What is the nutritional breakdown (protein, fat, carbohydrates) in the

milk of various mammals?  In any cases, are there substantial portions

of the diet of infant mammals outside of mothers’ milk?  (Specific

print- or web-published references strongly desired.)

 

 

What’s on a label?
Serving size / servings per package: this bit tells you the recommended serving size, and the number of servings in the product. Note: this is a guideline, not a rule! A realistic serving size for you might be more or less than the recommendation, and – within reason – that’s fine! Just adjust the nutrition breakdown to match (i.e. if you have two serves, double the totals).

Nutritional breakdown: this tells you which nutrients are contained in the food, and in what amounts. Choose foods that are low in fat and/or sugar where possible. For other nutrients try to meet your recommended daily intake.

Ingredients: each food product should list all its ingredients on the label – usually from the one present in the largest amount, to the one present in the smallest. Important for people with allergies!

Fat: you’d think it’d be straightforward – is there fat in this or not? – but no. Not only are there different kinds of fat, often the sugar content of food increases the calorie count, while the fat content looks low.

For example there’s ‘saturated fat’. That’s the stuff that will harden your arteries and is found mostly in foods from animals and some plants. Eg: beef, beef fat, veal, lamb, pork, chicken fat butter, cream, milk, cheeses and other dairy products made from whole and 2 percent milk. Plant foods that contain saturated fat include coconut, coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil (often called tropical oils), and cocoa butter.

Then there’s hydrogenated fat. This is common in processed foods and is found in almost all processed foods like soup, chips, crackers, cookies, pastries some pasta and rice mixes. They are also found in frozen foods like pizza and even some cereals – as well as plenty of fast foods. These are the bad guys!

Then there’s total fat: The total fat is the number of fat grams contained in one serving of the food.

Limit total fat intake to less than 25–35 percent of your total calories each day.

Labels can be misleading!

    Here are some things to watch out for:

  • Some foods appear to be a single serve, but read
    the label and you’ll find they’re not. For example,
    a lot of juices are 1.5 serves.
  • A product that says it has ‘no added sugar’ might
    still contain a lot of natural sugar – check the carbohydrate content on the label as well.
  • Many ‘low fat’ foods are actually high in sugar.
    For example, cereal bars often appear to be the healthy option, but many contain a lot of sugar. Choose bars with a total fat of 10% less (check
    out the packaging). Plus, here’s how to make
    your own yummy energy bars.
  • Some foods appear to be a single serve, but read
    the label and you’ll find they’re not. For example,
    a lot of juices are 1.5 serves.

 

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