Read Your Way To Healthier Eating

Looking for ways to jump-start your healthy eating? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) may have just the tools to help you.

These two agencies collaborated to develop some educational materials, and they recently made them available to the public free of charge.

One, a brochure, titled Eating Healthier and Feeling Better Using the Nutrition Facts Label, features a step-by-step explanation of each section of the food label. It also provides tips for a healthy, balanced diet, as well as lists resources for additional information to assist you with your goal of healthy living.

If this brochure doesn't sound appealing to you, consider trying an interactive online learning program that helps you manage your calorie intake and make healthier food choices.

In this program, called Make Your Calories Count, a cartoon character provides general explanations of the food label, gives examples of serving sizes and their calorie content, and tests your ability to calculate the nutritional content of foods from information on the food label. If this online tool is for you, visit to get started today.

Consumers continue to be confused by the nutrition-facts label but with some basic skills and understanding, it can become a key part of making healthy food choices, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing chronic disease.