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Using the Nutrition Facts table: % Daily Value (Fact Sheet)

How To Choose

The Nutrition Facts table gives you information on calories and 13 core nutrients. Use the amount of food and the % Daily Value (% DV) to choose healthier food products.

Follow these three steps:

• Look at the amount of food

  Nutrition Facts are based on a specific amount of food. Compare this to the amount you actually eat.

• Read the % DV

  The % DV helps you see if a specific amount of food has a little or a lot of a nutrient.

  5% DV or less is a little
  } This applies to all nutrients.
  15% DV or more is a lot

  Yogurt

  
• Choose

  Make a better choice for you. Here are some nutrients you may want...

  less of

  • Fat
  • Saturated and trans fats
  • Sodium

  more of

  • Fibre
  • Iron
  • Vitamin A
  • Calcium

  Here is an example of how to choose:

  You are at the grocery store looking at yogurt. The small container (175 g) of yogurt you pick has a little fat (4% DV) and a lot of calcium (20% DV) – this is a better choice if you are trying to eat less fat and more calcium as part of a healthy lifestyle!

How To Compare

Use the amount of food and the % Daily Value (% DV) to compare and choose healthier food products.

Follow these three steps:

• Look at the amounts of food

  Compare the amounts of food in the Nutrition Facts tables.

  Cracker A has 9 crackers and weighs 23 grams. Cracker B has 4 crackers and weighs 20 grams.

  Because the weights are similar, you can compare these Nutrition Facts tables.

  Cracker A

  

  Cracker B

  

• Read the % DVs

  Did you know?

  You may be able to compare products that don’t have similar amounts of food.

  For example, you could compare the % DVs of a bagel (90 g) to the % DVs of 2 slices of bread (70 g) because you would most likely eat either amount of food at one meal.

  Since you are comparing crackers, you may want to look at the % DVs for saturated and trans fats, sodium and fibre.

  Cracker A has 13% DV for saturated and trans fats, 12% DV for sodium and 4% DV for fibre.

  Cracker B has 2% DV for saturated and trans fats, 4% DV for sodium and 12% DV for fibre.

  Remember: 5% DV or less is a little and 15% DV or more is a lot.
  This applies to all nutrients.

• Choose

  In this case, Cracker B would be a better choice if you are trying to eat less saturated and trans fats, less sodium and more fibre as part of a healthy lifestyle.

  Use the Nutrition Facts table and Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide to make healthier food choices.

Cat.: H164-127/2010E-PDF
ISBN: 978-1-100-16994-1