The amount on a Nutrition Facts label and the amount in your bowl are not always the same.

A food label becomes easier to use when you begin with a question.

A screenshot can make a nutrition claim look more complete than it is. A number, a logo and a confident headline may be visible while the author, date and underlying evidence are missing.

Two packages can display different nutrient amounts partly because their labeled servings differ.

Two columns of numbers do not always answer the same question. One pair may describe a serving and an entire package. Another may describe a dry product and a prepared portion.

A label can show grams, milligrams and percentages within a few lines. They are not interchangeable.

A serving expressed as a weight is incomplete unless you also know the state of the food.

Two sugar entries on a Nutrition Facts label do not represent two amounts that should be added together. The smaller category sits inside the larger one.

When comparing food products, misreading the Nutrition Facts label can lead to incorrect assumptions about added sugars.

A sodium entry is easier to interpret when you keep three things together: the amount in milligrams, the quantity of food it describes, and its percent Daily Value.