How to Read a Nutrition Label

Here I explain food labels and what to look for so you can make more informed decisions.

Food Packaging Claims

These phrases mean nothing on food packaging:

• “All Natural”;

• “no artificial ingredients”;

• “light-tasting”;

• “a nutritious source of fiber”;

• “made with real fruit”;

• “part of a healthy breakfast”;

• “Healthy Choice”;

• “Lean Cuisine”; etc.

The more a product is trying to convince you it’s healthy or that you should buy it, the more suspicious you should be. Just because a product says “all natural” doesn’t mean it’s good for you. Labeling vegetable-based ingredients “cholesterol-free” or sugary candies “fat-free” is a marketing scam because these things never had cholesterol or fat in the first place. Real food does not have to convince you it’s nutritious. There aren’t ads for vegetables.

The American Heart Association claims that Honey Nut Cheerios are healthier for you than organic pasture-raised eggs. Let's read the ingredients.

Does that sound heart-healthy to you? Well, it has 3 different forms of sugar and unhealthy omega-6 oils (they don't even know if it's rice bran oil or canola oil because it's so processed). Unfortunately, government organizations that are supposed to protect us are actually working for the unhealthy food companies! These "health" organizations promote a lie that eggs are unhealthy, but in fact they're one of the healthiest foods on this planet. Just look at all they contain:

Multiple studies as far back as the 1970s and as recent as 2024 have shown that eating 24-35 eggs per day does not raise blood cholesterol and it now appears that cholesterol is the fireman, not the fire as previously thought. Unfortunately, if you ask the average medical doctor, they'll say eggs are bad for you because they have cholesterol, which is an essential nutrient, while simultaneously ignoring the multifarious essential nutrients eggs contain. The average medical student receives only 19 hours of nutrition education over 4 years, so they're far from nutrition experts [Source].

If a food says “heart-healthy” and this appeals to you… turn the package over and check out the ingredients. Does the ingredient list match the “heart-healthy” claim?

Should I Eat This?

Nutrition labels are full of a bunch of mumbo jumbo, and many folks don’t find nutrition labels all that useful or informative. All they really want to know is: Should I eat this or not?

Calories vs Nutrients

Calories are energy, and to figure out how much energy a give food has, we burn foods in a bomb calorimeter. Yet our body doesn’t incinerate food, it digests it. Researchers have discovered that food labels can be off by 100-300 calories. Not only this, but when you combine different foods it can affect digestion and the amount of calories you absorb. Thus, what you see on a nutrition label may not be accurate.

One hundred calories of broccoli is much different than 100 calories of pizza because of the nutrients they contain. The more natural, whole, or unprocessed a food is, the more essential vitamins and minerals it contains. Through processing in factories, foods are stripped of these beneficial micronutrients, which leaves our bodies full of calories but deficient in nutrients. This is why you can eat a lot of highly processed foods and still be hungry. If a food is highly processed and claims to be low calorie, it does not mean that those calories will promote a healthy body, and in fact that low calorie food might increase your cravings and hunger because of the lack nutrients.

It is important to realize that most of the serving sizes listed do not accurately represent the amount that is commonly consumed. People often also don’t take serving size into account. For example, most ice creams are listed at ½ cup serving size, but if you have ever measured out ½ cup of ice cream you will quickly realize you fill your bowl with much more than that. Start reading a nutrition label by looking at the serving size and calorie content.

Fat, Carbohydrate, Protein

To keep it simple, when looking at the nutrient section just look at the amount of Total Fat, Total Carbohydrate, and Protein to see what this food is primarily made of. In the example below, you can see this food is mostly carbohydrate (34g) with a good amount of protein (15g) and fat (9g). That's all you need to look at for this nutrient section.

Ingredients

The ingredient list is really what matters because it tells us what a food is made of. When looking at ingredients, look for short lists of things you recognize. For instance, on a container of oatmeal you should see one ingredient: oats.

If you're looking at a product and you can't pronounce the ingredients in a product – there is a good chance you may not want to put it in your body.

The two labels above are also oats, but if you look at the ingredients you'll see there's a lot more than just oats. Specifically, there is added sugar, which causes metabolic diseases like Diabetes and Alzheimer's. With 9 grams and 11 grams of added sugar, eating these processed oats is like eating regular oats with about 3 sugar packets per serving. You know the sugar packets you put in coffee? Those have 3-4 grams of sugar each, so if you see something has 9 grams of added sugar per serving that means it has 3 added sugar packets.

There are lots of food substances that are technically sugar, but that don’t get labeled as such. A manufacturer could put other non-table-sugar substances into a food and label it “low-sugar” or no sugar included, but that’s a technical lie. Here are ingredients that are similar to sugar with different names: Sucrose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Glucose, Fructose, Maltose, Lactose, Corn Syrup, Cane Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey, Maple Syrup, Agave Nectar, Molasses, Stevia, Aspartame, Sucralose, Saccharin, Acesulfame Potassium, Maltodextrin, Fruit Juice Concentrate, dried fruit.

Another example of what to avoid is omega-6 oils because these promote inflammation when consumed in excess. For example, on the potato chip bag above, you can see the second ingredient is vegetable oil (they don't even know which oil was used because it's so processed!). Try to avoid vegetable oils: Soybean oil, Corn oil, Sunflower oil, Safflower oil, Cottonseed oil, Grapeseed oil. Learn more about oils here.

Instead, focus on healthier oils with more omega-3 and less omega-6: Olive oil, Avocado oil. For example, in the above nutrition label you can see these chips contain potatoes, avocado, and sea salt, which are all good ingredients.

The Good Stuff

So now that we know what to look out for, sugar and seed oils, we can now open our eyes to what we want to see. Fats, carbs and protein are all good when they come from unprocessed sources.

Protein is essential, and we want to have a serving of protein at each meal. For a small woman that might be around 20 grams per meal. For a large male that might be around 50 grams per meal. The amount you need depends on your size and activity. To learn more about your body's requirements, complete this calorie calculator.

After protein, the most important nutrient is healthy omega-3 fats. The best sources are fatty fish, grass-fed beef and dairy, eggs, and some nuts/seeds: Salmon, Mackerel, Sardines, Anchovies, Herring, Trout, Oysters, Mussels, Grass-fed beef and dairy, Eggs, Flaxseeds, Chia seeds, Hemp seeds, Walnuts, Edamame.

Carbohydrates are healthy when unprocessed: oats, rice, quinoa, couscous, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables. These options are nutrient dense and will fuel your body for good when consumed in the right amount.

Conclusion & Summary

Nutrition labels often aren't very accurate because of how we calculate calorie content. Make sure to look for serving size when calculating calorie content as the label might have a much smaller serving size than expected. Avoid added sugars and vegetable oils. Avoid ingredient lists that are very long and contain words you can't pronounce.

Look for unprocessed protein, fats, and carbs. Ideally, most of the foods we eat are raw, natural, and unprocessed, and thus they don't have nutrition labels to begin with!

If you have questions, leave a comment below or send me a message. If you want help developing your own nutrition plan, schedule a fitness consultation to work with me directly. Hope this helps! - Tom