Diabetes UK conference for MPs - one outcome below might be something to write to your MP about

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Jenny105

Jenny105

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My MP responded to Diabetes UK s request to attend their conference at Westminster. She and I have had a short dialogue since then. One idea came out of it. That ,,, carbohydrates should be listed on the front of foodstuffs, alongside sugar

Thank you for your reply and I am most sorry to read of the struggles you face in living with diabetes. I fully sympathise with just how difficult this must be for you. I recognise that having compulsory carbohydrate food labelling on the front of food items would be beneficial to you and others living with diabetes and I have written to the Department of Health and Social Care raising this.

If you think this is something of value to you and to others please write to your MP , you may quote my MP Caroline Ansell if you wish.
Or write to your MP to check they attended, ask them to forward this idea or your idea to the Department of Health and Social Care
 
Thanks for the information @Jenny105

That certainly would be helpful!
 
It needs nailing down though.

I'm watching calories at the moment, which are listed on the front of foods.
I bought a tin of soup, very good I thought, 90 calories.
Got it home read the back like I normally do, 180 calories.
Read the front again, 90.
Checked carefully, there in extremely small print, was "per half can"
Is a can of soup two servings?
180 was still ok for me, even if I haven't noticed it.

If that was carbs, it could be a lot worse for some people.
It needs to be one single uniform standard measurement.
 
travellor said:
It needs nailing down though.

I'm watching calories at the moment, which are listed on the front of foods.
I bought a tin of soup, very good I thought, 90 calories.
Got it home read the back like I normally do, 180 calories.
Read the front again, 90.
Checked carefully, there in extremely small print, was "per half can"
Is a can of soup two servings?
180 was still ok for me, even if I haven't noticed it.

If that was carbs, it could be a lot worse for some people.
It needs to be one single uniform standard measurement.
Click to expand...
Pretty much everything in a can is two servings, certainly very standard for soup to be two servings per can. Not sure I can think of anything in a can that is one serving
 
travellor said:
It needs to be one single uniform standard measurement.
Click to expand...
The standard is per 100g, isn't it? (Not that that always helps when they don't give the weight of the thing. I've (rarely) had something where I just couldn't work out what I wanted to know because of a combination of weird factors (they gave things per serving but never actually said what a serving was or how many there were in the whole bag). Sometimes it helps to go via calories (they often give calories for a serving, for the whole bag/can/box, and for 100g).)
 
Bruce Stephens said:
The standard is per 100g, isn't it? (Not that that always helps when they don't give the weight of the thing. I've (rarely) had something where I just couldn't work out what I wanted to know because of a combination of weird factors (they gave things per serving but never actually said what a serving was or how many there were in the whole bag). Sometimes it helps to go via calories (they often give calories for a serving, for the whole bag/can/box, and for 100g).)
Click to expand...

On the back yes, but not on the traffic light system on the front.
 
Lucyr said:
Pretty much everything in a can is two servings, certainly very standard for soup to be two servings per can. Not sure I can think of anything in a can that is one serving
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As a starter maybe, but not as a lunchtime meal.
A can is just about a reasonable serving in a bowl.

But you've got me curious now, maybe its just me, I'll have to look more carefully in future.
 
travellor said:
As a starter maybe, but not as a lunchtime meal.
A can is just about a reasonable serving in a bowl.

But you've got me curious now, maybe its just me, I'll have to look more carefully in future.
Click to expand...
In the interests of research I’ve carried out a study of soups on the Tesco app.

I randomly selected different brands and checked the nutritional info

These give serving size as half a can - this covered a large proportion of search results for soup
Heinz
All the different Tesco brands
Campbells
Covent Garden

These give serving as a can
Baxters
Crosse and blackwell
Weightwatchers
 
travellor said:
Checked carefully, there in extremely small print, was "per half can"
Is a can of soup two servings?
Click to expand...

I see that a lot. Cynically I’ve always thought that it was largely to get the % of RDA into green or amber rather than red! Or make the percentages look smaller if they opt for the ‘hide it in one colour’ version.

Those lunch deal 380ml soft drink bottles (2 servings, naturally) being a prime suspect.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
I see that a lot. Cynically I’ve always thought that it was largely to get the % of RDA into green or amber rather than red! Or make the percentages look smaller if they opt for the ‘hide it in one colour’ version.

Those lunch deal 380ml soft drink bottles (2 servings, naturally) being a prime suspect.
Click to expand...

Definitely.
It's all marketing.
 
