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Importance of Nutrition Labels

Nutrition facts labels tell you about the nutrition of a particular product. This information includes serving size, number of servings in the package, calories per serving and the amount of various nutrients contained in the product. Once you understand the labels, they can help you follow a healthy diet and make it easier to choose the most nutritious foods.

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Making Healthy Food Decisions

Nutrition Labels do affect people’s food choices. When you are deciding between two different foods, you can look at the nutrition labels to determine which food is more nutritious. You can compare the labels to determine which foods are lowest in calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and sugar. These are the ingredients you should limit for good health. Checking the ingredients list will help you avoid foods that contain additives or other ingredients that you want to avoid. The foods with the fewest ingredients and those that only contain ingredients that you would have in your own kitchen are healthier than those with lots of ingredients you don’t recognize.

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Maintaining a Healthy Weight

Reading nutrition labels can help you make the right food choices when you are trying to lose weight or prevent weight gain.

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Nutrient Consumption

Many Indians don’t consume enough fiber, iron, calcium, and vitamins A and C, so these are always included on nutrition labels. You can use the percent daily values listed on the label to give you a good idea which foods are high or low in these essential nutrients. Foods that contain at least 10 percent of the daily value for a nutrient are good sources of that nutrient, and foods that contain 20 percent of the daily value for a nutrient are considered high in that nutrient.

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Considerations

While nutrition facts labels can be helpful, not everyone understands the information included or the importance of it. Many people who had low levels of literacy and numeracy often didn’t understand these labels and that even some people who were more literate sometimes had trouble interpreting nutrition facts labels.

@Fogiene, we think it is very important as part of our social responsibility to provide education how to use these labels when making food choices.

Need help with nutrition labelling for your products? Call us for a free consultation today.