COMMON NUTRITION LABEL TRICKS TO AVOID.

①         Ignoring serving sizes: Some containers contain more than one serving so be sure about the number of servings per container and multiply the number of calories per servings by the number of servings you had.

②         Confusing the terms "reduced" with  "low": This two words do not mean the same thing. A food with that says "reduced" simply means it contains at least 25 percent less of something. e.g reduced sugar means 25 percent less than the original version. It doesn't mean low sugar. And sometimes, reduced isn't really a good thing. Reduced may contain typically the same number of calories.

③         Trusting words like "zero" and "free": Labeling laws allow foods with less than 0.5 grams of transfat to be labelled transfat free or say zero grams but if a food contains 0.4 grams and you eat 10 servings of it over the week, you actually consume 4 grams of transfat, not zero. The only surefire way to tell if a food contains transfat is to read the ingredient list. If you see the words 'partially hydrogenated', it's in there. The same thing applies for sugar free. One common brand of sugar free cookies contains like 140 calories, 10 grams of fat and 19 grams of carbohydrates per serving. Even without the sugar, there are no beneficial nutrients and if your body can't burn or use the calories, they'll go straight to your fat cells.

④         Misunderstanding percentages: It is easy to get confused here, for example, two percent on milk. Many people think that means the milk is 98 percent fat free, but it actually means that two percent of the weight of the milk is fat. Whole milk is generally four percent fat by weight so while two percent is reduced, its not low.. In fact, about 30 percent of the calories in a cup of two percent milk comes from fat and  its the same for two percent yoghurt.

⑤         Not reading the ingredient list: In my opinion, the most important information on a label is the ingredient list because it is the only way to judge the quality of a food and find out what it is made of. Even organic foods may be highly processed. If the ingredient list reads like a recipe and the package only contains wholesome ingredients you could use to make the product in your own kitchen, its a good bet but if you don't recognize or can't pronounce the ingredients, think twice before adding it to your shopping cart.