Total Carbohydrate

This large category includes everything from whole grains (healthy carbs) to sugar and other refined carbs (unhealthy ones). It’s most helpful to look at the sugar and fiber numbers.

Dietary Fiber

The average adult should eat between 21 and 35 grams of fiber daily, but most don’t reach that level. When buying bread or cereal, look for a brand with 3 grams or more per serving. Some labels describe whether the fiber is soluble or insoluble. Both are important. Soluble fiber, found in oatmeal, barley, and dried beans, can help lower cholesterol levels. Insoluble fiber, found in whole grains and fruit and vegetable skins, protects against bowel disorders and may help digestion.

Sugars

These simple carbohydrates include glucose, dextrose, fructose, and galactose, all of which provide little nutritional value. Sugar shows up in surprising places, like crackers, “healthy” cereals, and salad dressings. It’s often added to foods that need a flavor boost (like low-fat products).

Protein

In general, .45 gram of protein daily per pound of body weight (that’s 68 grams for a 150-pound person) is plenty of protein, even if you’re breast-feeding or physically active. Most Americans get enough protein effortlessly (unless they’re vegetarians). And it’s rare for people eating a normal diet to get too much.

Vitamins and Minerals

This list includes the vitamins and minerals found in the food naturally, along with any added to it, and the percentage of daily value for each — again, calculated for a 2,000-calorie- a-day diet. The footnote (not found on all nutrition labels) provides a table listing the total daily grams of fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, carbohydrates, and fiber that the USDA recommends in a 2,000- or 2,500-calorie diet.

Ingredients

The product’s ingredients must be listed in order of quantity, so the major ones come first. When checking a label on bread, for instance, you want to see that the first ingredient is whole wheat, oats, or some other grain. (Note that “whole wheat” means “whole grain,” but not all brown-colored and “multigrain” breads are made of whole grain.)

Supplemental Vitamins and Minerals

Listed below the ingredients are supplemental nutrients that the manufacturer has added to the food.

Exchange

This information, listed voluntarily by the manufacturer, is for people with diabetes. The food-exchange system categorizes foods into food groups. A nutritionist may counsel a diabetic person to eat 8 exchanges of starch per day, for example. A bowl of Cheerios would take up 1 1/2 of those exchanges in a 1,600- to 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.