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5 min
16/01/2026
Don’t let marketing tricks like claims of "healthy" or "low fat" fool you into thinking a product is good for you just because it says so on the front. Learning how to read food labels properly can help you make more informed decisions about what products to purchase, how many calories to consume, and what ingredients are included in those products.
Food labels are not meant to scare consumers away from purchasing a product; rather, they should be used to provide consumers with the information they need to determine if a product is healthy for them or not. Consumers often skim food labels rather than take the time to look at them carefully. With small font sizes, complex percentages, various symbols, and claims that sound appealing, it is easy to assume a product is healthy when it is not.
While serving size is a major point of interest for the nutrition label, it is also the most commonly misinterpreted. It is important to remember that all calories/nutrients/percentage calculations for calories are based on the serving size and are not a reflection of the entire packet of product. For example, if a biscuit packet has a stated serving size of two biscuits (i.e., two biscuits is considered one serving), but you eat six biscuits, you have actually had three servings (3 x 2 = 6), not one.
While consumers often focus on calorie numbers, these numbers only tell part of the story; they do not tell you how the calories were obtained. Therefore, two foods with the same number of calories can behave very differently in the body based on their fat quality, fibre content, and sugar content. A food that is high in refined carbohydrates and sugars may cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels, whereas a food that contains protein and fibre will promote a feeling of fullness.
The nutrition label lists macronutrients—including carbohydrates, protein, and fat—as well as sugar, sodium, and sometimes fibre. The goal is to competently compare, not necessarily memorise. For most foods consumed daily, sugar and sodium are greater contributors to health concerns than fats at moderate levels. As of 2026, many labels also include added sugar as a separate value; this is more relevant than looking at just the total sugar value.
Ingredients are listed on nutrition labels in descending order by weight; the first few ingredients represent the highest amounts of the product. If sugar, refined flour, or palm oil appear early in the ingredient list, then the product consists primarily of those ingredients, regardless of claims of being healthy. Additives, stabilisers, and flavours typically appear at the end of the ingredient list, but they also provide insight into the level of processing for the product.
Green and red dots indicate whether a food product is vegetarian (green dot) or non-vegetarian (red dot) in India only. However, these dots don't tell you anything about a food product's nutrition, caloric content, or general healthfulness. Just because a food product contains a green dot, it still may be high in sugar, salt, or refined fats. Many people in 2026 continue to see foods that have a green dot as being 'healthy,' which oversimplifies and can pose health risks.
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Terms used on packaging, such as "natural," "light," "immunity-boosting," or "no added sugar,” are not regulated tightly in most cases. A package labelled as "no added sugar" may still contain high levels of naturally occurring sugar. Likewise, "multigrain" does not guarantee that the grains themselves are whole grains. In 2026, many educated consumers check claims to ingredient lists and nutrition panels before they purchase a product based solely on the wording of the label.
Building a habit through food label reading is the goal, rather than attempting to decode every number perfectly. Begin with the serving size of the food product to help determine the size of your actual serving and, thus, the true amount you are consuming; this will provide some context to the calorie amount. Since the majority of consumers are consuming too much sugar and sodium daily, look at these two (sugar and sodium) first when reading food labels.
