Learn food label (read before you shop!)

As I went for vacation and seminar two weeks ago, I went to many market, again, discovered one common mistakes consumer usually make, they are so attracted to latest advertisement, brand, free gift and also promotion. I posted before about the importance of food label, I would like to spend an hour now to re-emphasize how we can be a smart consumer in picking the right food and beverages. What do you usually buy from market? Look for the cheapest price, brand or quality? So, to guarantee you will buy the right products for the best of your health, it is necessary for everyone to learn how to read food label before you make any purchase of foods and beverages.

As a smart consumer, there are some simple things we should be aware with food products. The first things that we should pay attention to is about expire date. Normally for canned food, there will have shelf life about 2  to 5 years while for milk products, those ready to drink packet wil last for around half year; powder can last longer for around 1 year. I had bad experience with some shops as they simply put those expired biscuit mix together with those non expired biscuit. Thus, no matter what type or what brand of food or beverages products, remember expired date is a very important check point for your purchase.

Next is about nutrition label (an image of nutrition label is as above as what I snapped). Nowadays a lot of products claim less sugar or low fat, but is it really ‘less’ sugar or what can we understand about the term of less sugar. Actually less sugar is more directed to reduce 25% of sugary content from its original products. For example, if a packet of original flavor soy milk contain 20g sugar per serving, less sugar soy milk still contains around 15g sugar which is equal to 3 tsp per serving/ packet. According WHO, female is allowed a maximum 71/2tsp and male with maximum 10tsp in a day. Hence, this 3 tsp means you already take around 40% from the maximum total sugar intake in one day. We should bear in mind that not only beverages provide sugar but your snack such as biscuit or ice cream do contain certain amount of sugar. Some people are unaware about this and this lead towards diabetes mellitus in future life. Thus, we really need to look at the nutrition facts before purchase.

Another problem we might face is cereal products such as cereal drink or oat drinks. We never read the nutrition fact when we shop for those beverages. Some just blindly follow advertisement for the most popular or most branded one. One thing we shouldn’t miss out is about sugar. Most of the products will mention amount of sugar for one serving. If you are able to find that less than 5g per serving, that is consider low sugar products while those more than 15g per serving is in the category of high sugar beverages. If those products without label of sugar amount, try look into the ingredients part to identify any added sugars  such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, corn or maple syrup  which add calories but not other nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals. Lastly, we should always look for nutrition label of a food product before 100% believe it is a healthy product from its advertisement.

Diet for pregnancy (Part 2)

Pregnancy mother has their own nutrition pyramid table like the above image. It is essential to go through especially to learn what do you require most. I strongly recommend to start from protein. The protein intake for pregnancy mother should increase another 7.5 g/d or a total of 62.5 g/day. It is actually calculated based on body weight too. For example, those who are underweight should take at least 10 exchange of protein sources from foods such as 1 whole egg/ 30g tuna/ 30g sardine (1 exchange as breakfast) 120g of fish (1 whole fish), 90g chicken pieces or 1 ½ pieces of tofu (3 exchange) for each meal (lunch and dinner) plus another 2 cups of milk in whole day. The diet of pregnant vegetarian sometimes is lower in vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Ca, Zn, omega-3 and iron, thus; they need  variety plant sources legumes (lentils, chickpea, black-eye pea, black benas), grains (barley, corn, rice), nuts (soy, seeds), yogurt, vegetables and fruits to get sufficient of those nutrients.

在怀孕期间，蛋白质的摄入量应增加额外的7.5克/ 天或共62.5克/天。它实际上是根据体重计算的。例如，那些体重过轻的至少应摄取10份量的蛋白质来源的食物，如1颗蛋/30克鲔鱼/30克的沙丁鱼作为早餐，午餐或晚餐应包括120克或1尾鱼/90克的鸡肉片/1个半件豆腐在每一餐，另加一天两杯牛奶。素食主义的孕妇有时可能不足维生素B12，维生素D，钙，锌，ω-3，铁的饮食，因此需要确保足够的蛋白质包括从植物来源的豆类（扁豆，鹰嘴豆，黑眼豌豆，黑豆），谷物（大麦，玉米，米），坚果（大豆，种子），酸奶，蔬菜和水果，以获得足够的营养。

Diet for pregnancy (Part 1)

Littlediet is going to cover pregnancy topic this month as many around us might notice married couple tend to have a baby in this "dragon" year! However, have anyone of you think of having a healthy body first or started to take care only after you are pregnant? Actually, no matter how is the preparation, proper diet is the most important things you can give to your beloved one. To develop a healthy baby, all essential nutrients are very important for healthy growing up and development, for example extra iron, calcium, folate and others macro-nutrients. Littlediet is here to provide all necessary tips and recommendation according to the standard or experience.

The energy intake for 1st trimester (1st 3 months) pregnancy mother should be within a standard of 1800Kcal per day. When proceed to 2nd trimester might need to add on another 360 Kcal from standard (total 2160Kcal). Thus, the last trimester will result an additional of 475Kcal from standard which is total 2275Kcal. This is related to aggressive growth and development started on 2nd trimester until 3rd trimester for vital organs mature development. On the same time, certain micro-nutrients are needed as well apart from usual intake.

