Ministry's booklet takes guesswork out of diets

By ANGELA GREGORY health reporter

New Zealanders who want to check on the fat content of their morning doughnut or midday meat pie can have on hand a book detailing their food sins.

The Ministry of Health yesterday released the sixth edition of The Concise New Zealand Food Composition Tables, which contain nutrient information on more than 900 commonly used foods.

The ministry's public health intelligence manager, Dr Barry Borman, said New Zealanders were becoming more health conscious and seeking better information on food to improve their eating habits.

Dr Borman said the updated book detailed foods' nutritional contents to provide reliable facts and figures on which to base eating decisions.

For each food, 28 nutrient measures were given such as fats, minerals, vitamins, fibre, protein and information on energy (calorie) content.

New foods analysed for the tables included additional milk products, such as particular types of ice cream, and more information on pizza, chicken nuggets, table spreads such as peanut butter and jams, and assorted cereal bars including fruit-filled and twisted.

Brand names of food are provided for accuracy.

Health Minister Annette King said the tables were important for New Zealanders as they continued to seek better health and improved eating habits.

"The tables will greatly assist professionals in health care, the food industry, sport, education and research by making information on nutrients readily accessible," she said.

"For public simply wanting more details about food nutrition, this is just the document to help."

Information for the tables comes from the New Zealand Food Composition Database, which is a joint project between the ministry's public health intelligence unit and Crop & Food Research.

The database contains nutritional information on more than 2600 foods and has multiple uses, such as analysing diets, foods and the results of national nutrition surveys.

It is also used for preparing nutrition labels and in food product development.

Dr Borman said food composition research in New Zealand reinforced the importance of collaboration and partnerships between the science and health sectors.

He said the ministry's recently released Healthy Eating - Healthy Action: A Framework for Action would help define key priorities and guide implementation for improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and reducing obesity.

"The tables can help people to adopt the Government's nutrition initiatives," Dr Borman said.

Copies could be ordered from Crop & Food Research.