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UNAIR NEWS – Packaged beverages are now very easy to find around us. Not only in modern markets, but the grocery store near the house also sells them. It makes it easy for people to find these products. Even fast-food restaurants make packaged beverages as drinks from their menu.

When buying packaged drinks, the expiration date should be checked before deciding to buy them. Moreover, the listed nutrition facts information on the packaging must also be considered. Information on the nutritional value is not just a decoration. “The information on the nutritional value is useful for calculating how many drinks we can consume based on the nutrients contained in them,” said Stefania Widya Setyaningtyas, S.Gz, MPH, a lecturer at the Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Public Health, ������.

Stefania explained that the first thing to pay attention to in nutrition information is the serving size information. “The information listed usually displays the nutritional content per serving, not per package. For example, in soft drink products with a volume of 1.5 liters, information on the nutritional value is per 330 ml,” she said.

The second thing that must be considered is the content of risky nutrients, such as sugar. “If the soft drink contains 31 grams of sugar, it means that every 1/5 of the bottle we consume contains 60% of our maximum sugar requirement. So we can only consume approximately one tablespoon of other food or drink on the same day,” she explained. The amount of other high-risk nutrients such as sodium, energy, fat or cholesterol should also be checked.

Paying attention to the nutritional value information on beverage packaging can help a person control his body’s daily sugar intake, so it is not excessive. Stefania has ways that people can do to maintain their daily sugar needs by identifying their daily needs or artificial sweeteners’ consumption.

“The benefit is that we can more easily estimate whether the food or drink we consumed has excessive sugar value or not,” she explained.

In simple terms, the maximum recommendation is to consume four tablespoons of sugar or 50 grams per day which means that a person can consume about two types of sweet foods or drinks per day. “We can also combine sugary foods or drinks with vegetables or fruit so that we don’t only get sugar but minerals and vitamins,” said Stefania.

Furthermore, artificial sweeteners consumption and their types must also be measured and considered because each artificial sweetener also has a safe limit. “For example, the type of artificial sweetener aspartame has a safe limit of around 50 mg/KgBB/day or about 30 grams per day,” she concluded.

UNAIR, as one of , encourages all academics to contribute to the wider community. (*)

Author: Icha Nur Imami Puspita

Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia