Healthy diet planner? Calorie counter? Doughnut detective? What exactly is a Guideline Daily Amount (GDA)?

Quite simply, Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) can be used to take the guesswork out of what we should be eating, making planning a healthy balanced diet much easier.

Take control of your sugar, fat and salt intake

Calories are a great example. We all know that we need a certain amount of calories a day (around 2000 for the average adult). Well, 2000 is our Guideline Daily Amount for calories. Simple. But calories aren't the only thing that you may want to keep an eye on in your diet – which is why there are also Guideline Daily Amounts for other key nutrients including sugars, fat, saturates and salt.

Bear in mind though, that each GDA is for an 'average' adult and will vary depending on who you are.

Find out more about your GDAs

And remember, they're called guidelines because that's exactly what they are – a guide, not a target. And while it's OK to stick pretty close to the GDAs for calories, we should be trying to eat no more than our GDAs for sugars, fat, saturates and salt.

Get the lowdown on your favourite food and drinks

To help make life easy, lots of your favourite foods and drinks now have a handy What's Inside Guide to these five key nutrients clearly displayed on their packaging. One quick glance at the label will tell you what percentage of your GDA there is in a portion of the food you're about to eat.

Find out more about the GDA label