How to read Food Labels: This is a great tool to use when learning how to read labels.

The START HERE area you should always look at to make sure what constitutes a serving size. Many times it’s not the entire package. This is important when looking at two comparative items and the calories as many times one may be a larger portion for the same calories.

Check Calories: Just remember these calories are based on the serving size. It also shows how much the calorie content is provided by fat. The rule of thumb as reported by the FDA is 40 calories is low, 100 calories is moderate and 400 calories or more is high when looking at the calorie amount provided by fat.

Total Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium: These are considered areas of avoidance. Making sure to limit these and keep them as low as possible when choosing a processed or packaged food item.

Dietary Fiber, Vitamins and Minerals: This is an area on the label most people don’t pay much attention to. However, it’s a great area because you can learn to look for higher content in these areas to increase your intake of these nutrients.

The Footnote is your Daily Values: These are the Upper (or At Most) limits you should have of fat, sodium, carbohydrates and cholesterol and a Lower (have At Least) limit you should have of dietary fiber. These (as seen on the label) are shown on a 2,000 calorie/day diet and 2,500 calorie/day diet.

Quick Guide to % DV: FDA considers 5% or less of DV to be low and 20% or more of DV to be high. This is a good quick area you can view when determining a specific nutrient amount.

Reading labels can at times be confusing. Labels have specific meanings and can often have a language of it’s own. It may be somewhat new for us to read labels so the above is a good beginning to understanding them.

There are other areas we need to have a basic understanding of labels as well. These are many, but the basics you should know are as follows:

When a label says that a nutrient is “reduced” (as in “reduced fat” or “reduced sodium”), it means that the food is at least 25 percent lower in that nutrient than the regular product.

If a food is said to be a “good source” of, or “contains” or “provides,” a nutrient, it contains from 10 to 19 percent of the Daily Value for that nutrient.

If a food is said to be “high” or “rich” in or an “excellent source” of a nutrient, the food contains 20 percent or more of the Daily Value for that nutrient.

Here are the definitions of some other terms commonly found on food labels:

Calorie free: Contains fewer than 5 calories per serving.

Low calorie: Contains 40 calories or fewer per serving.

Sugar free: Contains no sugar.

Low sugar: Contains less than 0.5 gram of sugar per serving.

Cholesterol free: Contains less than 2 milligrams of cholesterol, and 2 grams or less of saturated fat per serving.

Cholesterol-free food: The food item has never contained cholesterol — before or after processing.

Fat free: Contains less than 0.5 gram of fat per serving.

Saturated fat free: Contains less than 0.5 gram of saturated fat, and no more than 0.5 gram of trans fat per serving.

High fiber: Contains at least 5 grams of fiber per serving.

Good source of fiber: Contains 2.5–4.9 grams of fiber per serving.

Sodium free: Contains less than 5 milligrams of sodium per serving.

Very low sodium: Contains 35 milligrams of sodium or less per serving.

Low sodium: Contains 140 milligrams of sodium or less per serving.