New Year resolutions have not been broken yet and Public Health England is coming up with a set of new guidelines for healthier eating. The entire country needs to watch calories and PHE is coming up with the “calorie caps” on all meals come March this year.
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The Public Health England would, in the guidelines, issue a ceiling beyond which a particular meal cannot exceed. Fast foods and ready to eat foods cannot cross the boundary set by the guidelines. A new study has also shown that even consuming a single pint of alcohol a day is linked to dementia and other serious health effects. In the new guidelines the major meals – lunches and dinners cannot exceed 600 calories and breakfasts cannot exceed 400. A big Mac alone contains 485 calories. Alcohol consumption laws are also set to be tightened to ensure people consume less.
PHE nutritionist Alison Tedstone in a statement said each day a person eats at least 200 to 300 calories in excess of their requirement. This excess has led to the intake and utilization balance as people have less and less physical activity. The result is that 27 person of adults in the UK are obese while 36 percent are overweight. A total of 63 percent of the Britons are thus exceeding the normal weight range. Obesity is more among men than women and the elderly men tend to weigh more than the youth, statistics have shown. Many of those extra calories, she explained, come from food eaten outside home. This includes foods like pizzas, readymade sandwiches and other outside foods. They are often called “treats” she said making people overeat. Calorie caps on these foods can reduce the consumption and help prevent the obesity menace she said.
Alcohol too is a big culprit affecting health of the millions who overindulge say experts. According to research that was published in the Journal of Public Health, there are UK guidelines that cap daily alcohol consumption to not more than 16 grams or two units. DrinkAware guidelines state that a single unit is around half a glass of red wine or a pint of beer. This comes from an Oxford University study that says that at present the alcohol guidelines are too lax allowing excessive consumption. The study has revealed that consuming even a pint a day can lead to several ill health effects including dementia and memory problems.
Last month another set of guidelines were issued. This had capped the calories at 1,600 per day. This included the two meals of 800 calories each. A further 100 calories were allowed for each of the two snacks. This total of 1,800 calories a day was to be the standard for a healthy diet.
National Obesity Forum has described these tightening measures as a “panic measure” to prevent obesity and help the public be more aware of what they are eating and how much of an excess that is.
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