Reading Food Labels. Copyright 2006 American Dietetic Association. This handout may be duplicated for patient education.

Transcription

1 Reading Food Labels Note to the Health Care Provider: This is a takehome client education handout. The topics addressed in this handout are discussed in Section 5 of the handbook.

2 Reading Food Labels What Is a Nutrition Facts Panel? The Nutrition Facts panel is part of the label on a food package. It is where you look to find out the amounts of carbohydrates, calories, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals in the food. This information can help you know whether a food fits well with your meal plan. What to Look For Total Carbohydrate Carbohydrate is the nutrient that affects your blood glucose the most. The Nutrition Facts panel will list the grams of carbohydrate in a serving of food. Use the line showing Total Carbohydrate when you count carbohydrates. Types of Carbohydrate Just below the Total Carbohydrate line, the Nutrition Facts panel divides the total amount of carbohydrate into four kinds of carbohydrate: Fiber Sugar Sugar alcohol Other carbohydrates These things are all part of the grams of Total Carbohydrate in the food. For example, look at the label in this handout: if you add up the amounts for fiber (2 grams), sugar alcohol (20 grams), and other carbohydrates (2 grams), they equal the amount of Total Carbohydrate (24 grams).

3 Fiber Fiber is a kind of carbohydrate, but foods with lots of fiber may affect your blood glucose differently than other carbohydrate foods. Fiber is not digested by the body, so the fiber in food does not affect your blood glucose level. This is important when you count carbohydrates in your meal plan. If the serving of the food has more than 5 grams of fiber, you can subtract all the fiber from the Total Carbohydrate listed on the Nutrition Facts label. For example, if a food has 24 grams of Total Carbohydrate and 6 of those grams come from fiber, you only have to count 18 grams of carbohydrate (24 6 = 18). Sugar Alcohol Sugar alcohol is a kind of carbohydrate. It affects your blood glucose differently than other carbohydrates, so you can count sugar alcohol differently when you count carbohydrates in your meal plan. Types of Sugar Alcohol Sorbitol Maltitol Xylitol Isomalt Hydrogenated starch hydrolysate (HSH) If the serving of food has more than 10 grams of sugar alcohol, you can subtract half of the sugar alcohol grams from the grams of Total Carbohydrate listed on the Nutrition Facts label. For example, in the food label shown in this handout, the food has 24 grams of Total Carbohydrate and 20 grams come from sugar alcohol. Half of 20 is 10. Therefore, you would count 14 grams of carbohydrate (24 10 = 14). There are five types of sugar alcohol (see Box). Serving Size The first lines of the Nutrition Panel list the serving size and show how many servings are in one container. This information is important because the amount you eat may not be the same as the serving size on the label.

4 If you eat more than one serving, you will get more nutrients than the Nutrition Facts panel shows. If you eat less than one serving, you will get fewer nutrients. Calories Calories measure energy. The number of calories you should eat depends on how much energy your body needs to grow, be healthy, and be active. If you eat more calories then you need, you can gain extra weight. If kids are at a healthy weight, they don t have to think much about calories. However, paying attention to calories is more important for kids who need to lose weight. Things to Remember When You Read a Food Label Free Foods If a food has less than 20 calories or less than 5 grams of carbohydrate per serving, it is a free food. Limit free foods to one or two servings at one time, and no more than three servings per day. Sugar-Free and No Added Sugar Sugar-free foods can contain carbohydrates. For example, the Nutrition Facts panel for sugarfree ice cream shows that this food has carbohydrates. If a food package says no sugar added, this means sugar was not added when the food was made. It does not mean the food is sugar-free or carbohydrate-free. Most of the time, these foods do contain carbohydrates, including natural sugars that are found in milk and fruit. The Nutrition Facts panel lists the grams of natural sugars and added sugars together, in the line for sugar under Total Carbohydrate.

5 Sample Food Label Calories in a food can come from fat, protein, or carbohydrate. Total Carbohydrate tells you how many grams of carbohydrate are in one serving of food. The total number is broken down into grams of fiber, sugars, sugar alcohols, and other carbohydrates. The total number is what you count when you are counting carbohydrates. All the other numbers are part of the total. If sugar alcohols or fiber are part of the total, you can subtract 1 2 of the sugar alcohols and anything greater than 5 grams fiber from the total. Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 5 pieces (40 g) Serving Per Container: About 2 Amount Per Serving Calories 170 Calories from fat 120 Total Fat 13 g Saturated Fat 8 g Trans Fat 4 g Cholesterol 10 mg Sodium 10 mg Total Carbohydrate 24 g Dietary Fiber 2 g Sugars 0 g Sugar Alcohol 20 g Other Carbohydrates 2 g Protein 1 g Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 10% Calcium 10% Iron 2% Vitamin D 10% *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs Calories 2,000 2,500 Total Fat Less than 65 g 80 g Sat Fat Less than 20 g 25 g Cholesterol Less than 300 mg 300 mg Sodium Less than 2,400 mg 2,400 mg Total Carbohydrate 300 mg 375 mg Dietary Fiber 25 g 30 g Calories per gram: Carb: 4, Protein: 4, Fat: 9 Exchanges: starch Some labels show the number of exchanges in one serving. If you are using the Exchange Lists, you can get information here. Remember, 1 exchange = 15 grams of carbohydrate. Amount per serving: The nutrition label tells you how many nutrients are found in the amount of food listed as 1 serving. (On this label, the serving size is 5 pieces.) Different foods have different serving sizes, and the amount listed on the label as a serving size may be different from the amount you eat.

6 Resources American Diabetes Association. Reading Food Labels. Available at: Chase HP. Understanding Diabetes. 10th ed. Denver, Colo: Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes; Available at: diabetes/ud10.html. KidsHealth Web site. Figuring out food labels. Available at: labels.html. Reading Food Labels: A Handbook for People with Diabetes. Alexandria, Va: American Diabetes Association; US Food and Drug Administration. How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label. Available at: foodlab.html.