Jessica Yu

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

They perplex us. They mock us. We stand silently in the aisles of grocery stores trying to decipher them. They throw terms such as “serving size” and “percent daily value” at us, tell us how many calories will land in our stomachs and even allow us to believe we are staying healthy by consuming a certain percentage of some vitamin.

They are the nutrition labels found on virtually every prepackaged food item available in the supermarket. But what do they mean? How important are they? And why should we care?

According to Sally Mackey, the director of Dietary Intervention at Stanford Medical School, the nutrition label on foods is important for several reasons.

“It gives you a standardized way of understanding the content of the food you eat,” she said. “There are some things about a label that make it easy to compare products. You also get a feel for how what you’re eating may fit into the goals you’re trying to make.”

Freshman Esther Cheng said she often reads nutrition labels for their relative nutritional values.

“Sometimes when I’m comparing two things to eat I look at the nutrition label,” she said. “I use the nutrition label as a basis of comparison because I define something as nutritional if it doesn’t have a lot of sugar, if it is low in fat, and it has more unsaturated fats than saturated fats.”

Due to regulations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, all nutrition labels are equipped with the same basic components: serving size, calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate and protein. The FDA also has a Web site dedicated that provides information and tips for navigating nutrition labels.

According to the FDA, the first thing to look at in a nutrition label is the serving size. Serving size makes it easy to compare similar foods because such foods are measured in the same units, usually a household measure like cups or grams. In some instances, measurement may be a result of convention rather than an actual unit. The standard serving size for bread, for example, is the slice.

A slice of Wonderbread, however, is different from a slice of Pepperidge Farm bread. Because they differ in density and thickness, it may not make sense to compare the absolute number of calories or grams of fat listed for each ìsliceî on the nutrition label. This is precisely the reason students at Stanford should skim the entire nutrition label, taking into account details such as serving size, said Mackey.

After taking a gander at the serving size, it is helpful to focus on calories, which tell you how much energy you are getting from a serving size of food.

Though most nutrition labels are based on the average recommendation of a 2,000 calorie diet, Mackey said this number is not necessarily optimal for everyone. Each person has different caloric needs depending on his or her current size and health goals.

“If you’re trying to manage weight, [the number of calories] would be important,” Mackey said. “Based on what your activity level is and what your metabolism is, you can adjust your calories.”

“Two-thousand calories is a reference number. If you’re extremely active, you may need many more calories. If you’re not fit, you may need far fewer calories,” she added.

For those who want a more thorough understanding of what is in their food, it might be helpful to look at the nutrient content. On a nutrition label, nutrients are usually separated by a thick bar. Lying above the bar are nutrients that Americans tend to overeat: total fat, cholesterol and sodium. Below are the nutrients Americans must be sure to consume: dietary fiber and vitamins.

Each nutrient has an explanation of how many grams or milligrams are present in the product and how those measurements translate into percentages of the recommended daily values.

But how are you supposed to know what’s necessary for your percent daily value? If you really can’t figure it out, the FDA has one quick tip: five percent or less is a “low” amount and 20 percent or more is “high”.

This can make the nutrition label tedious to read.

“I read nutrition labels because when you’re sitting at breakfast, sometimes there’s nothing else to read,” said junior Allen Huang.

Huang said he is more interested in living a healthy lifestyle than devoting his time to analyzing labels.

“Just getting enough sleep would be healthy for me,” he said.

Cheng, too, said she emphasizes healthy activity more than food labels. A member of Stanford’s squash team, Cheng said she rarely skips a meal and works out four times a week.

“When I’m on a healthy diet — that means I’m eating well and exercising regularly — my mind is more energized,” she said. “I feel better all around.”

In the U.S., people tend to overlook labels because they are more interested in eating what they desire. Unsaturated fats, things low in sugar and maintaining a calorie balance are disregarded, according to Mackey.

“In general, Americans are getting away from choosing foods that have a lot of vitamins and minerals and nutritional value,” she said. “They pay more attention to the foods that they like, taste good and are quick to order.”