To consume less sugar and salt
Trying to decipher the adequate amount of salt and sugar in a product during the supermarket rush can be confusing, so the health authorities have released a leaflet to help people make sense of food labels.
"We want people to make the right choice and go for healthy options," Health Promotion Department head Charmaine Gauci said.
The leaflet includes a small card, the size of a credit card, which can be carried in wallets to help consumers check the ingredients listed on the packaging and determine whether food is healthy.
The card explains that five grams or less of sugars, three grams or less of total fats and 1.5 grams or less of saturated fats per 100 grams can be considered low. A product is low in salt when there is 0.3 grams or less per 100 grams.
Copies of the leaflet - Read Food Labels For A Healthier Choice - can be picked up at health centres, the Health Ministry or Pavi supermarket, which sponsored it. Consumers can also phone the department on 2326 6000 to request a copy.
The leaflet came just days after the European Parliament shot down efforts to introduce colour-coded warnings on food labels. Consumer groups had pushed for this form of labelling, describing the traffic light system as the easiest way to inform obese Europeans about the nutritional value of food.
The proposed system would have required food companies to put a label on the front of their packages with a red, amber or green icon to denote the amount of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar they contain,
The EP negative vote was described by the European Consumers' Organisation as "a severe blow". Its director general, Monique Goyens, said research from across Europe showed that consumers found colour coding the easiest and simplest way to make informed and healthy choices.
"When we clearly have an obesity epidemic spreading across Europe and when consumers clearly want to make healthier choices about their diet, we really should give them the tools that work best and which they want," she said.
She described the vote as hugely disappointing.
"MEPs have missed the opportunity to make healthy food more accessible. We fear the fight against childhood obesity, in particular, has taken a serious blow today.
"Parents more than anyone else are the people who don't have the time to check detailed and complex information currently found on many food products. All we ask is that we have a clear, transparent system in place where all shoppers can make, at a glance, comparisons between various foods," Ms Goyens said.
19 Comments
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Myrna Minkoff
Mar 21st 2010, 04:08
lol @ this whole problem with sugar and salt in today's culture. cook at home from scratch, and eat mostly vegetables. it's not hard.
Audrey Costa
Mar 20th 2010, 17:29
make no mistake, it's not about getting fat,. Its about hypertension, high cholesterol, strokes, heart attacks, and, one of the most common, preventable disease: dental decay - limit sugar intake to meal times, and avoid sugar intake before bedtime - taken too often, even if in tea or coffee or fruit juice, sugar has devastating effect on our precious teeth. Its all about balance x x
h galea
Mar 20th 2010, 15:42
All local products will have the wording as stated, but what's inside !!!!remains the original.
Joseph Mizzi
Mar 20th 2010, 14:25
The Maltese Paediatric Association has published guidlines in Maltese on healthy lifestyle for all the family. Please refer to http://www.paediatricsmalta.org/familja-sahha.pdf
GiovDeMartino
Mar 20th 2010, 12:21
Ghalina l-Maltin.....BL-INGLIZ! Dak li jdcejjkaqni jien mhux li fl-Universita hafna drabi jkollu jintuza l-Ingliz!
r.cutajar
Mar 20th 2010, 11:50
if one can see the tiny lettering and provided at least the reading is availabile in English !!!!!
Where is the STANDARD AUTHORITY ? well it is govt. entity and whatever wages keep being dished out irrispective of
lgalea
Mar 20th 2010, 14:23
It should be in our NATIONAL LANGUAGE MALTESE.
M.Gauci
Mar 20th 2010, 14:40
@Igalea
Pity you don't ever write Maltese here. But then again neither am I, even if I am not the one moaning about it.
lgalea
Mar 20th 2010, 14:55
Sometimes I do write in Maltese but I never said that English or any other language for that matter should not be used. What I always maintain is that Maltese is OUR NATIONAL LANGUAGE and it should be the first language in anything and everything. All other languages are foreign. To give you an example, the TM, previously ADT, is violating the Constitution by putting up all road signs in English only and not in Maltese with an English equivalent under the Maltese version. Go see for yourself. This is the disrespect and violation of the Constitution that is being committed by authorities who are duty bound to use and respect our national language.
