I am newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes .I am finding information from food manufacturers about sugar content very confusing . They say you can eat vegetables chicken & fish . Tonight I went into Tesco and purchased some pre packed mediteranin vegetables .It said on the front there was 9.8 sugars .However when I looked on the back 6.1 sugars per 100g .This was a 400g package .Well I'll be honest I'm not brilliant at maths .But 4 x 6.1 = 24.4 . Therefore this is very confusing information. Would appreciate some feedback on this issue?
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Confusing Food Information
- Thread starter JS1066
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Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
The 9.8 is for half a pack (160g). However, it's the carbs you need to be looking at on food packaging, not the 'of which sugars'. The only value in 'of which sugars' is you have a choice of items with similar carb content and one is lower in 'of which sugars' than the other, making it the better choice.
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Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
It is on the back in nutritional information, as shown in the picture above. Alternatively you can look on the shop website for the product you want.
For fresh foods the internet is OK as long as you look at UK sites.
Martin.A
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
This is often on supermarket online ordering sites too, Sainsbury's for instance.
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- Type 1
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I think you are right @JS1066 - it really IS confusing.
Lots of people with diabetes implored the Dept of Health to include total carbohydrate content as part of the required ‘per portion’ traffic light labelling - but to no avail.
So now we have a situation where it is provided in some situations, but it isn't a legal requirement.
In extreme situations there are pieces of packaging where per 100g values are given , but no weight is quoted for the item. So you have to jump through mathematical hoops to work out the carbohydrate per portion based on one of the other per-portion nutrients which IS specified on the front (eg fats), along with the per-100g values you are given.
I think it’s because they tried to make the traffic lights about ‘bad stuff’. Where I think it would have been much more helpful to make it about keeping all things in balance, including proteins and carbohydrates. Because too much of anything isn’t a good idea.
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