Grocery store guide
How to read a nutrition label
Every packaged food carries the same panel, laid out the same way. Learn six lines and you can size up any product on the shelf in about twenty seconds.
Read the label in this order
Turn the package over and work down these six lines.
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1
Serving size
Every number is for one serving. How much you eat comes from your macros.
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2
Protein
Grams per serving. Compare it to the calories.
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3
Total carbs
The number you log. Fiber and sugars are already inside it.
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4
Added sugars
Sugar put in during processing.
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5
Total fat
9 calories per gram, more than double protein or carbs.
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6
Ingredients
Listed from most to least by weight.
Tap any line to see what it means
This is a practice label for a bag of protein granola. Change the serving buttons to watch every number move when you eat more than one serving.
Showing 1 serving, which is 2/3 cup.
Tap a line on the label
Nutrition Facts
* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Practice label. The product and its numbers are made up for teaching.
Serving size
Everything below this line describes one serving. The size is set by what people typically eat in one sitting. It makes no claim about how much you should eat.
Compare the serving to what will really go in your bowl. This bag holds 4 servings, so eating half the bag doubles every number on the panel. Weigh a serving in grams once and you will know what it looks like.
The serving size is a unit for doing the math. Your portion is whatever your macros call for, which could be half a serving or three. This matters most with whole foods like rice, oats, chicken, and potatoes. Weigh out the amount your plan needs and scale the label numbers to match.
Calories
The total energy in one serving, with protein, carbs, and fat all counted together.
Protein and carbs carry 4 calories per gram. Fat carries 9. One serving of this granola gets 40 calories from protein, 128 from carbs, and 81 from fat. That tells you this is mostly a carb food with some protein added.
% Daily Value
The percent column shows how far one serving goes toward a daily reference amount. The reference is built on a 2,000 calorie day, which is a general yardstick. Your own targets come from your plan.
Use it as a quick gauge. 5% or less is low. 20% or more is high. It works best for comparing two products side by side.
While this line is open, the label shades every low and high percent. Switch to the whole bag to watch them change.
Low, 5% or less High, 20% or moreTotal fat
All the fat in one serving. Saturated fat and trans fat are listed underneath and are already counted inside the total.
Log the total fat number. The FDA lists saturated fat as a nutrient to get less of, so when two products are close on total fat, compare them on the saturated line.
Cholesterol
Measured in milligrams. It shows up in animal foods such as eggs, meat, and dairy, which is why this granola shows 0.
You can skip this line when you are counting protein, carbs, and fat. If your doctor has asked you to watch cholesterol, this is where to find it.
Sodium
The salt content in milligrams. Canned foods, sauces, deli meat, and frozen meals tend to run the highest.
Read the percent on the right. The daily value is 2,300 mg, so the 180 mg in one serving here comes to 8%. 5% or less is low and 20% or more is high.
Total carbohydrate
Starch, fiber, and sugar added together for one serving.
This is your carb number. The indented lines beneath it break the total into parts. They are already included, so adding them on top counts them twice.
Dietary fiber
The part of the carbs your body does not fully digest. It is counted inside total carbohydrate.
The FDA lists fiber as a nutrient to get more of. The daily value is 28 g, so the 4 g in one serving here is 14%. When two similar products are close, the one with more fiber is usually the better pick.
Total sugars
All the sugar in one serving, natural and added together. Milk and fruit contain sugar on their own, so this line can sit above zero with nothing added.
Total sugars has no daily value, which is why the percent column is blank. Read this line together with the added sugars line below it.
Added sugars
Sugar, syrup, or honey put in during processing. The word Includes means these grams are part of the total sugars above.
In one serving of this granola, 9 of the 11 grams of sugar were added. The daily value is 50 g, which makes that 18%. Flavored yogurt, granola, sauces, and drinks vary the most from brand to brand, so compare them on this line.
Protein
Grams of protein in one serving. The gram number treats every protein the same, whatever the source.
Log the grams. A percent has to appear here whenever the package makes a protein claim, and that percent is adjusted for protein quality. 10 g at full quality would show 20%. This label shows 14%, which tells you some of the protein scores lower. The fine print section explains why.
Vitamins and minerals
Vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium are the four every label has to list, with the amount and the percent of the daily value.
Handy when you compare similar foods. 20% or more counts as high.
