Food labels provide information about type and amount of fat

By Injil Abu Bakar

NEW YORK (JP): Eating a low-fat diet means learning to select foods that are low in all types of fat and cholesterol. If you are trying to keep your total fat intake to less than 30 percent of your total calories, as recommended, it is necessary that you know what to look for on food labels.

Food labels can provide important information about the type and amount of fat in one serving of a product. Reading the ingredient list is the quickest way to check whether a particular food may fit into your diet plan. The ingredient found in the greatest amount is listed first while the ingredient found least is listed last. Limit your selection of foods where ingredients high in saturated fats or cholesterol are among the first five on the list. Also, choose sparingly from foods that list fats or oils.

How can you determine the exact amount of fat and cholesterol in food? This information is essential to figure out what your daily consumption of these nutrients is, or to compare brands for fat and cholesterol content.

Calories and all nutrition information on a label are listed per serving. Be sure to check the serving size and the number of servings provided per container. Do not look at the calorie level alone. Food labels do not tell you how many of the calories come from fat, but you can easily figure it out yourself.

For example, the nutrition information on the packaging of Whole Milk is as follows:

Nutrition Information per serving: Serving Size: one cup, Serving Per Container: 8, Calories: 150, Protein: 8 grams, Carbohydrates: 11 grams, Fat: 8 grams, Sodium: 125 mg.

Fat is listed in grams on the label, and 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories.

Since health care professionals recommend that total fat account for no more than 30 percent of total calories you can determine if this milk fits that criteria by using the following equation: grams of fat per serving x 9 / total calories per serving.

Here is an example using the above milk label 8x9/150 = 48%.

Therefore, Whole milk is not considered to be a low-fat food choice since it exceeds 30%.

The only difference between whole milk and skim milk is the amount of fat. They both have the same amount of protein, carbohydrates, calcium, etc.

Since skim milk has less than 1 gram of fat and 80 calories per serving, the above equation works out as follows: 1x9/80 = 11% of the total calories come from fat.

If you use all non-fat or low-fat products in your diet, you may very well already be achieving your goal of a diet with less than 30% of calories as fat.

Do become familiar, however, with high fat foods that do not always have a nutrition label provided. Nuts and seeds are good for you, providing protein and no cholesterol, yet they are high in total fat and calories.

The same goes for peanut butter. Cheeses are all high in fat, so look for a low-fat cheese with only 2-3 grams of fat per serving. Most chocolate candy contains cocoa butter and that too does not fit into a low-fat regimen.

Lastly, remember that all fats, whether saturated or unsaturated, (whether "good" or "bad") still contain about 100 calories per tablespoon.