So, let's look at how we can read something called a nutrition facts label, and in general, I think the more foods we eat that don't have these labels on them the better. Because,for example, fruits and vegetables don't need nutrition facts labels on them. Fresh fruits and vegetables but they're very good for us. So if we can minimize the number of items that we eat that have these labels, it's probably better for us. But, if we're comparing two packaged goods. Like two cereals or something like that then we might want to know how to look at this. Let's look first at the first thing to start with look at is to look at the serving size. This can be a bit misleading because sometimes there's more than one serving in a single container and it can be confusing. And then underneath the serving size, there's usually an item that says servings per container. So this will make it more clear if there's more than one serving per container, and everything underneath that is the amount per serving. So we're talking about one serving and what are the characteristics of that serving? Okay, if we look at calories. This probably isn't the best way to judge whether something is good for you or not, but if the calories are ridiculously high, or the calories from fat are ridiculously high in a packaged item. If you're looking at a chocolate bar that's got 400 calories in it. That's probably too high for a small child given the fact that they only need about 1,400 cap, calories per day. Okay, so then if we look on the right-hand side here we see something called percent daily values. And there's a bunch of numbers, percentages. And then it corresponds to a little note at the bottom that's starred that says that these values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. So yours may be different, and also your children's percent daily values may be different as well, if they're smaller. And they, they're not eating a 2,000 calorie diet. Then if we look at dietary fiber, less than one gram is not that much so, for things like, see, your breakfast cereals you want to see something a bit higher than that. Down below that we see a list of vitamins and. minerals, things like Vitamin A and Calcium, and Thiomine, and these, generally are good, but just remember that, just because something has added vitamins and minerals, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be a healthy food for you, and you definitely don't need to know what Riboflavin does in order to make good food choices. Okay. This area in blue is important, because this is where you'll see the total fats and the breakdown of the fat content in the food, and in general the fats in processed foods are not going to be the healthiest kinds of fats. So saturated fats and trans fats, the kinds found in processed food are going to be the ones that increase our risk for heart disease and that generally, we should try and limit in our diet. Sodium is also something we need to keep an eye on because in processed foods this is usually pretty high. As it extends the shelf life. Okay, then below that is an item called total carbs. And, in general, people tend to fear large numbers in carbs and, it's, it's, as with anything, it's important that we chose the right kind of carbs. [SOUND] sugars also tend to be quite high in processed foods, and protein generally in the typical western diet, we consume too much protein, so keep an eye on these numbers as well. So just to summarize, if we start here, we look at the serving size. And make sure that we know how many servings are in the package we're eating, that can give us more information. Then if we look at the calories per serving and just make sure that this isn't a ridiculously high number, that can be useful information. If we move down and you look at the different kinds of fat in,in the packaged food. We want to make sure that these are generally on the lower side if we're comparing to two similar items because these aren't going to be the naturally occurring, unsaturated fats that we know are,are quite beneficial for us. And then also we want to definitely keep an eye on sodium. We can think of sodium as salt basically because it's one of the the elements in salt and we should train, make sure we choose one that's lower. Make sure we choose the item that has the lower salt if that's If that's an option. And then finally we want to keep an eye on the sugars especially in processed foods where sugars tend to be really high. We want to look at those and make sure that they are not ridiculously high. Okay, then after that even though these vitamins and minerals listed here. We could consider good for us, it doesn't necessarily mean that the food is a healthy one, because many naturally healthy foods don't have vitamin lists associated with them. So, in general, whole foods don't need these nutrition facts labels So, if we concentrate on those, we're definitely doing a good job, and we should try and minimize the number of nutrition labels we need to read, but it is good know how to read them.
