Reading a Nutritional Label

How many times have you looked at a food label and said to yourself “I have no idea what I am looking for on this label!”

Sometimes I feel like you need a special certification to understanding what’s on those labels. Being that it is extremely important for you to understand what you are putting in your body, I have decided to discuss a few important things to understanding nutritional labels. Two of the most important things to understand about a Nutritional Label is number 1, The Serving Size, and number 2, The Ingredient list!

1. The Serving Size – When you read the label and looking to see how much Calories, Sugars, or Fats, you need to first realize what the serving size is which is listed at the top of the label. That Serving Size is crucial to understand because if you are eating double or even triple the amount of the serving size, then you have to double or triple the amount of Calories, Sugars, or Fats! Understanding this can prevent you from loading your body with tons and tons of calories and/or sugars.
2. The Ingredient List – This is the list of ingredients in the product. This list is in order based on the quantity of that ingredient. So the things listed first on the list are of most quantity and the things listed at the end are the least in quantity. This is important to understand because if you are about to eat something that the first 3 or 4 ingredients are mostly sugars or artificial ingredients then you probably should not be eating that item.

Check out this video that I recorded discussing an example of this with a bowl of cereal. I bet you will be surprised on how much calories and sugars you are consuming with a bowl of cereal! Enjoy!