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Week 2

Topic 2: Healthy Eating

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Check out this Australian Guide to Healthy Eating which can help you determine the recommended servings of food per food group.

Making decisions using nutritional information

When you compare packaged foods, look at the amount of fat, sugar and salt per 100g on the nutritional information panel. Below are questions to help you choose healthier options (based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating for adults):

Fat:

  • For milk,  yoghurt and ice cream: Is there less than 2g of fat per 100g?

  • For cheese: Is there less than 15g of fat per 100g?

  • For everything else: Is there less than 10g of fat per 100g?

Sugar:

  • Is there less than 15g of sugar per 100g?

  • Avoid foods with lots of added sugar (check the list of ingredients)

Salt (sodium):

  • Is there less than 400mg of sodium per 100g?

  • Aim for the least amount of salt.

Thinking carefully about food packaging

Food companies sometimes use the packaging to make food seem healthier.

Here are some examples:

  1. Ticks and seals: companies can use these to make a product seem healthier.

  2. “Less than”: a product might claim it has ‘less salt’ or ‘less fat’ but does not tell us what it is compared to.

  3. “Light” or “lite”: this can describe the texture, colour or taste instead of energy (kJ) or fat.

  4. Healthy brand names: for example, Go Natural, Mother Earth, Nice and Natural

  5. Irrelevant claims: some claims might be true but are also mostly true for that type of food. For example, most lollies are fat free, but claiming they are 99% fat free may make them seem healthier.

Healthy Plate Method and Snacking Smarter!

When planning your meal, you can create your balanced plate using the healthy plate method

If you’d like to change your snacking habits, you can try a one-week challenge to help you snack smarter. Click on this link to get started!

OR you can also come up with your own challenge based on your goals.

More resources: