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 Health & Beauty | May 2007 
Managing Diabetes and Nutrition: Understanding Food Labels
 Ann-Marie Stephens - ImTypeFree.com
Food labels are an important aid for a person with diabetes, or for those trying to prevent the onset of the disease. Food labels appear daunting because the table is small with a lot of numbers with percentages and very close lines. Here is an attempt to simplify how one goes about reading the label and making decisions from it.
To begin practicing more balanced eating, you can gain a lot of help from the food labels on most packaging. Read the labels as you shop. Note the serving size and servings per container. Compare the total calories in similar products and choose the lowest calorie items.
We will start with the top line and go through a single line at a time. Do not scan the label, you must read it. The nutrition facts start with the serving size. This is the amount of food in one serving or one portion. This is the first clue to help us understand where we might overeat.
Get this - one serving of olives stuffed with jalapenos = 1.5! Who can eat 1.5 olives? Get real! Roughly a handful of almonds (that is about 10 for the average person) is one serving. It has taken me years to get down to that amount to be satisfied. We are used to chowing these things down!
But this is where that can all stop. You still get to enjoy the foods you love, but check out the nutrition label and try to get down to one serving. It can really help with blood glucose and weight management.
Do note that all of the information on the food label is for one serving. If you eat more or less than one serving as recommended on the package, you will need to adjust the corresponding numbers accordingly (up or down) to make them accurate. The number of servings is listed next to the Servings per Container on the food label. Also know that most food packages contain more than one serving.
Calories - A measure of how much energy a food provides a person. The food label shows the number of total calories and how many calories come from fat for one serving.
Total Fat - One fat serving is about 5 grams (g). Most people need about 50-65 grams (g) of fat a day. One teaspoon of butter or oil has about 5 grams (g) of fat. Limit saturated fat to less than 7% of your total daily calories. Eliminate foods with Trans fat from your diet, studies have shown that Trans fat can raise LDL (lousy or bad cholesterol) which is associated with heart disease. Some examples of foods with Trans fat include vegetable shortenings (lard,) stick margarine, commercially baked foods, such as pastries, donuts, cookies and deep fried foods and snacks.
Cholesterol - A low-cholesterol food has 20 milligrams (mg) or less of cholesterol per serving. Try to eat less than 300 mg of cholesterol each day. Less than 200 mg is recommended for people with diabetes or high cholesterol. A "quarter pound" hamburger has about 70 mg of cholesterol.
Sodium - Choose foods that have less than 400 milligrams (mg) of sodium per serving. Most people need 2,400 mg or less of sodium each day. One teaspoon of salt has 2300 mg of sodium.
Total Carbohydrates - Includes dietary fiber, sugar and sugar alcohols. A carbohydrate serving is about 15 grams (g). Most people need about 300 g of carbohydrate each day. Get your carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and low-fat milk. A slice of store bought bread (1 ounce) has about 15 grams (g) of carbohydrate.
Fiber - Choose foods that have 3 or more grams (g) of fiber per serving. Most people need about 25 - 35 g of fiber each day.
Protein - Most people need about 50 - 80 grams (g) of protein each day. Try to eat 2 or more servings of fish each week (not fried). One ounce of meat has about 7 grams (g) of protein.
Ingredients - The things that are contained in the food product. The first ingredient is always the main ingredient and the rest follow in decreasing amounts. For grain foods like bread, tortillas, and cereals, choose foods made with whole grains (like whole wheat or oats.) Try to avoid foods that start the ingredient list with sugar, this includes words such as sucrose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, maple syrup, and fructose. These are all caloric sweeteners and contribute few, if any, nutrients and only create more problems for your body.
In summary, if you are diabetic or trying to prevent diabetes, the nutrition food label is your friend. Take the time to walk through it, line by line, and become comfortable using it for everything you buy where the label exists.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are the most obvious categories where the label mostly does not exist. Sometimes if the product is pre-packaged you might find a label. The good news is that it is hard to go wrong with fresh fruits and vegetables. The biggest loss is in understanding what a recommended serving size is. I sometimes eat too much fruit, and for a diabetic it is important to keep track of the sugar contribution of these fresh foods.
For everything else though that is purchased to eat from the supermarket, stop, stare at the food label and start at the top. What is the serving size? How many servings in this package (and so on)? Compare it to other brands and use the above guidelines and make your decision. After some practice, this will become second nature and you will do it automatically (embarrassingly, even at other people's houses!)
So use the food label to:
• Learn how much of a food is a serving (portion)
• Learn what is in the food
• Choose food and drinks that best fit your meal plan
A registered dietitian can also help you learn how to use food labels as well as a certified diabetes educator. Just remember, nutrition food labels are your friend.
Ann-Marie Stephens is one of the co-founders of www.ImTypeFree.com, an informative website that provides helpful information about effectively controlling blood sugar, and managing diabetes complications. |
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