HEALTH AND NUTRITION: LOOKING AT LABELS ON FOODS

Avoid hydrogenated vegetable oils which can be found in margarine, crisps, burgers and biscuits. Look for similar products with 'vegetable oils' in the list of ingredients.

Avoid whey which is the yellow-green by-product of cheese production. It has a vile taste and an awful smell. Because of the increase in cheese consumption more whey is produced than before. An article in the Los Angeles Times, 4 December 1978, stated:

Not only is there more whey, but it is harder to dispose of. Stricter federal and state regulations prohibit dumping raw whey down sewers. Whey is 100 to 200 times stronger a pollutant than residential sewage and most municipal sewerage plants cannot treat it adequately. Disposal in streams is out because whey depletes waterways of oxygen, rendering them incapable of supporting marine life. Even disposal on used land or gravel pits is often unsuitable because of seepage into water supplies. The solution hit upon by both industry and government is to apply high technology and sophisticated marketing techniques and feed the stuff to humans. Whey is increasingly showing up as a cheap substitute ingredient in a wide range of processed foods, from bakery goods and ice cream to soup mixes and beverages.

Be wary of labels which say 'no added sugar' as it can mean no added sugar of any kind or no added sucrose. Don't assume that the sugar content is very low because a food bears a 'no added sugar' label. In order to make sugar content look less, the manufacturers break down the sugars into various forms, although they all have relatively the same effects on our bodies. Any words ending in -ose are sugars, e.g.:

Fructose - fruit sugar Glucose - body blood sugar, fast acting

Dextrose - sugar from cornstarch, chemically identical to glucose Lactose - milk sugar Maltose - sugar made from starch

Sucrose - common table sugar, made from sugar cane or beet Always take into account the total sugar figures provided.

Be careful too of foods whose labels claim to have less added sugar. For example, a label may say the food contains 25 per cent less added sugar and salt. Although there may be a reduction in the sugar and salt added, the product as a whole could have only 15 per cent less total sugar and 20 per cent less total salt than the original brand.

Generally, the longer the ingredients list, the more suspicious you should be about the naturalness of the product.

Manufacturers argue that additives, preservatives and flavourings, etc., are used in such small quantities that they will not have any adverse effects. However, when you take into account all the small amounts in all the different products we eat and drink every day, these small amounts become larger. We are also producing a chemical cocktail inside ourselves and nobody knows how these chemicals will react together.

We all lead busy lives, so just do the best you can as regards the contents of your food. 'Everything in moderation' is the best rule to follow. So if you do need to buy convenience or packaged food, find the best brand you can and go for the shortest chemical-looking ingredients list.

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