Say you are interested in choosing foods that are low in fat. Just check this column. If the percent daily value is five or less it means it is low in fat. And because all the nutrients are on the same scale, five percent or less also means it is low in sodium or cholesterol. Forget the math, there's no need to do any calculations.
Research shows that most people use the label to determine one of two things.
One, whether a single food is high or low in a particular nutrient and, two, how two foods compare in particular nutrients. Let's look at this package of chocolate candy. Total fat is 12 grams. Saturated fat is 8 grams. Total carbohydrates is 23 grams.