My survey reveals NUTRITIONAL FAIL- This could change your life.

I have always had a weight problem.. until about a year and a half ago. After having the WORST fat day in my life.. I did some intense internet research to learn more about food. Result? Well I stand at 6"1' and I was 121Kg and now I am 90.5Kg a nice size 12-14 . But more on that soon.

Through out my life I would hear:

TV: "Eat Healthy!", "Eat low fat food and you WILL lose weight", "Be thin", "Eat this and stay fuller for longer"

Mum: "Stop Eating!", "Eat grapefruit in the morning and you'll be skinny","Have you even lost weight yet!?", "Don't eat cheese"

Kids at school and even my own brother: "You're FAT"..

No matter what advice I would take, I couldn't be like the other kids. I couldn't figure out what these so called "Healthy" foods were.. Subway's Jerrard would eat sandwiches and so did I, but I looked like the old Jerrard, a blimp! I really didn't understand why this kept happening and I think that some of the best years of my life have already passed and all because I let my weight hold me back.

Old BB.. At my largest 121kg
- yes I was drunk and riding the monorail :D



New BB, 30.5 kg's lighter

I dropped more than 30kg's in 5 months and all it took was a little bit of general knowledge about food and finding out what diet suits me best.. Low carb, high protein & quality foods are what I eat at 4-5 regular intervals every day.. with the occasional baked treat. I now successfully maintain my goal weight and no longer have low self esteem. - And again THANKS GOOGLE :D:D

Today on my morning drive to work and listening to the radio as usual.. I was disgusted to find out that only 30% of people surveyed could read nutritional information on food packaging. This made me wonder if there were more people out there like the old BB.. not a greedy guts, not lazy.. but uneducated about food?

So guess what I did... I conducted my own survey :D

As being a former BIG girl, I was inspired to survey 30 random people, from work and home. Ranging in age from 18 to 50+. Skinny, medium and large.

These questions I would consider as easy, as you would use general food and nutritional knowledge to answer them. I believe that you would require to know things like this to sustain a healthy diet and balance.. I barely knew any of this before I researched it.

I hope this info comes in handy to you :D

Here were my findings:


Question 1: Describe a calorie.

-Most answers were "Unit of measure" or something stupid like a number "300".. but no one could tell me that a calorie is the amount of measure spent raising the temperature of 1L of water by 1 degree Celsius.

Are we learning? :p



Question 2: How many kilojoules are in a calorie?

- A majority of answers were a randomly guessed number.. some were 1000, 100, or one with a decimal place such as 60.9... but again.. no one could tell me the answer.. Closest I got was '4'.

4.184 Kilojoules: 1 Calorie

Now how do they expect us to read and understand nutritional information, if NONE my surveyed people know simple things like this??



Question 3: Do you know your Daily Intake level? Answer in Calories.

A) Yes, it is ________ Calories

B) NO

90% answered no.



Question 4:

This one was tricky. I gave the below nutritional information for an egg.

Look at the below.


(I'd crossed out the percentage...)

Based on the average adult's recommended Daily Intake of Total Fat, write down how much of your daily intake you would use up if you were to consume this egg? -Again.. everyone seemed to have guessed.. No one knew the average recommended DI for total fat was so they could not work out the equation.

70g Average recommended total fat DI 14g

Consumed 14g:22% recommended DI of total fat for an average adult.



Question 5: According to the FDA (Food & Drug Administration), how many servings of fruit and vegetables should an average adult consume per day?

- ALOT of people did see the add on TV and they did mention that..

Answer is 2 servings of fruit and 5 Veg

10% got this right



Question 6: How many kilojoules are in one serving (1 burger) of a KFC original fillet?

I asked every person who did the survey if they had tried one in the past.. All answered yes... NO ONE could tell me how many or guess anything close. -

1754Kj/serving.

Does this show that no one reads the nutritional information? Or does it display the large Corporate fat cat attitude, buy it, consume it and don't ask questions..

KFC does have some pamphlets tucked away in the corner of the restaurant and online. There if you want them but NOT on the packaging itself.



Question 8: What is your DI for carbohydrates, answer in grams..

No one could tell me this..

This one is really reflects the old BB. Carbohydrates were my problem when it came to weight gain.. I would eat at least 2 adult servings of pasta, always being told that it was "healthy" and not think anything about it, but then wonder where all of the fat on my hips and legs came from..

Recommended DI of carbohydrates for an average adult? 310g.

I always aim for foods that have 10g or less /serving.. this way assures that my weight will not fluctuate. But please note that varies from person to person.



Question 9: Write down a "Healthy" Food - Yes some smarty bums out there.. example my housemate Kev literally wrote "A healthy food".. yes, yes... very smart :P

FYI. Most surveyed answered with vegetables.. and darling Mr. BB wrote Redbull..



and finally.. Question 10: What foods are featured at the bottom of the 'Food Pyramid' Cmon, most people remember this from school! I 60% answered with vegetables again..

I think that it is appalling that so many of us don't know how to eat well!? Sure its pretty basic, you know eat when you are hungry but we all need to know that little bit more about nutrition.

We need to do a bit more research before we believe the 'Low fat, be thin, you're ugly' hype and before we start thinking things like I wanna be like Jerrard! No wonder millions are spent on so called miracle cures for fat.. The majority of us are just uneducated.

There is no miracle cure for fat!

This sort of information would have been very handy in high school. Personally I had noooooo idea WTF to eat, how much and when, and just going off what my peers and TV was telling me DID NOT WORK.. I can tell you now that I have not once used algebra or trigonometry since leaving school 5 years ago.. More understanding about food around that time in my life would have been GOLD.

So yes, that is all of my raving and ranting...


After reading this, please don't forget that our loved ones already love you for who and what you are now.. In their eyes you are perfection.. Love you Mr. BB :)

Hope this has inspired a new, more confident, healthy you!

Comments would be appreciated. I want to know your opinion!