Interpreting food labels Posted on Friday, September 01, 2006
Hints Toward Heart-Healthy Choices By Gary Applebaum, M.D. THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE “Fat-Free!” “Low Calorie!” “Extra Lean!” These are just a few of the many descriptors food packagers are using to convince you their product is meant for a heart-healthy diet. The good news is more of today’s food choices are heart-healthy. One tool to help you make decisions is foods bearing the “red heart with a white check” logo. They have been certified as low in saturated fat and cholesterol by the American Heart Association (AHA). Here are some tips the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) offers to help ensure your diet is truly low in saturated fat and cholesterol. What Is Really Low? When a label says it is “low” in something, what does that mean? The NHBLI offers these guidelines: Low-saturated fat: 1 gram or less of saturated fat per serving. Low-fat: 3 grams or less of saturated fat per serving. Low-cholesterol: 20 milligrams or less or 2 grams or less of saturated fat per serving. Low-sodium: 140 milligrams or less of sodium per serving. Low calorie: 40 calories or less per serving. Judging Fat Content When “lean” and “extra lean” are used to describe the saturated fat and overall fat content of meat, poultry, seafood, and game meats, here is what they mean: Lean: Less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving. Extra lean: Less than 5 grams of fat, less than 2 grams saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol per serving. Foods Marked ‘Free’ This is one of the trickiest designations. Food that says it is free of something should literally be free of that substance, like fat or sugar. But more often it simply means it is very low in that substance. According to government standards, “fat-free” means a product has no more than 0.5 grams of fat per serving. Similarly, “calorie-free” food has fewer than 5 calories in each serving.
Understand Portions Another confusion is understanding clearly what constitutes a serving. Your frozen lasagna may indicate only 250 calories in a serving— but that serving may only indicate a 1/4 cup, a lot less than most people eat. Remember that just because something is “reduced fat” or “lighter” in calories, does not mean you can eat more of it. By eating a larger portion of a food low in saturated fat, you may eat just as much or even more saturated fat as the regular variety. So watch your portion sizes. Careful label reading, plus guidance from a skilled nutritional counselor like a nutritionist or dietitian, gives you a chance to create your own delicious, but hearthealthy diet. Dr. Applebaum is the special advisor for health policy at Erickson.