All this isn’t to say that if your parents were overweight that you should resign yourself to being overweight. But it may help you understand why you have to watch your weight while other people seemingly don’t have to watch theirs.

So, if you were born with a tendency to be overweight, why does it matter what you eat? The answer is that foods (or more correctly, nutrients) are not equal in their effect on body weight. In particular the way the body responds to dietary fat makes matters worse. If you are overweight it is likely that the amount of fat you burn is small, relative to the amount of fat you store. Consequently, the more fat you eat, the more fat you store. Although this may sound logical, the ‘eat-more, store-more’ mechanism does not exist for all nutrients.

Amongst all four major sources of kilojoules in food, (protein, fat, carbohydrate and alcohol), fat is unique. When we increase our intake of protein, alcohol or carbohydrate the body’s response is to burn more of that particular energy source. Sensibly, the body matches the supply of fuel with the type of fuel burned. One of the fundamental differences between fat and carbohydrate is that fat tends to be stored whereas carbohydrate has a tendency to be burned. It is worth noting at this point that if your carbohydrate intake is low, it may reduce the amount of kilojoules you burn each day by 5 to 10 per cent While you may not have been born owning the best set of genes, you can still influence your weight by the lifestyle choices you make. The message is simply this: if you believe that you are at risk of being overweight, you should think seriously about minimising fat and eating more carbohydrate.

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Here are two examples of package labels:

1. An individual serving may be described.

Nutriment composition per serving one serve as described on packet

Protein     3 g

Fat     2g

Carbohydrate     15 g

Kcals     90

Kjoules     378

From this label one serve would be equal to one carbohydrate exchange.

1. The description may refer to a certain amount of the food. Nutrient composition per 100 g of prepared food.

Protein     4g

Fat     6g

Carbohydrate     22 g

Kcals     158

Kjoules     664

From this label l00 g of food would provide approximately 1 1/2 carbohydrate exchanges. If an average serve weighs approximately 30 g, then it will provide 1/2 carbohydrate exchange.

This information helps you work out the number of carbohydrate exchanges per serve. Not all foods labeled in this way are suitable for regular use as they may have high sugar content. It is also important to read the ingredients labeling. Ingredients by law are listed in decreasing order. Inclusion of ingredients such as sugar, glucose, dextrose, and honey in large amounts may mean that the product should not be used under normal circumstances.

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