I think it's interesting and revealing to find how much sugar there is in some every day foods that we think are healthy, the first link shows how even healthy soups have added sugar as does low fat yoghurt.
I'm not surprised that there are over 7 tea spoons in a Mars Bar but you can see how sugar consumption easily goes up with many every day food.
Food for thought why do they have to add sugar salt and flavour enhancers...
18 Replies
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It's disgusting the amount of sugar they are putting in to so called healthy food i.e. the amount of sugar they add to an Innocent Smoothie, & teaspoons, that's a ridiculous amount particularly when it is marketed as healthy!
When I made bread with fresh yeast many years ago I only needed one teaspoon of sugar to activate the yeast no more so why of why do they add sugar to bread, glad I make my own but my hubby eats the awful white packaged bread.
Now this is what annoys me more is that they make the unhealthy food cheap and the healthy food expensive save for the Innocent Smoothie of course. What needs to happen is hike the price of the unhealthy foods i.e. white bread, sweets, chocolate, biscuits and sausages etc and bring the price of the healthy food down. The sugar tax has been a 'bone of contention' with me as when they introduced it I didn't think it would work, where's the common sense in it, as I said above healthy food needs to be decreased in price and unhealthy increased.
I won't go on any more but manufacturers have a lot to answer for and governments aren't strong enough.
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Hi Alicia, I think that we have to help get awareness out of what we are really eating, which seems an obvious criterion to me.
I think we also have to think why did we as consumers change our shopping habits so suddenly that we were looking out for the cheapest and the supermarkets were stacking it higher and it was a price war where quality went down the gurgly.
Really there's a very simple answer a new food label: Not Fit for Human Consumption but it's getting that to catch on LOL...
There are quality foods out there and we have to be discerning and prepared to pay more so actions speak louder than words.
I think that it's up to us with people power to influence our governments so by talking about these things openly on social media is a very good first step.
You are also very right about the power of big business, so we the consumer collectively have more power than our governments because big business pay their taxes to the govt with the profits from consumers spending and thats us...
I'll get off my soap box now.
Jerry. 😊
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Oh we certainly do Jerry, we need to know exactly what we are eating. If you make it yourself you know what's in it.
We did as prices years ago for food weren't cheap. I remember spending £100 a week in Sainsbury's for 4 of us, which was over 25 years ago, my daughter doesn't spend that on 4 of them now.
Now I do love your suggested new food label, there is plenty of so called food that should have that label attached.
I pay more for my food but unfortunately my daughter would struggle to spend much more, they dont have the same income every month.
Social media is very strong at getting messages out there. The thing the Government were wrong about was the sugar tax (as I said above) ridiculous as it doesn't work.
Yes you're right, we are the consumers and we have power.
As far as I'm concerned you can stay on your soapbox Jerry.😉
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I agree Alicia about the sugar tax it was appearing to do something high viz...But there secret is safe with us...😀
I agree. What's shocking is not so much the amount of junk on the shelves - 'twas ever thus - but that they're now allowed to brand it as "healthy", or use branding that implies that it's healthy (the "Innocent" logo is a typical example). What particularly irritates me is that everything is now low-fat by default (ie., padded out with sugar), and you have to look very carefully to find the unadulterated version.
I'm sure a lot of people are eating a diet of pure junk and don't even realise it, because it's all covered in "low fat!", "heart healthy!", "lowers cholesterol!" nonsense.
As Hidden said, the onus is on the consumer to read the ingredients list and understand just how bad this stuff is. It's all very well blaming the manufacturer or the government, but nobody's forcing anyone to buy it.
I would just love to see a "not fit for human consumption" label on bad food - that would be awesome.
It really is shocking and they shouldn't be able to label it as healthy. So many people thought that Innocent smoothies were really good for you and as you say with the label innocent that's exactly what people thought. It's so much better to make it yourself and you can, you don't have to spend hours in the kitchen. I'm only spending a lot more time in the kitchen at present as I'm following a low fodmap diet for IBS and it's working so it's definitely worth it. I'm using up the chocolate power I have in my cupboard as I know it's not good for me and I will be using Cacao Powder from thereon in. I use the powder in raw fruit bars but I'm not able to eat those at present as I'm not allowed dates.
Part of the onus is on us but what's difficult is some of the ingredients on the labels look like they have been written by a scientist hence me making my own, much easier.
Oh definitely 'not fit for human consumption, but some how I don't think that will happen. Now to the plastic, think I'd better stop otherwise I'll be on my soapbox ha ha.
Thank you Zest it's an eye opener because you don't expect sugar in a pasta or sauce. You reap the benefits of cooking lots of meals from scratch so you don't have to put lots of salt and sugar into it.
It shows how healthy your banana cake is...so a balanced diet is a slice in each hand. 😊
This is so disgusting, does the food industry have shares in drug companies.
This really annoys me, How can a super green smoothies contain 7 teaspoons of sugar - that is ridicuos - surely they justify the higher prices because its suppose to be "healthy" and it contains more sugar than Cadbury drinking chocolate.
Its worse when they pile it in foods aimed at children - get them hooked young.
Thats very true, cereal is terrible for sugar, obviously you expect frosties to contain higher levels of sugar, but even gf cornflakes have far to much.
We need to look at everything before eating
Hi Hidden did you know that supermarkets don't have time to let their loaves prove so they use phytic acid extra yeast and additives so the bread mix goes into a baking tray onto a conveyor belt to the oven and between 30 and 90 seconds it has risen and is baking away, wafting fresh bread smell around the supermarket and then the problems start when people buy it and eat it...🤢
It's a fact, our Government does Not want us to live long healthy lives , poison us with additives to our food to speed the process . Social Security ,ect. would go bankrupt ....Thank You FDA for doing your part in this plan ....Sad...!
As far as I'm aware, yeast isn't used at all in most bread products. The Chorleywood Process uses a combination of chemicals and high-speed mixing to emulate the effects of yeast. There is a theory that this has something to do with the epidemic of chronic gut diseases.
Sorry but I don't think it's voluntary. Especially when 95% of foods on the shelves for consumer is loaded with chemicals that attack our vital organs . On the other hand Hospitals ,Doctors,Medical Equipment Stores, Hired Caregivers , and don't forget Funeral Homes all have to make a living !!! lo .
Why not put hidden sugar items on the top self might make people think twice about buying them. Seriously it needs sorting out.
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