Label words
Read these out loud if you like. Short sentences. The adult number is in the tinted box. A child’s number is not in that box.
Energy, kJ and kcal
Energy is what food gives the body so it can move, think, stay warm, and keep the heart beating.
In Australia, labels write energy in kilojoules. People say “kJ” for short. Some countries write kilocalories. People say “kcal” or “calories” for short. The Nutrient Reference Values say 4.18 kilojoules equal 1 kilocalorie.
On this log, a kcal number is often a conversion, not a number printed on the pack. The milk on 4 October 2026 is like that. The bottle showed 976 kJ. The kcal line is about 233, from 976 divided by 4.184. That division was not printed on the pack. 4.184 is close to the 4.18 figure above. Both give about 233 kcal.
Through the day, a lot of energy is used just to stay alive, even when you sit still. Moving uses more. The share used for growing drops away and is about zero by age 20.
Adult target. There is no single daily kJ number for every adult man. It depends on age, sex, body size, and how active the day is. This page does not know Gautam’s weight, so it does not show a personal energy target. A reference man of 76 kg is used in the tables, and even his number changes with age and activity. That reference man is not Gautam. A child’s energy need is different, and it is not shown here.
Foods that carry useful energy, not just a sweet hit, are the everyday groups: vegetables, fruit, whole grains, milk foods, and beans, eggs, fish, or lean meat.
Protein
Protein is a building material. It is made of smaller parts called amino acids. The body can make some of them. Nine of them have to come from food.
Through the day, the body breaks protein down and builds it again. Muscle, blood, and skin use a lot of it. The body does not keep a protein fuel tank the way it keeps fat. It can burn protein for energy if it must. That is a poor backup plan, because that protein is then not spared for building.
Adult target. For men aged 19 to 70 years, the recommended dietary intake is 64 grams of protein a day. That is 0.84 grams for each kilogram of body weight. The estimated average requirement for those same men is 52 grams a day, or 0.68 grams per kilogram. Men over 70 have a higher number: 81 grams a day. As a share of energy, the acceptable range is 15% to 25%. This page cannot turn that percent into grams, because it does not have Gautam’s energy need. These are not a child’s targets. Children have their own lower numbers in the same table. Those numbers are not used on this log.
Foods that help:
- Fish, eggs, and lean meat or poultry.
- Milk, yoghurt, and cheese.
- Lentils, beans, chickpeas, and tofu.
- Nuts and seeds can stand in sometimes. In the serve the guidelines use, they give similar energy but less protein.
Carbohydrate
Carbohydrate is a fuel food. Starches and sugars are both carbohydrates. On a label, “carbohydrate” is the whole family. “Sugars” is one part of it.
Through the day, carbohydrate is a main fuel for moving and for the brain. Harder running leans on it more. The kind matters. The guide asks for carbohydrate mostly from foods that are not packed with energy for their size, and from lower glycaemic index foods.
Adult target. The acceptable range is 45% to 65% of energy. There is no gram target on this page. A gram target would need a personal energy number, and this log does not have one for Gautam. This range is for planning an adult diet. It is not a child’s target. A current WHO fact sheet uses a wider band, about 45% to 75%, for most people. This page follows the Australian range.
Foods that help:
- Whole grains, such as oats, barley, brown rice, and wholegrain bread.
- Fruit.
- Starchy vegetables, such as potato and sweet potato, as part of the plate, not the whole plate.
- Beans, lentils, and chickpeas.
Sugars, lactose, and free sugar
Sugar is sweet carbohydrate. One label line can hide three different stories.
On an Australian nutrition panel, “sugars” means monosaccharides and disaccharides. D-allulose is left out of that legal meaning. Lactose, the sugar in milk, is a disaccharide, so it sits inside that label line. The milk logged on 4 October shows 23 grams of sugars. Those are lactose from the bottle, not sugar stirred in from a jar.
WHO splits sugars another way. Intrinsic sugars sit inside intact fruit and vegetables. Milk sugars are lactose and galactose. Free sugars are sugars added by the person who made the food, the cook, or you, plus sugars already in honey, syrups, fruit juice, and fruit-juice concentrate. Jaggery is an added sugar, so it is a free sugar. WHO says it found no reported evidence of harm from intrinsic sugars or the sugars naturally present in milk, so its limit is about free sugars.
