How much is too much?

The 'Australian Guide to Healthy Eating' (Commonwealth of Australia 1998) says that children aged 4-11 years may enjoy 1-2 treat serves a day, while adolescents 12-18 years may have 1-3 treat serves a day.

Active adults can also afford to eat up to 2-3 treat serves daily. One of the great benefits of being active is that you can enjoy the occasional treat without concerns about weight gain.

To provide consumers with additional information that will assist them in making more informed dietary choices and thereby achieve a balanced diet. The confectionery and broader food industry include on packs percentage daily intake (%DIs) details in the nutrition information panel and in thumbnail graphics. This offers specific information on the energy and composition of six key nutrients in products.

%DI labelling helps you understand how a chocolate or lolly fits into your daily nutrition requirements. Importantly, it helps you choose between different treats as well.

%DI labelling on packaging shows the percentage daily intake of energy, protein, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, sugars and sodium that is contained on a per serve basis as set ut in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. %DIs are based on an average adult diet of 8700 kJ. A person’s daily intake may be higher or lower depending upon individual energy needs.

As the pack size of products may vary, the %DI declared is based on the quantity that is contained in the amount of the product a person would reasonably be expected to consume at one time.

Understanding energy

Food provides us with the energy to do daily tasks, exercise and keep our hearts beating and lungs breathing. This energy is measured in kilojoules (or calories; there are about 4.18 kilojoules in a calorie). If we eat too much energy, we do not become more energetic. Rather, all those extra kilojoules (kJs) (or calories (Cals)) are converted into body fat. You can see that it is important to get our energy balance right, so that energy from food (kJs or Cals) is the same as the energy burned up during the day through our activity.