I wish I had realised this event was happening. My MP is a former GP, married to a working GP, so I would like to hope he might have attended, but one can never tell.

I might email him. That’d brighten his day.
 
Jenny105 said:
My MP responded to Diabetes UK s request to attend their conference at Westminster. She and I have had a short dialogue since then. One idea came out of it. That ,,, carbohydrates should be listed on the front of foodstuffs, alongside sugar

Thank you for your reply and I am most sorry to read of the struggles you face in living with diabetes. I fully sympathise with just how difficult this must be for you. I recognise that having compulsory carbohydrate food labelling on the front of food items would be beneficial to you and others living with diabetes and I have written to the Department of Health and Social Care raising this.

If you think this is something of value to you and to others please write to your MP , you may quote my MP Caroline Ansell if you wish.
Or write to your MP to check they attended, ask them to forward this idea or your idea to the Department of Health and Social Care
Click to expand...
Jenny are there any notes or outputs from the overall conference? I haven’t looked to see if it is noted in Hansard at all.
 
McDonalds used to list Carbs on their burger packs but stopped and only listed Calories. When I queried this with them they said it was an EU ruling. Don't forget that the NHS, Food industry etc love to talk about Calories and are almost unaware of Carbs (just Sugar). Sadly your MP will fail as Calories are entrenched in our society despite being based on very loose science (do some Googling). Fortunately Carbs are always listed on the back of food packs and on McDonalds tray sheets; just ignore useless Traffic Light labelling.
 
DaveB said:
McDonalds used to list Carbs on their burger packs but stopped and only listed Calories. When I queried this with them they said it was an EU ruling. Don't forget that the NHS, Food industry etc love to talk about Calories and are almost unaware of Carbs (just Sugar). Sadly your MP will fail as Calories are entrenched in our society despite being based on very loose science (do some Googling). Fortunately Carbs are always listed on the back of food packs and on McDonalds tray sheets; just ignore useless Traffic Light labelling.
Click to expand...

Works well for me, and many, many others.
Mostly we just watch the calories, and avoid the high fats.

But carbs would be very useful on there as well.
It does bring in what limits though.

Say 130g of carbs on a low carb diet, that's 520 calories a day on the average 2000 calories.
So anything less than 26% of carbs per item would be green.

Some say 10% maximum, but that is only 50g of carbs a day max, and that's getting into keto diets and not sustainable for very many.
 
Jenny105 said:
My MP responded to Diabetes UK s request to attend their conference at Westminster. She and I have had a short dialogue since then. One idea came out of it. That ,,, carbohydrates should be listed on the front of foodstuffs, alongside sugar

Thank you for your reply and I am most sorry to read of the struggles you face in living with diabetes. I fully sympathise with just how difficult this must be for you. I recognise that having compulsory carbohydrate food labelling on the front of food items would be beneficial to you and others living with diabetes and I have written to the Department of Health and Social Care raising this.

If you think this is something of value to you and to others please write to your MP , you may quote my MP Caroline Ansell if you wish.
Or write to your MP to check they attended, ask them to forward this idea or your idea to the Department of Health and Social Care
Click to expand...
I just automatically ignore the front label and any stupid colour coding it might have and look at the label on the back. If it's more than 5% carbs it usually goes back on the shelf.
 
It would be great to have standard ways of giving the info about carbs. It varies on different packaging, although there is frequently a per 100g, this is sometimes (esp pasta) given for cooked weight. We tend to weigh the food before we cook it, then work out carbs and pre-bolus, before we cook in some cases. If I waited to work it out after cooking it would be late to inject.

I am not worried about the colour of the label, as what might be ‘a lot of carbs’ for one person might be fine for another. I would just like to have the info available for uncooked ingredients.
 
Can't say bother about colours on front of packaging, even calories for that matter as tend to eat most foods & dont really follow a restrictive diet, so just look at carb value to try to get insulin dose right.
 
nonethewiser said:
Can't say bother about colours on front of packaging, even calories for that matter as tend to eat most foods & dont really follow a restrictive diet, so just look at carb value to try to get insulin dose right.
Click to expand...

We are a fairly small bunch though.
Even in the diabetic population, let alone in the general population.
Labelling for the masses is different though, most want to see the easy traffic light system.
 
travellor said:
We are a fairly small bunch though.
Even in the diabetic population, let alone in the general population.
Labelling for the masses is different though, most want to see the easy traffic light system.
Click to expand...

Well suppose your right there, it does stand out more.
 
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