Last week I shared with you all the need to know about the Health Star Rating. To be honest, before I was asked to share all there is to know about the Health Star Rating I wasn’t taking too much notice of them on my packaged goods.
I knew about it and sometimes it would stand out when I picked up two packaged products and compared them but I didn’t really know what it was so last week’s post also helped me learn something new too.
This week I am going to share how you can use the Health Star Rating to make positive choices when purchasing packaged items and how using this system can help contribute to a healthy weight and overall healthier choices for you and your family.
So we now know what we are looking for, but what does it mean?
The Health Star Rating will appear in two formats, the first shows just the star rating of the product; the second can show the star rating plus additional specific nutrient content of the product.
Under the system, packaged foods are given a star rating based on their nutritional profile.
This includes:
- Energy (kilojoules).
- Risk nutrients – saturated fat, sodium (salt) and sugars.
- Positive nutrients – dietary fibre, protein and the proportion of fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content.
An important point to remember is that the Health Star Rating should only be used to compare packaged items that are similar eg. Comparing Pasta sauces would be fine, butyou can’t compare the Pasta Sauce to a packet of cheese.
The Health Star Rating system is designed to provide key information that allows you to make at-a-glance comparisons of products within the same category. Further nutrient information is also available in the Nutrition Information Panel on food packaging.
Buying the best for our family
Maintaining a healthy weight and overall good health is important and as a Mum I know this is one of my priorities when feeding my family. The amount of food choices at the supermarket can be overwhelming and now that I know what the Health Star Rating is, it is going to be easier to quickly compare similar packaged items as I do my weekly grocery shop. Packaged items do play a part in my family’s balanced diet along with fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy and grains, with water being our drink of choice.
You can make healthier choices by using the Health Star Rating to compare the overall nutritional profile of packaged food products at-a-glance. Try these tips next time you go shopping:
- Look for the Health Star Ratings on the front of packaged food products.
- Use the Health Stars Ratings to compare similar food products. Remember, the more stars, the healthier the choice.
- Use the nutrient information to choose products that contain less sodium, saturated fat and/or sugars.
Next week I am taking everything I have learnt in the past two weeks and implementing it into my grocery shop. I’ll be looking at the regular packaged items I buy and comparing them to similar items to see if I have been making good choices or if there are some that could do with a little switch up.
This is a sponsored post. Information I have supplied can be found on the Health Star Rating website .
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