Читать книгу Practical Carbohydrate Counting - Hope S. Warshaw - Страница 25

Today, because of federal food and nutrition labeling regulations, nearly all packaged, canned, and prepared foods have a Nutrition Facts panel (Figure 4-1) on the food label (the only foods that generally do not are fresh fruits, vegetables, other fresh produce, and some fresh meat, poultry, and seafood). The total carbohydrate count is required on nearly all foods that have a Nutrition Facts panel. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website at www.fda.gov is a great resource for information on food labeling regulations. At the time of this writing, the direct link for food and nutrition labeling information is www.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html.

The following are teaching points about the Nutrition Facts panel in regard to Basic Carbohydrate Counting:

• The Nutrition Facts provide information based on one serving of the food. People need to take note of the panel serving and consider the portion they eat to correctly figure their carbohydrate count. Serving sizes on food labels are uniform and defined by the FDA. For example, one serving of bread is 30 grams and one serving of juice is 8 ounces. Servings must be noted in grams as well as household servings. For example, one slice, ten crackers, 8 ounces, etc. This makes the amounts easier to understand.

• Food label serving sizes are not necessarily the same as diabetes (or exchange/choice) servings. Table 3-4 (page 27) provides examples of how the servings can be the same or different.

• The total carbohydrate count includes all the components under total carbohydrate, including dietary fiber, sugars, and polyols (sugar alcohols). There is no need for people to pay special attention to sugars, as they are counted as part of total carbohydrate. “Sugars” are defined by the FDA as both naturally occurring sugars and added sugars or all mono- and disaccharides (U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2004). Educators should explain that the word “sugars” on the food label is not just added sugars. This is often a point of confusion for people learning carbohydrate counting.

• Make sure that if people are doing meal planning according to servings that they know how to translate the grams of carbohydrate from a Nutrition Facts panel into a serving of food in their eating plan.

• The nutrition claims: sugar free, reduced sugars, and no added sugar or no sugar added do not mean the food is carbohydrate or calorie free. People still need to look at the amount of total carbohydrate and count it. (Chapter 10 provides additional information on polyols and how to teach people to fit these into their eating plan.)