Everyday products with Trans Fats - list them here.

[Deleted User]

Trans Fats have been a bit in the news recently about how shockingly unhealthy they are. They are heart attack ingredients of the worst kind and yet are in so many everyday products.

Manufacturers, such as Mc Vities and retailers such as M&S are already changing towards avoiding trans fats - but it might be useful to have a list of the worst offending everyday products so we know what to avoid? Even better would be what we could buy instead that was similar to that product.

It's almost impossible to try and read all the labels on everything whilst shopping.

Transfats are usually listed on the ingredients of a product as hydrogenated vegetable oil or similar. The higher up the list it is mentioned, the larger the amount of it there is.

To start off -

Tesco coffee whitener - I can't suggest an alternative to this as I think all whiteners/creamers may be similarly as bad?

MIRRY_2

jammie doggers have hydrogenated fats in them,

my son has multiple allergys so im used to reading ingrediants for nastys :mad:

nickyhutch

This is a really good idea Deleted_User, thankyou. I'm going to seriously ban them from my house. I Thinkwe eat healthily, but things sometimes sneak in when you're unawares!

kiwichick

I think the buttery type spreads might have them, we use proper butter now (although tesco value) as I seem to remember seeing something on the tv about how although real butter was high in fat, it was a "better" fat than you get in the spreads.

Also, try to avoid buying value crisps as they are fried using oil that has already been used for numerous batches of "label" crisps. Saw this on tv too, and its meant to be worse for you.

kiwichick

Hi All,

Great thread Deleted_User, hope you dont mimnd me posting the following, its slightly off topic but might be helpful to some.

I keep a card in my purse from Organics Goodies which lists the dirty dozen. The front of the card says;

"The potential effect of artificial additives, pesticides and poor nutrition in a child diet can be a cause for concern. So when shopping, check food labels for THE DIRTY DOZEN and avoid them."

The back of the cards lists them as below;

1.Mechanically recovered/seperated meat.
2.Monosodium Glutamate E621
3.Sodium 5-ribonucleotide E635
4.Aspartame
5.Acesulfame K
6.Sodium Saccharine
7.Sodium Benzoate E211
8.Sulphur Dioxide E220
9.Colours-Quinoline Yellow E104
-Brilliant Blue E133
-Sunset Yellow E110
-Carmoisine E122
-Ponceau 4R E124
-Indigo Carmine E132
10.High salt foods (more than 0.5gm of sodium or 1.2gm of salt per 100gm).
11.Hydrogenated fat and more than 5gm of saturated fat per 100gm.
12.Refined sugar

I always find myself looking at this card when shopping. Hope the list helps someone.
Al.

thriftlady_2

Thanks Deleted_User and Kiwichick for this useful info.I too avoid all these things, basically if I don't recognise the ingredients as 'real food' then I don't buy it.

HVOs are in everything. My kids brought me back some honey fudge from their camping holiday. It was from a honey farm, which promoted the advantages of their lovely natural product, but the fudge had more HVOs in than honey I wouldn't have bought it , but OH not so on the ball as me:rolleyes:

One product that springs to mind which I know lots of us use is tortilla wraps.
Tesco own-brand (including the healthy eating version) all have HVOs in.
Discovery brand are OK as are organic brands - I think all organic products are HVO free.

Quite a lot of bread has it in, another good reason for making your own.

carinska

Thriftlady, sorry, I am being thick, what are HVO's? Thank you !

thriftlady_2

Sorry ! HVOs = Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils = trans-fats = bad;)

carinska

Thank you! It is all v complicated! I've only recently started looking closely at labels, and to be honest it's terrifying!

wizzkid_3

Lidl's plain tortilla wraps don't appeat to have them in, just a load of E numbers I have not got round to checking. (E450, E500, E341, E471, E282, E200, E920).

We have tried making our own, but it takes HOURS to clean up the kitchen after and the wraps end up like cardboard. Anyone got any tips to make them lovely and soft?

Debt_Free_Chick

Not all E numbers are automatically "bad" - though the list makes pretty daunting reading!

Lidl's plain tortilla wraps don't appeat to have them in, just a load of E numbers I have not got round to checking. (E450, E500, E341, E471, E282, E200, E920).

E450 - Diphosphates
E500 - Sodium Carbonates
E341 - Calcium phosphates
E471 - Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids :eek:?
E282 - Calcium propionate
E200 - Sorbic acid
E920 - L-Cysteine

I have no idea what these are and would have to Google - sorry