Serves: 5

Learning the Nutrition Facts

Nutrition Facts is the revised nutrition label that food manufacturers are required by law to use in order to tell us the nutritional content of foods. The hope is that this improved label will be more meaningful to everyone and will enable us to make better food choices. This new label made its debut on food packaging in 1994.

Nutrition Facts provides much of the same information as the former label but has a clearer layout and emphasizes certain nutrients we want to know more about, namely, total fat, calories from fat, and total carbohydrate (fiber and sugar). Nutrition Facts provides information for one serving of the food by itself ("as packaged"), as in dry cereal, and may also provide information for the food plus an added ingredient, such as cereal plus skim milk, or for the food "as prepared," since so many packaged foods require us to cook or add other ingredients before we eat them.

Information about specific nutrients is provided in grams or milligrams per serving as packaged information for the food as prepared may be footnoted only. Percent Daily Value, listed for each nutrient, is a new measure of how a food stacks up when compared to an average diet of 2,000 calories per day and may be listed for the product as packaged and as prepared. Percent Daily Value replaces the former Percent U.S. RDA for vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. The calories per gram for fat, carbohydrate and protein listed at the bottom of the label enable the reader to calculate the number of calories that come from each component.

Health Claims: What Can Be Said

Can a diet help reduce the risk for disease? Food packages may now carry health claims, a label statement that describes the relationship between a nutrient and a disease or health-related condition.

Seven types of health claims based on nutrient-disease relationships are permitted on food packages and are listed below.

A diet that is: May help to reduce the risk of:

High in calcium Osteoporosis (brittle bone disease)

High in fiber- Cancer
containing grain
products, fruits
and vegetables

High in fruits or Cancer
vegetables (high in
dietary fiber or
vitamins A or C)

High in fiber from Heart disease
fruits, vegetables
and grain products

Low in fat Cancer

Low in saturated fat Heart disease
and cholesterol

Low in sodium High blood pressure
(hypertension)

Nutrition Claims: What They Mean

The government also set standard definitions for terms used to describe product claims, such as light, low fat and high fiber. Now we can better understand the meaning of these claims and trust what we read on packages and in advertising. These claims can be used only if a food meets strict government definitions. Here are some of the meanings.

Label Claim Definition (per serving)

Low calorie 40 calories or less

Light or lite 1/3 fewer calories or 50 percent less fat than the original product if more than half the calories are from fat, fat content must be reduced by 50 percent or more

Light in sodium 50 percent less sodium

Fat free Less than 0.5 gram of fat

Low fat 3 grams fat or less

Cholesterol Less than 2 milligrams free cholesterol and 2 grams or less saturated fat

Low cholesterol 20 milligrams or less cholesterol and 2 grams or less saturated fat

Sodium free Less than 5 milligrams sodium

Very low sodium 35 milligrams or less sodium

Low sodium 140 milligrams or less sodium

High fiber 5 grams or more fiber

From "Betty Crocker's Best of Healthy & Hearty Cooking." Text Copyright 1998 General Mills, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

More Recipes from the Betty Crocker's Best of Healthy & Hearty Cooking Cookbook:
1. Nutrition Through the Life Cycle
2. Meal Planning
3. Shaping up your Favorite Recipes
4. Stocking Up
5. Healthy Eating Out of the House and on the Road
6. A Guide to the Food Pyramid
7. Learning the Nutrition Facts
8. Energize with Exercise
9. The Framework--A Healthy Attitude