It is impossible to measure all the food that you eat but it is recommended to measure what your intake of food and drink is and establish what your portion size is.
You will not be surprised to know that in our ever expanding world, many people find that the portion they are having on their plates is actually two portions, or even three!
For the technological amongst us there are scales which are programmed with nutritional information and that will keep a running total of your daily food and nutritional intake! For most of us we will only need a simple set of scales, dry and liquid measuring cups or jugs and common sense on reading food labels.
The most important of all these is how to read food labels. Being able to read food labels correctly helps you to make informed and reasonable food selections. By checking the column on your food label that shows nutritional information you can find out how many servings that particular item contains.
All food labels now list clearly the types and amount of nutrients the item contains and what your recommended daily allowance of these nutrients should be. It's normally broken down into saturated fat, sodium, total fat, fibre and cholesterol per serving.
Although it all seems very simple - deciphering the labels can be quite difficult. Knowing what all the numbers mean and what it will do to your healthy lifestyle if you followed it religiously is not easy.
Here is a basic guide to hopefully clearing up any problems you may have in reading food labels.
1. Serving size
All items of food will always show how much of it is a 'serving'.
This serving size is the recommended serving size and will not, probably, match your interpretation of a serving size!
A serving size is not just how much ends physically ends up on your plate. On a food label it shows what nutrients you will receive by having the serving size recommended on the label.
If, for example, the labels says that a serving is 50 grams, you would need to measure out 50 grams and eat that - this is the equivalent of one serving. Therefore the amount of nutrients which are eaten above this have to be multiplied by the amount that has actually been eaten.
If you eat all of the portion and the food labels says that each pack is the same as 4 servings you would need to multiply what you have eaten four times to get the correct amount of calories you have taken.
2. Nutrients
Nutrients in each item are listed on food labels. The nutrients are based on the recommended daily allowance for this particular item and are based on 2,500 calorie diets and 2,000 dietary allowances.
The recommended daily dietary allowance listed for each food product is based on the 2,000 calorie diet. If you are working with a higher or lower calorie diet, all you need to do to get the daily value is divide the amount by 2,000.
3. Ingredients
This is simply the list of ingredients that were used to manufacture the product. It is normally listed showing the greater ingredient by weight first and carries on listing them in size order.
4. Label claim
This is what the product claims with regard to nutritional information. For example for an item to be low fat it actually contains 3 grams of fat or less - or for it to be sodium free it contains less than 5 mg per serving.
More and more people are reading food labels and manufacturers are actually making it easier for us to understand. Once you are able to read a food label well it is much easier for you to carry out your diet or just healthy eating plan because you are able to control what is in your diet at your fingertips.
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"About The Author" below
About The Author
Barry Sheppard writes, as a hobby, for http://www.traintraveller.com
an online site informing readers how to travel throughout the world by train.
He has written and had published 15 books, and 100's of articles on a wide range of
subjects.He runs a 121 writing course by phone and email . You can get the details of this
course from Barry at Email:
He has also started writing and adding articles for content pages from
How to Read Food Labels
