Question

You are reading the Nutrition Facts panel on a food label. Explain how to use the serving size, servings per container, Calories per serving, and %DVs for saturated fat, dietary fiber, protein, and calcium to calculate the nutritional profile of the food.

Answer 1

When looking at the Nutrition Facts Panel first take a look at the number of servings in the container and serving sizes.

Serving sizes are standardized to make it easier to compare similar food. They are provided in familiar unit such as cups or pieces followed by metric amount. But it is not the recommendation of how much you should eat or drink.

Always pay attention to the serving size( servings per container and calories per savings). Calories per servings means how much energy you will get from one serving.

To maintain a healthy body weight you should ensure how much calories you are taking and how much you are burning out. Eating too much calories leads to overweight and obesity.

%DV is the percentage of daily value for each nutrient in a serving of food.

Daily value are the Reference amount( expressed in grams, milligrams or micrograms )of nutrients to consume or not to exceed.It helps to determine if a serving of food is high or less in a nutrient.

For calculating %DVs, we can take for example :

the daily value of saturated fat is 20 gram.

It means 20 gm is the 100% DV of saturated fat.

The person should take 20 gms of saturated fat daily. If he is taking 10 gms.,

then %DV will be = 100/20 ×10

=50%

That means if a person takes 10 gm only(if the recommended 100%DV is 20gm), then his % DV will be only 50% which is less.

Similarly for dietary fiber, Protein and Calcium(here the Nutrition facts panel is not given for reference)