We all know that healthy eating is one of the keys to a great lifestyle. When trying to understand all of the information out there, it can get confusing. I want you to understand how to properly read and understand food labels so that you can start branching out and making your own smarter diet decisions about what you should really be eating.

Food and beverage packaging

Food and beverage packaging can tell a lot of stories. There are many psychological tricks that companies use in order to get you to buy their products. For example, they might use words like “healthy” or “natural” or use color theory to make you think the product is a good choice - they really hope you don’t look at the label.

If you want to make smarter decisions with your food then you need to look past just the packaging and actually check the food labels. It’ll show you things such as portion sizes in relation to any claims that there is less fat or fewer calories, and it’ll also help you understand how much is actually inside of the packaging.

You can click here to learn more if you’re interested in how food and beverage packaging works. In short, food packaging often gives us hints on what the brand is focused on, who they’re interested in, and if you’re getting a good deal or not.

Understanding nutrients on the label

When you look at a label, you’re going to find nutrient facts such as how many calories there are. Most people simply look at calories because it’s the biggest number (font wise) and it’s the term that they’re most familiar with. However, if you look at just the calories and neglect the other nutritional stats, then you might be making a poor food decision.

Instead of just looking at calories, also look at the rest of the nutritional information. If something is high in calories but offers little nutrition, like protein, then there’s really not much point in eating that food if you can avoid it. There are probably much better options for food o help you get more energy and improve certain body functions. Learn about nutrients so you know exactly what each one does, and this will help you make better decisions when buying food and ingredients from the market.

Serving sizes

The last thing I’ll mention is serving sizes. This is probably going to the biggest shock for you on the label. Many packages state things like how many calories something is or how they have less sugar, but it’s important to see just how big a serving is and how many calories are in that serving. Your actual portions might not be matching the serving! For instance, if a bag of chips says it’s only 120 calories, then it might be tempting to dig in. However, the food label might actually say that there are four servings in the pack, meaning that it’s a total of 480 calories!

It’s important to understand small things like this so you have a better understanding of what you’re eating.