What’s a Serving Size? Is Your Single Portion Really a Double Serving?

At the top of the food label under "Nutrition Facts", you'll see the serving size and the number of servings in the package. The rest of the nutrition information in the label is based on one serving. In this example one cup is designated as one serving, and the package contains two servings.

Remember, that if you eat the whole box of macaroni and cheese, you’re eating two servings, not one. So, you’ll have to multiply the number of calories, fat grams and everything else by two.

A common mistake people make, especially with packages dispensed from a vending machine, is to assume that a small item contains one serving just because the package is small. If you eat a bag of pretzels from a vending machine, for example, you may find that it contains 2.5 servings. So, you need to multiply the numbers by 2.5 to figure out how many calories and the amount of sodium and other nutrients you are eating.

You Don’t Have to Count Calories, but a "Calorie Budget" Can Help
This part of the label gives you the calories per serving and the calories that come from fat. If you need to know the total number of calories you eat every day or the number of calories that come from fat, this section provides that information.

You can think of it like a budget. If you already know how much fat you want to eat in one day, the label will let you know how much you have "spent" of your calorie or fat budget.

In this example there are 250 calories in a one-cup serving of macaroni and cheese. But almost half the calories, 110, come from fat. Remember that this part of the label doesn’t tell you what kind of fat you are eating, saturated versus unsaturated.

Increase Some Nutrients; Limit Fat, Sugar and Sodium
Sections 3 and 4 on the label show the name of a nutrient, such as fat, and the amount of that nutrient provided by one serving of food. In our example one serving of macaroni and cheese contains 12 g. of total fat.

You may need to know this information, especially if you have a high blood pressure or diabetes. If you have high blood pressure, you will want to monitor how much sodium you eat. If you are following a diabetic diet, you’ll focus on the carbohydrate information.

This part of Section 3 refers to the percent of daily values, which is called %DV. What’s the bottom line on %DV? This means how much of something, whether it’s fat, sugar or Vitamin A, one serving will give you compared to how much you need for the entire day. It will help you gauge the percentage of a nutrient requirement met by one serving of the product. A good way to use this section of the label is when you comparison shop. For example, if you’re concerned with sodium, you can look at two foods and choose the food with the lower %DV.

Let’s take the example of macaroni and cheese. Let’s say one brand provides 18% DV and another brand provides 25%DV. Your best choice is the brand that provides 18% because you’re using less of your "fat budget" for the day. But be sure to be careful to read the list of ingredients to make sure there isn’t increased sodium or sugar in the macaroni and cheese with 18% DV.

These percentages are based on a food plan of 2,000 calories per day. If you need more or less than 2,000 calories, you’ll need to adjust this accordingly.

Yes, You Probably Need More Vitamins
This part of the label lists nutrients that are difficult for Americans to eat in enough quantities. But the truth is it’s not hard to follow expert nutritional advice for a healthy diet. Where nutrients are concerned, try to average 100% DV every day for vitamins A and C, calcium, iron and fiber (shown in blue on the the Food Pyramid).

Do the opposite with fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol (shown in yellow on the Food Pyramid). Try to eat less than 100% DV of these.

You'll sometimes find other nutrients listed on the label, too.

What's In The Footnote?
Below the asterisk sign (*) at the bottom of the label, you’ll see the key nutrients listed and how much you should eat, depending on your calorie intake.

The %DV is based on how much, or how little of the key nutrients you should eat whether you eat 2,000 or 2,500 calories a day. So if you eat a 2,000 calorie diet, you should eat less than 65 g of fat in all the foods you eat for the day. If you’re eating 12g of fat in your one serving of macaroni and cheese (remember that’s 1 cup), you can calculate how much fat you have left for the day. You can use the bottom part of the food label to compare what you are eating to the %DV you’re allowed for that nutrient, whether it’s fat, sodium, fiber, etc.

Three Common Mistakes to Avoid in Reading a Food Label

1. A label may say that the food is reduced fat or reduced sodium. That means that the amount of fat or sodium has been reduced by 25% from the original product. It doesn't mean, however, that the food is low in fat or sodium. For example if a can of soup originally had 1,000 mg. of sodium, the reduced sodium product would still be a high sodium food.
2. Don't confuse the %DV for fat with the percentage of calories from fat. If the %DV is 15% that doesn’t mean that 15% of the calories comes from fat. Rather, it means that you’re using up 15% of all the fat you need for a day with one serving (based on a meal plan of 2,000 calories per day.)
3. Don't make the mistake of assuming that the amount of sugar on a label means that the sugar has been added. For example milk naturally has sugar, which is called lactose. But that doesn't mean you should stop drinking milk because milk is full of other important nutrients including calcium. What you can do is look at the list of ingredients. If you see the words "high-fructose corn syrup" or sugar high on the list of ingredients, it probably means refined sugar has been added to the product.

Labels Aren't Required But Some Alcoholic Beverages Have Them
Alcohol content of foods and beverages isn't required to be listed on the nutrition panel. However, some alcoholic beverages such as light beers and wine coolers provide information about the amount of calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fat they contain. This may be useful if you're counting calories. Alcoholic beverages generally don't have a lot of nutrition, but they are high in calories and should have a limited place in your daily diet.

Does Fat Free Really Mean Fat Free? Almost. But What About "Lite," "Low Fat" and "Reduced Fat"?

• No fat or fat free: Contains less than 1/2 gram of fat per serving
• Lower or reduced fat: Contains at least 25 percent less per serving than the reference food. (An example might be reduced fat cream cheese, which would have at least 25 percent less fat than original cream cheese.)
• Low fat: Contains less than 3 grams of fat per serving
• Lite: Contains 1/3 the calories or 1/2 the fat per serving of the original version or a similar product

Choose "Reduced Calorie" Label for One-Third Less

• No calories or calorie free: Contains less than 5 calories per serving
• Low calories: Contains 1/3 the calories of the original version or a similar product

Reduced Sugar Can Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth With Less

• Sugar free: Contains less than 1/2 gram of sugar per serving
• Reduced sugar: at least 25% less sugar per serving than the reference food

Preservatives Can be Natural or Added

• No preservatives: Contains no preservatives (chemical or natural)
• No preservatives added: Contains no added chemicals to preserve the product. Some of these products may contain natural preservatives

Develop a Taste For Low Sodium

• Low sodium: contains less than 140 mgs of sodium per serving
• No salt or salt free: Contains less than 5 mgs of sodium per serving

Fiber Up For Health

• High fiber: 5 g or more per serving (Foods making high-fiber claims must meet the definition for low fat, or the level of total fat must appear next to the high-fiber claim)
• Good source of fiber: 2.5 g to 4.9 g. per serving
• More or added fiber: Contains at least 2.5 g more per serving than the reference food

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