Robert Scullion
Mar 20th 2010, 18:54
@lgalea
Only you could complain about a small leaflet that helps to promote healthy eating. Don't you have some anti-EU stories to invent, or are you going to suggest that its written in English because the EU ordered Malta to do so ...
lgalea
Mar 20th 2010, 21:05
Scullion, what I do is none of your business.
I am neither an eu lackey nor a menial eu servant.
As for inventing stories, time is proving that it is you and the eu petty dictators that invent them.
lgalea
Mar 20th 2010, 21:08
By the way scullion, for your information, the first avis that the eu issued stated that the eu looked forward to the use of english so as to avoid the introduction of another eu language. Look up the first avis if you don't believe it. Go on scullion, do it.
Robert Scullion
Mar 21st 2010, 14:03
@Igalea
"As for inventing stories, time is proving that it is you and the eu petty dictators that invent them."
ie the death penalty in the Lisbon Treaty
ie Malta paying more into the EU than receiving
Trying to remember what other laughable stories you've made up
ie There will be one EU army
ie National Governments no longer exist after the introduction of the Lisbon Treaty
Next you'll be telling us that the 'no' side won the referendum a few years ago -- oh wait you've already said that before, as did some other failed leader.
Robert Scullion
Mar 21st 2010, 14:15
@Igalea
"the first avis that the eu issued stated that the eu looked forward to the use of english so as to avoid the introduction of another eu language. "
Gosh, made up 'fact' again. Aren't you the cheeky little make-up artist :)
REGULATION No 1 determining the languages to be used by the European Economic Community -- dated 15 April 1958
Article 1 - The official languages and the working languages of the institutions of the Community shall be Dutch, French, German and Italian.
Plus,, and this may surprise you (since you fail to do this everytime), but this next line is a link to back-up what I've just said
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31958R0001:EN:HTML
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31958R0001:MT:HTML
D. Saliba
Mar 20th 2010, 11:35
"...help consumers check the ingredients listed on the packaging and determine whether food is healthy
The card explains that five grams or less of sugars, three grams or less of total fats and 1.5 grams or less of saturated fats per 100 grams can be considered low."
Banana = 12.5g sugar/100g
Almonds = 50g fat/100g
Olive oil = 100g fat/100g
Good job, "Health" Promotion Department. This card is going to encourage people to dismiss very healthy foods which happen to be high in fat or sugar.
Audrey Costa
Mar 20th 2010, 11:51
intrinsic sugars as in bananas are not part of the sugars that people need to be cautious about - these are called extrinsic sugars because they occur outside cell walls and are found in cerals, crisps, chocolate bars, confectionary, flavooured milk and fruit juice (yes - because once fruit is squahed, the sugars are released from the fruit's cells, and become extrinsic - plus many manufacturers add more sugar to them) Again, I do not think any person should consume 100ml of olive oil - one teaspoon a day maybe - and that's great, nuts - a handful a day - that is healthy!
C.Vassallo
Mar 20th 2010, 12:08
In fact I have always read that all 3 mentioned items should always be consumed in moderation. And bananas should be more on the green side rather than the yellow. Almonds and Olive oil pack calories like hell. Fats as well although mostly helping to increase HDL levels.
I stand to be corrected, but that is what I always thought.
D. Saliba
Mar 20th 2010, 13:01
Audrey Costa and C.Vassallo:
In a sense you're right, but ultimately it all boils down to ones caloric and macro needs. There's nothing wrong with eating 100g of nuts or 300ml of olive oil... if it fits your caloric needs. My initial point was that fat and unrefined sugars are not inherently unhealthy, as this card seems to be indicating.
This card will do nothing but reinforce the myth that fatty and sugary foods make you fat. What makes you fat is eating above-maintenance calories, or in layman's terms: eating more than what your body needs.
G.Debono
Mar 20th 2010, 13:55
If you want to caculate your maintenance (resting) metabolic rate, follow this link.
http://www.shapeup.org/interactive/rmr1.php
(As with all internet resources - I would not take this as being fact)