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When you inspect a food package, be sure to pay close attention to the following information on the Nutrition Facts label:

Serving size. The numbers on the label apply to one serving of the food — not the whole package (unless of course the package only has one serving). If one serving contains 100 calories, and the package has 2.5 servings, the whole package will have 250 calories.

Calories and calories from fat. These tell you how many total calories are in a serving of the food, and how many of those calories come from fat.

Fat, cholesterol, and sodium. You want to limit these in your diet. The label tells you how many grams or milligrams of each of these ingredients are in the food.

Dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. These are good nutrients, and you want to get plenty of them each day.

Trans fat and saturated fat. For your health, you should eat as little trans fat as possible, and limit the saturated fat.

The elements of a healthy diet

A healthy diet gives your body several types of useful material in large amounts. These are:

Carbohydrates. These offer your body fuel for energy, plus many carb-rich foods are good sources of vitamins and minerals, like fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods. A little more than half of your daily calories should come from carbohydrate.

Fat. This carries certain vitamins and helps your body use them. Fat also provides energy, and is an ingredient in the walls of your body’s cells. Fat should provide about 30 percent of your daily calories, at the most. The fat should mostly be from unsaturated sources like olive, canola, and flaxseed oil, and fatty fish.

Protein. This nutrient is crucial for building and repairing your body, and it plays a role in many of your body’s chemical processes. It’s not an ideal source of energy since it’s too important elsewhere. About 10 to 25 percent of your daily calories should come from protein.

Fiber. Your body doesn’t get calories from fiber, but it does help you stay healthy. High-fiber foods are often rich in vitamins and minerals. Fiber also helps your digestive system work properly, it can reduce your cholesterol (thus helping your heart), and it may lower your risk of colon cancer. Get 20 to 35 grams daily.

Water. Running low on water can make you feel fatigued and headachy — which is not a healthy feeling. Get 91 ounces of water daily if you’re a woman, or 125 if your a man. Replacing some of that with milk, juice, or water-rich fruits and vegetables is OK.

So are you getting in the right amount of water????