Understanding food labels may lead to healthier eating choices

“One should check for the fat and sugar content in labels specifically”

New Delhi, December 18, 2018:

New research has indicated that labels on packaged foods such as nutrition facts, “low-sodium” or “fat-free” as well as calorie counts on restaurant menus, have to some extent encouraged healthier eating choices in people. It also found that labelling reduced consumers’ intake of calories by 6.6%, total fat by 10.6%, and other unhealthy food options by 13%. Labelling also increased consumers’ vegetable consumption by 13.5%.

Obesity is on the rise in India, particularly among children. Overweight and obese children are predisposed to lifestyle diseases later in life. It is thus important to encourage healthy eating habits at a younger age. A change in food labeling policy may discourage the public from choosing such foods products not only for themselves, but most importantly for their children.

Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee, Dr KK Aggarwal, President, HCFI, said, “The health ministry has made it mandatory for some medicines to have a red vertical line on their strips to sensitize the public to the fact that these medicines are meant to be consumed only with the doctor’s prescription. Along these lines, packages of all food products that contain high levels of sugar, calories, salt and saturated fats should also carry a ‘red dot’ or a ‘red arrow pointing upwards’ on the food label, which carries the nutritional content of that particular food product as a symbol warning the consumer that the food product contains unhealthy amounts of fats, sugar and salt. This will perhaps encourage people to opt for healthier alternatives.”

One example to understand food labels could be: any food label which end with ‘ose’ is sugar. Some examples are glucose, maltose, sucrose, fructose, galactose etc.

Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, who is also the Group Editor-in-Chief of IJCP, said, “For people with diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndromes, eating sugar needs to be restricted. Therefore, every patient must know the food labels where sugar is present. Most people confuse sugar with only glucose. Malta contains maltose, table sugar contains sucrose, fruits contain fructose, and glucose available in the pharmacy contains glucose. If eaten in excess, all forms of sugar can increase blood sugar in the body. They also can cause insulin resistance if the sugar is taken in the form of refined sugar or is rapidly absorbable form.”

Some tips from HCFI

• Na in label means salt
• ‘ose’ ina label means sugar ( fructose, glucose, maltose etc)
• The top contents in the label contains the maximum contents of that substance
• Check both the serving size and the number of servings found in a package or container.
• Foods containing 5% of the daily value (DV) or less of a nutrient are low in that nutrient, and those that contain 20% of the DV or more are high in that nutrient.
• Avoid foods that list multiple types of sugars near the beginning of the list. When choosing products containing grains, opt for those that contain a whole grain near the beginning of the list rather than refined grains.
• Food labels can also help you become more familiar with standard serving sizes and help with portion control. Measure out one serving of a food at a time, so you can become familiar with what that looks like.