Understanding Food Labels
By: Gretchen Bolander
Updated: April 15, 2011
It doesn't seem so bad - 100 calories for a bag of chips. But if you're not careful, the total could be a lot higher than you think. Freeman Registered Dietitian Andrea Hopper said, "Potato chips, it could have two and half servings in it. And a lot of people might not realize that and eat the entire bag. Really instead of eating 100 calories, they ate 300 calories."
Hopper added total calories are the first thing to consider. "When you're trying to figure that out, it's really an individual basis based on your gender and your activity level."
Many patients already check the fat content, but also need to look at how the cholesterol impacts your daily total. "You want to keep your cholesterol level to be 300 mg or less per day. And also when you look at nutrition, it has a percentage of daily values. And if it's 5%, it's considered low."
Hopper added, don't forget to factor in the carbohydrate count. "Usually we try to keep the carbs at about 50% of your total calories."
And on the ingredient list, keep an eye on all the different kinds of sugar. "Fructose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup - then that's going to mean it has a lot of sugar in it," said Hopper.
