11th DECEMBER 2007
GDA new year feature release
Make a resolution you can stick to!
Use the What's Inside Guide to help get your diet back in control this January
Sticking to a healthy balanced diet over the festive period is not top of many Christmas lists and the average person will find themselves with an average half a kilo of added 'Christmas Season weight' to shift this January. Furthermore, research suggests that around 75% of people who begin healthy eating regimes on 1st January do not make it as far as the end of the month before things go awry. This new year, why not make a resolution to use the 'What's Inside Guide', a clear front-of-pack food nutritional label, to let you know what’s inside the food you’re buying and try to stay within your Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) for calories, salt, sugar or fat on most days.
Based on Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), the 'What's Inside Guide' is a handy label that lets you see, at a glance, how much of certain key nutrients your food contains per portion, and what percentage of your GDA this is. Now you can keep tabs on the amount of nutrients a portion of food provides or compare levels of say, calories, between foods. You could even roughly count up the amount of the particular nutrient you're concerned about (e.g. calories or salt) so you can keep an eye on how much you're consuming in a day and stick to your resolution by making sure you stay within your GDA.
The label has already proved popular - recent research by a women's magazine showed that 88% had used the What's Inside Guide on food packaging and 92% would like to see it used on more products.
Gaynor Bussell, dietitian and Nutritionist for the Food and Drink Federation, offers some advice to help you get stay on the straight and narrow: "Healthy eating doesn't have to be hard work or about depriving yourself of your favourite treats. The secret is achieving a sensible balance. Simple changes to your diet and lifestyle can really make a big difference to your overall health and how you feel.."
Here are some of Gaynor's TOP TIPS for healthy eating this New Year:
- Keep track of your Calories. Use the 'What's Inside Guide', found on the front of many food and drink packs, to roughly count up your calorie intake over the day so that you are roughly having your Guideline Daily Amount of 2000 calories. (you may need less if you are not very active and if you need to lose weight, and more if you are a very active person or are underweight)
- Try to cut down on high-fat foods, especially those with saturated fat. The 'What's Inside Guide' labels show the amount of saturated fat on the front of many food and drink packs.
- Even if you are keeping an eye on the fats, don’t overdo the sugars! You can find out how much sugar is in a portion of food by using the 'What's Inside Guide’ on the front of many food and drink packs. The maximum amount of sugar an average healthy adult should be consuming in a day is 90g.
- Base your meals on starchy foods, such as bread, pasta and potatoes and choose wholegrain varieties wherever you can.
- Watch out for foods high in salt and try to avoid adding salt at the table – it's linked to an increased risk of heart disease; 6g is the limit. The 'What's Inside Guide' clearly displays the amount of salt in a portion of food as well as the proportion of your GDA that it represents so its easy to keep your salt levels in check.
- Eat lots of fruit and vegetables - these are low in fat, will help to fill you up and make healthy snacks if you get hungry between meals. Fruit and vegetables are also a great source of fibre.
- Choose skimmed or semi-skimmed milk and low-fat yoghurts, rather than full-fat versions. Using the 'What's Inside Guide' you can compare dairy products to help choose which one best fits into your overall diet.
- Most of us don't eat enough fish. Aim to eat at least two servings of fish a week, including one serving of oily fish.
Gaynor concludes: "The What's Inside Guide lets you clearly see the number of calories and other nutrients contained within a suggested portion of food and it puts this information in perspective by showing you what percentage of an adult guideline daily amount this is.. All you have to do is check the contents and compare different products to decide which might fit better into a healthy diet – simple!."
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To find out more call the GDA press office on: +44 (0) 20 7820 9764
