Food labels are important, but they’re also confusing. With so many different labels on grocery store products — such as reduced fat, low fat, and light — it’s hard to keep track of what everything means. The term “light” means that a product has fewer calories and fat than its original version, but there is a certain threshold it must meet to earn that label.
The FDA controls nutrition labels to keep the meaning of terms like this consistent. If you’ve ever seen a “light” salad dressing or other packaged product, that means it has at least 50% less fat and one-third fewer calories than the food’s original recipe. It must have both, or it won’t get the label. If you’re comparing food labels to try and find the best version for you and your family, you can certainly compare the fat and calories of a certain product, but looking for the term “light” or “lite” is a quick and easy way to tell that a product will be no less than half the fat of its usual version.
The ‘light’ label refers to only two categories
Different foods might be deemed healthy or unhealthy depending on what a person is looking for in their diet. Light foods do mean lower calories and fat content, but that label doesn’t apply to specific types of fat (such as saturated and trans fat), nor does it touch on other nutrients, such as sodium. It’s still important to compare these values to know whether it’s something you should be eating based on your own daily nutrition needs, especially because too much salt is never a good thing.
The “light” label should not be confused with other labels like reduced fat or low fat. Reduced-fat foods don’t have to meet the same threshold; they only need to contain 25% less fat than their original version. Low-fat foods, on the other hand, follow a hard number rather than a percentage; they must contain 3 grams of fat or fewer per serving. All of these different labels are meant to classify healthier versions of certain foods, but the one you pay the most attention to depends on your own dietary requirements.
