Confused over how the percent daily value (%DV) on food and supplement labels relates to your nutritional needs? Here's some help.
The background: Nutritional needs are influenced by a variety of factors, including age, gender, and caloric intake, which means that charts of recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) are quite large and too complex for use on food labels. On the other hand, the daily values (DVs) are a single value for each nutrient. The DV for vitamins, minerals, and protein was generally set at the highest recommended level in place when nutrition labeling went into practice.
The DVs for food components, such as fat and fiber, which have general recommendations for health but no established RDAs, are based on a 2,000-calorie diet. So, for example, the recommendation that no more than 30 percent of total calories come from fat translates to about 65 grams of fat per day (30 percent of 2,000 calories divided by nine calories per gram of fat).
Here are the "nutrient numbers" behind the %DV found on food labels:
- Total fat (65 grams)
- Saturated fat (20 grams)
- Cholesterol (300 milligrams)
- Fiber (25 grams)
- Sodium (2.4 grams)
- Protein (50 grams)
- Vitamin A (5000 IU)
- Vitamin C (60 milligrams)
- Iron (18 milligrams)
- Calcium (1000 milligrams)