First of all, to show you a set of charts, which is often eaten by many people, "Ritz chips" of the nutritional composition table.
Similar tables, we go to the supermarket shopping often can see, after all, as the country's mandatory regulations, as long as it is not three food, in the packaging will have a place in the nutritional composition table. But despite this, I believe that most students in the see this table, the heart will still be this feeling:
Below, we are from the energy and the three major energy-producing elements, nutrient reference values, unit grams of weight, sodium and other nutrients from four perspectives to analyze the table, to help you decode the nutritional composition of the hidden secrets of the table.
I. Energy and the three major energy producing elements.
Remember when this nutritional composition table was sent to the group, a student was particularly frightened to find me private chat, said Mike, I will never eat potato chips again. Potato chips calories are too high, 100g is a little more than a packet of the amount, but there are 2101 calories! I follow the recipe to eat a day only eat to 1200 ah ........
I don't know if you are reading this article have the same question. In the table of nutrient composition, there are two appearances particularly high unit, one is the kilocalorie, that is, 1,000 calories, also known as the big calories, the English is kcal, we usually speak of calories are generally measured by this unit (we usually speak of calories or card is actually a very small unit of calories in life almost can not be measured by the card, most people will put). "kilocalorie" is mistakenly called "card"), for example, the calorie rating of a recipe is 1200 calories, a cup of milk tea has 400 calories ...... Another unit is kilojoule, which is 1000 The other unit is the kilojoule, which is 1000 joules, or kj. The conversion is 1 kilocalorie ≈ 4.184 kilojoules. So the 2,101 kj in the chart is actually about 502 kcal. Of course, the results don't change, and potato chips should still be passed over for inclusion in our menus due to their high fat content and many trans-fatty acids.
Together, the proteins-fats-carbohydrates in the table are known as the three major energy producing elements. The energy in the food we eat is basically provided by these three brothers. Each gram of protein, carbohydrate, and fat provides 4 calories, 4 calories, and 9 calories of energy, respectively, and the sum of the three is the total energy of that food. (There will be a slight error due to differences in unit accuracy)
Two, nutrient reference values
Our bodies need a certain amount of calories every day. Many students would like to think that when we eat, there is no kind of logo that can prompt me how many calorie shares I have already eaten today and how much more I can eat. There is such an indicator in packaged foods, called the Nutrient Reference Value (NRV).
The NRV is the ratio of each nutrient to our daily requirement, and once the NRV of a day's worth of food exceeds 100, your calorie intake exceeds your daily calorie requirement. The above chart is the nutrient reference value daily recommended intake standard, which is in accordance with the amount of various types of nutrients needed by an average person daily, energy is about 2000 calories, carbohydrate, protein, fat were 300g, 60g, 60g. (This is in accordance with the average person intake, during fat loss, we need energy and other nutrients will be relatively less. For example, many students use the secondary recipe, only 1400 calories.)
The Ritz chips above, for example, provide 2,101KJ of calories per 100g, about 25% of 8,400KJ, and 3.9g of protein, about 7% of 60g. How's that for an instant? Doesn't it instantly seem like that string of numbers isn't so hard to understand?
Three, unit grams
Learning the above knowledge, there is no feeling in the look at the nutritional composition table, has been swimming in it? Don't worry, there's a catch waiting for you.
Look at this "Pecan Cookie". The average cookie has about 2,000 kilojoules of calories, and this one is half that of the average cookie! Only 1,044 kilojoules! It's only 1044 kilojoules! The most important thing is that you have to be able to get your hands on a cookie! I'm so excited! Instantly found a low-calorie snack!
If you take a closer look at the nutrition facts table, you'll notice that the number of servings, circled in red, is labeled 50g, whereas the nutrition facts table we usually see is in units of 100g (recall the Lay's potato chips pictured above ....).
This means that,, converted to our common per 100 grams of nutrients, the data on this nutrition facts table are multiplied by 2 ...... final calories or 2088 kJ/100g.
So in accordance with the nutrient composition table selection of packaged food, be sure to pay attention to keep a close eye on the portion, do not step into the traps set by the business yo ~
Four, sodium and other nutrients
Nutritional labeling is usually used in the "1 + 4" labeling model:" 1" for energy, "4" for the four core nutrients - protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium. These 5 items are what companies must label (mandatory labeling), and other nutrients such as calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins can be labeled or not by companies' own choice (voluntary labeling).
As I said earlier, carbohydrates, proteins and fats are important nutrients, and the energy in the food we eat basically comes from all three of them. The amount of them directly determines the amount of total energy. Sodium is also a nutrient closely related to us, excessive sodium intake can easily cause high blood pressure, osteoporosis and many other diseases. So when choosing packaged foods, "low sodium" is also an important principle.
Other nutrients are more commonly found in dietary fiber, trans fat, saturated fatty acids, vitamins, calcium and other minerals.
Dietary fiber is a type of carbohydrate that enhances satiety, relieves constipation, and is also important for human health. Trans fats/saturated fats are associated with obesity and cardiovascular disease, so it is recommended that you pick the ones with 0% added.
As for various vitamins and minerals, they also play an irreplaceable role in human health, and can be selected according to their own needs (e.g., people with calcium deficiency can pay more attention to the calcium element on the Nutrition Facts Table when selecting packaged foods.)
This concludes our introduction to the Nutrition Facts Table. Next time, we'll go into the supermarket together and take you through the process of picking healthy packaged foods for your life.