buttery cakes and cookies). But watch what you eat in place of those foods, so that you’re choosing more vegetables, legumes, foods that provide healthier unsaturated fats (like avocado, nuts, and seeds), and whole grain foods and not just increasing your intake of high-sodium, high-sugar, more-processed foods.
Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats
Some manufacturers choose to list the contents of these fats in particular products, mainly to emphasize that those foods don’t contain saturated fat. However, no government standards define exactly what our intakes of those fats should be (except that they should contribute the majority of our fat intake). So, my advice is generally to ignore these values.
Sodium
Most of us consume far more sodium (salt) than our bodies need. Numerous health organizations recommend limiting sodium intake to no more than 2300 mg per day because of the strong link between sodium intake and blood pressure. Some groups advocate lowering that limit even further to 1500 mg. In the real world, most people consume 3500 mg or more, and some nations average 6000 mg!
Surprisingly, at least in the United States, most of this sodium is not coming out of the salt shaker, adding salt while cooking, or even snacking on potato chips, but from consuming seemingly benign processed foods like bread, cheese, cold cuts, canned soups and vegetables, and microwavable meals, as well as eating meals prepared away from home (not just fast food but food from the supermarket deli counter and all restaurant foods).
If you have high blood pressure and have been advised to limit your sodium intake, first make sure you have an idea how much you’re consuming in the processed foods you buy by reading food labels and multiplying the sodium per serving by the total numbers of servings you’re consuming! Try focusing on fresh or frozen vegetables, less-processed meats, reduced sodium products, and fewer trips to restaurants.
Carbohydrates, Sugars, Starches, and Fiber…and Added Sugars
Ok, confusion warning! I say that because I’m constantly hearing people saying things like, “I’m losing weight because I cut out “carbs” from my diet,” or “I’ve cut out all ‘sugar’ because it’s a toxin!”
Statements like these tell me a large part of society is confused as to how our bodies actually break down the food we eat. Therefore, I need to start this section with a few definitions and a nutrition and physiology lesson. Carbohydrates are actually made up of two different macronutrients (nutrients that contain calories): simple carbohydrates (sugars such as glucose, sucrose [table “” not found /]
, lactose, and fructose); and complex carbohydrates (starches, which are long chains of glucose that our bodies actually break down to individual glucose molecules). Wait! What about fiber, you say? Well, fiber is a form of starch that we can’t digest, but more on that in a minute. I told you this could get confusing!
Currently, Nutrition Facts labels list the content of total carbohydrates as well as the content of sugars and fiber, but not starch. Why? Because the relative amounts of sugars compared to total carbohydrates in a food are important. They not only tend to provide some indication of the overall nutritional value of the food (more sugar equals lower nutritional value), but the amount of insulin needed to absorb those nutrients. It’s important to know that simple carbs (sugars) trigger our pancreas to create and release insulin. Persons with diabetes need to know how much sugar they’re eating.
The quantity of “sugars” in a serving of a processed food includes both sugars that are found in that food in nature and sugars that are added in processing. For example, a cup of strawberry flavored yogurt contains sucrose and fructose naturally found in strawberries, lactose naturally found in milk, and sucrose that is added to make the product taste sweeter. For the past decade or so, nutrition guidelines have urged us to limit our intake of those “added sugars,” not because of the notion that sugar is toxic (not only is sugar not toxic, our bodies need sugar to survive—your brain would die without it!), but because the more added sugar a food contains, the less of other important nutrients the food tends to contain (think sugar-sweetened soda, candy, and cookies) and the more likely it is that consuming a lot of that food is preventing us from eating healthier foods and contributing to weight gain. For that reason, beginning in the year 2020, the Food Facts label will list Added Sugars separately from total sugars. In short, look to limiting the “added” sugar instead of worrying about the total sugar content of the food.
One more thing about added sugar: You will hear and read that sugar is added to lots of foods you’d never suspect, like bread, salad dressing, and ketchup. The amounts of sugar added to many of these foods is comparatively small. The added sugars you need to be concerned about are the ones in foods like cake, cookies, pie, pastry, candy, preserves, chilled creamy coffee drinks (you know the ones I mean), flavored latte, and regular soda! And oh, yes, honey and maple syrup are…pure sugar.
What about complex carbs, also known as starches? The calories from starches aren’t broken out on Nutrition Facts labels, but what is important to know is that starches produce a more delayed release of the hormone, insulin, since those long chains I mentioned above don’t trigger the pancreas to release insulin until they’re broken down into simple sugars. As such, they are absorbed more slowly than the simple sugars listed on the label. The starches in whole grain foods and fruits are released even more slowly because of the fiber these foods contain. Huh?
So now let’s finally get to fiber. As I mentioned above, fiber is a starch, but differs from other starches in that we can’t digest it and, as such, it has no calories and causes no insulin to be released. It’s important to list fiber separately on food labels for two reasons. First, as I mentioned, fiber in the form of whole grains slows the breakdown and absorption of the starches and sugars in those foods. And second, even though we don’t digest fiber, the bacteria in our intestines thrive on it, and we absolutely need those bacteria for digestive health. Scientific studies suggest that eating more fiber can help prevent a variety of diseases and that most of us consume too little. The Daily Value (recommended intake) for fiber is 25 grams for women and 30 to 38 grams for men (or about 14 grams for every 1000 calories you consume). Fiber-containing foods include vegetables, whole fruits, legumes, and whole grains (such as whole wheat bread and pasta, oats, brown rice, and corn). But the evidence is not so clear whether eating processed foods to which fiber has been added, especially artificial fiber that is not normally found in real food, is as effective as eating your fiber in the form of actual fiber-containing foods. So, for now, try to stick with the real stuff!
Calcium
Many people in the U.S. consume too little calcium, a mineral needed for healthy bones and cellular function that is naturally found in dairy products; some dark, leafy green vegetables; bone broth; fish like anchovies and sardines; and some tofu. In addition, several foods are now available in calcium fortified forms. The Daily Value for adults is 1000 mg. It would be worth your while to compile a mental list of foods that can help contribute to getting a day’s worth of calcium from the examples I’ve listed above—especially for those who don’t consume dairy products—and possibly consider a daily 500 or 1000mg calcium supplement.
Iron
Premenopausal women, vegetarians, and vegans are most at risk for consuming too little iron: premenopausal women because iron is a component of blood, and vegetarians and vegans because the foods that tend to provide the most iron in the most accessible form are animal products. Iron-fortified breakfast cereals can be worth searching out to ensure you’re getting enough iron. How plant foods are prepared and served can also affect how well our bodies can absorb the iron from them, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Other Nutrients
The 2020 Nutrition Facts label will provide information on two additional nutrients, vitamin D and the mineral, potassium. Unlike most other nutrients, many of us are actually at risk for not consuming enough of these two.
Stay tuned for part 4 of this blog, where I’ll translate the list of ingredients!