Are you taking the time to learn what exactly is in the food you eat? Last week the Surgical Specialists of Louisiana shared the first part of a feature article by Jacqueline Jacques, ND that explained the types of items consumers should look for in a food label. This week are are pleased to share the conclusion of this article and reprinted with the permission of the Obesity Action Coalition.

The Nutrition Facts Box

If you know what to look at, the Nutrition Facts Box actually provides a lot of information.
Nutrition Information that Should be Present in the Nutrition Facts Box

Mandatory Items:

• Total calories
• Calories from fat
• Total fat
• Saturated fat
• Trans fat
• Cholesterol
• Sodium
• Total carbohydrate
• Sugars
• Protein
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Calcium
• Iron

Non- mandatory items that should be included:

• Calories from saturated fat
• Polyunsaturated fat
• Monounsaturated fat
• Potassium
• Dietary fiber
• Soluble fiber
• Insoluble fiber
• Sugar alcohol (i.e. xylitol, mannitol and sorbitol)
• Other carbohydrate (difference between total carbohydrate and sum of dietary fiber, sugars, and sugar alcohol if declared)
• Percent of vitamin A present as beta-carotene
• Other essential vitamins and minerals

From the top of the box, you can start by looking at the serving size and the number of servings in a container. For products like bread, where the serving is usually one slice, this is typically easy to understand. For foods that don’t come in neat portions, consumers often do not use the serving size that the manufacturer recommends.

A great example is cereal. For many cereals, the serving size is 1/3 to 1/2 cup. That’s about a medium handful for most adults – and it doesn’t even come close to filling your cereal bowl. When pouring cereal, many of use three to four times the “serving” size. Same goes for foods like juice, pasta, chips, crackers, nuts, ice cream and other things where the serving size may differ a lot from what most people eat.

Two examples that I find bothersome are bottled drinks and nutrition bars. Many bottled drinks (from juice to soda) and packaged bars that look like single servings are actually 1 ½ to 2 servings per container. So, if you eat the entire contents of the package, you need to multiply the calories, fat content, etc by 1.5 or 2 to know what you are actually eating.

Everything else in the Nutrition Facts box is based on a single serving of the product – not on the amount that you typically eat. As you move through the box, keep this in mind. If you are trying to limit calories, fat, salt (sodium) or cholesterol, you can now much more easily know how much you are getting. If you want to make sure you get enough protein or fiber every day, you can see that as well.

Finally, you can also use the box to know how much iron, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C you are getting each day. Other nutrients such as B-vitamins, vitamin E, D, K, and most minerals are not required, but can be listed voluntarily by the manufacturer.

You also see some percentages (%) in the Nutrition Facts box. These percentages tell you that for the listed nutrients how much of the Recommended Daily Value you get with a serving of that food. The Daily Value (DV) is the suggested amount of a nutrient (a vitamin, mineral, protein, fat, fiber or carbohydrate) that you should get each day. The Percent Daily Value (% DV) is the amount of that nutrient you should get based on an assumed calorie intake. For all nutrients, if they provide 5 percent or less of the DV, the food is low in that nutrient; if they provide 20 percent or more, they are high in that nutrient.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) generally assumes an intake of 2,000 calories for an average adult. Optionally, the manufacturer can show you percentages based on an intake of 2,500 calories as well. Also voluntary, but commonly shown, are the number of calories per gram of fat, carbohydrate and protein.

The Ingredients

The Nutrition Facts box is helpful, but the information in it is still limited. Foods are also required to have a complete listing of all the ingredients that they contain. This is required for all foods that have more than one ingredient. Usually this information is listed directly below or adjacent to the Nutrition Facts box. Ingredients are listed by weight.

While fewer ingredients don’t always make a healthier food, it is not uncommon to find that foods with long, complicated ingredient lists contain more additive, more fillers and more non-nutritional ingredients.

By reading this list carefully, it can help you to compare not just the simple nutrition facts in the box, but also the quality of your food. You might be amazed when you start to compare foods like catsups, breads, soups and more just how much variation there is for individual types of foods.

Allergens

The newest label regulations require specific information for ingredients that have been identified as potentially harmful allergens. The allergens that must be declared on food labels are:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
• Crustacean shellfish (e.g., crab, lobster, shrimp)
• Tree nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
• Peanuts
• Wheat
• Soybeans

Manufacturers can declare the source of the ingredient directly in the ingredient list, or they can place this information in a separate statement following the ingredient list. (This will usually be preceded by the phrase “This product contains…”) While wheat is on this list, many medical authorities have commented that gluten is not, and perhaps should be. The FDA is currently reviewing the criteria for adding gluten to this list as well as looking to clearly define “gluten-free.”

Nutrient Content Claims and Health Claims

It is becoming increasingly common for manufacturers to market health claims about their food. Whether it is margarine that helps your heart, cereal that lowers cholesterol or simply something that is “healthy” compared to the other choices on the shelf. You might be surprised at how regulated this language is by the FDA.

A nutrient content claim is one that tells you that compared to a similar food, the food from brand X is lower in something (like fat or sugar), free of something (like sodium or cholesterol) or provides a better than average source of a nutrient (like calcium or protein). Virtually every term from “light” to “high” has a strict definition that manufacturers must meet to use the term, or they risk serious penalties and fines.

Actual health claims for foods are extremely limited. To date, there are only 12 that the FDA has allowed, though they are considering others. In addition, there are two approved claims based on authoritative statements from scientific bodies that are allowed. One is for whole grains, heart disease and cancer and states: “Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods and low in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers.”

This article first appeared in the OAC News Vol.2/ Issue 3 April 2007 Reproduced with permission from Obesity Action Coalition. Please visit www.oac.org

The Surgical Specialists of Louisiana are committed to helping our patients achieve a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight. Whether you are interested in weight loss surgery or medically supervised weight loss counseling, we can help you take control of your eating and your weight. Join us for a free seminar or take a weight loss quiz to help you get started.