I am now in the United Kingdom for two weeks... Going to another country meant that I had to do some more research regarding the health statistics of that country... this month I want to talk to you about The Heart Foundation and its tick program. 

To do this research I went to the Heart Foundations website to find the criteria that is required in order to get the heart foundations tick on a particular food.  I was hoping to find criteria that in my way of thinking would create health but instead I found criteria that was basic and I am afraid to say very disappointing.

The Heart Foundation separates food into 5 groups: Bread, Breakfast Cereals, Sweet Biscuits, Cheese/Dairy and Nut and Seed Bars.  Each one of these groups has three or more of the following criteria;
 - encourage reduced sodium levels
 - encourage increased fibre content
 - maintain low saturated fat and partially hydrogenated fat content
 - limit kilojoules per serving
 - minimise serve size/energy
 - encourage nut or seed content
 
I then went to the list on the Heart Foundations website of all the foods that have been given the tick- there are hundreds.  I printed them up and went to the grocery store to have a look at, not the nutrition label with all the fibre, sugar and fat content/percentage, but the ingredients.  There was not one food in a package with the heart foundations tick of approval that should be considered a food for health.
 
I realise that there is a polarisation here of philosophies.  On the one hand we have the Heart Foundation wanting low fat, low joules, low salt and high fibre and then on the other hand I want to see all real foods... no foods made in a chemical laboratory!.  I want to know what is the food made up of, what is on the ingredient list?.  Is it made from real food? 
 
Foods from nature or real food are the foods we have eaten for thousands of years without the lifestyle diseases we have today as a result of the new technology foods.   Every year 17,000 new foods are introduced into the western chain of supermarkets, all of them are in a package and most of them are made from foods that are not from nature but rather manipulated or made in a chemical laboratory.
 
Let me give you an example of some foods The Heart Foundation has given their tick of approval to;
 
Dairy Farmers Pouring Custard.
Ingredients are:
skim milk, milk, sugar, thickener 1442, flavour, vegetable gums 402, 412 415, colours 160a & b and this product is ultra pasteurised. 

Another:
 
Flora Margarine
Canola Oil, water, vegetable oils, buttermilk, salt, emulsifiers 471, preservative 202, food acid, flavour, vitamins A and D.
 
If we look at both these sets of ingredients, the first thing you should see is that they both have ‘flavour', and after last months newsletter you should be aware that behind the name flavour are another 40 or so chemicals.  The next thing to notice is that the custard has no eggs, and the last time I looked at a recipe for custard it was made with eggs, sugar and milk. If you are wondering what ultra pasteurised means, it is defined by me as boiling the food to extremes until you've killed any goodness and so nothing grows on it and it is preserved for a long period of time. I could keep raving on about all the ingredients but if I was to put it succinctly there is no goodness and no real food and they are not worth eating if you really want to be healthy, full of energy and maintain a sensible weight.  If you want to find out more about the ingredients in margarine, then download my report on Trans Fats from www.changinghabits.com.au.
 
Not only does the Heart Foundation give a tick but there are other ticks and approvals in the food industry, for example there is a Glycemic Index symbol that tells you whether a food has a low, medium or high GI.  Here is an example of one;
 
Nestle Milo Energy Dairy Snack
milk, skim milk concentrate, water, cream, milk solids, formulated supplement food base sugar, cocoa and many more numbers and additives that I didn't have the time to write down, but you get the gist.
 
This was given a low GI stamp.  So they expect us to eat it because it has a low GI.
 
For me the GI test is of no consequence because the food is not even real, and something else I was wondering, what is formulated supplement food base???  I will look it up and tell you when I know.
 
No matter what tick of approval I saw, very few of the foods in the ingredient list came from nature and the vast majority came from a chemical laboratory or the natural food had been changed in some way that would render it a food not fit for human health
 
The health claims were another thing that I saw on many of the heart foundations tick of approval foods, they were more often then not empty promises, things like; antioxidant lift, energy balanced, fibre lift, cholesterol lowering and the like. 
 
The purpose of this month's newsletter is to make you aware of all the foods with approval stamps and to give you enough information so that you are not fooled by some of their claims.  Do not take their word for it, make sure you read the ingredients and decide for yourself.  More and more I realise that if we do not live by a health and nutrition philosophy then we are swayed by advertising, marketing, ticks of approval and health claim stamps.  The basis of the philosophy I teach is to eat food from nature and anything you can make with it, from beautiful savoury dinners to scrumptious cakes and slices.  Read all your ingredients if you buy packaged foods and avoid all foods made in a chemical laboratory.
 
Happy Changing Habits
 
Cyndi O'Meara