SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
VOLUME 10 NUMBER 3 • SEPTEMBER 2013
105
Keep and Copy Series
MAKING GOOD NUTRITIONAL CHOICES
S Afr J Diabetes Vasc Dis
2013;
10
: 105–108
G
ood nutrition is important throughout life,
to help with feeling your best and staying
strong. Good nutrition can also prevent
the risk of developing some diseases and help to
manage the symptoms of existing health issues.
Although understanding our nutritional needs may
seem complicated, food labelling legislation helps
us to know what the nutrient content of packaged
foodstuffs is. Fortunately, vegetables and fruit don’t
come with nutrition facts stamped into their skins.
For the nutrient content of fresh fruit and vegetables,
see Tables 1 and 2.
Understanding the information on food labels can
help in making healthier food choices and assist in
achieving the goals of diabetes management. Food
labels are astonishingly crammed with what can be
confusing information. Aside from the listed ingredi-
ents of the product, there are usually two other broad
categories of information included on the packaging;
nutritional facts and nutritional claims.
LISTED INGREDIENTS
Ingredients are listed in order from the largest to the
smallest amount used, based on the weight of the
ingredients. Usually, the first three on the list are the
major ingredients of the product.
Food additives such as flavourants, colourants or
preservatives will also be included. These help you
to compare similar products and avoid ingredients
that you don’t want to eat. See Table 3 for some of
the listed ingredients you may encounter on food
labels that can be interpreted to mean fat, or sugar,
or salt.
The serving size information should not be
ignored! Packaged foods often include more than
one portion or serving. A box of breakfast cereal, for
example, should include the nutritional information
per serving size to determine how many nutrients
and how much energy are being consumed, as
well as the per 100-g values to enable comparison
between products and food types.
NUTRITIONAL CONTENT
The nutritional content is the section of the food label
that elaborates on the specific nutrients contained in
a product, usually being the fat, carbohydrate, pro-
tein, vitamin and mineral content per serving size,
and weight in grams.
These contents will also be expressed as a per-
centage of daily nutrient reference value (%NRV),
which is the amount of that nutrient required in order
to stay healthy. A %NRV < 5% is considered low,
whereas a %NRV > 20% is considered high. These
figures are based on the average population, and
ill health may require modification of daily nutrient
needs.
Calorie/kilojoule content
This tells how much energy there is in one portion/
recommended serving size.
Fat
The right kind of fat provides energy and nutrition
to the body, but too much fat or the wrong types of
fat can increase risk for the development of diabetes
and cardiovascular disease. South African guidelines
for diabetes recommend a fat intake of < 35% of
total energy intake.
Total fat:
This is the total of all the different types
of fats that may be in the foodstuff (saturated,
unsaturated, trans, cholesterol). Choose ‘low-fat’ or
Patient
information
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