How to read a nutrition label

Tonight is #Salt. We will keep this one simple!

How much #salt should you aim for? Ideally, not more than 2000mg (2g) per day of added salt. While salt is essential in our diet, there is some naturally occurring in all food. Children should have as little salt as possible in their diets.

How do we check for salt? Look at the packaged food label. Find the calories and then find the salt. We want the salt amount in milligrams to be a smaller number than the calories*. It’s simpler than it sounds. It takes very basic math (1 gram = 1000 milligrams) – that your phone can do for you.

Example 1: The label on a package of no-sugar added granola lists 170kcal per serving and .05g of salt per serving. .05g = 50 milligrams. The salt number (50) is less than then calorie number (170) – this product may be a good choice.

Example 2: The label on a package of “Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips” lists 130kcal per serving and .2g (200mg) salt per serving. The salt number (200) is higher than the calorie number (130). Too high. It would be healthier to pick another option.

Don’t like the math? Don’t blame you. We are back to where we started Monday: #wholefoods

All of this salt we are talking about reducing is really the salt in processed foods.

**More than 70% of the salt in our diet come from processed food or food prepared outside the home. A further 5% is added onto the food at the table in restaurants or in some homes (is there a salt shaker on your table?) This 75% is where we can reduce our sodium intake.

20% of sodium is found within whole foods themselves and added during in-home food preparation. Food does need some flavour! That 20% is fine and we keep that.