Main->Readings->4th Grade Readings->Table of Contents->Part 4: The Food Label
Vocabulary |
If you live in the United States, it is very easy to find out about the food you eat. Most foods must have certain facts on the package. In fact, there is so much information sometimes it is hard to make sense of it all! In this section, we will look at the Food Label closely so you will know how to find the facts you need.
Remember in the last section, the Food Pyramid talked about serving size. A food label must tell the serving size. Perhaps you normally eat a cup of ice cream, but the serving size on the label is one-half cup. Then whenever you have ice cream, you are getting twice as much of every nutrient on the label.
In the part of the label below, it says this macaroni and cheese has a serving size of one cup.
The next thing on the label is the amount of calories. Remember that calories tell how much food energy there is in something. In the label below, this product has 250 calories per serving. If you must eat 2200 calories a day, how many servings of this macaroni and cheese could you eat if that is all you ate?
This part of the label also tells how many calories are from fat. Fat is very high in calories. A school-age kid should not eat more than about 660 calories of fat in a day. The macaroni and cheese has 110 fat calories per serving. How many servings of this macaroni and cheese could you eat in one day if you did not want to eat too much fat?
You can see that the numbers are different.
The next section gives some more details. In the section below, the label tells you exactly how much the fat in your macaroni and cheese weighs and how much of that weight is something called saturated fat, which is worse for you than other fats.
It also lists cholesterol. Cholesterol is a soft waxy material which is normally in your body and is found in many foods (though not fruits and vegetables). You need some cholesterol, but not too much. It also lists sodium, a mineral which is found in salt and other foods. Fat, cholesterol, and sodium are all nutrients that can have bad health effects. They can help cause heart disease, cancer, and high blood pressure. The label also tells you how much of your day's allowance of these things is in your food. There is 470 mg of sodium in this macaroni and cheese (probably mostly as salt). This is about 20%, or one fifth, of the amount you should have in one day.
About how many servings of macaroni and cheese would you eat in one day if you wanted to watch out for too much sodium? Again, the numbers are different.
So far, the label talked about things you should limit: You should not eat too many calories, and you should be careful not to eat too much fat or sodium.
Now it talks about things that are not so bad. Above, it says there are about 31 grams of carbohydrate in a serving. A school-age kid should probably be getting around 340 in a day. How many servings would it take? Hmmm...Even worse, it says it there is no fiber. Remember fiber helps your digestion. You couldn't eat enough servings of macaroni and cheese in a day, even if you ate a hundred. A hundred times zero is still zero.
The government does not suggest exactly how much sugar you should eat (this includes things like fruit sugars), or how much protein. Most people get plenty of both. Therefore, the label does not give percentages (%) for these two.
There are four more things that must be listed on the label. These are two vitamins (A and C) and two minerals (calcium and iron). You can see that these are given in percentages. 4% is 4/100 of the amount a person should get in one day. So there is not much Vitamin A in this food. There is even less Vitamin C (which is more often found in fruits and vegetables). Because there is cheese in this food, and cheese is high in calcium, you could get 20%, or 1/5th, of your calcium from a serving of macaroni and cheese, but not very much iron.
Down at the bottom of the label, if there is room, there is more information. Remember this label is based on a 2,000 calorie diet. But if you are large, or you exercise a lot, or even if you are young instead of older, or male instead of female, you may need more calories. The part of the label shown below gives how much of each nutrient a person would get if the daily calorie allowance was 2,500.
There is so much information on this label, it is almost too much. But if you know what to look for, you don't have to read it the way you did in this section, line by line. Look for the big percentages and the small percentages. If a nutrient listed is 10% or less, that is very little. If it gives 50%, that is half. If it gives closer to 100% of a nutrient, that is a lot.
You do not have to read the food label for everything you eat. But if there is something you eat often, take a look at the food label. You might be surprised at what you find.
Now you know a great deal about how the human digestive system works, and what kinds of foods you should eat. Do you have to think about it every day? No. If you eat fresh foods, try to eat different things every day, and do not eat a lot of fats and sweets, you will be healthy.
Questions: For your first assignment of the week, answer these questions in complete sentences on a sheet of loose-leaf paper, with a proper header:
Notes: For your second assignment of the week, in your journal on the next clean page, write the vocabulary words from this section and their definitions.
Return to Table of Contents
Go on to Unit Review
This page last modified August 15, 2002
Copyright ©2000 Delia Marshall Turner. All rights reserved.
Questions? Send me a note at dturner@haverford.org