|
FDA Flyer: 1996
TIP... Before starting, see that a few examples of food packages are on hand.
Discuss peoples' concerns about their diet and their health. For example:
The video places emphasis on showing consumers ways to use the food label quickly and easily to achieve a healthier diet and meet their nutritional needs. A four-question quiz follows the main part of the video -- you may want to pause after each question to explain and discuss answers.
Question: Ask viewers if they learned anything new and what they could apply when shopping for foods.
Look at the food labels on the packages brought in.
Q. Do any packages have nutrient content claims, like "reduced," "low" or "high"?
Q. How can you tell, for example, if a claim for "reduced" is higher or lower than "light"?
A. Just check the % Daily Value (%DV) for each -- you don't need to learn definitions.
Q. Can you believe these claims?
A. Yes. The terms are now defined and regulated by FDA -- they have to mean what they say.
Q. Do you now or will you in the future use or look for these claims?
Q. Why is it important to check the serving size information?
A. It is the basis for determining all the quantitative information on the label -- for example, the calories and the % Daily Values -- and it makes it easy to compare similar foods.
Q. Does it tell you how much you should eat?
A. No, it reflects what people typically eat in a serving; it is not a recommendation.
Q. What does "calories from fat" let you know?
A. It lets you know if this food is relatively high or low in fat by showing how many of the calories in one serving come from fat.
Q. What does the % DV for total fat tell you?
A. It tells you how much one serving contributes to your daily maximum allowance (of fat). It does not represent the percent of fat in a serving. Example: If one serving of pizza contains 40% DV for fat, that means you have 60% of your fat allowance left for the other foods you eat that day.
Q. Do you need to calculate percentages to use the % DV?
A. No. The % DV, based on a 2,000-calorie diet, does the math for you. The %DV for fat can help you follow nutrition experts' advice not to eat more than 30% of your calories from fat. All you need to do is add up the %DV for fat in all the foods you eat in a day: Your goal is to eat less than 100% DV for fat. For certain other nutrients -- such as calcium -- the goal should be to consume least 100% of the % DV.
Q. What if you don't eat 2,000 calories per day?
A. Most people don't know exactly how many calories they eat in a day. You can still use the %Daily Values to compare products and see which ones are higher or lower in a nutrient.
Now that you've learned more about food labels, will you use the information on them differently than you did before? If so, how?
Can you think of ways you could use the food label to help you choose a balanced diet?
If someone asked you how to use the food label, what are the two most important things you would tell that person?
Looks at the claims like "reduced," "low" or "high" on food packages. You can believe what they say.
Use the %Daily Value to make quick food comparisons and to tell if a food is high or low in nutrients, such as calcium or sodium. (5% Daily Value is low.)
Check the serving size and compare how much you actually eat with the serving on the package. If you eat two servings, don't forget to double the calories and other nutrients.
Use food labels if you want to control you diet. Use them to gradually switch to foods lower in fat and saturated fat, and foods higher in fiber and calcium.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(HFI-40)
Rockville, MD 20857
February 1996
FDA Publication No. (FDA) 96-2299
This document was issued in 1996.
For more recent information on Food Labeling
See http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html
