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Secrets of the Nutrition Facts Label Revealed! · Talking FACS

• 0:01
  Welcome to talking facts what you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized award winning podcast is hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and consumer sciences extension program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals,
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  families and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello and welcome to talking facts what you need to know about family food finance and fitness.
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  I am your host,
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  Mindy McCully,
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  extension specialist for instructional support at the University of Kentucky.
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  My guest today is Sandra,
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  based in the extension professor in food and nutrition.
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  Welcome Sandra.
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  Well,
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  I'm absolutely glad to be here today,
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  but when you shared your topic for today,
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  understanding the nutrition facts label,
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  I knew that this is going to be an exciting show because there's so much on that label and so much that many of us just simply do not understand.
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  So you're gonna dive into it and help us get through all the new video.
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  So the nutrition labeling and Education Act was passed in 1990 and this act mandated that food manufacturers had to provide a usable label for consumers to understand.
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  And so recently the nutrition facts label was improved.
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  I want to tell you how that can help consumers.
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  It was designed to reflect updated scientific information and it includes a lot of information about the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease,
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  which many of our many of us from all age groups are suffering from or about to suffer from.
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  The updated label makes it easier for us as consumers to make better informed food choices.
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  And it does appear on the majority of food packages.
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  So food labels provide information about the ingredients and nutrients of the product.
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  And so this allows consumers to be familiar with that product and then you can compare it to others to see if there's one that would better fit your needs.
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  Consumers don't understand the purpose of these labels,
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  it's kind of hard for them to use them.
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  Exactly.
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  There are six main parts of the nutrition facts label and the first one is the serving size and the serving size tells us the number of servings in the product and it should be in familiar units like cups or pieces or brands.
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  And a common misconception about this mindy is that If it says Cola is one serving,
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  that 12 oz is what would be recommended.
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  Of course I would never recommend any Cola.
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  But that's beside the point.
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  But that's the normal serving that American has been drinking for the past and how many years they've been looking at research so that serving size is not necessarily the serving size that you should be consuming.
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  It's often the the serving size that americans are consuming and it may be more than the usual.
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  It will be different for different products.
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  And that's a that's something that consumers need to do.
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  You know,
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  pick up your canned tomatoes that you're going to put into your chili pick up the dry spaghetti that you're going to put into your spaghetti noodles into your spaghetti.
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  Pick up the tea that you're going to drink this afternoon for afternoon tea.
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  You know,
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  and all of those will have a different serving size and the,
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  although the panel will be very similar,
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  there will be different information on it based on the product.
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  So the more you look at the labels,
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  the more you'll be able to understand what that label means to you and it helps kind of,
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  as we like to say,
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  compare apples to apples.
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  Right?
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  Absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I use t as an example again,
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  because I love to drink tea.
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  Black tea has more caffeine in it than green tea.
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  Some days I don't need more caffeine based on what the nutrition facts label tells me I would pick that green tea instead of black tea.
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  Exactly.
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  That's just a way that you can use it for your advantage.
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  And I think if we go back to your cola comparison that serving size might be 12 ounces for cola.
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  But if you're looking at it at another drink like milk,
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  the serving size is going to be announces,
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  right?
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  And then some of these waters,
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  we have flavored waters have become very popular.
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  And so,
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  or orange juice,
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  you know,
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  um,
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  you compare those and they're going to be a different serving size.
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  And so sometimes a little math also comes in handy to be able to,
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  to compare apples to oranges.
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  So something else that's on that food label is calories and something like water we don't think of as having calories.
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  But some of those flavored waters do have calories,
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  right?
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  Absolutely.
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  And this is that's a really good example of how you can be drinking more sugar than you think.
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  Many of those newer products have a lot of vitamins and minerals in them and those taste a little bit different.
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  They give the water a different flavor and so many times they'll cover it up with some type of sugar or flavoring and you need to be aware that it's there because calories are calories.
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  Um it's gonna have the calories provide you a measure of how much energy you're gonna get in that serving and food.
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  All right.
