How To Understand Nutrition Labels
What Are Nutrition Labels?
Nutrition labels are used to provide the consumer with information about the food. It will include the serving size, calories, and nutrient information. Then underneath the nutritional label will be the % Daily Value and gives the number of calories that the serving size, calories, and nutrient information are based on. Most foods use a daily diet based on 2,000 calories. Besides calories, nutrition labels use grams and milligrams as a measurement. Let’s break down what a nutrition label is made of.
Serving Size
The serving size will give the nutrition information and calories based on one serving size. Be aware that most food will have more than one serving. As the FDA notes, it is not a recommendation of how much you should eat or drink.
For example, if you buy our Peanut Butter Coconut 12 Pack you get 12 bars, and each bar is one serving. So in total, there are 12 servings in the pack.
Calories
Calories are the measurement of how much energy you get from a serving of food. As we mentioned earlier, a general guide for nutrition is 2,000 calories a day. But your caloric needs can be higher or lower depending on your age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity.
For example, one Chocolate Chip Cookie bar is 190 calories.
Nutrients
The nutrients in the nutrient label will tell consumers how much fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins the product has. And under some of those labels, they can be further expanded. For example, fat can be broken down into saturated and trans fat. Carbohydrates include fiber, sugar, and added sugar.
If we’re continuing with the example of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar, then the nutrients are:
- 8g of total fat, 1.5 g of saturated fat
- 0 mg of cholesterol
- 240 mg of sodium
- 24g of carbohydrates, 12 g of fiber, 11 grams of total sugar, and 0 grams of added sugar
- 12 g of protein
Nutrients like saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars are linked to health conditions like cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, weight gain, etc. Foods containing a lot of these nutrients should be avoided as they can lead to health problems.
Nutrients like fiber, vitamin D, calcium, iron, and potassium should be consumed often. Consuming all these nutrients leads to good health benefits like lower blood and cholesterol levels, reduced calorie intake, and can reduce health risks.
Percent Daily Value
The Percent Daily Value is the percentage of the Daily Value for each nutrient in a serving. This percentage also shows how many nutrients in the food contributed to a daily diet. It’s important to note that % DV does not add up to 100%. It tells you if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient. Nutrients under 5% DV are low while nutrients 20% or more are considered high.
If you’re looking at our Morning Grind Coffee Bar % Daily Value, we are high in nutrients like fiber, protein, Vitamin D, and zinc.
Why VitaminBars?
We were so frustrated by how much the food industry scams people into thinking they’re eating something healthy. But in reality, they’re not and they don’t know what they’re eating! And that’s why we started VitaminBar!
We created a nutrient-enhanced protein bar with the vitamins and minerals your body needs to perform. We know how important vitamins are to the body, and it’s why our bars are packed with the best ingredients. Our ingredients include powerhouse superfoods, key vitamin extracts, and all-natural ingredients. Shop all the flavors here!