I often get questions related to Nutrition Facts on food packaging.
What should I look for?
What should I avoid?
What should I limit?
The Mayo Clinic has a great explanation of this. When you access the page, hover over the nutrition label for a few little extras/hints.
When looking at nutrition facts, use the Percent Daily Values section as a guide. Now if you are anything like me, a 2000-calorie diet would result in a rapid increase on the scale--blame it on our bad metabolisms. Just adjust what is listed in that section slightly to compensate for your average caloric intake.
I can't tell you 1 specific thing to look for--they are all important. But here are a few things I do when perusing nutrition facts:
1. Limit sugars. I try not to buy anything that has more than 10g of sugar in a serving. And listen, 10g is the max so I typically aim for 6g or less per serving.
2. Ridiculous serving size. I try not to buy things that lists a serving as astronomically small, like 2 chips. Frankly, it just pisses me off so I choose not to support the company.
3. Low saturated fats. These little guys have no double bonds at the molecular level and are typically solid at room temperature. They have been shown to be correlated with bad things like arteriosclerosis and other coronary diseases. Just stay away from them if possible.
4. A lot of dietary fiber. I can't find anything bad about this stuff. Dig in!
5. Low cholesterol and sodium. This is especially important if heart disease runs in your family (like mine). Just keep an eye on these guys...they sneak into packaged foods allllll the time and cause all kinds of a hot mess in your cardiovascular system.
Hope these hints help!
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