Food labels can be tricky to interpret correctly

• Nutrition Facts labels are helpful only if you know how to read them.
• The first thing to look for is the serving size, at the top of the label.
• The numbers that follow mean little if not taken in the context of the serving size.
• If the Nutrition Facts label says that the product contains 3 grams of saturated fat or 250 calories, for example, it's referring to the amount in one serving.
• To know how much fat or how many calories are in the entire product, look just below the serving size to see how many servings are in a package.
• Anything below 5 percent is considered low.
• So when the label shows that 470 mg of sodium represents 20 percent of the daily recommended amount, that means one serving of the product will get you one-fifth of the sodium you should have all day.
• At the same time, it's going to provide only 4 percent of Vitamin A and 2 percent of Vitamin C. That's awfully low.
• The problem with the Percent Daily Values, though, is that it isn't listed for everything, such as trans fat and sugars.
• Nutrition experts suggest adding the saturated fat and trans fat together, then comparing that number with the daily recommended limit near the bottom of the label -- less than 20 grams.
• In the case of the fictitious mac and cheese, the saturated and trans fats add up to 4.5 grams, more than one-fourth the recommended daily intake.
• To assess sugar levels, examine the list of ingredients, looking for sugar, honey, corn syrup, fructose, maltose or dextrose.
• The higher these terms appear in the ingredients label, the more sugar it contains.