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The use of percentages on labels is painful and misleading.
Here’s why:
The label says 100 grams of biscuits contains 500 calories of energy. But that’s a useless statistic.
How much does a biscuit weigh and how many calories does that provide?
Two biscuits weigh around 15 grams. That yields 7-8 grams a biscuit. So one biscuit gives you 40 calories of energy.
Now let’s say you eat two biscuits. That gives you 80 calories of energy.
There’s a per serve RDA number on the side that says this 80 calories is 4 percent of your daily intake.
But there’s a big assumption in there. The assumption is you need 2000 calories of energy.
If your daily calorie requirement is 1500 calories, this number is 5.5 percent.
If your daily calorie requirement is 1300 calories, the number rockets to over 6 percent. Two biscuits can give you 6 percent of your daily energy intake if you are a petite person or happen to have a rather low basal metabolic requirement. Your activity levels being low could also lower your daily calorie requirement.
My point is the percentages make sense only if you understand the serving size and you happen to need 2000 calories.
My experience says many Indians often need less than 2000 calories.
And more importantly when you eat two biscuits filled with poor quality fat, negligible protein and are bereft of micronutrients, you leave yourself with less room for far more nourishing and necessary foods in your daily eating.
Here’s what you could have instead: