9225Introduction to CHOCounting.pdf - NDR-UK

Carbohydrate Counting
Reading labels
All packaged food labels have nutritional information for the main nutrients, including energy
( k c a l / k J ) , p r o t e i n , c a r b o h y d rate (CHO) and fat. This is usually given per 100g and sometimes per
p o r t i o n .
The portion figure works well for foods like biscuits, b a r s, yoghurts and ready meals where you
tend to eat the suggested portion size. H o w e v e r, if you have a different amount, you will need
to calculate the amount of carbohydrate in your portion. This is common for foods like pizza,
p a s t a , breakfast cereal and desserts.
Carbohydrate on food labels
Nutritional labels often show different carbohydrate details. It can be noted in one, t w o
or three parts:
1 . C a r b o hy d rate (always incl u d e d )
2 . of which sugars (often incl u d e d )
3 . of which starch (sometimes incl u d e d ) .
When you are counting carbohydra t e, you must always use the largest c a r b o h y d r a t e
f i g u r e. This is the t o t a l amount of carbohydrate in the food, and includes both the
‘of which sugars’ a n d ‘of which starch ’ a m o u n t s.
Follow the steps below to help you work out how much carbohydrate is in your portion, t h e n
p ractice with the examples provided.
Packaged foods
Sometimes the labels show how much carbohydrate is in an example portion, for example:
Wholemeal Bread
Typical values Per slice Per 100g
of product
Energy 102kcal 218kcal
Carbohydrate 19.8g 42.0g
of which sugars 1.3g 2.8g
Fat 1.1g 2.4g
This label shows that one slice of wholemeal bread has 19.8g of carbohydrate in total.
If you ate 2 slices of bread, you would need to multiply the amount of carbohydrate in one
slice of bread by 2.
19.8 x 2 = 39.6g of CHO
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