Publication
The little book of white lies
How much is a lot?
It’s helpful to have a few rough rules of thumb when deciding on whether a meal or a snack is a healthy choice overall.
Try using the following to give you an idea whether a food has ‘a lot’ or ‘a little’ of a particular nutrient.
For a complete main meal or 100g of a snack food.
A lot ... is this amount or more:
10g of sugars
20g of fat
5g of saturates
3g of fibre
0.5g of sodium
A little ... is this amount or less:
2g of sugars
3g of fat
1g of saturates
0.5g of fibre
0.1g of sodium
How healthy is your eating?.
Try this quiz to find out how well balanced your diet is!
(scan of quiz table??)
Section A
What type of milk do you usually use?
a: Ordinary (4)
b: Semi-skimmed (2)
c: Skimmed (1)
How do you spread margarine/butter on bread?
a: Thickly (8)
b: Medium [6]
c: Thinly (2)
How often do you eat biscuits, cakes or pastries in a week?
a: 6 or more times (6)
b: 3-5 times (4)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
How often do you eat sweets, chocolates and confectionery in a week?
a: 6 or more times (6)
b: 3-5 times (4)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
How often do you eat chips or crisps in a week?
a: 6 or more times (6)
b: 3-5 times (4)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
How often do you eat sausages/meat pies/burgers in a week?
a: 6 or more times (8)
b: 3-5 times (6)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
TOTAL A: ............
Section B
How many slices of bread (or equivalent in rolls or chapattis, etc.) do you eat most days?
a: 6 or more (8)
b: 4-5 (6)
c: 2-3 (2)
d: 1 or less (0)
How often do you eat boiled or baked potatoes, rice, pasta or noodles in a week?
a: 6 or more times (8)
b: 3-5 times (6)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
How many potatoes (about the size of an egg) do you usually eat as part of a meal?
a: 5 or more (8)
b: 4 (6)
c: 3 (2)
d: 1-2 (1)
How many times in a week do you eat a breakfast cereal?*
a: 6 or more times (8)
b: 3-5 times (6)
c: Once or twice (2)
d: Very occasionally or never (0)
*(Add 2 points if it is usually a wholewheat/wholegrain variety)
How many portions of fruit and vegetables (fresh, frozen or tinned) do you eat every day?
a: 6 or more (8)
b: 3-5 (6)
c: 2 (2)
d: 1-2 (0)
TOTAL B: ..........
What the scores mean.
Section A
The lower your score for Section A the better. Below 10 is really good. Above 25 suggests you need to reduce the amount of fat in your diet.
Section B
The higher your score for Section B the better. A score above 30 is very good. Less than 10 and changes are needed to increase the amount of bread, cereals, potatoes, fruit and vegetables in your diet.
You should aim to have a low score for A and a high score for B, which means a diet which is, overall, low in fat and high in cereals, bread, fruit and vegetables.
If your score for A is greater than for B then you really do need to make a change in your diet. To help show where you can make the necessary changes look again at your answers. The questions in Section A which gave you a high score, and those in Section B which gave you a low score are the areas to concentrate on.