Jane Clarke: Forget reading the label - just enjoy your food

Pop into your local supermarket and you'll see plenty of people studying the labels to gauge which food is the healthiest, lowest in fat or least calorific.

But I think they're missing the point.

In theory, the traffic light warnings on food and GDAs (guideline daily amounts) help people make healthy choices by flagging up the fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt content. But instead, we're getting in a real mess with nutritional labels. There is a much simpler answer.

Rather than obsessing over every dish's fat and sugar content, we need to get back in touch with savouring food; a far better solution to the crisis of obesity and illness through poor diet.

We need to stick to this simple framework: your meals should contain a protein (lean meat, fish, chicken, maybe lentils or beans), a carb (pasta, rice, potatoes, bread), vegetables, fruit and a little dairy (cheese, yoghurt).

Processed foods, anything we don't make ourselves - biscuits, cakes, chocolates, cream sauces, pastries, pies - should be eaten in only small amounts and considered a treat, not the norm.

Source - Daily Mail