Calories, sugars, fat, saturates, salt – and you!

The What's Inside Guide GDA label features five key nutrients. You'll be familiar with them all. But do you know why it's good to keep below the GDA for salt? Why fat is needed at all? Here are the facts behind the figures...

 Calories

There's so much more to calories than something that if eaten in excess can make you put on weight. Calories are important because they help you to replace the energy you use up during the day - energy needed not just for exercise but for everything you do (even breathing and sleeping). So you need to be sure that the energy you use is balanced out by the energy you take in. Obviously then, the more active you are, the more calories you need – and vice versa! 

The GDA for calories for an average adult is 2000.

 Sugars

Sugar gives the body energy and tastes, well, sweet. The sugars in your diet can come from lots of places:  some of them obvious, like sprinkled on corn flakes or stirred into a cup of tea – others where you may not expect them to be, like the naturally occurring sugars found in things like fruit, fruit juice and milk. And while most of us like to have some sugar in our diet to help food taste nice, you should certainly aim to stay within your Guideline Daily Amount.

The GDA for sugars for an average adult is 90g.

 Fat

Animal?  Vegetable?  Saturated?  Unsaturated? Time for some facts about fats. You often see two different types of fats on food labels: saturated fats which mainly come from animal sources, and unsaturated fats which usually come from fish or vegetable sources.

A healthy diet should always include a certain amount of fat because, among other things, it provides energy and helps you absorb vital vitamins. Try to eat no more than your Guideline Daily Amount though, and go for unsaturated fats as much as possible – like the ones you find in oily fish, nuts and seeds, avocado and sunflower, rapeseed or olive oil and spreads made from these.

The GDA for fat for an average adult is 70g.

  Saturates

Food that contains lots of saturates like pastries, butter and cream may taste fab but saturated fat, when eaten in excess, can raise blood cholesterol, which can increase the risk of heart disease. So you really should have no more than your Guideline Daily Amount.

The GDA for saturates for an average adult is 20g.

 Salt

It's not just slugs who need to be wary of salt! Many of us are regularly eating around 9g of salt a day – which is 50% more than our GDA.  Too much salt in our diet has been linked to problems like high blood pressure and heart disease, so a diet that stays under our Guideline Daily Amount is something we should all be aiming for.

The GDA for salt for an average adult is 6g.