Since most foods contain at least some fat or sugar, as a guide a high-fat food would contain more than about 20 grams of fat, and a high-sugar food more than about 15 grams of sugar, in every 100 grams of food. Most highly processed and packaged foods will give this information on the label. This information can also be used to check the saturated fat content of food (a high-saturated-fat food would contain more than 5 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams of food).

The more fat or sugar a food contains, the more calories it has – and the more calories a food has in a given weight of food (energy dense foods), the easier it may be for you to eat too much of it. As a guide, high-calorie foods contain more than about 225–275 calories in 100 grams of food.