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Diet Food and Additives
By WLR Dietitian
Q: I’m worried about all the additives in ready-made
‘healthy’ and ‘diet’ foods, but eating fresh, natural foods
seems to tip me over my calorie allowance. Is it safe to eat
foods with so many additives?
A: According to the Food Standards Agency, any additives used
in food have been scientifically tested to ensure they are safe
and not harmful to health. This means you shouldn’t need to
worry about the inclusion of additives in the food you eat. In
fact, rather than being sinister ingredients, if an additive has
an E number it simply means it’s passed safety tests and has
been approved for use here and in the rest of the European
Union.
Food additives tend to be grouped according to what they do.
The additives seen most commonly on food labels include
antioxidants, colours, flavourings, preservatives, sweeteners
and a group that includes emulsifiers, stabilisers, gelling
agents and thickeners. You’ll find a list of food additives and
their e-numbers by visiting the Food Standards Agency website at
www.food.gov.uk/safereating/additivesbranch/enumberlist
In the meantime, salt is the main additive we should all
really be concerned about. High intakes of salt are linked to
high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of stroke
and heart disease. At the moment, most of us consume, on
average, around 9.5mg salt every day (the equivalent to almost 2
level teaspoons), when in fact, we should have no more than 6mg
every day (just over 1 level teaspoon). Unfortunately, around
three quarters of the salt we consume comes from ready-made
foods such as ketchup, pickles, soups, pizza, cooking sauces
ready meals, takeaways, fish fingers, chicken nuggets and meat
products such as sausages and burgers. Even ready-made foods in
‘diet’ and ‘healthy eating’ ranges can still be packed with
salt, so it’s important to check labels carefully. It’s sodium
that’s the harmful component of salt and many food labels give
values for this. To convert this into a salt equivalent,
multiply the sodium value by 2.5. This means, if a product
contains 1g sodium, that’s the equivalent to 2.5g salt – almost
half the recommended daily maximum!
Eating fresh foods is certainly one of the easiest ways to
cut your salt intake as well as slashing the amount of additives
you have in your diet. Lean meat, chicken, fresh fish, eggs,
low-fat milk, natural yoghurt, fruit, veg, rice and pasta are
all naturally low in salt and are additive free, plus they’re
all reasonably low in fat, making them great choices if you want
to eat healthily and lose weight.
In the meantime, I’m surprised that eating fresh foods pushes
you over your daily calorie allowance. A medium-sized grilled
chicken breast with a jacket potato, 1tsp low-fat spread and
salad provides less than 400 calories – around the same amount
as in a typical ready meal. You might want to check your portion
sizes as it sounds as though it’s quantities rather than the
types of foods that are pushing up your calorie intake. Bear in
mind that most ready meals are quite small and only weigh around
300g to 400g so try and keep home-made portions to around that
size. |
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