Health Essentials: Notes on Food Descriptors and Nutritional Values

We wanted to dedicate sometime in this topic. When you hear that something is free in some food item, would you always say it is completely free? Well, that is not necessarily true. And do you know what companies refer to as high fiber or reduced? Well, it’s fine if you don’t because it can get very confusing.

The following are the descriptions and their references:
· Free refers to at least 5kcals or 5mg less of quantity (i.e. Fat, Sugar, and etc)
· Low per serving:  Caloric refers to less than 40kcals; fat is less than 3 grams; low cholesterol is less than 20 mg; sodium is less than 120 mg.
· Reduced is 25% less than a referenced product; Light can mean half the fat, 1/3 less calories, lower sodium content, or a lighter appearance in a property (i.e. color).
· Lean refers to 10g or less of fat of which 4.5g or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 mg of cholesterol; Extra lean refers to 5 g or less of fat of which 2 g or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 mg of cholesterol.
· Good Source refers to 10-19% of some daily recommended value; High refers to 20% or more of some daily recommended value; Extra refers to greater than a 10% excess of some daily recommended value; High Fiber refers to 5g or more per serving.