Food labels can be confusing but they don’t have to be!

The nutrition information panel in usually located on the back or the side of products and states the amount of kilojoules/ calories that food has per serve or per 100g (if you prefer to work in calories you can convert the kj to cals by dividing it by 4.2).

It also displays the amount of protein, carbohydrates, sugars, fats, sodium and some nutrients per serve and per 100g. The panel also shows everything that is in it via the ingredients list. .
I personally find this more effective than the health star ratings.

Here are a few quick tips that help me make my food choices and that may help you as well.

• Look at the ingredients list first (ingredients are listed from greatest to smallest/ what’s mostly in it)

• If comparing other brands of eg: cereals, compare the nutritional information via the per 100g panel

• Try to only buy products where you know what each ingredient is (because why would you want to eat something that has a bunch of things you have never heard of?)

• Look up ingredients if unaware of what they are

• Try to buy products with low in sugar (LESS than 15g per 100g)

• Try and buy products low in sodium (LESS than 400mg per 100g

• Try and buy products low in saturated fat (LESS than 3g per 100g)

• Try and buy foods rich in fibre (aim for MORE than 7.5g per 100g)

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and it helps make shopping easier!