November 23, 2007, Newsletter Issue #19: Reading Food Labels Is Helpful for Weight Loss

Tip of the Week

To achieve your weight loss goal you need to able to determine how many calories are contained in the foods you eat. Central to this idea is being able to read food labels. The next time you are at the grocery store notice the food label on the products you select. Are you making the healthiest choice? The only way to be certain is to read the label. With a few exceptions, the government requires food manufacturers to provide food labels on all food products.

Probably the first and most important place you will want to look on a food label is at the serving size. Food labels have a standard serving size for various types of food products. Soup, for instance, uses a one cup serving size. For beverages 8 ounces is standard serving size. Once you know how many servings are in your package then determine the number of calories per serving. Realize that calories are listed per serving and not by number of calories in the entire package. If you read a label and it says there are two serving per package with 100 calories per serving this means the total calories, should you consume the entire thing, will be 200. In this example, you will also need to double the other nutrients on the label such as the number of calories from fat, cholesterol and sodium. Reading the label is especially important in today's supermarket because there are so many options available. You wouldn't buy a piece of clothing at a department store without looking at the price tag or examining its material would you? Nor should you choose your foods without careful analysis of the nutrition label.

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