Did you understand the information on the food label?

Ice cream, small biscuits, potato chips, pudding, chocolate, candied fruit... Entering the supermarket, a dazzling array of foods scrambled to jump into our eyes, attracting the attention of 'foodies' big and small.

When children extend their hands to the shelves, as a parent, how do you correctly identify the nutritional content of food?

This requires us to tear apart the food's 'brand name'--nutrition label.

Food nutrition label refers to the labeling of nutritional ingredients on the outer packaging of food and the display of nutritional information.

Today, we will introduce the 'three-step' method of identifying nutrition labels, teach you to practice 'eyes', and uncover the famous brand of food nutrition.

1 The first step: first impression, knowing

The first step to get the food is to find the information on the food packaging, quickly browse the product name, production date, storage conditions, consumption method, shelf life, quality certification, net content, etc., to have a general understanding of it.Through this information, we can confirm whether there is the food we want under the various outer packaging, and avoid buying expired and expiring products.

Some foods will have claims such as 'high calcium', 'high protein', 'low fat', 'suitable for the elderly', 'suitable for infants', etc., showing their own characteristics in conspicuous location, we can also choose the product that suits you according to these tips.

It should be noted that these claims such as 'high, low, rich' only represent the comparison results of this product with general products of the same type, and are a relative concept. As a food, it does not have the effect of treating or preventing diseases. Everyone should be rational. choose.

2 Step 2: Accurate calculation, confident

The nutrient composition table can be said to be the most important information in the nutrition label. In order to clearly understand the nutritional content of the food, we need to calculate it according to the nutrient composition table of the food.

First of all, we can't talk about nutrition without dosage, and the step of confirming net content is essential.

Most products are marked with nutrient content in units of 100g or 100ml, but it should be noted that some foods define the weight of a food by themselves, and the corresponding table will also display the nutritional content of a food.

As shown below, this is the nutrition label of a certain brand of biscuits.The net content of each box is 90g, with a total of 12 pieces. The average weight of each biscuit is 90÷12=7.5g. The nutritional content table is marked as the corresponding content of each biscuit.

Let's take this cookie as an example to explain the calculation process.

calculation steps:

1. After confirming the nutritional content of a food, we can roughly imagine the amount of each serving, such as biscuits. It is expected to eat two pieces each time, which is two servings.Then, the amount ingested each time is the nutrient content of one serving of food shown on the label × 2 servings.

2. The nutritional content of each serving of biscuits (2 pieces):

Energy: 166kJ×2 =332kJ

Converted to the international unit of kcal, it is about 332kJ÷4=83kcal (1kJ≈4.184kcal)

Protein: 0.4g×2=0.8g

Fat: 2.1g×2=4.2g

Carbohydrates: 4.8g×2=9.6g

After calculation, the energy intake of each biscuit is 83kcal, 0.8g protein, 4.2g fat, and 9.6g carbohydrate.

What do these values ​​mean for our daily intake?

Here we need to pay attention to the NRV% on the right side of the nutrient composition table - the nutrient reference value of the food label.

The amount of energy and each nutrient per serving / the amount of each nutrient in food with a daily intake of 2000kcal × 100% = NRV%

Generally speaking, NRV%≤5% is low; 10%≤NRV%≤19% is high; NRV%≥20% is high.

3. The nutrient intake of each biscuits (2 pieces) accounts for the intake of the whole day (based on the amount of each nutrient that should be contained in a food of 2000kcal):

Energy: 2%×2=4%

Protein: 1%×2=2%

Fat: 4%×2=8%

Carbohydrates: 2%×2=4%

Sodium: 0%

After calculation, the intake of each cookie (2 pieces) accounts for 4% of the whole day's energy, 2% of protein, 8% of fat, 4% of carbohydrates, and 0% of sodium.

Based on the above calculations, if 2 pieces of the biscuits are eaten each time, the energy accounts for less than 5% of the daily intake, which is relatively low and has little impact on the energy intake throughout the day. It can be eaten as a snack, and the sodium content of the snack lower.

However, if the content of the fat proportion of the biscuits is relatively high, when the consumption is large, one should be alert to excessive energy intake and excessive fat intake.

3 Step 3: Pay attention to details and make the right decisions

To make the right decision, the following details cannot be ignored.

1. Many children have food allergies, we need to pay attention to the sign 'allergy information'.If the food contains foods that cause children allergies such as milk, seafood, nuts, eggs, wheat bran, etc., you should avoid purchasing.

2. The content of the ingredient list is also worth noting.Generally speaking, the order of appearance in the ingredient list is arranged according to the amount of ingredients from most to least.

In addition, attention should be paid to the use of some ingredients. Common ingredients that need to be vigilant are as follows:

Added sugar: There are many 'zero sucrose', 'sugar-free' foods in the market, but this does not necessarily mean that there is no added sugar, maltose, glucose, honey, high fructose syrup, concentrated fruit juice, etc. Still a source of sugar.

Trans-fatty acids: Trans-fatty acids are also a 'bad guy' that is harmful to health, so when we buy food, if trans-fatty acids appear in the ingredient list, we should avoid buying them.It should be noted that trans fatty acids also have 'camouflage', shortening, margarine, margarine, non-dairy creamer, hydrogenated vegetable oil, etc. are also ingredients containing trans fatty acids.

With the 'three-step' method, I believe that everyone has a clear understanding of nutrition labels. In the next big battle of food purchase, you can easily tear off the 'famous brand' of food nutrition labels, Bring home health and happiness!