Carbohydrates. Sugar. Calories. Sodium, etc. Nutrition facts tables on foods contain a lot of information that is relevant to your health, but we can easily get confused. Personally, I consider that everyone’s diet (not just people with phenylketonuria) is so important that it is essential to be comfortable reading nutrition facts on labels. I’ve been very interested in several nutrients like carbs and sugar over the past few years. But let’s take a closer look here at what is crucial for phenylketonuria: servings and proteins.
When you’re young, everything is fine. Your parents do the grocery shopping and, of course, have to put up with all of your little dietary whims while being the police. ‘’No, this food is not for you. No, you are not allowed to eat this.’’ And so on. I have to do this at a « normal » level with my family who does not have phenylketonuria, so I dare not imagine what it is when you add the PKU restrictions.
On the other hand, as we get older, we have to do our own grocery shopping and go to the convenience store ourselves. How to make the right choices? As I mentioned earlier, to make the right food choice, we need to proceed by looking at the serving and the proteins. In the case of serving, the information will generally be at the top of the nutrition facts table while the protein (in grams) is located at the bottom.
I suggest you watch this short Nutricia Metabolics video to fully understand the reading of nutrition facts table.
What did you think of the video? What do you take away from it? Please feel free to respond in the « comments » section.
I want to make it clear, in my opinion, you just can’t do without this skill. This is part of the basic knowledge that must be imparted along with cooking skills so that everyone can make the best possible food choices to promote good health.
But consider yourself warned: it grows on you! 😛
Once you start to take a close look at the composition of foods, you have a hard time stopping … and that’s good.
This article is presented in collaboration with Nutricia North America, but the ideas and recommendations are mine.
PCU blogue 