Thursday 3 May 2012

Captain crunch

I was sat opposite a japanese lady on the dlr today who was eating a very strange looking snack. It looked somewhat like beef jerky but made a huge cracking sound when she ate it!

Sadly the packet was also in japanese so I couldn't identify what it was, which was a shame as I happen to have a weakness for crunchy snack food - crisps, nachos, roasted salted nuts ... Yum!

These aren't exactly health foods, but if you go for the plain or salted varieties then the health downside to these is limited to too much salt and fat. Alot of the flavoured varieties however contain a surprising amount of hidden nasties: added sugar (glucose, lactose, maltodextrin) chemical flavour enhancers and various additives which the body doesn't recognize so doesn't cope well with.

There are two simple questions that can help filter out the super bad from the slightly bad snack foods:
1. does the ingredients list contain more than five ingredients?
2. are any of these ingredients items you don't recognize and/or wouldn't find in nature?

If you only go for snack foods and treat foods to which no is the answer to both you'll likely be choosing the healthier options and can crunch away without too much concern!
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