Who is the nutritional information on the back of packages for?

pianoplaya94

Men and women do not always require the same amount of vitamines / macronutrients. For instance, women require 18mg of iron a day whereas men only need 8. On the back of packages / boxes it will say, for instance, one package has 25% of your daily iron requirement. But is that 25% for men or for women? Because they would be very different numbers...

IsaackGMOON

If you haven't checked, it will always say "based upon a 2000 calorie diet" etc... keep in mind that not all nutritional information applies to everyone.

mathandcats

This is a question I've asked myself before. They should just give the actual amount!

Hornsby

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

If you haven't checked, it will always say "based upon a 2000 calorie diet" etc... keep in mind that not all nutritional information applies to everyone.

^^^

juggernaut1974

All the more reason to ignore the percentages, and just count the actual grams/milligrams/etc

mathandcats

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

If you haven't checked, it will always say "based upon a 2000 calorie diet" etc... keep in mind that not all nutritional information applies to everyone.

This doesn't apply to the recommended intake of vitamins and minerals, which are only listed as %DV. The suggested iron intake is much higher for women than for men, so what does "35% RDV" of iron mean? Is it 35% of the recommended amount for women, or for men? That's his point.

IsaackGMOON

mathandcats wrote: »

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

If you haven't checked, it will always say "based upon a 2000 calorie diet" etc... keep in mind that not all nutritional information applies to everyone.

This doesn't apply to the recommended intake of vitamins and minerals, which are only listed as %DV. The suggested iron intake is much higher for women than for men, so what does "35% RDV" of iron mean? Is it 35% of the recommended amount for women, or for men? That's his point.

Well if it doesn't say for which gender, then you assume it's for both.

andympanda

Speak to your doctor or a registered nutritionist.

seska422

According to the NIH website, nutrition labels use 18 mg as the 100% mark for iron:

Daily Value

juggernaut1974

andympanda wrote: »

Speak to your doctor or a registered nutritionist.

Huh?

yeahfatty

what the FDA has to say about it:

The FDA wanted consumers to be able to compare the amounts of saturated fat and sodium to the maximum amounts recommended for a day's intake--the Daily Values. Because the allowable limits would vary according to the number of calories consumed, the FDA needed benchmarks for average calorie consumption, even though calorie requirements vary according to body size and other individual characteristics.

From USDA food consumption surveys of that era, the FDA knew that women typically reported consuming 1,600 to 2,200 calories a day, men 2,000 to 3,000, and children 1,800 to 2,500. But stating ranges on food labels would take up too much space and did not seem particularly helpful. The FDA proposed using a single standard of daily calorie intake--2,350 calories per day, based on USDA survey data. The agency requested public comments on this proposal and on alternative figures: 2,000, 2,300, and 2,400 calories per day.

Despite the observable fact that 2,350 calories per day is below the average requirements for either men or women obtained from doubly labeled water experiments, most of the people who responded to the comments judged the proposed benchmark too high. Nutrition educators worried that it would encourage overconsumption, be irrelevant to women who consume fewer calories, and permit overstatement of acceptable levels of "eat less" nutrients such as saturated fat and sodium. Instead, they proposed 2,000 calories as: consistent with widely used food plans
close to the calorie requirements for postmenopausal women, the population group most prone to weight gain
a reasonably rounded-down value from 2,350 calories
easier to use than 2,350 and, therefore, a better tool for nutrition education
Whether a rounding down of nearly 20 percent is reasonable or not, the FDA ultimately viewed these arguments as persuasive. It agreed that 2,000 calories per day would be more likely to make it clear that people needed to tailor dietary recommendations to their own diets. The FDA wanted people to understand that they must adjust calorie intake according to age, sex, activity, and life stage. It addressed the adjustment problem by requiring the percent Daily Value footnote on food labels for diets of 2,000 and 2,500 calories per day, the range of average values reported in dietary intake surveys.

Kalikel

The RDAs are average daily amounts that would be enough of whatever it is for the average adult person.

It's not meant to be specific to any individual and is put there so you get an idea of what is in there.

disasterman

http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm

RodaRose

pianoplaya94 wrote: »

Men and women do not always require the same amount of vitamines / macronutrients. For instance, women require 18mg of iron a day whereas men only need 8. On the back of packages / boxes it will say, for instance, one package has 25% of your daily iron requirement. But is that 25% for men or for women? Because they would be very different numbers...

Iron numbers for men and women are different according to the NIH.
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-HealthProfessional/

CyberTone

Guidance for nutritional labeling for packaging in the United states.
Guidance for Industry: A Food Labeling Guide (14. Appendix F: Calculate the Percent Daily Value for the Appropriate Nutrients)
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm064928.htm