Hi, I'm Barb Mahlmeister. I'm a registered dietitian here in Tampa, Florida. One of the most confusing things when people want to start to clean up their diet is I don't understand the food labels; how on Earth do you read them? The front of the package never, never makes sense and coordinates with the back end of the package where the food label is. And, it is one of the most confusing things that you can possibly do, when you're in the grocery store, is get stuck on food labels. One of the things you want to make sure you understand is that the food labels are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. There are very few people who need a 2,000 calorie diet. Most women need about 1,200 to 1,300 calories. So, if you are comparing yourself to the percentages that's on the box, you're going to be way over. Also, too, you want to sit with a registered dietitian to go over to see how many calories you do need that will be based on your weight and your exercise goals. On this particular food label, we have 480 milligrams of sodium, but this is for one serving. When you heat this up, this is actually two servings. So, you're going to be having over just about 1,000 calories of milligrams, 1,000 milligrams of sodium per complete package. That's very important to look at. Also, the fat on this package is 14 grams per serving. Well, I don't know anyone who is just going to have half of this. So, you're going to have, you're going to have the whole complete package here. So, that's going to be 28 grams of fat. It is very important that you look at the portion sizes, as well as the milligrams on the label, even, for instance, soups; many of the soups will be about, approximately, 500 milligrams of sodium, but that's for half a can. I don't know anyone who has a half a can of soup. So, you're going to have the whole can. Having said that, the milligrams of sodium that you should intake for the day are 1,500. That is 1.5 grams. If you have this for lunch and soup for dinner, you are already over your sodium intake. For further information on how to read food labels, please visit my website at naturalchoicenutrition.com.
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