Module 10 · Food, hydration & energy · Practical technique

Reading a food label

Serving sizes, sugar, salt and the ingredient list — how to make sense of the back of the pack.

6 min read · Level: Practising · Free — no account needed to read

The idea

Food labels can help you make choices, once you know where to look. Start with the serving size — the nutrition figures are often for a portion smaller than people actually eat. Then look at sugars, salt and saturated fat, often shown per 100 grams so you can compare products.

Many countries use front-of-pack labels, such as traffic-light colours or warning symbols, to show whether a product is high or low in sugar, salt and fat. The ingredient list is ordered by weight: the first few ingredients make up most of the product. Sugar can appear under many names — syrup, dextrose, concentrated fruit juice.

Marketing words like “natural”, “light” or “made with real fruit” don’t necessarily mean healthier. The label and the ingredients tell you more than the front of the box.

Why it works

Reading labels helps you see past marketing and compare products for what matters to you.

A real example

The situation

Julia buys a breakfast cereal labelled “wholesome” and “with honey” every week, assuming it is a healthy choice.

What happened

She checks the label: sugar is the second ingredient and it is high in sugar per 100 grams. She switches to plain oats with fruit, which she enjoys just as much.

The takeaway

The label told her what the packaging didn’t.

Use this when you are…

• comparing similar products
• a product claims to be healthy
• you want to cut back on sugar or salt

Common mistakes

• Trusting front-of-pack claims without checking the label.
• Ignoring the serving size the figures are based on.
• Missing sugar listed under other names.

What the evidence says

Practical technique: A widely used, low-risk practice drawn from established approaches, but not tested much on its own. Its value is mostly that it is simple and harmless to try.

Reading labels is a practical skill supported by public-health guidance. Research suggests front-of-pack labels can nudge healthier choices, though effects vary by label design and country.

Where this comes from: WHO healthy diet guidance; Evidence-based medicine and critical appraisal.

Fields that study this: Nutrition science, Public health.

Try it now: Compare two labels

1. Pick two similar products at home or in a shop.
2. Compare sugar and salt per 100 grams.
3. Read the first three ingredients of each.

Questions to think about

• Which product you buy often might surprise you if you read its label?
• Which marketing claims do you tend to trust?

Try this today

Read the label of one product you buy often.

Afterwards, ask yourself

What did the label tell you that the packaging didn’t?

Words in this lesson

• Ultra-processed food — Foods made mostly from ingredients extracted from foods or made in factories, such as many packaged snacks and soft drinks. How much processing itself harms health is still debated.