Be very suspicious

Don't you love it when you get worked up about something and then you find the perfect quote that describes how you feel!

For me, this quote says it all: 'We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavours and furniture polish is made from real lemons' -Alfred E Newman.

I have been yelling out the effects of additives, flavours and preservatives and yet manufacturers continue to add them to their products and, more sadly, we continue to buy them.

More recently, when my kids came home from school with a strawberry milk that was given as incentive for the kids to drink milk, I felt very sad.

Dairy issues aside, that carton of milk had a cocktail of preservatives, flavourings and colourings. The chemicals have a huge effect on a child's brain power, learning ability, language skills, IQ, behaviour, vision ... everything!

So why are schools giving them out to kids? Because they think they're doing them a favour. Little do they know, they are just giving them more health problems.

Why aren't the authorities stopping this? This is the million dollar question. My own conclusion is that 'the authorities' are either the food manufacturers who care more about their profit statement than your health; or they are the decision-makers at health institutions who have very little knowledge about nutrition or anything to do with health.

And, believe me, I'm not saying this to say I know more than they do. I'm saying it with a lot of sadness. Unfortunately, it appears some of the people who are making decisions about our health do not know much about health in the first place.

It is very rare that you find a fruit-flavoured drink that has real fruit. It's rare that the orange-coloured snack gets its colour from an orange. It's very unlikely that the expiry date of a product is naturally long unless it's been preserved to death.

So, the next time you put your hand on something you want to buy on the supermarket shelf, just take three more seconds to read the ingredients list.

First rule, if the ingredients list is the size of Brazil, do not buy the product. You should be looking at an ingredients list of five or six items at the most.

Secondly, do not buy it if it contains any E numbers. Examples are E106 or E102. These are preservatives that have lots of side-effects such as headaches and hyperactivity.

If it says 'strawberry flavour' or any other artificial flavour, that does NOT mean it contains the fruit. These are artificial flavours that you should be avoiding. Another dangerous example of flavour-enhancers is something called MSG (mono-sodium glutamate). You will probably find it in instant soups, instant dressings and cooking stock cubes, etc. Avoid this like the plague.

Furthermore, do not buy the product it if it contains 'hydrogenated' or 'partially-hydrogenated' oils. And, of course, look out for sugar content. Remember that the ingredients are listed in order of quantity so the first ingredient is the highest in content and so on. So make sure that the first three ingredients are healthy!

A trick that some manufacturers pull is that they list sugar under different names so they can spread the content out on the list. Sugar has many names, including corn syrup, malt, sucrose, fructose, rice syrup, etc.

Oh, and if the product has an expiry date longer than that on your passport, be very, very suspicious.

Trust no one but your own common sense,

l Don't forget to watch out for my upcoming book called I Want A Healthy Pregnancy.

In this book, I have exposed my personal pregnancy diary to show you how to enjoy natural pregnancy and childbirth. The book will be launched on Saturday, January 29, at Seef Mall's new extension. Make sure you're on my mailing list to stay updated.

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