A further example of nutrition fact

This is a type of cultured drink (Yakult - a probiotic milk-like product) in which 1 serving with 80ml provide 62Kcal. It contains around 14.6g sugar. For this beverage, the CHO mostly is sucrose where 94% calories supply by sugar from total calories.  Thus, this is actually a high sugary content beverage. Of course, this type of cultured drink can be consume with its probiotic content. Yet, it is better to limit to 1 bottle per day which can help in promote digestion but with moderate consumption of sugar.

Next, above is a type of low fat chocolate milk. It shows 1 serving with 250ml and provides 185 Kcal. It actually different from low fat original flavour milk. It contains high calories with extra calories supply from sugar (sucrose) which is 15.8g. Sucrose supply 34% from total calories. This is related to chocolate or any type of flavour milk by adding more sugar to make it more palatable. If you take a look on low fat original milk, it actually contains natural sugar which is lactose. Thus, it is more advisable for diabetic patient to take original flavour rather than added flavour milk. The second picture is also a type of low fat milk too as 100g serve 2.1g fat. However, we need be caution with its sugar content.

I hope you all can understand why consumer should learn how to read a nutrition label from a product. We can know lots of nutrition information by reading the label. Cheers.

A simple example of nutrition fact

To the best of my knowledge, we actually allow diabetes patient to take sugar in their diet with limitation to 10% from total calories. For example, if a female is allowed to take 1500 Kcal for one day, the maximum sugar intake is around 37.5g per day. However, we should know that this amount also includes the sugar inside your daily food especially carbohydrate foods or drinks especially your staple foods such as rice/bread/noodles and even snack. So you can imagine how much calorie intake from daily food only. Let me give you all my real observation of nutrition content that we might purchase.

The label is in Malay and sorry for bad image quality.

This is a concentrate calcium chocolate milk. Most of the people take it as a high calcium beverage as it can provide 650mg per packet. 1 packet serves for 1 serving with 125ml and provides you 85 Kcal.. For CHO content, it shows 13.1g which can divide to 7.5g sugar and 5.6g lactose. Lactose is a type of sugar naturally occurs in milk and should not count as added sugar. Thus, there is only 7.5g sucrose being added to increase the flavour of milk. However, it contributes 35 % calories from the total calories. Lets me explain why this is a type of low fat milk. The fat content per 100ml is 1.3g which is < 3g according nutrition facts that I have posted previously. Thus, it is still a good beverage choice for us to consume as it's high calcium and good protein sources with low fat content. Just bear in mind, when comparing this beverage to other zero nutrient beverages such as soft drink / carbonated drinks (16.3g sugar), milk seems to be more beneficial for our health.

Food label (You have to learn!)

Remember some nutrition label posts from littlediet? Food label is important as it shows us our intake into our own body. Recently, my patients are confuse with the advertisement about added sugar products and sugar free products. Hereby, I would like to take this post to explain further how to read the reference from a food label.

An example of nutrition facts label

Sugar is another type of carbohydrate. You may heard that sugar is referred to as simple or fast-acting carbohydrate. There are two main types of sugar. Sugars in your diet can be naturally occurring or added. Naturally occurring sugars are found naturally in foods such as fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose). Added sugars are sugars and syrups put in foods during preparation or processing, or added at the table.

On the nutrition facts label, the number of sugar grams includes both added and natural sugars.

There are many different names for sugar. The hidden ingredient with many different names. Examples of common names are table sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey, beet sugar, cane sugar, confectioner's sugar, powdered sugar, raw sugar, turbinado, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, agave nectar, and sugar cane syrup.

The major sources of added sugars are regular soft drinks, sugars, candy, cakes, cookies, pies and fruit drinks (fruitades and fruit punch); dairy desserts and milk products (ice cream, sweetened yogurt and sweetened milk), and other grains (cinnamon toast and honey-nut waffles).

Many of you consume more sugar than you realize. It’s important to be aware of how much sugar you consume because your body does'nt necessary need much sugar to function properly. Added sugars contribute zero nutrients but many added calories that can lead to extra pounds or even obesity, thereby reducing heart health.

In my next post, I am going to reveal an example of product with details explanation on the nutrition label and calories. Stay tuned!