Importance of Reading Food Labels on Packaged Foods

Posted by on Jan 30, 2017 in Numeric Codes |

All packaged food products are available with a nutrition label which intents to provide with all the details crucial for knowing exactly what you are consuming. If you know what your food contains, it will enable you in making healthier choices. Additionally, when you check the food labels, it will make it easy for you to compare the nutrient contents of varied available options. Always remember that a healthy diet is vital throughout your lifetime. For this reason, when you pay attention to the nutrition labels of the food products, it will pave way towards improving your overall diet.

Let us consider why it is important to read food labels on packaged foods.

Provides crucial information
If you read the nutrition label, you will get vital information like vitamin content, carbohydrate, protein, cholesterol, saturated fat, total fat, calories and serving size. The labels also include a list of the ingredients. This information will allow you in staying on track with your daily nutrients and calories target. It will also assist you in avoiding some ingredients if you have food intolerance or if you are following a diet which excludes some elements, like sugar or dairy products.

Improve your diet
Even though there are large numbers of nutritious food available in the market, usually you fail to consume key nutrients. But if you keep checking the food labels, you can actually get to know how much nutrients you are taking. You will realize the food products that contain valuable nutrients and those that don’t. Thus, you can add nutritious food products to your diet and significant improve your diet.

Helps you in cutting back
Doctors and health experts often recommend cutting down on added sugar, saturated fat and extra salt. So, if you check the food labels, you will actually get to know what you are eating and what you need to cut down on. According to health experts, it is advisable to take saturated fat and added sugar to no more than 5 to 15 percent of daily calories, and cut back the sodium intake to less than 2,500 milligrams per day.

Know what is exactly inside the package
If you want to know exactly what is inside the package, you simply need to check the label. Take a look at the list of the ingredients and you will get all the answers. The first ingredient indicates the ingredient with the maximum amount, the second with the second highest amount and so on!