NUTRITION DECODER

LABELS

Are you getting enough fibre NUTRITION DECoDER from your cereal? Too much sodium from your snack? Here’s how to find the nutrition answers you need from those complicated food labels. BY KATE DALEY

Health Canada has made nutrition labels mandatory on most prepackaged foods. Daily values (the highest recommended intakes for listed nutrients) apply to most people aged two and older and are based on a diet of 2,000 calories per day. Be aware, though, that daily values shouldn’t be used for tracking food intake.

Calories measure the amount of energy in your food. While counting calories can be important for weight loss, many dietitians recommend looking at the overall nutritional value of the food instead. For example, a food containing nuts may be higher in calories, but it’s also likely loaded with antioxidants and good fats to help keep you feeling full longer, meaning you’ll eat less.

If you have heart-health concerns, you’ll want to consider consuming no more than 200 milligrams a day of cholesterol, a type of fat found in animal products. Most people should aim to consume less than 300 milligrams a day.

Pay attention to how much you’re about to eat. Serving sizes aren’t consistent from label to label, and they’re not necessarily the suggested portion of food you should eat. If you’re planning to tuck into a cup of cereal, and the nutrition facts are for a half-cup serving, keep in mind that you’re consuming double the calories, fat and sugar listed.

All fats are not created equal, and not all fats are bad. For a healthy adult, fat should account for 20 to 35 percent of daily calories (45 to 75 grams per day for an adult woman), but you need to make sure you get the right types of fat and limit others.

Health Canada advises reducing your intake of saturated fat found in animal products and tropical oils due to the potential negative effects on cholesterol levels and the heart. But it might not be as negative an association as initally thought, as new studies are raising questions about the association between saturated fat and heart disease.

The less trans fat in your diet, the better. Vilified for its role in raising “bad” cholesterol and lowering “good” cholesterol, this partially hydrogenated fat is found in many baked and fried processed foods, and it can increase your risk of heart disease. Look for products that contain little to no trans fat.

You need roughly 300 grams of carbohydrates per day to fuel your body and brain; it’s your body’s main source of energy.

There’s no suggested daily value for sugar. The World Health Organization, however, has drafted new recommendations, advising people to limit all free, or added, sugars, which includes honey, syrups and fruit juices, to less than 10 percent of their total calories per day; it further suggests that a reduction to less than five percent would have additional benefits. Similarly, the Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends that intake of free, or added, sugars not exceed 10 percent of daily caloric intake, and ideally less than five percent. Health Canada is proposing that nutrition labels declare added sugars.

The 13 core nutrients (fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, fibre, sugars, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron) are mandatory to list, but many companies add others, such as folate, vitamin D and potassium. Health Canada considers five percent or less “a little” and 15 percent or more “a lot.” So if you’re anemic, for example, look for an iron value above 15 percent to help boost your intake; if your iron levels are too high, look for a listing under five percent.

Health Canada says adults, depending on age, should get between 1,200 and 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day (the minimum your body needs) and shouldn’t consume more than 2,300 milligrams per day. Be mindful that the daily value on the food label is based on 2,400 milligrams of sodium, so downgrade your portion sizes accordingly if you want to cut back on salt.

Women need 25 grams of fibre per day, and men need 38 grams. Most Canadians get only half of that. Fibre is important for lowering cholesterol and keeping you regular.

Like sugar, protein doesn’t have a daily-value percentage, because most Canadians get enough of it in their diets. Find protein in both animal sources (think meat and dairy) and vegetarian sources (such as legumes and tofu).

Ingredients are listed in order of their amount within the food. Read this section carefully, as many similar ingredients may be listed under different names. For example, dextrose, sucrose, glucose and molasses are all forms of sugar.

ORGANIC According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, you’ll find this label on products that contain 95 percent or more organic ingredients. If the label reads “organically raised,” “organically produced” or another similar name, it must also meet the 95-percent- organic requirement.

NON-GMO PROJECT VERIFIED This verification means what you’re about to eat has been produced according to consensusbased best practices for GMO avoidance through the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit North American organization. (Read more about GMOs on page 40.)

According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, this means the product should not contain any added vitamins, added minerals, artificial flavouring or food additives. It also shouldn’t have been significantly changed or have had components removed (except water), and it shouldn’t have been submitted to processes that have significantly altered its physical, chemical or biological state.

GLUTEN-FREE Regulated by Health Canada, this is a very important label for those with celiac disease. It means that gluten, if present, must not exceed 20 milligrams per kilogram, or parts per million, of the product.