Much like the Rosetta Stone helped decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, this guide will help you translate
the nutrition label into everyday English with information relevant to your health.
Since serving size may not reflect portion, calculate what you’re actually eating
Using the example of 2 full cracker sheets = 1 serving…Let’s say we actually eat 6 full cracker sheets. Three times as much, so we need to multiple everything on the label by 3 to calculate nutrient intake.
390 Calories within a 2,000 Calorie diet is about 20% of your daily Calories. 9 g fat is about 14%.
| Nutrient | 2 cracker sheets | # Servings | 6 cracker sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 130 kcal/td> | x3 | 390 kcal |
| Total fat | 3 g/td> | x3 | 9 g |
| Sodium | 135 mg/td> | x3 | 405 mg |
Trans fats are super sneaky
Turns out food processors only need to report trans fat if there’s more than 0.5 g per serving present. If 0.49 g is present, your label will read 0 g. (Don’t put it past manufacturers to make the serving size the “right” size to list 0 g on the label.) When we’re eating more than the recommended serving size, trans fats add up. Let’s assume we noticed hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils in the graham cracker ingredients list – secret code for trans fat! So, knowing hidden trans fats exist, a larger portion size will look like this:
| Nutrient | 2 cracker sheets | # Servings | 6 cracker sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trans fats | 0 g | x3 | 1.5 g |
See what they did there? You just unknowingly ate 1.5 g of health-harming trans fats
The sweet stuff is not so sweet
Sugar is another tricky ingredient. Food manufacturers include a lot of sugar in products but don’t want you to know about it. The American Heart Association recommends women consume less than 25 g and men, less than 35 g daily. How much are you actually consuming?
| Nutrient | 2 cracker sheets | # Servings | 6 cracker sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 8 g | x3 | 24 g |
4 g sugar = 1 tsp
24 g / 4 g/tsp = 6 tsp
By eating more graham crackers, not only did you just eat an entire day’s worth of sugar if you’re a woman, but you’ve had the equivalent of 6 tsp of sugar. Glancing at the package wouldn’t tell you that.
© Purpose Inc., The School of Applied Functional MedicineTM
