What Does Cholesterol-Free Mean on a Food Label?
Overview
Your body makes cholesterol and some of the food you eat may contain cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol can accumulate in your arteries, restricting blood flow that could lead to heart disease. You should restrict the amount of cholesterol you eat each day. Nutrition labels can help you make intelligent choices about the food you eat. “No-cholesterol foods” may, but do not necessarily, promote heart health.
Food Nutrition Labels
Nutrition labels provide you with important information about how food may help or harm your health. A nutrition label will include information that could affect your weight, such as serving size and calories, and information about the amount and type of fat a product contains. It will also tell you whether a food item contains protein, carbohydrates and fiber and, if so, how much. A nutrition label can help you keep track of your sodium consumption and whether a product will help you meet your recommended daily value of vitamins and minerals. A food label also tells you how the information fits into a standard 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.
Cholesterol-Free
Only animal products contain cholesterol. If a food nutrition label says an item contains no cholesterol, this means it was not derived from an animal. Meat, eggs and dairy products contain cholesterol. If you’re buying a bakery item, a cholesterol-free item does not contain eggs, milk, butter or other animal fats such as lard. To help you fight against heart disease, you should keep your daily consumption of cholesterol below 300 mg. If factors beyond your diet put you at risk for heart disease, MayoClinic.com recommends you keep daily cholesterol below 200 mg. Risk factors include underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, family history of heart disease and your age.
Fat-Free
Cholesterol-free does not mean fat-free. A product that contains no cholesterol may include saturated fat. Saturated fat, like cholesterol, comes from animal products. But you can also find saturated fat in tropical oils such as coconut and palm. If you’re purchasing processed food, note the information about saturated fat as well as cholesterol. An apple turnover, for instance, may include no cholesterol, but high amounts of saturated fat from palm oils may be used to make its flaky crust. MayoClinic.com recommends you limit saturated fat to 10 percent of your daily calories. This amounts to about 20 g.
Considerations
A product free of cholesterol may also include another type of unhealthy fat called trans fat. A nutrition label will tell you this. Commercial baked goods may contain trans fat, made by processing liquid vegetable oils to create solid fats, such as margarine and shortening. You should severely limit your consumption of trans fat to 2 g, or 1 percent of your daily calories. A small bag of potato chips may contain no cholesterol but more than a day’s supply of trans fat.
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