(HealthDay News) — Most packaged foods have an ingredient label, which can provide invaluable nutritional information about the product.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists offers this advice to help you understand food labels:
- Review the serving size, which shows you how many servings of the product are in the package.
- Pay attention to the “calories per serving” line to figure out how many calories you’ll take in from each serving.
- Check the total amount of fat, as well as the amount of saturated fat and trans fat. These ingredients can elevate your risk of high cholesterol and heart disease.
- The label should have a line that specifies the nutrients found in the food you’re about to eat.
- Examine the “percent daily values” information, which tells you how much of the daily recommended amount of each nutrient is included in the product.