You Decide – About Carbohydrate and Protein
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – On the nutrition label, the section on carbohydrate and protein contains a good deal of information, but not everyone knows how to make use of it. The amount of carbohydrate and protein you eat depends on how you divide your calories for the day. Carb values can be as low as 30% of daily calories or as high as 70%. Protein usually stays between 10% and 20% but up to 40% of daily calories is considered okay by some researchers.
The value for total carbohydrates is just that, the sum of all the complex carbohydrates (starch), fiber and sugar in one serving of food. Starch and sugar can be burned for energy (calories) and both contain 4 calories per gram. Fiber has few if any calories because most passes through the body undigested. Both fiber and sugar are part of the total carbohydrate value for a food.
Even though fiber has no calories, it has value. It helps to lower cholesterol and keeps your bowels healthy by promoting regularity. Women, under age 50 should aim for 25 grams of fiber a day; 21 grams over 50. Men should eat 38 grams of fiber a day under age 50; 30 grams a day over 50.
You should know: A high fiber food has 5 or more grams in a serving. A good source of fiber has 2 or more grams in a serving.
The sugar value listed on the nutrition label is a little more confusing, because it lumps together natural sugar and added sugar.
Grains, fruits, vegetables, milk and plain yogurt all contain sugars. These are natural sugars that come packaged with vitamins, minerals and fiber, too. Soda, candy, fruit drinks, cakes, cookies, ice cream, jelly and syrup, in contrast, offer little more than sweetness and calories, and all are loaded with added sugar.
You can’t rely on the nutrition label to distinguish between natural sugar and added sugar, but the difference is significant. The nutrition label on a quart of milk tells you that one cup has 14 grams of sugar, all of it is from naturally occurring lactose or milk sugar. The label on fruit punch tells you that the same size serving has 30 grams of sugar, but almost all of the sugar is added.
How can you tell natural sugars from added sugars? Check the ingredient listing for sugar and terms such as – corn syrup, cane juice, fructose, honey, malt syrup, molasses, and raw sugar. All of these are forms of sugar. Ingredients are listed in descending order by volume, so if sugar is listed closest to the beginning of the list it will contribute a large amount to each serving of food.
On some labels manufacturers also list sugar alcohols under the total carbohydrate value. Sugar alcohols are sugar substitutes that add sweetness with fewer calories than sugar. Most sugar alcohols average 2 calories per gram; sugar has 4 calories per gram. They appear in the ingredients listing with names that end in “-ol” — mannitol, sorbitol, and xylitol. No calorie sweeteners like saccharin or Equal will be listed with the ingredients but they are never listed on the nutrition facts panel because they contribute no calories and no nutrients.
You need to eat protein because your body loses millions of cells each day. They are used up, worn out, rubbed off, and even cut off, like your beard or fingernails. Food proteins are the raw material your body uses to replace these lost cells.
Protein is so plentiful in the American diet that there is little concern about getting enough. Protein is listed on the nutrition label but no specific recommendations are made. Even if you are a vegetarian you get ample protein because grains, beans and vegetables contain protein, too.
A quick way to estimate your daily protein need is to divide your weight by 2.2. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be eating 68 grams of protein a day (150 pounds ÷ 2.2 = 68 grams of protein). It’s estimated that many of us get more than twice the recommended amount of protein daily.
You should know –the top 10 sources of protein in the American diet are: beef, poultry, milk, yeast bread, cheese, fish, eggs, fresh pork, ham, and pasta. One ounce of animal protein can be substituted for ½ cup cooked beans or tofu, ¼ cup nuts, or 2 tablespoons of nut butter.
In Part 5, the last in this series on nutrition labels, we’ll be looking at vitamins A and C, and the minerals calcium and iron. We hope you will come back to learn more.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with 12 current titles and sales in excess of 8 million books. The books are widely available at your local or on-line bookseller.
Current titles include:
The Calorie Counter, 5th Ed., 2010
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2009
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
The Diabetes Carbohydrate and Calorie Counter, 3rd Ed., 2007
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to The Nutrition Experts
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