The recent announcement that food labelling is going to be improved is a very welcome change but I have been staggered by the lack of joined-up thinking in terms of this. I receive the British Heart Foundation's support magazine (Heart Matters) and have done for the past few years after having a heart attack at the age of 27 (I shocked just about everyone with that one! Ha!). Last year they began an ongoing series of recipes in the magazine that are designed to be cut-out and kept. There is nutritional information provided per portion for each of these recipes.... lacking the all-important CHO values! :roll:
I wrote to the magazine suggesting/requesting that perhaps they could add this information to future recipes or if they had already been printed, possibly make a small note in each magazine to say what the CHO values were. My point was that there are a huge number of people who have both a heart condition and diabetes. Since poorly controlled diabetes is a major contributor to developing heart disease I would have thought it would make sense to include this information. I myself have type1 so carb counting is part of my everyday life and you don't need me to tell you how infuriating it is to not know the values.
Guess what the BHF's response was.... since the guidelines don't state that CHO values are to be included with the easily-viewed info on packaging, then they won't publish the values either. (that's me para-phrasing as I seem to have deleted the email from them in a fit of disgust!)
Why can't these organisations use a bit of common sense? If I can see the link between poor diabetes control and poor heart health then surely the charity that funds research into these things can see it too!! It drives me nuts that something as simple as adding a CHO value is out of the question. I understand that they may have already printed all the recipe cards and the values couldn't be added directly, but a small 1-line addition to a magazine, surely that's not too much trouble?!?
Aaaargh! Common sense, joined-up thinking... why don't the people who have the power also have these vital attributes??
I wrote to the magazine suggesting/requesting that perhaps they could add this information to future recipes or if they had already been printed, possibly make a small note in each magazine to say what the CHO values were. My point was that there are a huge number of people who have both a heart condition and diabetes. Since poorly controlled diabetes is a major contributor to developing heart disease I would have thought it would make sense to include this information. I myself have type1 so carb counting is part of my everyday life and you don't need me to tell you how infuriating it is to not know the values.
Guess what the BHF's response was.... since the guidelines don't state that CHO values are to be included with the easily-viewed info on packaging, then they won't publish the values either. (that's me para-phrasing as I seem to have deleted the email from them in a fit of disgust!)
Why can't these organisations use a bit of common sense? If I can see the link between poor diabetes control and poor heart health then surely the charity that funds research into these things can see it too!! It drives me nuts that something as simple as adding a CHO value is out of the question. I understand that they may have already printed all the recipe cards and the values couldn't be added directly, but a small 1-line addition to a magazine, surely that's not too much trouble?!?
Aaaargh! Common sense, joined-up thinking... why don't the people who have the power also have these vital attributes??
