You can teach cookbook authors,
grocers, restaurant owners and others about the importance of food facts. |
Be a Food Facts Activist!
The foods we eat are made up of different chemical building blocks called fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Some of those words might sound familiar from science class. But unfortunately, you don't always hear so much about them in a lot of the everyday places where you go when you want to have a meal or a snack.
Knowing what's in that yummy cheeseburger or pudding cup is especially important for people with diabetes, who need to balance the fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in their diets to stay healthy.
Here are a few important people you can talk to about helping you maintain a balanced diet:
Supermarket managers: Most food containers made in the United States have a "Nutrition Facts" table on the side of the package. If your supermarket sells a lot of products that don't have these labels, don't be afraid to ask for information—or switch supermarkets if necessary.
Chefs and restaurant owners: Again, you should never be shy about asking. If your favorite restaurant doesn't supply information on what's in the dishes they serve, one thing you can try is a letter-writing campaign. You and your friends can send a friendly letter asking the owner to display all nutritional facts in the menu, or in a separate menu. Many restaurants could also help customers out by offering a few different size servings of each food on the menu.
Cookbook authors and editors: Here is another great way to put your letter-writing skills to work. That's what the Lowenstein family from New York did. After their teenage daughter Emma was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, the Lowensteins, who loved to cook, knew that a lot of cookbooks just didn't give enough nutritional information about each recipe. So they created Per Serving, a group of health, nutrition, and consumer organizations that works at teaching food editors and writers to include complete and accurate "per serving food facts" with every recipe.
