Nutrition Facts Label

How can we find nutrition information on food labels to determine how healthy some snack foods are?

“WOAH” Foods
These are mostly processed foods that have a lot of solid fat, salt, or added sugar adding a lot of calories, or added energy, to our diet without adding any nutrients. These foods should only be eaten once in a while.

Solid fat, also known as saturated fat, is fat that is solid while sitting in a room – it is very unhealthy and can cause heart disease and strokes. Someone your age should only have 18-20 grams of saturated fat a day. Foods including high levels of saturated fats include full-fat cheese, butter, whole milk, and fried foods. Oils, on the other hand, are a much healthier fat option and are liquid while sitting in a room. Canola, vegetable, and olive oils are all examples.

We need some salt, also known as sodium, in our diet, but too much can lead to health problems. Many pre-packaged snacks have a lot of sodium. We are only supposed to have 2200mg of sodium in a day.

Healthy Snack Foods
These foods contain a lot of fiber, also known as dietary fiber, which cleans our digestive tract. We can get an adequate amount if we focus on whole grains, vary our veggies, focus on whole fruit, and use plant-based proteins. Healthy snacks have very little saturated fat and sodium, but large amounts of dietary fiber.

Refer to the video to learn more about how to read saturated fat, sodium, and dietary fiber on a nutrition label!

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