Food labels can be tricky, but if you know how to read them the right way, it can help you eat better. Here are some tips when looking at the nutrition facts label.
Serving Size:
The suggested serving size is for an average portion. The rest of the label is based off of this serving size, not the total servings per container. Keep this in mind when looking at calories and fat because it will be for the individual serving listed, not the whole container. Try to eat only the serving size listed on the package to make sure you are portioning your meals properly.
Calories from Fat: 
Calories from fat should be 30% or less of your total daily calories. Look for foods with the fewest calories from fat.
Total Fat:
Total fat consists of saturated fat, trans fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are better for you than saturated fat and trans fat. Trans fat is the worst, so try and stay away from foods high in trans fat. The general rule is to keep your saturated fat under 10% of your daily calories.
Cholesterol:
The less cholesterol you consume the better! Try to eat less than 300 mg of cholesterol per day.
Sodium (Salt):
Try to consume products with little sodium. The recommendation is 1,500 mg/day, so try to stay around this number. If you do consume more than this value, try to not eat more than 2,300 mg/day of sodium.
Total Carbohydrates:
You want to look for products that are high in total carbohydrates and dietary fiber, but low in sugar. Carbohydrates can give you energy and foods high in fiber can help your digestive tract and can lower your cholesterol.
Protein:
Protein intake for adults is around 0.8 g/kg/body weight. You can take your weight in pounds divided by 2.2 to get your weight in kg and multiply that number by 0.8 to see how much protein you need per day.
Vitamins and Minerals:
These are usually listed in percentages. You need 100% of your daily vitamins and minerals. Try and choose foods with the highest values.
Ingredients:
Last but not least are the ingredients (which are not shown in the picture). Ingredients are listed by weight. This means that the first ingredient listed is the one used most in the product and so forth. You do not want to eat a product with sugar, butter, meat, cream cheese, oil, lard, or high fructose corn syrup listed as the first or second ingredient, because those products are probably high in fat and cholesterol.
One Last Tip:
When comparing food labels, try to focus on one thing at a time. If you want to lower fat in your diet then look for foods low in saturated and trans fat. Start by comparing the foods you normally eat, like different cereals or soups to see which one is better for you.
That’s all I have for now,
-Emily
One tricky thing about the numbers is that they are allowed to be rounded to the nearest whole number. So, 0 (zero) gram of does NOT mean there is none! It only means it contains less than 0.5 gram of , and is *printed* as zero after being rounded down. Depending on the ingredient and the unit for it (g, mg, etc.), this may or may not be significant. But just don’t assume there’s none if you see the number “zero”. Look around the container. Only if it says “Contains No …” can you assume there is none.
That’s tricky! FDA is currently thinking about cracking down on this more so that for labels to say “0″ it may have to be a specific number less than .5 grams
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