Reading a food label in ten seconds
You do not need to read the whole panel. Three numbers and the first line of the ingredients answer most of what a label can tell you, and they take about ten seconds.
Per 100g, not per serving
Start here, because everything else depends on it. Serving sizes are chosen by the manufacturer and are frequently smaller than anything a person eats. The per-100g column is the only one that lets you compare two packets, and it is the column to read.
If a label only gives you a serving, check what the serving is before you believe any of it.
The three numbers
Fibre, and you want more of it. Above 6g per 100g is high for a cereal or a bread; below 3g is low. This is the number most people should be steering by and it is the one usually ignored.
Sugars, where the useful threshold is around 5g per 100g for low and 22g for high. The label will not distinguish added sugar from the sugar that was already in the fruit or the milk, which is why the ingredients list matters.
Salt, where 0.3g per 100g is low and 1.5g is high. Sodium multiplied by 2.5 gives salt if the label lists one and you want the other.
The first line of the ingredients
Ingredients are listed by weight, so the first two or three are most of what is in the packet. If sugar in any of its names — syrup, nectar, concentrate, anything ending in “ose” — is in the first three, you have learned more in one second than the panel would have told you in thirty.
This is also how to see through a front-of-pack claim. “Made with whole grain” is compatible with whole grain being the fourth ingredient.
What the front of the packet is for
Selling. “Light” means a comparison to some other version of the same product, which may still be high. “No added sugar” says nothing about total sugar. “Natural” is unregulated in most of the ways that would make it useful.
None of this is a reason to be cynical about food. It is a reason to read the back.
The ten-second version
Turn it over, find per 100g, glance at fibre, sugar and salt, and read the first three ingredients. That is the whole method, and it is enough to tell two similar products apart — which is the only decision you are usually making in the aisle.
If you have a condition where a particular number matters more — kidney disease and potassium, coeliac disease and gluten, diabetes and carbohydrate — that number moves to the front of this list, and it is worth asking us which one is yours.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Sarah Lindqvist
MD · Primary care, Pearl District · Reviewed Jun 4, 2026
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