To make good choices as you stock your pantry, it’s important to take the time to know what you are buying. The best way to find the best foods is to compare product labels and key words on packaging. It’s easy to identify the products that contain saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium and find others that you can substitute to help your heart. The labeling on packaged foods gives you all the information you need to put together delicious meals that will help you manage your fat intake and lower your cholesterol.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all U.S. food manufacturers put a nutrition label on their products. This label states how much total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, fiber, sugar, and protein each serving contains. The information shown is based on a daily intake of 2,000 calories. You may need to consume a different calorie level depending on your age, gender, and activity level and whether you’re trying to lose, gain, or maintain your weight. (To determine how many daily calories are right for you, see “Manage Your Weight,”.)
Focus on these important nutrient values:
• Fats and cholesterol. The lower the amounts of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol, the better. See “Follow a Heart-Healthy Diet” for information on how to know what amount of fat is right for you.
• Sodium. The less sodium a food contains, the better. Lower amounts will help you keep your total daily intake at or below 2,300 mg. (Some people, such as middle-aged or older adults, African Americans, or those with high blood pressure, should keep their sodium intake even lower. See “Limit Sodium Intake”.)
• Carbohydrates. When checking the carbohydrate value, also consider the dietary fiber. Soluble fiber can help reduce levels of LDL cholesterol, so look for high-fiber carbohydrates. Examples are whole-grain foods, dried beans, peas, vegetables, and fruits.
• Protein. In this case, more is not always better. When you check labels, remember that you should aim for a daily maximum of 5 ounces of cooked lean meat, poultry, or seafood.
Check total calories per serving. Look at the serving size and determine how many servings you’re really consuming. If you eat double the servings, you also double the calories and nutrients. Think about how eating the food will affect your calorie balance, keeping in mind that for a 2,000-calorie diet:
• 40 calories per serving is considered low;
• 100 calories per serving is considered moderate; and
• 400 calories or more per serving is considered high.
Limit certain nutrients. If you are trying to lower your cholesterol, you need to be especially careful to limit your saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol.
Get enough of other nutrients. Make sure you get 100 percent of the fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients you need every day.
Understand % DV. The % DV (daily value) section tells you the percentage of each nutrient in a single serving, in terms of the daily recommended amount. As a guide, if you want to consume less of a nutrient, such as saturated fat, cholesterol, or sodium, choose foods with a lower % DV (5 percent or less is considered low). If you want to consume more of a nutrient, such as fiber, look for foods with a higher % DV (20 percent or more is considered high).
When reading food labels, also look at the ingredients. They are listed in descending order, with the greatest amount first and the least amount last. When checking on saturated and trans fats and cholesterol in foods, watch for the ingredients in the table below. Be aware that the term “vegetable oil” can mean coconut, palm, or palm kernel oil, each of which is high in saturated fat. Look instead for products that list a specific polyunsaturated or monounsaturated vegetable oil, such as olive, canola, or corn oil. Trace amounts of trans fat occurs naturally in foods such as meat and whole milk. However, by eating less meat and poultry each day and using fat-free or low-fat dairy products, you can easily stay within the recommended limit for trans fat and saturated fat combined.
Be careful with foods that are advertised as “cholesterol-free.” Even if a food contains no cholesterol, it can contain saturated fat, such as coconut and palm oils, and/or trans fat, such as stick margarine and shortening. Saturated and trans fats raise LDL cholesterol levels in the blood and increase the risk of developing heart disease.
The Food and Drug Administration has guidelines for the descriptors (see the chart below) that food manufacturers are allowed to put on their packages. Whether you’re reducing your blood cholesterol level, watching your weight, or both, it pays to read these descriptors carefully.
| Key Words | Per Serving |
| Fat-free | Less than 0.5 g fat |
| Low-saturated-fat | 1 g or less |
| Low-fat | 3 g or less |
| Reduced-fat | At least 25 percent less fat than the regular version |
| Light | Half the fat of the regular version |
| Low-cholesterol | 20 mg or less, and 2 g or less of saturated fat |
| Low-sodium | 140 mg sodium or less |
| Lean | Less than 10 g fat, 4.5 g or less saturated fat, and less than 95 mg cholesterol |
| Extra lean | Less than 5 g fat and less than 95 mg cholesterol |
Look to the American Heart Association Food Certification Program for additional help in food selection. The program’s heart-check mark is an easy, reliable tool you can use to quickly identify products that are heart healthy. The heart-check mark on a food package means the product has been screened and verified to meet American Heart Association food criteria for being low in saturated fat and cholesterol for healthy people over age two.
For a list of certified products, visit heartcheckmark.org. Use the free, online “My Grocery List” builder to create a customized, heart-healthy grocery shopping list. Save your list for future use and print or download it anytime from your Web-enabled mobile phone or PDA.
