Food Labels

If you think that reading food labels sounds tedious, remember that the diet industry has devised numerous diets which involve constant references to charts, tables, etc. in order to ensure that the diet is being followed. The aim of this website is to empower people with enough knowledge to create their own healthy diet, and understanding the nutritional information on the labels of foods which you want to eat will help you to do that.

Nutritional information is now displayed on both the front and back of most food and drink packaging. The front of the packaging is likely to display either a small ‘wheel’, or a bar of ‘tabs’, and both show how much fat, saturates (also referred to as saturated fat), salt, sugars, and how many calories, are contained in the portion described at the edge or top of the display.

Many of the front of package displays use the ‘traffic light’ colour code system, where the amounts of fat, etc., are shown against a red, amber, or green background. An amount on a red background means that the amount of fat etc., in the portion mentioned is supposed to be ‘high’; on an amber background the amount is supposed to be ‘medium’; and on a green background the amount is supposed to be ‘low’. This system was devised by ‘experts’ who believe that consumers only spend a few seconds looking at the front of a package before they decide whether to buy it or not. One problem with this ‘traffic light’ system is that some people may decide not to buy a product that contains an amount of fat that is displayed on a red background, when the product, such as cheese, is very nutritious, and most people could eat a small portion per day, if they wanted to. Another problem is that an amount of ‘total sugars’ on a red background could put people off buying a product that only contains natural sugars!

Other front of package displays don’t use the ‘traffic light’ colour code system, but they display the amount of fat, saturates, salt, sugars, and how many calories, all on the same coloured backgrounds. Some use different coloured backgrounds for fat, etc., but the colours don’t actually have any significance. Both these types of displays tend to show what percentage of “your Guideline Daily Amount” is used-up by the amount of fat, etc., in the portion shown. The problem with this is that the ‘Guideline Daily Amounts’, or GDAs, are not actually your Guideline Daily Amounts - everybody has their own personal nutritional requirements, as mentioned in the guideline for fat consumption on this website.

This website recommends ignoring the front of package nutrition displays, and spending a little more time reading the nutritional information panel on the back. If you include a variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet, and choose whole-grain cereal and either wholemeal or seed bread, then you needn’t spend time scrutinising all the nutritional information provided – just fat, saturates, sugar, and salt – for which there are guidelines on this website. This website doesn’t recommend counting calories, as you could eat the right amount of calories for your energy requirements, but still not be eating a healthy diet!