Page 189 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

to what you’re offsetting the saturated fat with in your diet:
Aim for healthy, aka unsaturated, fats (which don’t appear on
the panel), whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
Trans fat: 0 grams. Though this type of fat can be found in meat
and milk, the majority in the US food supply is the artificial
kind, usually in the form of partially hydrogenated oils. Mostly
solid at room temperature, trans fat is found in relatively high
quantities in margarine, shortening, and processed foods with
“partially hydrogenated oils” as an ingredient. Trans fat is no
longer “Generally Recognized as Safe” by the FDA. As a result
of a call to eradicate artificial sources of trans fat from the US
food supply (and a similar mandate worldwide by the World
Health Organization), many manufacturers have already
removed it from their products, though it looks like it will be
mid-2021 before all trans fat is truly eliminated from packaged
food. So keep checking those labels.

Sodium: The Daily Value is 2,300 mg. But the American Heart
Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, and
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health urge the government
to lower its recommendation to 1,500 mg (less than a teaspoon
of salt). Our current average sodium intake is roughly 3,400 mg.
Yikes! Over 70 percent of that comes from food eaten away
from home (processed or prepared foods from the grocery
store, or food from restaurants). So, along with added sugar, this
is one of the most important things to check on the Nutrition
Facts panel.

Added sugar: The Daily Value is 50 grams, but the American Heart
Association suggests going much lower, to no more than 25–36
grams:
Men: 9 teaspoons = 36 grams = 150 calories
Women: 6 teaspoons = 25 grams = 100 calories

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