As a rule of thumb, a diet consisting predominantly of natural, nutrient dense foods is better for you than one that includes a lot of packaged foods—especially if those packaged foods are highly or ultra-processed.
But let’s face it. Most of us do eat packaged foods. And even when we do eat whole, natural foods, we often prepare and consume them with packaged foods like marinades, sauces and condiments.
With all the packaged foods you can buy, it might seem as though you need a degree in nutrition to make good choices. Fortunately, there’s a much simpler way: learning how to read food labels.
The Nutrition Facts Label
Nearly all processed and packaged foods are required to have a nutrition facts label. Exceptions include raw produce and fish, as well as food prepared by restaurants or produced by small businesses. The goal is to help consumers make healthier choices.
The Food and Drug Administration has overseen food labels since 1990, when the requirement was established by law. The nutrition facts label was introduced in 1994 and revised in 2016.
The revisions included updating serving sizes to reflect amounts that people are likely to eat, and showing the amount of added sugars in a product rather than just listing total sugars.
Although the FDA offers guidance for older adults on using the nutrition facts label, the information doesn’t differ substantially from the FDA’s guidance for anyone reading food labels.
Tip: If you would like to know more about dietary recommendations for seniors, talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian.
Where To Start When Reading Food Labels? Serving Sizes
Before you try deciphering the nutritional values on a food label, focus on the serving size. This might be a measurement such as half a cup, or it might be a number of pieces, as in 18 chips.
You might see two columns of values on the nutrition label—one for an individual serving and one for the entire package. Either way, the label will tell you how many servings the package contains.
All of the other values on the food label are based on a single serving. So, if you were to eat two servings, you would need to double all of the other values, including the number of calories and the nutrient amounts.
Next Up: Calories
Calories provide energy. Beyond that basic fact, not all calories are the same, as this article by Harvard Health Publishing explains. This is why merely counting calories is no longer (and never should have been) the golden rule for losing, maintaining or gaining weight.
This article by Mayo Clinic describes how eating 200 calories’ worth of apple and peanut butter has a far different effect on the body than eating the same number of calories in chips.
A nutrition label will tell you how many calories are in a serving of the product and in the entire container. What it won’t tell you is how many calories are derived from fat, sugar, fiber or protein.
Yes, You Do Need Fat in Your Diet
Low-fat diets garnered interest more than 50 years ago. By the 1990s, grocery stores offered a vast assortment of fat-free and low-fat foods. Unfortunately, manufacturers added sweeteners to make these foods more palatable—and oftentimes those extra sweeteners created more health problems than the fats they replaced.
Diets too low in fat can lead to health issues such as hormone imbalances and cognitive issues. The key is to choose foods containing beneficial unsaturated fats and limit those high in saturated or trans fats.
Nutrition labels must show total fats, saturated fats and trans fats. Some also show monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, but if they don’t, you can subtract the saturated and trans fats from the total fat to determine the amount of unsaturated fats.
Healthy sources of mono- and polyunsaturated fats include avocados, fish high in omega-3 fats (such as mackerel and salmon), nuts, seeds and olive oil. Most of these foods are high in calories, so be mindful of portion sizes.
Tip: If you see partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list but the nutrition label shows 0 g of trans fat, it means the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. That amount adds up if you eat multiple servings.
Cholesterol: The Kind in Your Diet Isn’t the Same as the Kind in Your Blood
If you have high cholesterol, it may stand to reason that you should limit foods that are high in cholesterol—and that may be true, but not for the reason you think.
As this article by the American Heart Association explains, foods high in cholesterol are typically also high in saturated fat. This is because dietary cholesterol is found in animal-based foods, including dairy. Eggs are an exception.
In general, if you have high LDL blood cholesterol, it’s a good idea to limit foods high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat.
Sodium: An Elemental Factor in Cardiovascular Disease
Americans love salty foods. According to an article by the American Medical Association, the average American consumes about 3,400 milligrams of salt daily.
How much sodium should you have per day? The recommended amount for healthy adults is 2,300 milligrams. For those with high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease, and for most older adults, a target of around 1,500 milligrams is advised.
Carbohydrates Aren’t All Bad
You may have heard that complex carbohydrates (such as those in whole grains, legumes and fruits and vegetables) are good for you and simple carbs are bad. That’s not entirely true.
Fructose, found in fruits and some vegetables, is a simple carbohydrate, but those foods are also high in fiber and other beneficial nutrients. Lactose, found in dairy products, is another simple carbohydrate, but these foods provide protein.
Food labels show the total carbohydrates in packaged foods, including dietary fiber and total sugars. They also show how much of the total sugar content is added sugar—various sweeteners added when the food is processed.
While you want to keep an eye on total sugars, it’s the added sugars that pose the greatest risk to your health.
Protein: How Much Do You Need, Really?
It depends. Dietary experts suggest that protein account for 10% to 35% of your daily intake of calories. For the average sedentary adult, the recommended dietary allowance is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, according to this article by Mayo Clinic. For someone weighing 165 pounds, that would mean consuming 60 grams daily.
Older adults are advised to increase their protein intake to counteract natural loss of muscle mass. (If that sedentary 165-pound person were a senior, he would need to eat 75-90 grams of protein per day.) Adults who exercise regularly need more protein, regardless of age.
Getting enough protein doesn’t require loading up on meat or protein supplements. By including a lean protein with most meals and snacks, you’re probably eating plenty. Six ounces of Greek yogurt has 14 to 20 grams of protein. A 1/4-cup serving of pumpkin seeds has about 10 grams. Eating too much protein can damage your kidneys, lead to dehydration and weight gain, and increase your risk of heart disease.
What Does % Daily Value Mean?
These percentages on a nutrition label tell you how much of the daily requirement for each nutrient a single serving of the food provides.
The percentages are based on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, so if you typically eat fewer or more calories daily, you would need to adjust the percentages accordingly.
Generally speaking, 5% daily value (DV) or less is low and 20% DV or more is high. These percentages tell you at a glance whether a food will help you meet your goals for limiting certain nutrients, such as cholesterol or sodium, or increasing others, such as calcium, potassium or vitamin D.
How Much Is a Portion or a Serving?
Technically, a portion is the amount of food you are served or choose to serve yourself. A serving size, on the other hand, is a standardized amount of food that has been analyzed for nutritional content.
If you’re looking for a food serving sizes chart or portion size guide to help you figure out how much of a certain food you should be eating to get the desired amount of a nutrient, this chart created by UC Berkeley Dining may come in “handy.” It shows you how to use your hand to estimate serving sizes for different foods.
The (Not So Secret) Order of Ingredients
Ingredient lists on food packages are arranged by the weight of the ingredients in the product, with the heaviest listed first.
Typically, but not always, foods with long ingredient lists are highly processed and therefore are not as healthy as those with fewer ingredients. Be on the lookout for added sugars, including corn syrup, dextrose, fructose and high-fructose corn syrup.
Dining at La Posada at Pusch Ridge
As residents will attest, our talented executive chef, Jorge Vidaurri, leads an exceptionally dedicated culinary team. As a result of their collaborative efforts, meals are more than delicious and nutritious. They’re an experience to be savored, especially when shared with good friends.
From appetizers to desserts, menu items feature the unique flavors so notably celebrated in Southwestern cuisine. They’re prepared fresh daily with seasonal and locally sourced ingredients and served with exceptional attention to detail.
We invite you to learn more about our nutrition-focused dining program—and how we make healthful dining easy and enjoyable—by calling 520-314-6790.
Featured Image: maradaisy / Shutterstock
