Calories
and Calories from Fat
(#2 on sample label):
Calories provide a measure of how much energy you get from a serving of this
food. The label also tells you how many of the calories in one serving come from
fat. In the example, there are 250 calories in a serving of this macaroni and
cheese. How many calories from fat are there in ONE serving? Answer: 110
calories, which means almost half come from fat. What if you ate the whole
package content? Then, you would consume two servings, or 500 calories, and 220
would come from fat.
The Nutrients
(#3 and 4 on sample label):
Look at the top section in the sample nutrition label. It shows nutrients that
are important for your health and separates them into two main groups:#3 on
sample label):
Limit These
The nutrients listed first are the ones Americans
generally eat in adequate amounts, or even too much. They are identified in
yellow on the chart as Limit these
Nutrients. Eating too much fat or too much
sodium may increase your risk of certain chronic diseases, like heart disease,
some cancers, or high blood pressure. Eating too many calories is linked to
overweight and obesity.
Get Enough of These
(#4 on sample label):
Americans often don't get enough dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium,
and iron in their diets. They are identified in blue on the chart as Get
Enough of these Nutrients. Eating enough of these nutrients can improve your
health and help reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions. For example,
getting enough calcium can reduce the risk of osteoporosis, in which bones
become brittle and break as one ages (see calcium example below).
Remember: You can not only use
the food label to help limit those nutrients you want to cut back on, but also
to increase those nutrients you want to consume in greater amounts.
The Percent Daily Value
(%DV):
This
part of the Nutrition Facts panel tells you whether the nutrients (fat, sodium,
fiber, etc) in a serving of food contribute a lot or a little to your total
daily diet. By diet we mean all the different foods you eat in a day.
%
DVs are based on recommendations for a 2,000 calorie diet. For
labeling purposes, FDA set 2,000 calories as the reference amount for
calculating %DVs. The %DV shows you the percent (or how much) of the recommended
daily amount of a nutrient is in a serving of food. By using the %DV, you can
tell if this amount is high or low. You, like most people, may not know how many
calories you consume in a day. But you can still use the %DV as a frame of
reference, whether or not you eat more or less than 2,000 calories each day.
It's not hard to follow nutrition experts' advice
for a healthy diet. Try to limit your total daily intake of fat, saturated fat,
sodium, and cholesterol (shown in yellow on the chart) to less than
100%DV.
Likewise, you should try to get enough essential
nutrients like calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C as well as other components
such as dietary fiber (shown in blue on the chart). Try to average 100% for each
one of these nutrients each day.
% DVs are easy to use.
Do you need to know how to calculate percentages to follow this advice? No, the
label (the %DV) does the math for you. It helps you interpret the numbers (grams
and milligrams) by putting them all on the same scale (0-100%DV), much like a
ruler. This way you can tell high from low and know which nutrients contribute a
lot, or a little, to your daily recommended limit (upper or lower).
Example
of %DV for Total Fat: If you cover up the %DVs on the sample label, can you
tell if 12g of Total Fat is high or low? Another way of asking this question is,
does one serving (containing 12g of fat) contribute a lot or a little Total Fat
to your daily diet?
Now look at the %DVs on the label example: 12g
fat equals 18%DV. When one serving of macaroni and cheese contains 18%DV for
Total Fat, that means you have 82% of your fat allowance left for all the other
foods you eat that day (100%-18%=82%).
Quick Guide to %DV
(#5 on sample label):
This general guide tells you that 5%DV or less is low
and 20%DV or more is high. This means that
5%DV or less is low for all nutrients, those you want to limit (e.g.,
fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium), and those that you want to consume
in greater amounts (fiber, calcium, etc). As the Quick
Guide shows, 20%DV or more is high
for all nutrients.
Example: Look again at the amount of Total
Fat in one serving listed on the sample nutrition label for macaroni and cheese.
Is 18%DV contributing a lot or a little to your maximum fat limit of 100% DV?
Check the Quick Guide to %DV. You see that
18%DV, which is below 20%DV, is not yet high, but what if you ate the whole
package (two servings)? You would double that amount, eating 36% of your daily
maximum for Total Fat. That amount, coming from just one food, would contribute
a lot of fat to your daily diet. It would leave you 64% of your fat allowance
(100%-36%=64%) for all of the other foods you eat that day, snacks and
drinks included.