Ingredients
Everything in the food, in order by weight. The first ingredient is what the product contains the most of.
Find the protein source and the sweeteners. This granola gets its protein from soy protein isolate and collagen peptides. Sugar appears twice, once as cane sugar and once as honey. Short lists made of foods you recognize are the easiest to judge.
Three rules that make the numbers useful
Calories per gram
Each macro carries a set number of calories per gram. Multiply the grams on the label and you can see where the calories come from.
Low and high percents
The percent column on the right side of the label tells you at a glance whether one serving is low or high in a nutrient.
Zero can mean almost zero
Small amounts are allowed to round down to zero. Cooking spray lists a serving so small that the oil rounds down to nothing. Use several servings and the numbers are real.
What the front of the package is allowed to say
The front is written to sell. Some of its words have a legal meaning and some have none.
High protein, excellent source of protein
One serving has 20% or more of the daily value. For protein that is 10 g after the quality adjustment.
Good source of protein
One serving has 10% to 19% of the daily value, which is 5 g to 9.5 g after the quality adjustment.
Sugar free
Less than 0.5 g of sugar per serving. The product can still have calories and carbs.
No added sugar
Nothing containing sugar was added during processing. Natural sugar can still be there, so check total sugars. Fruit juice is the classic example.
Fat free, low fat
Fat free means less than 0.5 g of fat per serving. Low fat means 3 g or less.
Low sodium
140 mg or less per serving.
Reduced, less
At least 25% less than the regular version of that product. A reduced version of a very high number can still be high.
Net carbs No FDA definition
Each brand does its own math, usually total carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols. Log the total carbohydrate line from the panel unless your coach tells you otherwise.
Natural No formal definition
The FDA has never formally defined it. The word says nothing about calories, sugar, or protein.
Claim amounts are measured against a standard reference serving set by the FDA, which usually matches the serving size on the panel.
Two things the label leaves out
Labels are allowed to be off by 20%
FDA rules give manufacturers a margin, so every printed number is a close estimate.
Weigh whole foods yourself. Stick with the same packaged foods week to week so any error stays steady.
Protein, vitamins, and minerals added to fortify a food have to meet the full printed amount.
Protein grams and usable protein are two different numbers
The gram line counts every protein the same. Quality is scored on how well a protein digests and whether it has all the essential amino acids.
Check the percent next to protein. Then read the ingredients for the protein source.
Collagen is missing tryptophan, one of the essential amino acids. The score is called PDCAAS.
Five quick checks before you shop
Each one takes a few seconds. Scroll back up to the practice label whenever you need it.
You eat half the bag of the practice granola. Pick the protein you got.
Half the bag is 2 servings and each serving has 10 g, so you got 20 g.
Yogurt A lists 7 g total sugars and 0 g added. Yogurt B lists 15 g total sugars, including 9 g added. Pick the one that had sugar put in during processing.
Yogurt A's 7 g is the natural sugar in milk. Yogurt B had 9 g added on top.
A cereal shows 4% daily value for fiber. Pick how that reads.
5% or less is low. 20% or more is high.
A cooking spray lists 0 calories and 0 g fat. The first ingredient is oil. Pick the explanation.
Under half a gram of fat and under 5 calories per serving can both be printed as 0. A longer spray is several servings.
A bar says 20 g protein on the front. On the panel, the percent next to protein is 12%. Pick what that tells you.
At full quality 20 g would show 40%. A percent that low means the protein scored poorly, so check the ingredients for collagen or gelatin.
The scan, one more time
Save this page to your home screen and run the list on the next package you pick up. After a few trips it takes seconds.
- 1Serving size and servings per package, then your own portion
- 2Protein grams
- 3Total carbs
- 4Added sugars
- 5Total fat
- 6The first three ingredients
Your plan sets your targets. If a product leaves you unsure, ask your coach before it goes in the cart.
Where these rules come from
- FDA, How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label
- FDA, Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels
- 21 CFR 101.9, nutrition labeling of food (label accuracy, rounding, protein quality)
- 21 CFR 101 Subpart D, nutrient content claims (high, good source, free, low, reduced)
- FDA, Use of the Term Natural on Food Labeling
- Paul, Leser, and Oesser, Nutrients 2019 (collagen protein quality score)