meal planning

food labels

It is worth taking the time to check food labels. This could radically change the way you shop.

Food labels tell you about the ingredients as well as the nutritional values of the product (how much protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrate and salt).

Making sense of a food label We recommended that you undertake 2 simple checks: the amount of fat and sugar per 100g and the ingredients list.

Check 1 - Look at the amounts per 100g Firstly Find the nutrition information label. This may be on the side or reverse of the packaging. Secondly Look at the column for 100g (or 100ml) of the product. It is NOT the amount per serving! By focussing on the amount per 100g you can compare products like for like and check if they are red amber or green. Thirdly Check per 100g. • Total Fat • Saturated Fat • Sugar Compare the food to the traffic light guidance in the table below. Check the salt content. Although not affecting weight it can lead to high blood pressure which can increase your risk of heart disease. Sometimes salt is listed as sodium. 1g of sodium is the same as 2.5g of salt (so always multiply sodium by 2.5 to work out the amount of salt).

LOW

Healthier choice

MEDIUM OK most of the time

HIGH

Just occasionally

FAT SATURATES SUGARS SALT

3g or less 1.5g or less 5g or less 0.3g or less

3.1g to 17.5g 1.6g to 5g 5.1g to 22.5g 0.31g-1.5g

More than 17.5g More than 5g More than 22.5g More than 1.5g

All measures per 100g/ml.

Look at the column that says what’s in it per 100g

Look at the sugar, fat and salt content Check 2 - Look at the ingredients list Ingredients are listed in descending order. The higher up the list, the more of it there is in the product. Look for fat and sugar. If they are in the top 3 of the ingredients list we recommended that you look to see if there is a healthier option. Manufacturers may use terms for fat and sugars which you may not immediately recognise. Sugars Words ending in ‘ose’ usually indicate sugars e.g. sucrose, glucose and fructose. Honey and syrup are also types of sugars. Although terms like raw sugar, corn syrup or molasses may sound as if they are better for you – they are still simply sugar for the purposes of weight loss. Fats As well as the obvious fats (such as butter or vegetable oil) other terms are also used which most people would not automatically recognise as fat. Some examples are: whole milk solids, egg and egg yolk solids, coconut cream, shortening. Again, they all count as fats for the purposes of weight loss. Don’t be caught out Manufactures may use packaging and terms to tempt you to buy a product by implying it might be a healthier version. Take care! Sometimes the colours on labels let us know whether levels are high, medium or low, and other times they are just to look more colourful – in the example below, although fat is in a green row, it actually contains a medium level of fat. Take care! Terms such as “No added sugar” mean that no sugar (usually sucrose) has been added as an additional ingredient. However, there might be other types of sugar added which are just as high in calories and may not be obvious from the ingredients list (for example, syrup). Confused? For clarity always look for the content per 100g. Find out more about food labels and what the terms food manufactures use really mean:

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/ Goodfood/Pages/food-labellingterms.aspx

Nutrition - Oven cooked according to instructions Typical values 100g Half of a pizza GDA* for a contains (237g) contains %GDA* typical adult

Energy

990kj 2345kj 235kcal 560kcal 28% 2000kcal Protein 11.9g 28.2g Carbohydrate 28.7g of which sugars 3.3g 7.7g Fat 8.1g 19.1g of which saturates 4.3g 10.2g mono-unsaturates 2.9g 6.9g polyunsaturates 0.4g Fibre Sodium 2.0g 0.5g Salt equivalent 1.2g 2.8g 9% 27% 51% 67.9g 90g 70g 20g

0.9g 4.8g 1.1g 6g