Comparisons:
The %DV also makes it easy for you to make comparisons. You can compare one
product or brand to a similar product. It's easy to see which one is higher or
lower in a nutrient because the serving sizes are generally consistent for
similar types of foods. See
comparison
example #1.
Nutrient Content Claims:
You can quickly distinguish one claim from another, such as "reduced
fat" vs. "light" or "nonfat." Just compare the %DVs for Total Fat in each food
product to see which one is higher or lower in that nutrient--there
is no need to memorize definitions. This works when comparing all
nutrient content claims, e.g., less, light, low, free, more, high, etc. See
comparison
example #1 and #2
Dietary Trade-Offs:
You can use the %DV to help you make dietary trade-offs
with other foods throughout the day. You don't have to give up a favorite food
to eat a healthy diet. When a food you like is high in fat, balance it with
foods that are low in fat at other times of the day. Also, pay attention to how
much you eat so that the total amount of fat for the day stays below 100%DV.
Sugars
and Protein: Note that neither Sugars nor Protein lists a %DV on the
Nutrition Facts panel.
Sugars: No daily reference value has been
established because no recommendations have been made for the total amount of
sugars to eat in a day. Keep in mind, the sugars listed on the Nutrition Facts
panel include naturally occurring sugars (like those in fruit and milk) as well
as those added to a food or drink. Check the ingredient list for specifics on
added sugars.
Protein: A %DV is required to be listed if a
claim is made for protein, such as "high in protein". Otherwise, unless the food
is meant for use by infants and children under 4 years old, none is needed.
Current scientific evidence indicates that protein intake is not a public health
concern for adults and children over 4 years of age.
Calcium:
Experts advise consumers to consume adequate amounts of calcium in their daily
diet. This advice is given in milligrams (mg), but the Nutrition Facts panel
only lists a %DV for calcium. For consumers to know how the calcium they consume
relates to expert advice, they need to do some simple math. (This applies to
calcium only).
Example: Experts advise adolescents,
especially girls, to consume 1,300mg and post-menopausal women 1,200mg of
calcium daily. To find the %DV that corresponds with 1,300mg and 1,200mg, just
divide the number of mg by 10. (The DV for calcium on food labels is 1,000mg).
When converted to a percent, this gives a factor of 10. Thus, the daily target
for teenage girls, 1,300mg , equals 130%DV, and the daily target for post
menopausal women, 1,200mg, equals 120%DV.
If you want to convert the %DV for calcium into
milligrams, just multiply by 10. A container of yogurt might list 30%DV for
calcium. To convert this to milligrams, multiply by 10, which equals 300mg of
calcium for the yogurt.
The important thing is to look at the %DV for calcium on the food package so you
know how much one serving contributes to the total amount you need.
Remember, a food with 20%DV or more contributes a lot of calcium to your daily
total, while one with 5%DV or less contributes a little. See
Comparison Example
#2.
The Footnote, or lower part
of the Nutrition Facts Panel
(#6 on sample label)
Note the * used after the heading "%Daily Value" on the Nutrition Facts panel.
It
refers to the Footnote in the lower part of the nutrition label, which tells you
that "%DVs are based on recommendations for a 2,000
calorie diet". This statement must be on all food labels. But the
remaining information in the full footnote may not be on the package if the size
of the label is too small. When the full footnote does appear, it will always be
the same. It doesn't change from product to product, because it shows dietary
advice for all Americans--it is not about a specific food product.
The Daily Values
are based on expert dietary advice about how much, or how little, of some key
nutrients
you should eat each day, depending on whether you eat 2,000 or 2,500 calories a
day.
Example: look at the Total Fat information
in the footnote. It tells you that if you eat a 2,000 calorie diet, you should
eat less than 65g of fat in all the foods you eat in a day. By
doing this, you will follow nutrition experts' advice to consume no more than 30
percent of your daily calories from fat. Because the DV for total fat is "less
than 65g," this is the same thing as saying, to keep your total fat intake for
the day below 100%DV.
If
you consume 2,500 calories per day, the Footnote shows you how your daily values
would change for some nutrients but not for others. The Daily Values for
Cholesterol (300mg) and Sodium (2,400mg sodium) remain the same no matter how
many calories you eat. But recommended levels of intake for other nutrients do
depend on how many calories you consume.
Remember: %DVs listed on the
top half of the food label are based on recommendations for a 2,000 calorie
diet, not a 2,500 calorie diet.
Comparison Example #1
