The United States food labeling system that the Food and Drug Administration designed was intended to educate everyone about the nutritional values of the foods they were eating. With the healthy eating kick the labels were also giving consumers the ability to track just how much they were eating on a daily in regards to calories, sugars, nutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and more. The manufactures put all this information on to what they considered an easy chart to read and called it a food label. Anyone who has tried to read these “easy food charts” can tell you that they may be easy to read but at times it is hard to understand them.
When you look at a food label you will see that it has four basic areas. At the very top you will see just how many servings are in the food you are purchasing along with how many total servings are in the package. In this same area you will also find the number of calories that you get per serving and how many calories you are getting from the fat that is in the package. The serving size is a very important part of the label because many food items you purchase have more than one size.
The next part of the food label will list the ingredients that you should limit yourself to having on a daily basis such as cholesterol, sugars, sodium, and fat. On another part of the label you will find all the nutrients that are good for you such as minerals and vitamins. They are listed as a percentage of the daily value that a serving of the food gives you. The fourth area uses an average two thousand calorie diet to give you a general idea of the foods facts for that many calories.