Understanding Nutrition Food Labels

Series Summary

They say you are what you eat, so don't you think you should now exactly what goes into your body when you sit down to a meal? If you would pay more attention to the nutritional labels of the products you buy at the grocery store, you could plan your diet down to the last calorie. Or could you? Such labels can be deceiving unless you have a professional dietitian to interpret them for you. And that is exactly the service Expert Village provides in this free series of healthy eating videos.

Registered Dietitian Brenda Thompson explains food labels to you and gives you tips on how to incorporate them into your diet. Ever wonder who regulates food claims? What is the healthiest food serving size? Brenda shares the answers to these and many more questions, and gives you tips on how to manage your carbohydrate intake. She also tells you how to make sure sure you have enough vitamins A, C, calcium, sodium, iron in your diet.

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Brenda Thompson, Registered Dietitian and professional chef. I'm the owner of Life Skills Nutrition. Today, in this segment, I am going to talk about how to read and understand food labels and nutrition claims. It is important for people to understand how to read a food label because there is so much information about nutrition on foods that we eat on the nutrition food level. I do want to advise you before you make any dietary changes, you do want to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian, or both. These tips are only provided to give you information. It is not to substitute a consultation with your doctor or a registered dietitian. These claims are...The nutritional information on a nutrition label is very helpful when you are trying to lose weight or just trying to be a healthy individual, wanting to control your diabetes or wanting to control heart disease. It's also very important if you want to try to prevent any diseases such as cancer. And then also, if you want to increase the nutrition value in your child's life, it's great to get very familiar with reading a food label. I am the owner of Life Skills Nutrition. I do provide over-the-phone nutritional consultations and you can find more information about that on my website. "