In a stunning tiny country town on
Saturday I asked in a café for a skim flat white. I was confused when the lovely
shop keeper said I couldn’t have skim milk as they only use ‘natural
ingredients’.
Isn't skim milk natural?
But it’s tricky to say what is natural and what isn't. We know that an apple seed grows into a tree. That
tree has beautiful blossom flowers, turning into apples that are picked by us
and enjoyed. That’s natural.
But what if we take them home and peel them,
cook them and put them in a pie? Are they still natural?
At the other end of the scale is unnatural. I
remember making chemicals in a lab at Uni. We added alcohol to an acid and to
my great surprise it ended up smelling like banana lollies. I soon found out
this is how banana flavouring is made. It has a scary sounding name ‘isoamyl
acetate’. Definitely not natural.
This is what the FDA (who look after food
safety in the US) say about ‘natural’
It
is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has
probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said,
FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural.
The UK Food Standards Agency makes
it a bit clearer stating that ‘natural’ should only be used
To describe single
foods, of a traditional nature, to which nothing has been added [except to make
them safe] for human consumption.
In Australia, a recent study
found
The
term ‘natural’ is often used on food labels, but is unregulated in Australia
So we see natural can be confusing. It is not a helpful way to tell the healthiness of a food.
Food companies also sometimes use the word
natural or good in their brand name making it even trickier to spot a healthy
product.
Packets can be also be covered
with pictures suggesting nature. You might notice fruit and vegetables, leaves and sometimes farmers picking our
foods. They usually come in green, brown or colourful boxes too. Unfortunately
this doesn’t mean they have been anywhere near a farm, forest or paddock.
How can you tell if it’s really natural?
Look for foods that aren’t in packets. Fruit, vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, plain nuts and
seeds and grains are all truly natural. Plain yoghurt and milk are also natural
products.
Organic products mean no chemicals have been
used. However, washing foods first gets rid of the chemicals.
Another tip is to make more from scratch. Most bought sauces, flavours, desserts,
snacks and ready meals come with a whole stack of additives you’d never find in
your kitchen. They can also be pricey.
Using simple ingredients like chilli, pepper,
garlic, ginger and even a small amount of honey can flavour your meals.
Cinnamon, mixed spice, grated orange rind
make your homemade desserts delicious.
A small handful of nuts, a banana, yoghurt, a
smoothie or homemade dips are fabulous snacks.
If you do need to buy foods in packets watch out for numbers and chemical
names. There are thousands of other chemicals just like banana flavour that
make up flavours, colours and preservatives. Check the ingredients list. If it’s
really long or you don’t know what half the words mean … just remember it’s not
natural.
And lastly grow it yourself when you can. Even the smallest amount of space
can grow a range of herbs. These are wonderful for flavouring your food and
will save you a fortune on packaged flavours and bought herbs. If you have a
little more space why not try some vegetables.
Now you know what natural really means.
What natural foods do you love to eat?
Nice blog ali , do you have a gastritis diet , cheers dale
ReplyDeleteI like to eat natural meat and veges - a chargrilled steak with mushrooms and corn on the cob is my favourite
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