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  So then we also have nutrients right now and that's the biggest um I think that's the biggest one for us.
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  This the nutrients we can now see the added sugar,
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  the vitamin D.
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  And the potassium besides the calories and the sugar and the fat because the manufacturers also have to declare this amount in a percent daily value for vitamins and minerals.
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  And that gives we found that added sugars and vitamins and fat and calories.
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  And now potassium are things that are are not just right in the american diet.
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  And so they the hope is researchers put these types of things on the nutrition facts label so that we can make better decisions and I know that as we age there are some things like sugars we might need less of and vitamin D.
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  And potassium we might need more of.
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  So that information is gonna be great to have.
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  Absolutely.
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  And that's when I'm counting what I'm eating for the day.
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  I don't actually do calories but I do nutrients and so I try to I count five plus fruits or vegetables.
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  Today I count at least one serving of um milk and at least one other serving of the high vitamin D.
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  And calcium food.
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  And um that's about all I look for and try to hit the serving sizes for my high proteins.
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  But those are the things that I have a problem getting in every day.
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  And so those are the things that I try to focus on.
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  So so other people can do that too if they have heart disease,
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  they may be on a low cholesterol or a low fat diet.
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  And so they can use the nutrition facts label to help them make good decisions about their eating patterns.
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  I think that that is so beneficial to all of us.
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  Then you talked about that these are are shared in a percent daily value.
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  So what is that percentage?
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  So that can be a little bit confusing but daily values that show how much a specific nutrient in the serving of food contributes to the total daily diet.
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  Okay so it helps us determine if the servant of food is high or low in that specific nutrients that we are interested in.
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  And they're usually reference,
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  you know in a percentage of grams milligrams or micrograms is what our ingredients are going to be in.
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  But it gives us how much we should consume or not exceeding each day.
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  So something that I think is interesting for consumers to look at Is a 5% daily value or less of a nutrient for serving is considered love.
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  And so if we're trying to lower saturated fat,
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  sodium or added sugars,
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  then we're looking for a lower percent daily value in those um in those new dreams And then any 20% daily value or more of a nutrient is considered high.
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  So if I'm looking for more fiber or more vitamin D.
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  Or more higher,
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  no more potassium than I'm looking for a higher daily value percentage in those ingredients and because they share it as a percentage,
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  it doesn't really matter to us that it might be grams or milligrams or micrograms.
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  Exactly,
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  right.
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  Because we're putting that percentage,
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  someone else has figured that out for us,
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  which I'm very once again that I don't I don't want to do too much math while I'm doing my question.
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  Exactly.
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  Yeah,
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  there's enough else going on.
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  Right.
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  We don't need to be having to do too much math.
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  Exactly.
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  So are there other items on packaged food labels that can assist the consumer in making good decisions.
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  Yes.
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  There is also an ingredient list on the food label and this is defined by the FDA.
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  It's a listing of each ingredients in descending order of predominance.
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  And if we put that simply,
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  that just means the ingredient list must contain every single ingredient present in your food and it has to be an order from the greatest to the least.
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  So if we go back to that cola,
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  if you look at the ingredient list,
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  sugar is low or high fructose,
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  corn syrup is going to be the first ingredient and that means that most the most ingredients in the cola is sugar.
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  So um the first ingredient is always the greatest amount of that food.
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  So sometimes let's say I'm looking for orange,
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  an orange drink and orange juice that's got more of the juice in it.
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  So I'm looking for concentrated juice to be the first ingredients and water to be the second rather than water to be the first.
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  So a lot of times you can make your decisions based also on the ingredient list.
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  Another thing I've found is you want a short,
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  I'm an ingredient list of possible as usually the longer it is.
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  That's a pretty good indication that there's more preservatives in the food.
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  So any time there's a big long word that you don't understand,
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  it's kind of like your prescription drugs that you have no idea what you can't even say the word,
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  but if you have no idea what it is,
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  it's probably a preservative or an additive that's gonna keep that um food on the shelf longer or make it taste better or some for some reason.
