Food Label Confusion

I went grocery shopping last weekend, as I usually do, and planned to pick up tortillas for my lunches during the week.  The first thing I do with tortillas is check to make sure they are whole grain.  The second thing I do is make sure each serving is low in calories.  

The package I chose was, indeed, made with whole grains and fairly low in calories.  Naturally, I thought I was picking up something healthy.  However, when I had the package out during the week I glanced at the nutrition label and realized that each tortilla contained 20% of my daily recommended sodium!  If it is difficult for someone who specializes in health to choose something nutritious, it must be nearly impossible for the average consumer to decide what they should and should not eat.

While 20% of your daily recommended amount of sodium may not seem that high, consider the fact that you would not only eat a tortilla as your meal.  You would likely add cheese, deli meat, and possibly some veggies.  Both cheese and deli meat contain sodium, so by the time you have a meal put together you could be consuming half of your salt for the day.

So what does the average consumer need to keep in mind when they look at a nutrition label?  Here are some of the most important items:

Serving size Make sure you know how many servings are in a package, otherwise you could end up eating far more calories than you expect.  

Sodium Sodium raises blood pressure.  Limit sodium to 2,400 mg per day, which breaks down to 600 mg per entire meal or 350 mg per side dish.

Fat To keep the heart healthy and your weight under control, most people should limit total fat intake to 50-65 g per day.

Saturated Fat This is the biggest contributor to high cholesterol.  Limit your saturated fat intake to 12-16 g per day, depending on how many calories you consume.

Trans Fat Try to avoid Trans fat altogether.  This is the worst possible fat for you because it raises your bad cholesterol and lowers your good cholesterol.  Luckily, companies are now required to include this on the packaging.

Fiber This will help you stay full, longer.  It may also lower your cholesterol.  Aim for 25 g every day.

Sugar When items are lower in fat they tend to contain more sugar.  Try to eat less than 40 g of sugar each day.