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Healthy Eating and Diabetes

Reading your food labels

Is there a nutritional panel? Yes.


Diabetes Australia 2006

Sugar and fat and salt are found in many processed foods. Use this chart to help you select what foods are suitable for you. Check the food label and consider the following recommendations:

Ingredient Qty per 100g Recommendation
Total fat
Saturated fat 		Low = 0g to 5g
Medium = 5g to 10g
High = more than10g 		For dairy < 2g per 100g
Aim for less than 15g per day
Sugar Aim for < 10g per 100g
With fruit < 25g per100g 		 
Salt (sodium) Excellent = <120mg
Good= <420mg 		Choose low or no added salt
Fibre Aim for > 3g / serve Recommended daily intake is 30g

If there is no nutritional panel, then check the list of ingredients. If fat, sugar or salt are amongst the first 3 ingredients listed on the label, then this is probably not a healthy food and should preferably be avoided.

Ingredients in disguise

The Australian Guidelines recommend we eat less fat, sugar and salt and more dietary fibre. All these ingredients can appear on food labels 'in disguise. These must be listed in descending order by weight. This means the first named ingredient must be present in the greatest proportion, followed by the second, third and so on.

FAT OTHERWISE KNOWN AS SUGAR APPEARING AS SALT INDICATED AS FIBRE STARRING IN
Vegetable oil Sucrose Sodium or Na++ Bran- wheat
Vegetable fat Maltose Monosodium glutamate Bran- oat
Animal oil/fat Lactose MSG Bran- rice
Shortening Dextrose Sodium bicarbonate Rolled oats
Copha Fructose Sodium lactate Wholegrain
Lard Glucose Sodium ascorbate Wheatgerm
Tallow Mannitol Sodium metabisulphite Wheatmeal
Coconut oil Sorbitol Sodium nitrate  
Palm oil Xylitol Sodium citrate And of course in many foods such as:
Butter fat Glucose syrup Sodium phosphate
Hydrogenated fats Corn syrup Meat/yeast extracts
Milk solids Golden syrup Stock cubes - Dried fruit
Monoglycerides Disaccharides Soup cubes - Nuts
Diglycerides Monosaccharides Baking powder/soda - Seeds
Chocolate Polysaccharides Rock salt - Dried peas
Chocolate chips Invert sugar Sea salt - Dried beans
  Raw sugar Hydrolised meat/veg - Lentils
Creamed, toasted, Brown sugar protein  
oven baked, Cane sugar Baking powder Also fresh fruit and vegetables
crunchy may Molasses Booster
indicate added fatcrunchy may Malt Celery salt  
  Malt extract Garlic salt A small amount of sugar in a high fibre food
  Honey Onion salt
  'Modified Vegetable salt
  Carbohydrate'   is acceptable if blood sugar levels are under control
     
     
     

Updated from: The Traffic Light Guide to Food, 2005 Edition

Nutrition Claims

A nutrition claim is a statement that suggests that the food has a nutritional property, e.g. “good source of iron”, “high in fibre”, “reduce salt”, “reduced fat” etc. It can help you to select suitable products, if you know what various claims on a product mean. Some are listed below with their meaning:

Reduced Fat
The food contains at least 25% less fat than the ‘regular’ product (in the same brand). This does not necessarily mean a product is low in fat. For example, for a full cream cheese containing 35 g fat / 100 g serve, the reduced fat cheese in the same brand would still contain 26 g fat / 100 g (i.e. 35 g - 9 g (25% of the fat). This product is not low in fat!

Low Fat
The food contains not more than 3 g of fat / 100 g (or 1.5 g fat / 100 g if it is a liquid).

% Fat Free
Must meet low fat guidelines, e.g. should only see claims 97% fat free or higher.

Toasted /oven baked
These products are usually still made with fat, so check the fat content, even if not cooked in fat.

No Added Sugar/Unsweetened
The food has no added sugar, however the Nutrition Information panel must alert consumers to the natural sugar content of the food. These products can still be high in naturally occurring sugar e.g. fruit juice.

Sugar free
Must contain no more than 0.2g total sugar per 100g of solid food

Diet/Low Joule
Maximum of 80 KJ/100ml for a liquid and 170 KJ/100g for foods. These products are usually artificially sweetener.

Cholesterol Free
Does not usually mean low in fat – read labels for fat content.

Low Salt
Less than 120mg sodium/100mg.

Reduced Salt
Contains 25% less sodium for the same amount of the reference food.

No Added Salt
Unsalted (no added sodium compounds) and the label must include a statement about the natural sodium content of the food.

Light or Lite
The term lite can refer to a number of different characteristics, e.g., colour, weight, fat, or salt content etc. The characteristic that makes the food ‘light’ must be stated on the label. Thus, lite products are not necessarily low in fat.

For example, light olive oil is light in colour, but still nearly 100% fat!

So, when it comes to reading labels - “read the fine print”. The information provided on the food label should tell you the story about the product. If it doesn’t, follow the advice “if in doubt, leave it out”!