Understanding Food Labels

It is important to understand and the use of the Nutrition Facts Label.  The Nutrition Facts Label helps to ensure everyone is eating a healthy, balanced diet.  There are 6 parts to a nutrition facts label.  “The serving size” is the amount of servings in the item.  “Calories” is the amount of calories per serving.  3 & 4 are the “the nutrients” that gives us all energy regulating our body processes.  The footnote of the nutrition facts label that is located at the bottom of the label is based on the percentage daily value 2,000 calorie diet.  “The percentage Daily Value” is based on the percentage Daily Value.  There are three things that people need to know about the nutrition facts label:  calories, serving size, and % of daily value.  The fact is that most people do not think about how much calories they are consuming. 

The food that you eat is the food that will keep you running but in order to know about healthy eating and to keep the body strong and energetic, it’s a good idea to look on the label what you would be consuming.  Every serving you see on a can is the amount of calories you see on a can.  Here are three examples in my food pantry.  I have a box of Ritz Fresh Stacks Whole Wheat Crackers.  It reads that every 5 crackers have 70 calories, carbohydrate is 3 %, protein is 1 gram, and fiber is 3 %.   My second example is a can of Progresso Vegetable classic French Onion soup.  The can has 50 calories per 1 cup.  Carbohydrate is 3 %, protein is 2 grams, and fiber is 3 %.  The third example I have is Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna in water.  The tuna has 50 calories per serving in a 2 serving can which means that the cam would be 100 calories.  There is no carbohydrate or no fiber in the tuna fish can, and 13 grams of protein.

While watching the video, Gia’s friend went outside and looked for average people on their thoughts about breakfast cereal.  The question is “What is the official serving size of a bowl of cereal.” The result of this was that there was many that chosen the medium sized cereal, a few chosen a full bowl of cereal, and only 1 chosen the lesser bowl.  The correct answer was the person who chose the lesser bowl of cereal, which is actually a cup of cereal.  I also discovered which I did not know about was that the calories intake is not as they seem to be.

It was interesting that I had also learned about the 5/20 rule.  According to the video, there were not many people who knew what the 5/20 rule was.  Before I watched the video, I also did not know what it was.  The 5/20 rule means that anything of 5 percent or less of the daily value of nutrient is not good source such as Calcium.  Anything of 20 percent and over is a very good source. 

In conclusion, I feel that everybody needs to pay attention to the Nutrition Facts Label, perhaps it would be less obesity in the United States.