The Variations in Percent Daily Value

Explaining Percent Daily Value
A serving of food’s percent Daily Value (%DV) indicates how much a nutrient contributes to a person’s daily diet as a whole.
If you want to know if a serving of food is rich or low in a nutrient, you may use the%DV.
The Daily Values are recommended daily intakes of nutrients (in grammes, milligrammes, or micrograms) that should not be exceeded. Due to the changed Daily Values, the % Daily Value on the new Nutrition Facts label may now be higher or lower.
Use Percent Daily Value to Inform Your Decisions
You may choose what you eat and drink with the aid of %DV.
• Food Comparisons Making comparisons is made simple with %DV. Just make sure that each product has the same serving size. Look at the%DV of the various nutrients and choose meals more often that are higher in the nutrients you want to consume more of and lower in the ones you may want to restrict.
• Control dietary compromises: A healthy diet does not need you to give up a favourite meal.
Use%DV to trade off certain items throughout the day in your diet. You can balance meals that are high (or low) in a nutrient you want to receive more of with foods that are low (or high) in that nutrient during other times of the day when a food you enjoy is high in a nutrient you want to get less of.
What about protein, trans fats, and total sugars?
Some nutrients have no a%DV.
• Since the percent Daily Value (%DV) of protein is often not given on the label, use the amount of grammes (g) as a reference.
• Since trans fat and total sugar have no percent Daily Value (%DV), compare and choose foods by using the grammes (g) per serving.
Daily Values at Work
Take a look at the frozen lasagna example label that is provided below. Does this product include ANY nutrients at HIGH (above 20% DV) or LOW (under 5% DV) levels? When you shop, be careful to read the labels to see whether nutrients are HIGH or LOW in the goods you purchase.
What Does That Footnote at the End Mean?
The footnote details the contribution of each nutrient in a portion of food to a daily diet and mentions that the recommended daily calorie intake for adults is 2,000.