The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is making it easier for consumers to read food labels. With a quick stop at a website called Make Your Calories Count, we can all learn how to better decipher and truly understand the numbers we find printed on the back of food items. The FDA interactive site, featuring a cartoon character called Labelman, provides consumers with information related to healthful diets and calorie management. There are exercises, quizzes, and a training module available for download and printing.
The program, which presents two nutrients that should be limited (saturated fat and sodium) and two that should be consumed in adequate amounts (fiber and calcium), may be just the resource we need in our pursuits of better health and disease prevention.
