| "SUNDAY, July 1(HealthDay News) -- If you think you're the only one who gets confused trying to read nutrition labels on food, relax. You've got plenty of company." "In a study of educated adults -- 75 percent had at least a high school education -- most had trouble understanding everyday food nutrition labels." ""The biggest problem is (figuring) serving size," said Dr. Russell Rothman, an assistant professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at the Center for Health Services Research at Vanderbilt University, who led the study about nutrition labels." "His team surveyed 200 primary-care patients from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and asked them to finish a 24-item measure of food label comprehension." "Besides confusing serving sizes, people were most often mixed up about extraneous material on the label, Rothman found. They often calculated the data incorrectly -- for instance, only 37 percent could figure the number of carbohydrates consumed from a 20-ounce bottle of soda that contained 2.5 servings." ""A soda bottle is typically 20 ounces," Rothman said, "and it will say, 'servings per container is 2.5.' People will not realize that. They think 20 ounces is a serving." If the label says 200 calories per serving, many will mistakenly think that means the whole bottle. However, after doing the math, the entire bottle would actually provide 500 calories, he said." ""When you are looking at food labels, take your time and be careful," Rothman advised. "They are confusing and have a lot of complex information in them. Pay particular attention to serving size and how to apply that to how much you are actually eating."" "Another expert, Susan Moores, a nutrition consultant in Minneapolis and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that serving size is where many people get tripped up on reading labels." "She said the first few ingredients listed on a label can also give clues to a product's goodness. "You want to recognize what they are," Moores said. "If you don't, that's a red flag. It means the food is probably not so nutritious." One exception, she said, might be the label on fortified cereals, where many non-recognizable names could be vitamins and other nutritious ingredients, she said." "Instead of trying to decipher the entire label, consumers can
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