Before you actually read this post, I want to first make one thing clear. If you've been a regular reader and visitor to my blog, then you will probably be aware that I choose my post titles on purpose. This post is by no means different.I also want to make clear (and realising that I am hence making two things clear) that I want you to never take your food at face value! This is perhaps the core essence of this post because, all too often, if we were brutally honest, we tend to fill our trolleys without a second thought. We make our grocery list of things we need for the week or two, and then we simply fill up at the supermarket, apathetically.
What I want you to do...before you continue reading...is to open up to the possibility that we need to properly discern that which we buy, that which we put into our trolleys and - consequently - into our homes. And so I invite - no, challenge you - to take a second look, to make a second thought, about what you put in your trolley.
Right...lengthy intro over. Now onto what I was actually going to write (I hope I haven't lost you at this post. Please, keep reading on).
With winter coming up, soup is usually a good way to fortify our bodies with warmth, taste, and goodness. Tonight was definitely a fresh one...and I had no soup. Now, while I prefer to mix together a homemade vegetable soup, I decided to nip out to the supermarket and get some packet soup. In the end, I came home with two Home Brand five-sachet packs, and one Continental two-sachet pack. The Continental packet had the National Heart Foundation approved tick on the box.
But did that tick really mean that I had made a healthy, nutritional choice?
Unfortunately, not really. And I have to spotlight the why. In the list of ingredients is one particular additive - only one - and surprisingly it's not MSG (E-621). It is in fact E-635, with the following list of 'interesting' effects:
"Mixture of sodium salts of guanylic (E626) and inosinic acid (E630). Check imported foods. May be associated with itchy skin rashes up to 30 hours after ingestion; rashes may vary from mild to dramatic; the reaction is dose-related and cumulative, some individuals are more sensitive than others; typical foods include flavoured chips, instant noodles and party pies. Avoid it, especially gout sufferers, asthmatics and aspirin sensitive people. Banned in Australia." [a]
The last part is very interesting. This additive is banned in Australia. Although the reasons why are not listed (although there may be other sites that will highlight this), it does beg two obvious questions:
(1) Why is it not banned here in New Zealand (or other places for that matter)?
(2) Perhaps more importantly, If it is indeed a banned additive - and banned for good reason - then why does it have a National Heart Foundation approved tick on it?
Sadly, I don't have an answer to any of the two questions. But it does bear out one possible course of action for us: The need to be a tad more diligent with our food choices and purchases. Just because a product carries an endorsement of some kind (such as this example), the central point I am trying to make is that such an endorsement does not automatically guarantee any form of health benefit! In other words, always check your labelling.
Final point to take out of all this: Take ownership of your health and wellbeing, because it is, after all your responsibility, not the Heart Foundation's.
References
[a] MBM Food Additives Guide. http://mbm.net.au/health/guide.htm (accessed April 6 2010, 9:24pm)
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