Type 2 Diabetes: Using food labels

The best way to know how much carbohydrate, fat and sodium are in the foods you eat is to look at the label on the package.

Download this guide to Label reading

Serving size

All of the information on the label is based on this serving size.  If you eat double the serving size, the nutrients will be doubled as well.

Fat

This gives the total grams of fat in a serving of food.

  • Choose foods lower in fat
  • Aim for ≤ 5% Daily Value (DV)
  • Choose foods low in saturated fat and with no trans fat

Saturated fat and trans fat

These show the amount of total fat that comes from saturated and trans fat.  They can contribute to high blood cholesterol levels.

  • Choose foods with a % Daily Value of 5% or less for saturated fat
  • Avoid trans fat

Sodium

This shows the total milligrams of sodium in a serving of food. High sodium foods may increase your blood pressure.

  • Choose lower sodium foods
  • Consider that a Daily Value (DV) of 5% is a little and 15% is a lot

Carbohydrate

This shows the total grams of carbohydrate in one serving.  Total carbohydrate includes all starches, sugars, dietary fiber and sugar alcohol.

  • Ignore the grams of sugar listed on the label.
  • Subtract the grams of dietary fibre and sugar alcohols from the total grams of carbohydrate 
  • Aim for ≥ 15% Daily Value (DV) of fibre when comparing products

 

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