I’ve just been reading in the news that the big supermarket chains have agreed to add new daily intake labels to their product lines. The labels will be on the front of items to show how much energy, fat, sugar and sodium is contained in a single serving. It also provides a percentage showing how much the serve would contribute to a person's recommend daily intake. The complete roll-out of the new labelling initiative is expected to take up to two years. This really is good news & a win for Public Health in Australia. In the past, labels have often been hidden away & have been quite difficult to interpret for some people. I don’t know how they are going to do the percentage of RDI as this can vary depending upon gender, age & activity level. I hope that while they’re at it a lot of items are reclassified as “confectionery”, for instance a lot of the cereals & biscuits that are available.
The next step will for the big fast food chains to adopt similar labelling & then for other takeaway venues & eat-in restaurants to do the same. I hope that the future also brings a crackdown on “up sizing”, from places like McDonald's, to single serve chocolate bars & drinks - where for a fraction of the cost you can double the amount you purchase. I can even speak for myself, for when I go & buy a Turkish delight bar I always buy the twin pack as it's only forty cents more but I end up eating the whole lot! After my husband & I met we both put on a substantial amount of weight, we have since lost some of it but still have a ways to go. When we were at our heaviest we sought the help of a weight loss consultant & found out that the two of us combined were eating enough to feed 4-5 people!
I hope that in the future we also see exercise being incorporated into the school & the work day, just like they do in Japan. Australia is one of the fattest nations on earth but this new food labelling is going to be one giant step in the right direction!
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