Making informed decisions about the food you buy is a vital part of looking after your health and that of your family. Labels say a lot about the food we eat. However, it takes wisdom to know what they mean.
I would like to present three (3) steps to health success (to select the healthiest product)
1. Look at the claim on the label
2. Check the nutrition information panel
3. Read the ingredients list
NUTRITION INFORMATION
Energy
The nutrition label displays the quantity of energy (measured in kilojoules) found in both a serving and in 100 grams (or 100 milliliters if liquid) of the product. Serving sizes are based on how much of a particular food people usually eat.
You can use the ‘quantity per serve’ information to keep track of what you’re eating, and it’s especially useful if you are monitoring your daily intake of kilojoules or certain nutrients. The ‘quantity per 100 g’ information is useful if you want to compare 2 similar products, because serving sizes may vary depending on the manufacturer.
If you are trying to lose weight, you should pay particular attention to the amount of fat, sugar and kilojoules on the nutrition label. Foods that are high in fat and sugar tend to be high in kilojoules.
Protein
Recommended daily intake
The average amount of protein required for a healthy diet is about 1 gram per kg of body weight. This is normally well maintained in the average Australian diet. Slightly higher levels of protein may be required if you are doing frequent physical exercise.
Fat
Recommended daily intake
Men – 90grams per day
Women – 70 grams per day
Saturated fat
It’s also important to look on the label for the amount of saturated fat, which is listed separately from total fat. This type of fat is particularly bad for your health — a diet that is high in saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol level and increase your risk of heart disease.
Carbohydrates
Recommended daily intake
Should consist of 50% of total energy.
Men – 250 to 300 grams per day
Women – 150 to 200 grams per day
Sugar
Recommended daily intake
Men – 128g
Women – 100g
Sodium
Recommended daily intake
500mg per serve Max or 2400mg per day Max
The amount of sodium tells you how much salt is in the food. Foods that are described as low in salt must have less than 120 milligrams of sodium per 100 g (or 100 mL for liquids). The salt content is especially important information for people with high blood pressure, because a low-salt diet is often recommended as part of the treatment for this condition.
Other relevant nutrients
Other nutrients, such as dietary fibre, calcium or iron, will also be listed on the nutrition panel if a claim is made about them.
INGREDIENTS
The ingredients are listed in descending order according to their weight at the time the product was manufactured. If water makes up more than 5 per cent of the final product, it must also be listed as an ingredient.
The amount of the key, or characterising, ingredient — the ingredient usually mentioned in the name of the product (e.g. apricots in an apricot muesli bar) — must be listed with a percentage indicating how much of the product consists of that ingredient. In some products, such as plain bread, there are no key ingredients.
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19Jun
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14Apr
Nowadays people are getting more and more health conscious.
Nutritionists and doctors always advise us to eat healthy food.
Most of us ignore the advice and eat whatever our taste buds prefer.
We eat more of tasty food without paying much attention to healthy food.
The quantity of food we eat also determines our health.
Food taken more than the requirement is only digested partially and the rest acts as a foreign substance.
Hunger is the natural expression of the needs of the system and appetite is the index for the quantity of food to be taken.
The nutritional quality of various kinds of foods is being described in a most popular language to feed the brains of the common men and women.
The lists of healthy foods are being published in books and health magazines.
‘Do not eat junk food’ is a slogan we hear from the four corners of the world.
Still the restaurants selling the junk food are increasing in number all over the world.
Mostly young people are trapped by the chain of food stalls which impart an injurious habit.
Americans eat more of junk foods than any other nationals, because of their multiplicity and availability.
Healthy food is one which has less oil (fat), salt and spices.
But our tongue looks for oily, salty and spicy foods for a better taste.
How to compromise?
In fact, diet influences every aspects of our life including our mood, body weight, sexuality, fertility, life span etc.,
Breakfast followed by lunch, evening snack and night dinner is a set pattern followed by everyone in the world, with slight modification at times.
Whatever healthy food we eat should be digested before we take the next course of food.
Better digestion takes place only when we do physical exercise.
In other words, calories have to be burnt to gain energy to do work.
Reducing the body weight is one of the major problems faced by a good lot of people in most of the developed countries.
Obesity has become almost a disease to fight with.
In fact, vegetable and fruits are considered to be healthy foods, because of their fibre and mineral contents.
Non vegetarians get animal proteins from fish, mutton, beef and chicken.
Milk and its products such as curd, cheese and cream contain most of the essential nutrients we require.
Similarly, egg also is a good source of protein.
It is always debated whether vegetarian diet is superior to non vegetarian diet.
There are arguments for and against each type of diet.
One thing acceptable from these arguments is the selection of food to eat depends on the climatic conditions in which one lives.
People living in temperate region prefer non vegetarian diet whereas people in the tropics prefer vegetarian diet.
Healthy food for children, middle aged and aged people will also vary.
Food nutrition is a good field of specialization.
Standards have been fixed for good food based on their chemistry.
Dieticians know much about the standards and they also know about what to eat and what not to eat.
Because of greediness for excess production of food for the ever increasing population, all sorts of adulteration take place.
Such adulterations are not known fully well to the people who consume such foods.
Production of most of the agricultural products is subjected to poisonous pesticides and other chemicals.
Animals and birds are being injected with excess doses of antibiotics and growth promoting hormones.
The reseals as well as the accumulated substances are accompanied with the consumed meat creating trouble to humans.
Therefore, the movement of organic agriculture is gaining importance in every country.
Food safety is the talk of the day.
Safe food and environment are needed for human health.
Thus healthy food has a number of dimensions.
One has to take care of his or her health by going through the details of healthy food.
Strict control on the food we eat is essential to achieve a healthy life for a happy stay in this Planet.
Let us not neglect the habit of taking only healthy food and feeding our children with it.