For pregnancy women, we do encourage a regular meal time and balance meal as it is essential for both maternal and fetal health. The 3 main energy sources include carbohydrate (CHO), protein and fat. For CHO, it supplies 50-65% from total energy, with a minimum 175g  to meet fetal brain’s need for glucose. Besides, due to hormonal changes, most of the maternal might face constipation problem, therefore it is recommended intake of high fiber especially green leafy vegetables, oats, barley, guava and apple that can help in resolving this problem. Of course, adequate fluid intake with 2L/day also can help in this problem. Next, for those pregnant women who are at risk or getting gestational diabetes mellitus, you might need to aware on sugary foods and beverages.

不管您在怀孕前还是怀孕时,你都应该保持健康的身体，以让自己和宝宝得到充足的营养。一个健康的宝宝，拥有必需的营养物质是非常重要的健康成长和发展因素。他们通常需要额外的铁，钙，叶酸和其他营养成分。

孕妇们在第一孕期（前3个月）的能量摄入量应保持摄取每天1800卡路里。当进行到第二孕期（第4个月至6月），只需要加多360卡路里。最后的3个月就需要加额外475卡路里。这是因为这时期宝宝的成长和成熟程度包括重要器官开始了。因此，在同一时间，某些微量营养素还需要额外摄取。

我们鼓励孕妇们培养有规律的用餐时间和平衡膳食。一共有 3个主要的能源来源是必须摄取足够的，这包括碳水化合物，蛋白质和脂肪。碳水化合物是让细胞得到总能量的50-65％，最低为175克，以满足胎儿大脑需要的葡萄糖。此外，由于荷尔蒙的变化，大多数产妇可能面对便秘问题，因此，高纤维，尤其是绿叶蔬菜，燕麦，大麦，番石榴，苹果，可以帮助解决这个问题。当然也鼓励摄入足够的水分（每天2公升）。但是，在这必须提醒关于怀孕期间若有血糖过高现象需注意甜的食物和饮料饮用。

Reduce your sugar intake

You must have heard before about diabetes campaign by health organization, the topic being stress mostly is the benefits of less sugary intake in your daily life. Although practice less sugary intake should be more towards diabetes mellitus patient, it is important for you and me as well. 


Sugar can be differentiate into natural sugar and added sugar. Sugar is a type of Carbohydrate that can provide us the main source of energy. All carbohydrate foods do contain natural sugar included rice, noodles, bread, starchy vegetables (carrot/ potatoes/ corn/ sweet potatoes). For milk, the natural sugar is called as lactose while for fruit, it is called as fructose. For added sugar, certain food or beverage itself that does not contain any sugar was added sugar during the process of production. For example, the added sugar can be find in nutrition label with name such as sucrose, fructose, sorbitol, manitol, corn syrup, honey, malt, malt extract, maltose, rice extract, golden syrup and inverted sugar.


In the market, the original low fat original flavor milk actually contains natural sugar which called as lactose (milk sugar) while for chocolate flavor milk actually contain added sugar which called as sucrose. You can always check for the label before you purchase any foods and beverage to identify natural sugar and added sugar.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), it is recommended that the maximum level for sugar intake is 10 teaspoon based on 2000 Kcal energy intake per day. If you guys follow my previous blog, I’m sure you all know how to calculate energy intake for different people for a day. It should just allow 10% of sugar intake from the total energy intake. For example, if a female daily energy intake is only 1500Kcal, then the maximum energy contribute from sugar should be 150Kcal only, which will be divide by 4 Kcal to get the weight, thus the amount of sugar is 37.5g. If 1 tsp of sugar equal to 5g, means 37.5g equal to 7 and half tsp sugar only for a 1500Kcal female.

As mention above, 1 tsp of sugar (5g) is able to provide 20Kcal. Thus, to burn the 7 and half tsp sugar (150Kcal), you need to do jogging or aerobic exercise for 30 minutes.  However, if you do not burn the daily energy, this 150 Kcal will turn into fat to be accumulate to your abdominal (tummy) and others fatty part. You can just imagine you can increase around 7.2 kg in your weight for a year! 

我相信大家都应该知道减少日常饮食中的糖分摄入，是不仅能够帮助您减少开支，还能帮助你减重或者保持一个健康的理想体重。 当然直接减少糖的摄入更是对糖尿病患者带来更多的益处。

糖可以分化成天然糖和添加糖。糖是一种碳水化合物的类型，可以为我们提供能量的主要来源。所有的碳水化合物食品中确实含有天然糖分包括大米，面条，面包，淀粉类蔬菜（红萝卜/马铃薯/玉米/地薯）。对于牛奶，天然糖被称为乳糖而水果是果糖。

某些食物或饮料本身不包含糖份，但是会在加工过程中被添加糖。添加糖可以包括蔗糖，果糖，山梨醇，甘露醇，玉米糖浆，蜂蜜，麦芽，麦芽提取物，麦芽糖，大米中提取的糖份，金糖浆等的标签。

据世界卫生组织（WHO），建议最高水平是10茶匙的糖根据每天2000卡路里的能量摄入。实际上只允许总能量的10％。例如，如果一个女性每日能量摄入是1500Kcal，那么糖的最多摄取量应该只有150Kcal，然后除以4Kcal以得到的重量，从而知道糖量为37.5克。如果1茶匙糖等于5克，意味着37.5克等于七个半茶匙糖而已。

正如上面提到，1茶匙糖等于5克，能够提供20Kcal。因此，要燃烧七个半茶匙糖（150Kcal）需要做30分钟慢跑或有氧运动。如果你不能燃烧这150Kcal，这意味着你每天都将这150Kcal转成脂肪积聚到你的腹部（肚子）和其他脂肪部分。事实上，你可以想像一年就可以增加约7.2kg。

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!