Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1216 - Nutritional Deception: What They're Not Telling You About Kids' Food
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: What do those food labels mean? How can we understand
- 0:09Speaker 1: them so that we can make sure that we're nourishing
- 0:11Speaker 1: our children with the stuff they need to have the
- 0:13Speaker 1: energy and the vitality to live happy, healthy lives. Today
- 0:17Speaker 1: it's a conversation about kids, diet and what we put
- 0:21Speaker 1: in our shopping trolleys. Hello and welcome to the Happy
- 0:24Speaker 1: Families Podcast, Real parenting Solutions every day on Australia's most
- 0:28Speaker 1: downloaded parenting podcast. My name is doctor Justin Couson and
- 0:31Speaker 1: today I'm joined by pediatric dietitian, TV commentator, founder of
- 0:36Speaker 1: Nourishing Kids and Nourish with Karina and mum of two
- 0:40Speaker 1: Karina Savage to talk all these things. Hey, Karina, thanks
- 0:43Speaker 1: for being on the pod today.
- 0:45Speaker 2: Hi, thanks so much for having me. It's great to
- 0:47Speaker 2: be here.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Whereabouts does this conversation find you?
- 0:49Speaker 2: Corina? I am in Sydney today, Sydney Mclinic.
- 0:53Speaker 1: Karina. When we go shopping with the kids, we're marching
- 0:57Speaker 1: up down the aisles pushing the supermarket trollie and we
- 1:01Speaker 1: pull that thing off the shelf and look at the
- 1:02Speaker 1: back of it to see the ingredients. What are we
- 1:05Speaker 1: looking for? Because this is confusing there are so many
- 1:09Speaker 1: different categories proteins, sugars, carbohydrates, per serving, per hundred grams,
- 1:14Speaker 1: what's the stuff that matters most if I want to
- 1:16Speaker 1: make sure that I'm feeding my child healthy food.
- 1:20Speaker 3: Justin I think we as parents in twenty twenty five
- 1:24Speaker 3: have it tougher than any other parent has ever had
- 1:27Speaker 3: it in terms of trying to understand what is a healthy.
- 1:31Speaker 2: Food choice for our child or for our family.
- 1:34Speaker 3: Currently, with our current food standards and food labeling laws,
- 1:40Speaker 3: manufacturers can really use a lot of deception around food labeling,
- 1:46Speaker 3: and as parents it's really tricky. Hopefully, in the future,
- 1:50Speaker 3: with a lot of you know, I guess encouragement from
- 1:55Speaker 3: people such as myself and groups lobbying for this, we
- 1:59Speaker 3: will have better food labeling laws in the future where
- 2:03Speaker 3: food manufacturers cannot be as deceptive.
- 2:05Speaker 2: But currently they.
- 2:06Speaker 3: Are able to pour as much salt and sugar into
- 2:08Speaker 3: food as they want. They are currently able to label
- 2:12Speaker 3: things organic good for us basically when they're.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Not hold the phone, hang on a sec. I didn't
- 2:19Speaker 1: know this. So they can use the word organic, yeah,
- 2:22Speaker 1: even if food is not organically grown up.
- 2:25Speaker 3: Well, sorry, they can use the word organic and it
- 2:27Speaker 3: is actually organic, but they will use the label organic
- 2:31Speaker 3: to make it sound healthy when there's a bucket load
- 2:34Speaker 3: of sugar poort into it.
- 2:35Speaker 1: So what you're saying is that it already feels overwhelming.
- 2:38Speaker 1: The information we get is contradictory, and the food industrial
- 2:41Speaker 1: complex is using deceptive marketing to make things seem better
- 2:44Speaker 1: for our kids than they actually are.
- 2:46Speaker 3: Absolutely, when we've had a recent review of our foods
- 2:49Speaker 3: in Australia, ninety percent of them of baby and toddler
- 2:53Speaker 3: food did not meet international guidelines, and our food marketing
- 2:57Speaker 3: is where a lot of it came down.
