#additivefreelunchboxes

With the kids all back to school for the year, I've had lots of Mums asking me for guidance on packing healthy school lunchboxes. This gave me an idea, so off I went to the local shops to purchase some common lunchbox items - with a little experiment in mind.  

It just doesn't add up

So what you can see in this picture are two lunchboxes, yes there are LOTS of foods in there, but this is just to show you a range of different food items. Each lunchbox contains different, but comparable products.

The big difference in these lunchboxes is that the black one (top right) contains popular kids snack foods that contain various additives, preservatives, colours and flavours.  This is despite some packaging claims i.e. 'no artificial colours or preservatives', 'source of calcium, made with real cheese', and the 'healthy school canteen strategy' logo leading parents to believe some products are healthier choices than they may actually be.

The blue lunchbox (bottom right) contains foods with NO additives, colours, flavours or preservatives.

It's true that there are some additives and preservatives that are considered safe, and some that can have adverse side-effects in many individuals. But just to give you an idea of the difference there can be between seemingly similar food items, there were 38 'numbers' contained in the black lunchbox, and 0 found in the blue one.

So why does this matter?

Some of the additives known for having adverse effects i.e. asthma, eczema, food intolerance symptoms, IBS, nasal irritation, eye irritation, children's behavioural problems, learning difficulties, gastrointestional disturbances, rashes, dermatitis and headaches are:

200-203 Sorbates (found in the Kraft Cheese Pods and Mission Wraps)

220-228 Sulphites (found in Select Muesli Bars and Mission Wraps)

280-283 Propionic Acid 'The Bread Preservative (found in Mission Wraps)

320 - BHA & Other Antioxidants (found in Mission Wraps and Kraft Snackabouts)

621 - MSG & The New Flavour Enhancers (found in Mamee noodle snacks)

627, 631 - The Ribonucleotides (found in Mamee noodle snacks)

319 - Synthetic Antioxidants (found in Kraft Snackabouts) 

If you'd like to learn more about the adverse effects of additives, preservatives, colours, flavour enhancers and antioxidants added to foods, visit Sue Dengate's Fed Up With Food Additives website.

What foods have we swapped?

By making some simple changes, we have just eliminated 38 additives and preservatives from your child's lunchbox!  Here are the swaps:

Original Food Additive-free replacement

Mamee Monster Noodle - SnackCobs Natural Sea Salt Popcorn 

Uncle Tobys Fruit Salad Roll Up - Sun Valley 100% True Fruit Bar

Select Brand Strawberry Yoghurt Muesli Bar - Wholekids Apple & Sultana Fruit Bar

Calci Yum Strawberry Yoghurt - Five AM Organic Berry Yoghurt

Kraft Cheese Pod - Babybel Cheese

Kraft Cheese Spread Snackabout - Eat Rite Brown Rice Crackers & Homemade Hummus Dip

Mission Wrap - Mountain Rye Bread Wrap

Select Pears in Raspberry Jelly - Just Wholefoods Raspberry Jelly & Coles Tinned Pears

Apple  Apple - no change

Become a food detective

It's a good idea to learn to read food labels and what numbers in particular to avoid.  It really is amazing how even seemingly identical products in different brands can vary with their ingredients.  So as well as keeping an eye out for additives, preservatives and colours, I also like to compare products for:

Salt content

Sugar content

Artificial Sweeteners (avoiding)

For example, the Mission bread wrap had 639mg of sodium, whilst the Mountain Bread Rye Wrap had just 102mg - and that is a HUGE difference.