I’ve had a couple of surprise run-ins with ingredient labels lately and wanted to urge each of you to turn that package around and have a look at what you may be consuming, ingesting, or soaking in.
There is a lot of talk about avoiding certain ingredients. For example, we all know by now that we should avoid transfats. Many of us are trying to avoid sugar in all its guises (tricky!!) But there are so very many things to be aware of!
I have long been a fan of the brand Kallo and their organic stock cubes. I believed that because they were organic that they would be full of only good things. The same applies to the Marigold Swiss Vegetable Vegan bouillon powder that I discovered after going through a short vegan phase. Vegans only eat plants, therefore it must be good. But the other day I found myself wanting to make soup and I was looking at this rather dodgy package of liquid vegetable stock that I picked up at Sainsbury’s. I was struck by a thought – why did I buy this? Out of curiosity I turned the package around and read the back: water, carrots, onion, leek, bay leaf, thyme. THAT’S IT!
Of course I was surprised – I thought this was my dirty back-up in case I ran out of the good stuff. So I went to look at the label of my precious organic stock cubes: sea salt, palm oil, sunflower oil, glucose syrup, sugar, vegetables (6%), herbs, caramelised sugar, spices. WOW. I mean, really! Salt, oil, oil, sugar, sugar. Those are the first five ingredients??? Ugh.
Then I looked at the vegetable bouillon. Potato starch, hydrolysed vegetable protein, sea salt, palm oil, vegetables (10%), herbs… There two things that got me: what is hydrolysed vegetable protein? I looked it up on line and I STILL don’t understand. But my rule of thumb is: if you don’t recognise an ingredient your body probably won’t either. And only 10% veg….makes me sad.
Who knew that the ”winner” in this unofficial challenge would be the package of premade stock?
On a similar note, just last week I was cleaning out hand-bags (how DO I accumulate all that stuff?) and noticed two different tubes of hand lotion. One is Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion, and the other is the CVS knock-off. CVS makes the package look just like the Aveeno one and they even say on the label “compare to Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion”. (I do wonder how they get away with these things). Just out of curiosity I flipped the Aveeno tube over and read the ingredients – all good!!! I flipped the CVS version over and the ingredients were identical…..right til the end. At the end they added in two forms of parabens. Parabens are preservatives that help prevent bacteria overgrowth. Interesting that CVS thought they were necessary but Aveeno has been making this lotion for ages without the need to use them.
There has been considerable controversy about the affect of parabens on the body. Many studies believe them to be an endocrine disrupter and that they mimic estrogen in the body. (Just have a quick look on line and you’ll see all the controversy and the endless studies). So I just wonder, given its controversial nature, why CVS would copy an existing product and then ADD them in? Especially when Aveeno doesn’t use them.
I have made the decision to clean out my bathroom of endocrine disruptors where possible. If you are curious about this have a look at the link for the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and go from there: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/
So for your daily challenge, flip a package over and have a look at what you’re really putting in and on your body. Choose to be nice to yourself. And then give yourself a hug.