Calories. The number of calories listed on a food label tells you how many calories are in one serving. It’s important to remember that even small packages often contain more than one serving.
Carbohydrate. A sugar or starch such as pasta, bread, fruits. vegetables, beans, or dairy that the body uses as its main energy source. Carbohydrates have 4 calories a gram.
Cholesterol. Vital for building hormones and cell membranes. Your body makes most of the cholesterol it needs. Cholesterol is listed under the fat information on a nutrition label.
Daily value. This shows the percentage of a certain nutrient in a food, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. The daily value gives you an idea of a food’s nutrient contribution to your diet; five percent or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low; 20% or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high.
Dietary fiber. The part of plant foods that we cannot digest. Whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds contain fiber. Fiber helps fill you up, can help lower cholesterol, and keeps you regular. You need at least 25 to 38 grams daily. To be considered high in fiber, a food must contain least 5 grams per serving.
Enriched. Enriched foods have nutrients added to them to replace those lost during food processing. B vitamins, for example, are lost when wheat is processed into white flour, so these nutrients are later added back.
Fortified. Fortified foods have nutrients added to them that weren’t there originally. Milk, for example, is fortified with vitamin D, a nutrient that helps you absorb milk’s calcium.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). A sweetener that is often used instead of sugar in food manufacturing.
Hydrogenation. Hydrogenation turns a liquid fat such as vegetable oil into a semi-solid, more shelf-stable fat, such as margarine. Most oils are only partially hydrogenated, which creates harmful trans fats that can raise cholesterol.
