please teach me to read these

[druncanwaria]

the nutritional information on the back of food products..

when im looking at food products on the shelf at the supermarket i dont know by looking at the nutritional information whether it is good for me or not.
How much sodium per 100g is to much?
how much sugar? etc etc etc.
I imagine this is pretty basic so i thank you all kindly in advance for your responses.

 

[Sim882]

It is better to consider the amount of sugar/protein/fat calories as a percentage of the total calories, and also consider serving side.

E.g., semi skimmed milk is about 2% fat, and you may think this is good as for example this would be an excellent percentage for meat. But this actually means 31% of the calories comes from fat, which is not so good, considering its mainly saturated fat.

In contrast, if cheese had 2% fat, this would be excellent, and about 10% of calories would come from fat.

the nutritional information on the back of food products..

when im looking at food products on the shelf at the supermarket i dont know by looking at the nutritional information whether it is good for me or not.
How much sodium per 100g is to much?
how much sugar? etc etc etc.
I imagine this is pretty basic so i thank you all kindly in advance for your responses.

 

[StuWard]

A lot of time, the information given on the package is insufficient to make an intellegent decision anyway. Take for example, saturated fats. There are many types of saturated fats. Some are actually healthy (like steric acid in coconut oil). Polyunsaturated fats, also called essential fatty acids, which are supposed to be "good" contain Omega 6 and Omega 3. The important thing here is the ratio of 6 to 3. Both are "essential" in that the body can't make them on it's own and you'll get sick if you don't have them, but most people get too much Omega 6 but not enough Omega 3. The optimum ratio should be about 1:1 but it's usually about 20:1.


There is no quick and dirty way to understand these labels. They contain the minimum negative info as required by law and good info only if it's a selling feature. You need to educate yourself in nutrition and gradually improve your diet based on what you learn. A good place to start is www.whfoods.com

Stu

 

[Sim882]

I suggestion www.nutritiondata.com

It tells you everything you could need to know about foods, including what vitamins and mineral, what % of calories come from protein/fat/carbs, and fat composition (e.g., omega 3,6).

Even for some foods it tells you amino acid composition