January 2024 |

When Did You Last Check The Ingredients List?

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They say that ‘Knowledge is Power’ so it has been my mission in the last couple of years to learn more, and my main source of learning has come from podcasts! If you would have asked me about podcasts a few years ago I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you what one was, but now I am obsessed… I listen to them in the car, whilst doing housework, whilst cooking, they actually make some of the most mundane jobs more enjoyable, win win!

 

I’ve become fascinated with health and wellbeing podcasts and one of the latest ones I listened to had me locked in, head nodding, frustration burning, bursts of laughter, brain ticking, anyway… it had some very interesting discussions that I wanted to share with you in my first blog (not quite sure why I’ve decided to start writing blogs just fancied giving it a go).

 

Ultra processed foods…What’s the deal with this? Why do we need to reduce them in our diet? What foods even come under this category? What’s the big deal about them? Should we really worry? So many unanswered questions but the basic point is YES we would see big benefits to our health and longevity if we started to reduce UPFs. They are harming us and our health rapidly, but how do we do that when 99% of the supermarket shelves are basically ultra processed!! Just a normal loaf of supermarket bread (all varieties including wholemeal) are now classed as Ultra Processed! 

 

Here’s where I have started… reading ingredients lists! As a mum of a son with a severe peanut allergy I have been reading ingredients lists for years to work out if food is ‘nut safe’ what I hadn’t realised until more recently was that despite foods that might be ‘nut safe’ for my child, on closer inspection of the other ingredients they are not actually ‘safe’ at all.

 

I’m going to tell you a story now…My son went to a friends birthday party recently, I asked to check the food ingredients to see if it was ‘nut safe’ for him to eat. The first ingredient on the hot dog jar was ‘mechanically separated meat’ yes you read right ‘mechanically separated meat’ the shear thought of this made me feel sick and I had only read the first ingredient on the list! By the time I had reached the bottom of the 30 other ingredients (half of which were emulsifiers and god knows what else!) I was confident it was safe from a nut allergy point of view but I was definitely questioning whether it was safe to feed this to my child! 

 

Did he eat the hot dog? Yes he ate the hot dog on that one occasion to be polite and didn't have another choice at the time, would I ever give these to him at home? Absolutely not! Would he choose to eat these voluntarily? Actually, no he wouldn’t… we joke about the ‘mechanically separated meat’ and by my 11 year old knowing this he chooses himself not to eat this type of food on a regular basis (the occasional hot dog at a party is not a big deal). As much as my kids joke and often say ‘oh no mum you’ve been listening to another podcast haven’t you’ I have realised that the more I share with them, the more they are starting to make smart decisions about their health on their own, and I try to empower them to make these choices themselves #knowledgeispower

 

Next time you go to the supermarket have a look at the ingredients list (not the calories or traffic light system) and see if you still fancy eating it! If the list is long, has ingredients that you don’t recognise as whole foods, try putting it down and find a whole food alternative instead. Even if it's just one food at a time #onestepatatime #giveitago 

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If you are interested in learning more about UPF I would highly recommend listening to this podcast: 

Feel Better, Live More : Dr Rangan Chatterjee

Why you can’t stop eating Ultra Processed Foods : Dr Chris Van Tulleken

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xeI6N6Z7SxCO88Tys2BEG?si=kTNyvw6fSQ6FDFQCdm74DA