- 2:58Speaker 2: Of food labeling.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Was always of the opinion that in Australia we had
- 3:01Speaker 1: really great legislation and we didn't have to worry about
- 3:03Speaker 1: the stuff that they're worried about in America because they're
- 3:05Speaker 1: a bit crazy in the US when it comes to
- 3:08Speaker 1: commercialization and big farmer and big food and big tech
- 3:13Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. I thought we were alway
- 3:15Speaker 1: better than that here you're suggesting.
- 3:16Speaker 2: No, no, absolutely not.
- 3:18Speaker 3: We have toddler foods marketed as ninety seven percent fruit
- 3:22Speaker 3: and yogurt that is actually worse than white chocolate when
- 3:26Speaker 3: you flip it around and you look at the ingredients list.
- 3:28Speaker 2: It's got more.
- 3:29Speaker 3: Sugar in it than white chocolate. Yeah, it says on
- 3:32Speaker 3: the front of the label. They are allowed to say
- 3:35Speaker 3: ninety seven percent fruit and yogurt. It's unbelievable.
- 3:37Speaker 1: Okay, So I asked you about the labels a second ago,
- 3:41Speaker 1: But I'm going to tell you what I do.
- 3:43Speaker 3: Yeap.
- 3:44Speaker 1: In our family, we are, I would say, far more
- 3:47Speaker 1: health conscious than most families. We try as much as
- 3:51Speaker 1: possible to just eat whole foods. We try not to
- 3:53Speaker 1: eat stuff out of packets. But if I'm going to
- 3:55Speaker 1: eat something out of a packet, I don't understand. Even
- 3:58Speaker 1: though I'm born in the nineteen seventies, I still don't
- 4:02Speaker 1: really know what I'm looking for in terms of the
- 4:05Speaker 1: nutritional information. So I tell my kids look at the
- 4:08Speaker 1: ingredients list, and if sugar or salt is in the
- 4:11Speaker 1: top five, then it's a highly processed, highly unhealthy and
- 4:15Speaker 1: probably quite an addictive food. If it's out of the
- 4:17Speaker 1: top five, I'm usually pretty blase about it and we'll
- 4:21Speaker 1: give it a go. No one can see your face,
- 4:23Speaker 1: but you're cracking up right now, like this guy has.
- 4:27Speaker 2: No idea You've got this huge you do.
- 4:29Speaker 1: I'm looking to smile on your face, and I'm interpreting.
- 4:32Speaker 1: I'm interpreting that as he's a gumby.
- 4:37Speaker 2: No, I love it. I love it. Look. A lot
- 4:39Speaker 2: of what you say is true.
- 4:40Speaker 3: I always say the shorter of the ingredients list the better.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's true.
- 4:45Speaker 3: Yes, there are ingredients in that ingredients list that you
- 4:49Speaker 3: don't know.
- 4:50Speaker 2: Carpronow's grandmother wouldn't know. You know, it's put it back.
- 4:54Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so much highly processed, refined stuff that goes
- 4:58Speaker 3: into our kid's food, ingredients and green and we don't
- 5:00Speaker 3: even know what they are, and numbers and all thoughts.
- 5:03Speaker 2: It's it's phenomenal. So yes, absolutely. If sugar is.
- 5:07Speaker 3: In the top three, definitely, you know, kick it to
- 5:09Speaker 3: the curb. Salt is quite highly concentrated, so yeah, definitely,
- 5:14Speaker 3: even not five, I would avoid it, and I would
- 5:17Speaker 3: encourage people to look to the nutrition table, and in
- 5:21Speaker 3: kids food, I will in all food, generally, it's good
- 5:23Speaker 3: to compare per hundred grams, so comparing apples with apples,
- 5:27Speaker 3: So for example, in a muslibar, you would ideally keep
- 5:31Speaker 3: the sugar less than twenty grams per hundred grams. Same
- 5:34Speaker 3: goes through breakfast cereals under twenty grams per hundred grams,
- 5:37Speaker 3: I mean the lower the better. If you can get
- 5:39Speaker 3: it under fifteen or ten, fantastic, But start with under
- 5:43Speaker 3: twenty grams one hundred grams to sugar and salt otherwise
- 5:46Speaker 3: known as sodium under three fifty per hundred grams, so
- 5:50Speaker 3: under three fifty milligrams per hundred grams for sodium.
