Read the Label
Food labels are good news for people who are trying to eat more healthily.
Generally you want to avoid foods that are high in sugar, high in salt and high in saturated fat. If you are eating foods that contain fat, make sure it’s unsaturated fat. Avoid things like butter and lard and go vegetable oils.
You can now tell at glance whether food is:
- High in fat
- High in salt
- High in sugar
The label will tend say how many grams(g) of each there are in 100g of the food. You may also get a figure for how much of the fat is made up of ‘saturates’. Too much saturated fat increases cholesterol, which increases your chances of developing heart disease.
The table below gives you an idea of the highs and lows.
What’s high and what’s low?
fat per 100g | saturated fat per 100g | sugar per 100g | salt per 100g | |
| LOW | 3.0g or less | 1.5g or less | 5.0g or less | 0.3g or more |
| HIGH | 20g or more | 5.0g or more | 15g or more | 1.5g or more |
Read the ingredients list
Did you know that the ingredients label on a food packet always lists the biggest ingredient first?
The ingredients list is particularly useful when you’re watching out for added sugars. Get to know these words: sucrose, glucose, fructose, maltose, hydrolysed starch and inverted sugar, corn syrup and honey.
If you see one of these near the top of the list, you know the food is likely to be high in added sugars.
