Nutritional Factsheets

Carbohydrates and Satiety
Our body requires energy and nutrients for its biological functions due to specific physiological signals of deprivation, such as empty stomach and/or blood depletion of nutrients, the sensation of “hunger” arises and creates the need for searching for a
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Dental Caries
Dental caries is an ecological disease in which the diet, the host and the microbial flora interact over a period of time in such a way as to encourage demineralisation of the tooth enamel with resultant caries formation. Dental caries is still one of the
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Diet and Behaviour
A belief that diet affects behaviour is probably as old as humanity. It is enshrined in such proverbs as the English "a man is what he eats" and the German pun "was Mann esst, das er ist". In primitive times, and among primitive people today there was and
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Dietary Fibre
Dietary fibre may be broadly defined as "that part of food of plant origin which is not digested and absorbed". Other definitions which have been proposed include: "The indigenous components of plant materials which are resistant to digestion by enzymes p
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Edible Fats and Oils in relation to Sugar Confectionery, Chocolate and fine Bakery Wares
Edible fats are commonly thought of as the components of food which are greasy in texture and not soluble in water. The term "fat" is generally used to describe fats which are solid at room temperature while liquid fats are known
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Food Additives / Allergy and Intolerance
As defined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (a joint FAO/WHO organisation involved in preparing food standards) and the EEC Commission, a 'food additive' means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself and not normally used as a typical
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Food Allergy
Eating is a pleasure. Companies represented by IOCCC offer a wide variety of different products for all kinds of taste preferences. The dilemma is that foodstuffs and ingredients that are amongst the most appreciated ones for many consumers such as milk,
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Heavy Metals
Increasing industrialisation has been accompanied throughout the world by the extraction and distribution of mineral substances from their natural deposits. Following concentration, many of these have undergone chemical changes through technical processes
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Methylxanthines
Caffeine, theobromine and theophylline are chemical compounds with closely related structures and similar pharmacological properties. They are all members of the class of compounds known as methylxanthines which are mild stimulants. They occur in many com
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Nutrient dilution
«Empty calories» and «junk food» are derogatory terms often levelled at confectionery items (i.e. biscuits, cakes, chocolate and sugar confectionery). This view arises from the perception that these foods provide little in the way of nutrients, displace m
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Nutrition, Mental Performance and Mood
Public attention can be easily attracted by claims that behaviour is influenced by the diet. However, scientific evidence for such claims has been usually weak and existing data have often been over-interpreted. The investigation of the effects of food an
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Nutritional Goals and Guidelines
There are three main types of dietary recommendations that have been produced by public health agencies. They can be described as dietary allowances, dietary goals, dietary guidelines
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Obesity
Obesity, loosely defined, is the state of being excessively overweight. It afflicts a significant and possibly growing proportion of people in developed societies. It entails medical risks and, in these societies, is considered socially undesirable. It is
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Pesticides
The loss of a major portion of the harvest due to all kinds of pests and parasites has been a problem facing mankind ever since the establishment of systematic farming. From as early as the second half of the 18th century, attempts have been made to prote
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Role of Diet in Exercise
It is widely recognised by health authorities that an increase in physical activity would be beneficial for most people. Exercise, while not guaranteeing longer life, can improve its quality and delay deterioration due to age and inactivity, as well as re
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Salt
Salt has been used both to flavour and preserve food since the earliest recorded times. In antiquity, when it was not universally available as it is now, it was highly valued. This is manifest from the use of the word salt, in many languages, in idioms wh
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Sugars
Sugars are simple carbohydrates. Carbohydrates may be roughly divided into three groups: a) Simple carbohydrates or sugars: these may be monosaccharides, the simplest form of sugars, or disaccharides in which two monosaccharides are bound together. b) Oli
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Sweetness
Sweetness is universally regarded as pleasurable. In all languages the equivalent word for the English "sweet" is also used to denote that which is agreeable, pleasant, desirable, precious and so on. In fact in many languages, the latter meanings were the
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