How should I read food labels so I count the carbs properly?
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) requires that the packaging of every manufactured food product display certain information, including a list of ingredients—in descending order of weight—as well as a Nutrition Facts panel. Almost everything displayed on this panel is based on specific laboratory procedures, called assays, regulated by the FDA. The quantity of fat, protein, ash and water can all be directly and exactly assayed. (Water and ash need not be listed on nutrition panels.) But the amount of carbohydrate is arrived at only after the above four components are directly computed: In other words, what is not fat, protein, ash or water is called carbohydrate. To complicate matters, carbohydrates are comprised of several sub-groups, which include dietary fiber, sugar, sugar alcohol, and “other” carbohydrates—a kitchen sink grouping of gums, lignans, organic acids and flavenoids. (These individual items can be assayed.) The FDA requires that a nutrition label include the total car
