A warning has been issued to shoppers over a common food label found on supermarket shelves.
A fitness expert from Curves shared tips on how to read labels if people want to achieve their diet goals. Joanna Case described the nutrition label on food packaging as an essential tool when people are choosing to eat cleaner.
However, she warned shoppers should beware of food items labelled as "reduced fat". She said: "Although you might seem tempted to reach for the first item that is advertised as "reduced" or "low" fat, they are not always the healthiest option.
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"Manufacturers sometimes replace fat with more sugar to bring out flavours. Ensure you read the nutrition information to compare sugar and fat content on the original and reduced fat product. As well as increased sugar, the alternatives can be higher in salt. If the low-fat version is not lower in energy (kcal), it is often better to have a smaller amount of the original product."
Joanna also shared five other key pieces of advice for how people can read food labels:
Check the ingredients first
Many pre-packaged foods have an ingredients list on the back of packets. Everything that goes into your food will be listed in weight order, from biggest to smallest.
Check the first few ingredients to see if they contain saturated fats such as butter or cream, concentrated fruit juice or white sugar as these will make up the largest percentage. Added sugar can lead to weight gain.
Foods with ‘low fat’ labels normally contain a large amount of sugar to boost flavour, with hidden name substitutes such as agave nectar and malt syrup. The ingredients that are listed near the end will be smaller quantities, however they are still important additions.
Certain vitamins such as B2, can be added to products such as granola and provide positively significant contribution to your daily intake. Also, keep an eye out for fibre, a fibre rich diet helps to prevent constipation and keep our digestive system healthy. The qualified as high fibre products mean you must have at least 5 grams of fibre per day.
Traffic lights
Many packages have a clear traffic light indicator on the front of their packages. Whilst they are useful to determine their nutritional value at quick glance, the values are given for levels of fat, saturated fats, sugars, and salts.
Green is low, amber is medium, and red is high. Joanna explained she would personally avoid the red label ones - and said green and amber are generally ok, if you are having a healthy diet.
Serving sizes
Whilst food manufacturers declare how many calories are in each "serving", many people fail to recognise the scales of servings. Always take a close look at the small print serving size. For example, a "ready meal" might serve two, so the 400 calories per serving is for half a pack. When it comes to smaller items, such as biscuits, from 1 to 2 biscuits could be different from the amount you might eat.
Protein quantities
Protein is vital for maintaining muscle mass. Nutrition labels can be helpful to choose foods that provide protein. However, when scanning a label, take note of the grams of fat to ensure that the number is on the lower side. For every 100grams, 17.5g is qualified as high fat and above qualifies as saturated fat.
Protein-rich foods are typically high in saturated fat and unhealthy trans-fat. Lean meat products and low-fat dairy products are better quality options.
Gluten free and vegan options
Even though gluten free is increasingly popular, it does not necessarily equate to low or less fats. Any food labelled gluten free must contain less than 20ppm of gluten. Gluten-free foods often have higher fat, sugar and salt to improve the flavour, consistency and appearance.
Unless you are celiac or have a gluten allergy, there is little evidence that a gluten-free diet offers any health benefits, your body needs gluten as you need to cover for the nutritional values alternative from it.
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