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When you go to the grocery store and want to find the most nutritious food for yourself or your family, do you read the labels? Although raw fruits and vegetables and fish are not required to have nutrition labels, most prepared or processed foods like pasteurized milk, canned vegetables, and frozen pizza are. A lot of information is packed into the nutrition facts box.

The first area of the nutrition facts box will tell you how much a single serving is and how many servings of that size are in the container. Consider the label on a 20 ounce bag of white corn tortilla chips. A serving size is eleven chips and there are 19 servings per bag. You must decide if you wish to consume more or less than that. Serving sizes become more important as you look at the rest of the food nutrition label. The rule is if you double a serving size, all of the numbers on the label must be doubled; if you divide a serving size in half, all of the numbers must be divided in half.

The next section of the label indicates how many total calories are in one serving and how many of those calories are from fat. Those eleven tortilla chips are about 150 calories and 60 calories of that is from fat. If you are watching calories and fat intake you must consider if those calories you would consume are worth it or if you could eat something with the same number of calories but fewer calories from fat. If you are on a 2000 calorie a day diet, 400 calories of fat in one serving of something is considered high.

Total fat, cholesterol, and sodium are listed next. From here to the footnote at the bottom of the nutrition facts box a daily value in percent will appear beside the food component. These are based on a 2000 calorie a day diet. The eleven tortilla chips contain seven grams of fat with one gram being saturated fat and the other six grams appearing as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat. That would be eleven percent of the diet for the day. You should limit the saturated or trans fats in your diet.

Cholesterol intake should be limited to less than 300 milligrams (mg) per day no matter how many calories you consume. The tortilla chips have no cholesterol.

Some people can tolerate levels of sodium up to the recommended limit of 2400 mg, the equivalent of one teaspoon of salt. Those with hypertension, heart disease, and water retention problems should consume much less than 2400 mg. One serving of white corn tortilla chips contributes 115 mg of sodium to the diet, about five percent of a 2000 calorie per day diet. Over time, higher consumption of sodium, cholesterol, and fat can lead to the development of hypertension, heart disease, or even cancer.

The next area of the nutrition label shows the total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. Sometimes nutrients like niacin and phosphorus, among others, are included. A diabetic will want to pay attention to the total carbohydrates and sugars in one serving. The tortilla chips contain twenty grams of carbohydrates with two grams of dietary fiber. There is no sugar in the chips but two grams of protein. The eleven tortilla chips contain few nutrients. Better food choices would show higher percentages of these essential nutrients.

Do not rely on the claims of low sodium, high fiber, or low sugar on the front of a package. Learn to read the label instead.

Learn more about this author, Sandra Petersen.
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