← Return to Food Labeling. Percentages don't add up..

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@colleenyoung

Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, @bobunderwood. RDA or Recommended Daily Allowances have been replaced by Daily Value (DV), the new term used on food labels. %DV is explained in detail in the article from the FDA

- How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label https://www.fda.gov/food/new-nutrition-facts-label/how-understand-and-use-nutrition-facts-label
Here's an excerpt:
"Do you need to know how to calculate percentages to use the %DV? No, because the label (the %DV) does the math for you! It helps you interpret the nutrient numbers (grams, milligrams, or micrograms) by putting them all on the same scale for the day (0-100%DV). The %DV column doesn't add up vertically to 100%. Instead, the %DV is the percentage of the Daily Value for each nutrient in a serving of the food. It can tell you if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient and whether a serving of the food contributes a lot, or a little, to your daily diet for each nutrient."

I'm not an expert in food label interpretation, so allow me to bring fellow members @jacannie6 @rambler and @dorisena into this discussion as well as dietitian @taraschmidt. Hopefully they can shed some light.

Bob, kudos to you for getting ahead of diabetes through diet. Have you made any other lifestyle changes?

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Replies to "Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, @bobunderwood. RDA or Recommended Daily Allowances have been replaced by Daily..."

Hi @bobunderwood . First of all, congrats on taking some great steps to improve your health. It sounds like you are already making progress. When we teach about food labels related to diabetes, we almost always have patients look more so at the grams of total carbohydrates in a product more than anything. If you have pre-diabetes, you may not even need to do this! The Plate Method is the most common education (in addition to weight management if that is relevant to you) we provide. Find that method here: https://www.myplate.gov/

I truly would not bother with percentages, as these are not specific to you and your nutrient needs. If you are curious what your needs are (grams of carbohydrates per meal, etc) consider asking your physician for a referral to a registered dietitian.

Lastly, here's an article on Connect that was posted last year on label-reading: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/weight-management-1/newsfeed-post/key-points-when-reading-nutrition-labels/