- 5:53Speaker 2: So start with those two.
- 5:55Speaker 3: But definitely looking at the ingredients list is a really
- 5:58Speaker 3: good place to start because you can look for those
- 6:01Speaker 3: those real words.
- 6:02Speaker 2: You know, you want to be seeing real words like
- 6:05Speaker 2: apple or oats or nuts.
- 6:07Speaker 3: You don't want to be seeing things like sugar or
- 6:10Speaker 3: concentrated fruit pures or concentrated fruit pastes because that's the
- 6:15Speaker 3: way they're currently getting around a lot of these the
- 6:18Speaker 3: pouring the sugar into these toddler foods because they say
- 6:22Speaker 3: it's natural when it's a real concentrated source of fruit,
- 6:25Speaker 3: but they currently allowed to call it just a no
- 6:28Speaker 3: added sugar.
- 6:29Speaker 1: I've been looking for additives, like for spices, like if
- 6:32Speaker 1: I'm going to have for heaters or wraps, that that
- 6:35Speaker 1: kind of thing. And what I discovered even on the
- 6:39Speaker 1: very popular taco mixes for example, sugar is one of
- 6:43Speaker 1: the top ingredients in those things. I found one the
- 6:45Speaker 1: other day and it literally had three or four ingredients
- 6:48Speaker 1: and I knew every single word, and not one of
- 6:49Speaker 1: them was sugar. I was like, oh, these are actually
- 6:51Speaker 1: these are the spices. This is going to be much
- 6:53Speaker 1: healthier for me. So to restate, you're looking for words
- 6:56Speaker 1: that you understand and know, and you want to keep sugar,
- 6:59Speaker 1: particularly at least out of the top three, and preferably
- 7:02Speaker 1: the further down the list it is, the less likely
- 7:04Speaker 1: it is that that food is going to be unhealthy
- 7:06Speaker 1: for you.
- 7:08Speaker 3: Absolutely, we do need to be mindful though, of artificial sweetness,
- 7:11Speaker 3: because they're creeping in more and more and more than
- 7:13Speaker 3: more people are being health conscious around loose sugar. We're
- 7:16Speaker 3: now seeing a rise of artificial sweetness, but they have
- 7:19Speaker 3: their own health risks and change is to our gut microbiota.
- 7:22Speaker 3: So yeah, we really want to try and keep them
- 7:25Speaker 3: out as much as possible as well.
- 7:26Speaker 1: After the break, I want to throw you a curly
- 7:28Speaker 1: one about the health Star ratings they vex me Carina.
- 7:33Speaker 1: That's coming up in just a second. The podcast It's
- 7:42Speaker 1: a Happy Family's podcast. This is doctor Justin Courslom today
- 7:45Speaker 1: hanging out with pediatric dietitian and founder of Nourish with
- 7:49Speaker 1: Carina Karina Savage. We're talking about the stuff we put
- 7:53Speaker 1: on our kids plates and they put in their mouths.
- 7:57Speaker 1: We've talked about what's on the back of the label,
- 7:59Speaker 1: and I want to talk about what's in the front
- 8:01Speaker 1: of the label. Big food, the food industrial complex, loves
- 8:05Speaker 1: to trumpet their health Star rating, and yet when I
- 8:09Speaker 1: look at some of these foods that have four, four
- 8:12Speaker 1: and a half even five stars, Karina, I have to
- 8:15Speaker 1: scratch my head because on the back there's a lot
- 8:17Speaker 1: of sugar. I don't recognize a lot of the things
- 8:18Speaker 1: in the ingredients list, and yet these things are considered healthy.
- 8:22Speaker 1: Certain muslibars are a very easy example of that, as
- 8:25Speaker 1: well as some spreads that we put on sandwiches. Help
- 8:28Speaker 1: me to understand what is going on with health Star
- 8:32Speaker 1: ratings and are they believable at all? Or is the
- 8:35Speaker 1: entire system rigged a kleptocracy. Is there's some kind of
- 8:40Speaker 1: just insidious cash for health stars. Then going on with
- 8:44Speaker 1: the people who are running the bureaucracy, what's the deal.