Through the day, sugar is fuel. Free sugar adds energy without bringing much else. A lot of it, often, is hard on teeth.
Adult target. WHO recommends that free sugars stay under 10% of total energy. That is a strong recommendation, and it is written for both adults and children. WHO also suggests a further cut to below 5%. That part is conditional, which means the evidence is less certain. The Australian guidelines say to limit foods and drinks with added sugars, such as lollies, soft drinks, cordials, fruit drinks, vitamin waters, and energy and sports drinks. They do not give Gautam a gram number.
WHO’s fact sheet says under 10% is about 50 grams, or about 12 level teaspoons, for a person of healthy body weight who eats about 2,000 calories a day. That 50 gram line is an example for that energy intake. It is not Gautam’s target. This page does not know his energy need, so it does not convert the percent into grams for him. It is also not an 8-year-old’s gram target.
Foods that help you rely less on free sugar:
- Whole fruit. The sugar inside the fruit is not free sugar.
- Vegetables.
- Plain milk. Its sugar is lactose, not free sugar. Reduced-fat milk is the usual adult choice. It is not the right milk for a child under 2.
Fat
Fat is a dense fuel. A gram of fat gives more energy than a gram of carbohydrate or protein. The reference values use about 37.7 kilojoules for a gram of fat, and about 16.7 for a gram of carbohydrate or protein, after the body has absorbed them.
Through the day, fat feeds longer, easier work, and it is part of every cell. Two building fats, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, have to come from food. The body cannot make them.
Adult target. The acceptable range is 20% to 35% of energy. There is no gram target here, because that needs a personal energy number. This range is not a child’s target. Low-fat diets are not suitable for children under 2.
Foods that help, when you want fat that is mostly unsaturated:
- Avocado.
- Nuts and nut pastes, with no added salt.
- Oils such as olive, canola, sunflower, and soybean oil, used in small amounts.
- Fish, especially oily fish. The guidelines suggest about two fish serves a week.
Saturated fat
Saturated fat is one kind of fat. It is solid more often when it is cool. Butter, the white fat on meat, and the fat in coconut oil are familiar forms.
Through the day, the body can use it as fuel, like other fat. Eating a lot of foods high in it is tied to heart disease. The guidelines say to limit those foods, and to swap many of them for foods richer in unsaturated fat.
Adult target. Saturated fat and trans fat together should be no more than 10% of energy. This log does not record trans fat on its own, so it cannot check that 10% rule by itself. There is no gram target for Gautam. This is not a child’s target.
Foods to lean on instead:
- Olive oil or another unsaturated oil, instead of butter as the everyday fat.
- Avocado.
- Nuts and nut pastes.
- Fish, and lean meat with the white fat cut off.
Foods the guidelines name as high in saturated fat, and say to limit, include many biscuits, cakes, pastries, pies, processed meats, commercial burgers, pizza, fried foods, and potato crisps. Also butter, cream, cooking margarine, and coconut and palm oil.
Sodium
Sodium is a mineral. Most of the sodium we eat comes as salt. Salt’s chemical name is sodium chloride. One gram of salt has 390 milligrams of sodium.
Through the day, sodium helps hold the right amount of fluid outside cells, and it helps nerves and muscles do their electrical work. The kidneys let extra sodium out in urine. Too much, over time, pushes blood pressure up. Blood pressure is a risk for heart disease and stroke.
Adult target. For adults, the adequate intake is 460 to 920 milligrams a day. That range is there to cover the basic need and still leave room for other nutrients. It may not be enough for someone who sweats a lot, such as an endurance athlete. It is not a goal to eat up to.
The suggested dietary target for men and women aged 18 and over is 2,000 milligrams a day. That is a population line to help keep blood pressure down. It matches the WHO line for adults: less than 5 grams of salt a day, which is 2 grams of sodium. Stay under it. Do not try to fill it. No upper level is set for adults, because a single safe cut-off point was not found. A child needs less sodium than an adult. The child number has to be worked out from the child’s energy intake, and this page does not do that.
Foods that help you stay nearer the line are the plain ones:
- Fruit.
- Vegetables, fresh or frozen, or canned with no added salt.
