Healthytarian Minutes with holistic teacher Evita Ochel. This episode teaches you how to read and understand nutrition facts labels to make the best, real food choices.

If you would like a detailed explanation of food and nutrition labels, take Evita’s online video class or course:

Video Transcript:

Reading a nutrition label can help you choose healthier food options.

Start by checking the serving size to estimate how much of this food you would normally eat. Serving sizes can vary widely among different types of foods. You will need to multiply all your numbers of interest by as many servings as you would consume of this food.

Check the calories per serving. Assuming 3 meals and 2 snacks in a day, generally, a meal should be around 400 to 600 calories and a snack around 100 to 300 calories.

Check the fat values. Calories from fat should be less than a third, the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol should be minimal or zero, and trans fat should always be zero.

Check the sodium. Your sodium number should be equal to or less than your calorie number per serving.

Check the carbohydrate area. You want to see a high fiber amount and low sugar amount.

The protein value is not a significant area for consideration, for most people.

And the higher the vitamin and mineral amounts in your food, the better.

Ultimately, the most important piece of information about your food is the ingredient list. Refer to this as much as possible, as it will give you the most information about the quality, health and nutritional value of your food. Choose foods made of whole, real food ingredients, not modified, refined, synthetic or artificial ones.

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