The Rosetta Stone for Packaged Food Labels

Since serving size may not reflect portion, calculate what you’re actually eating

Using the example of 2 full cracker sheets = 1 serving…Let’s say we actually eat 6 full cracker sheets. Three times as much, so we need to multiple everything on the label by 3 to calculate nutrient intake.

390 Calories within a 2,000 Calorie diet is about 20% of your daily Calories. 9 g fat is about 14%.

Trans fats are super sneaky

Turns out food processors only need to report trans fat if there’s more than 0.5 g per serving present. If 0.49 g is present, your label will read 0 g. (Don’t put it past manufacturers to make the serving size the “right” size to list 0 g on the label.) When we’re eating more than the recommended serving size, trans fats add up. Let’s assume we noticed hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in the graham cracker ingredients list – secret code for trans fat! So, knowing hidden trans fats exist, a larger portion size will look like this:

See what they did there? You just unknowingly ate 1.5 g of health-harming trans fats

The sweet stuff is not so sweet

Sugar is another tricky ingredient. Food manufacturers include a lot of sugar in products but don’t want you to know about it. The American Heart Association recommends women consume less than 25 g and men, less than 35 g daily. How much are you actually consuming?