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  So if you have been watching the food label over time for something that you commonly eat,
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  then you can recognize also if they make changes to the formula basically.
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  Absolutely,
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  absolutely.
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  Chocolate is a really good example.
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  Several years ago I started to my throat started to close over when I ate milk chocolate and I love chocolate and milk chocolate cake,
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  milk,
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  chocolate,
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  ice cream,
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  milk chocolate,
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  you put in your milk.
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  You know all of those things are made from milk chocolate.
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  So I developed an allergy and it was something that they had started putting into the chocolate that made it uh the bloom not come out as quickly if it was if the consumer left in the car and it got hot and cold they put in the refrigerator and it got cold and then they brought it back out.
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  So um allergic to that that ingredient and so no longer can I eat that milk chocolate Now,
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  finally the dark chocolate is still available to me So hopefully they're not going to change that but there's still a saving grace.
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  Right.
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  Yes.
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  So are there common misconceptions that consumers need to be aware of?
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  Yeah,
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  there's a couple that I think are really important.
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  You know,
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  we see the words fat free and reduced fat and sometimes people think that means it's healthier for you.
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  But it isn't always the case because if we have to take out the fat which gives us great mouth feel and often uh some more flavor in that food.
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  We have to add something back to replace that loss of flavor.
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  And so usually it's sugar.
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  So this is where the food label really does come into play as you can tell,
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  oh they've got a whole lot of sugar in here.
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  So even if they say a low fat to reduce that,
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  it may not be what you're looking for to consume.
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  And then my other one is that small packages don't necessarily mean it's a single serving.
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  You know if you look at most of your chips nowadays,
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  there's two servings in there and it's a small package though.
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  So I would assume it was one serving when I pick it up,
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  but it's two servings.
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  So you've got to figure out a way not to eat the whole package if that's a concern for you at our house.
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  My husband loves chips and we all know there's lots of sodium and chips and he has high blood pressure and so we're trying to kind of watch that sodium.
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  And so I take those chips out of the bag and put them in smaller bags that are serving for him and that keeps him from eating the whole because he and his family,
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  you whatever you put on your plate you ate.
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  So it's kind of the same thing,
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  it's,
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  you know,
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  men mentally get that package and it's yeah,
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  or you just keep eating more,
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  you know,
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  instead you have three or four servings instead of just the one.
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  So so there are some tricks to the trade,
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  the places I go to eat that.
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  I love to eat.
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  They give me this huge serving that I probably could eat,
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  but I'll be miserable afterwards.
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  I asked for my doggy bag up front,
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  I'd say just bring the little doggy bag um as you come and then if it's not on my plate then I'm not gonna eat it and I'm gonna have a lovely lunch tomorrow too.
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  So you just have to start thinking of ways that you can use your information that you have to make better decisions.
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  And then the last one,
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  Those percent daily values are general nutrition advice and it's for a daily diet of about 2000 calories.
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  I don't need 2000 calories unless I'm training for a half marathon.
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  So those need to be adjusted to be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
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  And,
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  you know,
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  older individuals usually don't need more calories than a younger individual.
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  Females usually need less than a male height and weight is really important and your physical activity level really allows you to eat more or eat less.
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  So those are the things that I've found over the years.
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  But I think you know you just have to have in the back of your mind um when you're reading these labels or when you're making choices And I think that those are such great points that people don't always consider.
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  We think 2000 is 2000 is 2000 and that's not necessarily.
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  So right today I'm gonna I'm gonna be on the computer all day so I'm gonna need about 12-1600 calories.
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  You know,
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  so there's just a different one.
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  And once you start to read a little bit about nutrition and you start to understand some of the things that um there are some simple information that you can hold onto that do help you make better decisions.
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  And the nutrition facts label is when I I think that that's a great way to wrap this up because we definitely have gotten some great information today and all of this material is going to help us make better choices when it comes to planning what we're going to eat.
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  So thank you Sandra,
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  thanks for having me.
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  And if you are joining us for the first time you have tuned into talking facts and we are available on all major podcast providers.
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  Mm hmm.