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Healthy Food Shopping Guide

One in two Australians face a cancer diagnosis by the age of 85, yet half of these cancers are preventable. To reduce your chances of getting cancer, it's important to take action! Here's how:
  • Eat well 
  • Get some exercise.
  • Stay at a healthy weight. If you are overweight, try to lose weight.
  • Avoid or limit the amount of alcohol you drink.
  • Protect yourself from the sun.
  • If you smoke, quit.
Eating well means choosing a variety of nutritious foods including wholegrains, vegetables and fruits; and cutting back on fats, salt and sugar.
 
Knowing how to cut back on fats, salt and sugar can be tricky, which is why Cancer Council SA has developed the  Healthy Shopper's Guide.
 
The guide makes it simple to see whether a food product is a healthy choice, or should be consumed in moderation.
 
Label reading made easy
 
Nutrition information helps you keep track of what you eat and allows you to choose the best foods. With so many food products on the market, the type and amount of nutrition information on food labels can often be confusing and make choosing healthy foods difficult. 
 
Reading the Nutrition Information Panel
 
By law, the majority of packaged foods must have a nutrition information panel.

The nutrition information panel provides information on the amount of:
  • Energy (kilojoules or calories)
  • Protein
  • Total and saturated fat
  • Carbohydrate and sugars
  • Sodium
  • Any other nutrient about which a claim is made (eg a good source of fibre)  
 The Healthy Shopper's Guide shows the 'healthier', 'OK' and 'least healthy' choices for levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium that you should look for on a nutrition information panel.
 
The Healthy Shopper's Guide is also available through Cancer Council Helpline 13 11 20.

 

Traffic Light Food Tracker Widget
How many times have you been supermarket shopping and found yourself standing in the aisle, product in hand, trying to understand what the nutritional label is telling you?

There is a really simple solution to better understanding what’s in packaged food - introducing the Traffic Light Labelling system.

How to use:

1.Choose your food product and find the nutrition information label on the back or side of the pack.
2.Look for the per 100g info and enter amounts into the relevant boxes below.
3.You will then be given a traffic light rating for each: red for high, amber for medium or green for low.
4.Click on the individual traffic lights for more info about what each rating means.
Basically, the more green lights, the healthier the choice!

Download the Obesity Policy Coalition's Traffic Light Food Tracker App to your phone.  




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