Questions about the information you might see on food labels
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Is it better to focus on the amount of each nutrient per 100g, or per serving on the food label?
The information per 100g can be useful when comparing products like for like, but as we don’t usually eat exactly 100g of a food it will not tell us exactly how much of a particular nutrient we are going to be consuming. The information per serving can be more useful, but often the serving listed on the label is not the amount that people actually consume either!
It is also important to note that a single serving might not equal one portion, for example a bowl of cereal can easily comprise 2 or 3 (or even more) portions of carbohydrate.
On the food label of breakfast cereals it doesn’t say if the carb content includes any milk. Should I add the milk on to consider the total carbs consumed?
If the label does not state it includes milk then it won’t have been included in the nutritional information. Generally speaking people add about 200ml of milk to cereal, which is about 10g of carbs.
Are men still recommended to have 2500 Kilocalories per day and women 2000 Kilocalories for energy? Or has this now changed to 2000 Kilocalories for both sexes as on RI guidance?
2000kcal for women and 2500kcal for men were recommendations included in the guideline daily amounts (GDA’s), but these were replaced with reference intakes (RIs) in 2014. The calorie reference is now 2,000kcal for a healthy adult regardless of whether they are male or female. However, one important point is that this is just a reference and not a target; we all have different requirements based on our size, metabolism and activity for example. We actually discourage people from counting calories, as it is much better and more practical to cut out junk food and snacks and eat real foods at meals to true fullness/satiety (i.e. being physiologically full and not eating for psychological reasons).
Are the reference intake guidelines based on average, healthy men and women?
Yes, these are based on healthy adults; but it is debatable whether people who are overweight/obese or who have prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes, a carbohydrate intolerant condition, fit under this “healthy” classification. Certainly, many people with Type 2 diabetes would not be able to control blood glucose levels with 260g carbs/day and many people would have problems managing their weight.
Why is the guideline intake for sugars less than 5g per 100g if people are following a low fat, high carb diet?
Less than 5g/100g of sugar in food products is national guidance. Although the low fat, high carb diet encourages people to restrict fat and eat carbs to appetite (as long as appetite is regulated for weight control) it should be low sugar, high fibre wholegrain carb sources and not sugary carbs. The advice to minimise sugar consumption is consistent for all dietary approaches.
THE FAQ FORUM IS “READ-ONLY”, SO YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ADD COMMENTS TO THIS THREAD. IF YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS OR WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS ANYTHING RELATED TO WHAT YOU HAVE READ HERE THEN PLEASE RETURN TO THE MAIN FORUM
