This is part 2 in a 7 part series on using food labels to improve your nutrition. If you haven’t read the other posts, I suggest you start here so you can see links to all the posts from start to finish.
Portion Sizes
Obesity is a growing issue worldwide and this is such a sad fact, as it is almost always preventable.
The maths behind maintaining a healthy weight is so simple: don’t consume more energy than you use.
Unfortunately simple doesn’t always equate to easy, and various factors (the discussion of which are outside the scope of this post) are contributing to the ever-increasing rise in obesity.
Huge portion sizes, combined with less daily movement is one of the main culprits behind overweight and obesity. Portion sizes are getting bigger and bigger over the years.
It’s time to take matters into our own hands and start to take ownership for the amount we are consuming.
The first number you MUST be aware of on a packet of food is the portion that the rest of the numbers relate to.
It may be listed as a measurement (such as grams, or cups); or a portion size (such 1 40g portion, ½ a pack, or 2 slices)
Compare the portion size to what you normally consume. If it says a portion size is “80g”, is that more or less than you typically serve yourself?
Example 1
The example below explains why understanding the portion size you are consuming is so important:
- You check the label on a product and see it has “292 kCal per 80g portion”
- The portion you serve yourself is actually 160g
- The calories consumed jumps up to 584 kCal
Over time these additional calories from larger portion sizes can easily lead to weight gain.
Example 2
- Product 1 lists that it has 10g of sugar per 100g.
- Product 2 lists that it has 4g of sugar per portion. It states that a portion size is 40g.
- Product 3 lists that each 40g portion contains 4.4% of your GDA for sugar (UK based product)
These 3 products contain the exact same amount of sugar, but until you check all the details and understand the portion size it is not at all obvious and makes it very difficult to compare the products.
Understand % DA, DV and RI
Daily Amounts, Daily Values or Reference Intakes are recommendations on the amounts of the calories and various nutrients people should consume on a daily basis.
If a food label quotes the nutritional information as a % of the guideline amounts, this tells you the % of each nutrient, in terms of the daily recommended amount.
Note, that the recommendations vary from country to country.
In the UK, the “Reference Intakes” can be found here
In the USA the “Dietary Guidelines” can be found here
Calories
Although I am not an advocate of long-term calorie counting, I do believe that having a basic understanding of calories can help us to make better food choices and regulate our portion sizes.
Not all high calorie products should be avoided
Be careful though.
Just because something is high in calories, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t eat it.
There are many foods that are high in calories, but that should be included in a healthy diet as they contain so many important nutrients.
You just need to be aware that the PORTION SIZE will be especially important.
For example:
- raw nuts can contain around 650kCal per 100g, so stick to one handful as a portion
- olive oil contains around 120 kCal per tablespoon, so be mindful of the quantity when making your salad dressings or adding oil to the pan for cooking
- avocado contains around 160 kCal per 100g, so maybe don’t choose it for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Worth the calories?
Another good reason for checking the calories of products is that it helps you to make an informed decision and you can decide if it is “worth the calories”.
If I know that I should consume roughly 2000 kCal per day to maintain my weight, and I see that a chocolate muffin contains 500 kCal, I may think twice about whether it is really worth it, OR I may choose to share it with a friend to reduce the portion size.
Inaccuracy
This is a very important point, so please take note.
Nutritional information on food labels is not 100% accurate.
There is a big margin of error allowed by the regulating authorities.
For example the FDA in the US allows a 20% margin of error on nutrition labels.
In the EU there is no definite margin and the numbers are allowed to be based on calculations using “average values of the ingredients used or calculations from generally established and accepted data”.
It is therefore vital that you don’t let nutrition labels and calorie counting take over your life.Knowing how to read the labels and using them as a guide is helpful. Understanding how to determine if a product is full or added sugars or super high in salt is helpful, but using them to calculate precisely how many calories you are eating is not recommended. For more on calorie counting see this post all about it.
No “one size fits all” approach
As with most things in life, there is no “one size fits all” approach.
The recommendations above are aimed at generally healthy people, who do not have underlying health issues, which can be impacted by nutrition.
Health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, cancer, arthritis and many many others require a diet specifically tailored to the individual. That is out of the scope of this article. Before making any major changes to your diet, you should consult a doctor or a registered dietician.
Other posts in this series