- Beans and lentils cooked without a salty sauce.
- Unsalted nuts, fresh fish, and meat you cook yourself without adding salt.
The guidelines say not to add salt in cooking or at the table, and to read the label when two similar foods are side by side.
Calcium
Calcium is a mineral. Almost all of the body’s calcium sits in bones and teeth. A small share is in the blood and muscles, where it helps muscles and the heart work.
Through the day, bones are not a dead store. The body takes calcium out and puts it back. If food brings too little for a long time, bone density can fall. Vitamin D and being active matter too. This page is not a bone check.
Adult target. For men aged 19 to 70 years, the recommended dietary intake is 1,000 milligrams a day. The estimated average requirement is 840 milligrams a day. Men over 70, and women from 51 years, have a higher recommended intake: 1,300 milligrams a day. The upper level for adults is 2,500 milligrams a day. More is not always better. These are not a child’s targets. Children have their own numbers in the same table. Those numbers are not used on this log.
Foods that help:
- Milk, yoghurt, and cheese. For adults, mostly reduced fat. Not reduced-fat milk for a child under 2.
- Bony fish, the kind where you eat the soft bones.
- Legumes, and some nuts. The body takes up less of the calcium from dried beans than from milk, about half as much in the comparison used in the reference values.
Spinach has calcium, but it is a weak source in practice. Compared with milk, the body takes up about a tenth as much of the calcium from spinach.
Fibre
Fibre is plant material that the small intestine does not break down for fuel. Some of it is fermented later, in the large intestine.
Through the day, fibre helps you poo. The legal definition used in Australia also covers two other jobs fibre can do: it can help lower blood cholesterol, and it can steady how fast blood glucose rises. You still need fluid with it. A high-fibre day is more comfortable when you drink water.
Adult target. For men, the adequate intake is 30 grams a day. That same 30 grams is listed for men 19 to 30, 31 to 50, 51 to 70, and over 70. For women the adequate intake is 25 grams a day. A higher suggested dietary target, tied to heart-disease risk, is 38 grams a day for men and 28 grams for women. No upper level is set. These are not a child’s targets. WHO says people older than 10 years can aim for at least 25 grams of naturally occurring fibre. That is a general floor. The number this log uses for Gautam is the Australian men’s figure, 30 grams, not the child’s figure.
Foods that help:
- Vegetables.
- Fruit, eaten whole rather than as juice.
- Whole grains, such as oats, barley, and high-fibre bread.
- Lentils, beans, and chickpeas.
What a run uses
This is not a calorie burn for Gautam. His weight is not in this app, so a personal number would be a guess. This page also does not use a generic “kcal per kilogram per kilometre” figure. The studies that quote a number like that were done on particular runners, not as his result.
A review of fuel use in exercise says carbohydrate and fat are both fuels for aerobic work, such as running. The mix changes. It depends on how hard the run is, how long it goes, and how much carbohydrate is available. Fat use is turned down as the work moves from moderate to hard, and when plenty of carbohydrate is on hand. So a harder run leans more on carbohydrate. An easier run can lean more on fat. Both are burning at once. It is not a switch that flips from one to the other and stays there.
Protein is mostly a building material, not the running fuel. The body does not keep an energy-storage form of protein. Only a tiny share of body protein is ready to be given up. Muscle is still made of protein, and the body is always breaking some down and building some back. A run is a reason to eat enough protein for that repair, and enough carbohydrate and fat so the body does not have to burn protein for fuel.
If a day feels flat, one ordinary reason is that the log is short on carbohydrate, short on protein, or short on energy overall. Sleep, a hard session, or getting sick can do it too. The log can show a gap. It cannot say which reason is yours.
This is not medical advice.
Vegetables
Vegetables matter because they bring fibre, vitamins, and minerals, and because a lot of them are low in kilojoules. You can eat a big volume and still not take in much energy. That volume helps a meal feel filling. The Australian guide says most adults should eat at least five serves from the vegetable group a day.
One serve is about 75 grams, and about 100 to 350 kilojoules. That can look like half a cup of cooked vegetables, half a cup of cooked beans or lentils, a cup of salad leaves, or one medium tomato.
This page does not give a milligram table for each vegetable. Where a precise amount was not in the source, the food is described without a number.
- Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Asian greens, capsicum, and tomato. All vegetables provide vitamin C. These are named as particularly high in it. No milligram figure is copied here, because the guide did not print one on that page.
- Leafy greens, beetroot, cauliflower, asparagus, dried peas, beans, and lentils. Named as a good source of folate. Again, no microgram figure is printed on the page this comes from.
- Carrot and pumpkin. They are the orange examples in a standard serve. Vegetables as a group provide carotenoids. This page does not invent a beta-carotene number for a single carrot.
- Lentils and beans. They count in the vegetable group and in the protein group. They bring fibre and protein. Canned ones are fine if they have no added salt.
- Potato, sweet potato, and corn. These are starchy. They belong on the plate, but they are higher in kilojoules than salad vegetables, so they are only part of the five serves. Hot chips are not counted as a vegetable serve. They are a sometimes food, high in kilojoules, added fat, and added salt.
Different colours do different jobs, so the guide says to mix the groups: dark green, orange, legumes, and the rest. In the 1995 Australian nutrition survey, about 30% of dietary fibre came from vegetables, about 10% from fruit, and about 45% from breads and other cereal foods. That is an old survey, not a count of Gautam’s plate.
Processed meat
Processed meat is meat changed to keep it or to change the flavour. The change can be salting, curing, fermenting, smoking, or a similar process. Bacon, ham, sausages, salami, mettwurst, frankfurts, corned beef, and jerky are the usual examples. Canned meat and some meat sauces count too.
It is a sometimes food. The Australian guidelines put most ham, bacon, and salami in the discretionary group. Those are foods you do not need for a healthy diet. In small amounts, now and then, they can be part of a celebration. They should not be the everyday protein. This page is not saying “never eat it”. That would be a medical order, and it is not one.
The downsides the sources actually name:
- Salt. Smoked, salted, and preserved meats are usually higher in salt. Salt is the main sodium story above. A discretionary serve of about 600 kilojoules is about 50 to 60 grams of processed meat, salami, or mettwurst, roughly two slices, or one and a half thick sausages.
- Saturated fat. The same foods are usually higher in saturated fat. Guideline 3 names processed meats in the list of foods high in saturated fat to limit.
- Other chemicals from the processing. The Australian meat-group page says these foods “contain chemical properties that may be responsible for increased health risks.” It does not name nitrates or nitrites on that page. This app does not add a nitrate claim, because the pages read for this project did not state one in plain words.
- Bowel cancer. In 2015, IARC, the cancer agency of WHO, classed processed meat as Group 1, carcinogenic to humans. That means there was enough evidence in people to say it causes colorectal cancer, cancer of the bowel. The press release said each 50 gram portion eaten daily was linked with an 18% higher risk of that cancer. It also said one person’s extra risk stays small, and the risk grows as the amount grows. Group 1 is about how sure the evidence is. It is not a ranking of “as dangerous as” anything else.
A WHO questions page dated 23 September 2026 still says eating processed meat causes colorectal cancer, and that the risk rises with the amount. It says the older review could not decide whether any amount is fully safe. WHO is still writing a guide on how much red and processed meat to eat. So the 18% line is a 2015 summary, not a personal risk score, and not a gram limit for Gautam.
Fresh red meat is not the same thing. IARC classes it as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans. The Australian guide still includes lean red meat in the everyday protein group, and it says to keep it to about seven serves a week. It also says that more than 100 to 120 grams of red meat a day, which is more than double a recommended serve, is linked with a higher risk of bowel cancer and kidney cancer. A serve of cooked lean red meat is 65 grams.
Protein options the guidelines treat as everyday foods, in the amounts they describe:
- Beans and lentils. Protein, iron, and fibre, and they are in both the vegetable group and the protein group.
- Eggs. Called a useful, low-cost protein. Two large eggs are one serve.
- Fish. About two serves a week, preferably oily fish. One serve is 100 grams cooked.
- Lean unprocessed meat and poultry. Beef, lamb, pork, kangaroo, or chicken that has not been salted, cured, or smoked. Keep the red-meat total inside the weekly guide above.
- Milk, yoghurt, and cheese. Protein and calcium. Mostly reduced fat for adults.