- 8:48Speaker 3: I don't trust them, and I don't trust them for
- 8:50Speaker 3: my family. Because companies know how to work the system,
- 8:55Speaker 3: They know the loopholes to jump through to get an
- 9:00Speaker 3: just star rating. There's criteria that enabled them to get
- 9:03Speaker 3: more stars or less stars, and they know that they
- 9:07Speaker 3: may need to just nudge that fiber up a little bit,
- 9:09Speaker 3: or nudge that protein up, or nudge that salt down.
- 9:12Speaker 2: Just a fraction to get that extra star. But it
- 9:15Speaker 2: doesn't take.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Away from the fact that some of these foods that
- 9:19Speaker 3: have four four and a half stars are highly processed foods,
- 9:23Speaker 3: and they've highly processed ingredients that are so far removed
- 9:27Speaker 3: from Mother Nature and the original food that it came from.
- 9:30Speaker 3: So I find incredible that some highly processed foods that
- 9:35Speaker 3: are really poor for us and our gut health are
- 9:37Speaker 3: getting these star ratings. And there absolutely needs to be
- 9:40Speaker 3: and there is. I think it's coming a big reform
- 9:43Speaker 3: of the Health Star rating system and the criteria by
- 9:46Speaker 3: which companies are rated, because at the moment, you know,
- 9:50Speaker 3: artificial sweetness and things like that, I don't believe they're
- 9:53Speaker 3: factored into Health Star ratings when really they should be.
- 9:56Speaker 2: I think it's quite.
- 9:57Speaker 3: An archaic system and we need to be much more
- 9:59Speaker 3: forward than with how we're raiding our food created.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Back on January twenty eight, Kylie and I did a
- 10:04Speaker 1: podcast episode about a new study that was published here
- 10:08Speaker 1: in Australia looking at what goes into the average school
- 10:11Speaker 1: kids lunch box. I think it was something like one
- 10:13Speaker 1: two hundred. I might have the number wrong, but about
- 10:15Speaker 1: twelve hundred lunch boxes were photographed as kids came into school.
- 10:19Speaker 1: The researchers had permission to take a photo of what's
- 10:21Speaker 1: in the lunch box, and what they found was that
- 10:23Speaker 1: the average lunchbox has about four dollars fifty worth of
- 10:26Speaker 1: food in it, and the more food in packaging, the
- 10:32Speaker 1: more expensive the lunchbox would be. But also the more
- 10:35Speaker 1: food in packaging, the less healthy the lunchbox would be.
- 10:40Speaker 1: I took that to indicate that we are paying more
- 10:44Speaker 1: for a worse outcome, and that if we use and
- 10:48Speaker 1: eat whole foods as much as possible, our kids are
- 10:52Speaker 1: going to be healthier and we're actually going to be
- 10:53Speaker 1: financially better off. But of course the kids will then
- 10:56Speaker 1: swap lunch or throw it in the bin because they
- 10:58Speaker 1: like the stuff that comes into packets. And so I'm
- 11:01Speaker 1: a little bit stuck here, and I was wondering as
- 11:03Speaker 1: we as we discussed this highly processed food food industrial
- 11:07Speaker 1: complex dilemma, what rules do you have to live by
- 11:14Speaker 1: when it comes to putting together an economic but tasty
- 11:18Speaker 1: lunch box that the kids will eat.
- 11:23Speaker 3: Number One, buying bulk and have bulk amounts of packet
- 11:30Speaker 3: foods or bulk amounts of cheese and crackers. So that
- 11:33Speaker 3: actually reduced the daily cost of crackers or cheese or
- 11:39Speaker 3: whatever you might be putting in the lunch box. So
- 11:40Speaker 3: buying bulk, buying in bulk can help to reduce the
- 11:44Speaker 3: daily cost of the lunch box.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Same if you're buying bags.
- 11:48Speaker 3: Of popcorn or newsleibars, trying to buy them in bulk
- 11:52Speaker 3: when they're on special and then storing them.
- 11:55Speaker 2: Now, I think we still need to consider.
- 11:57Speaker 3: Though, the frequency and the number of packet lunch the
- 12:03Speaker 3: number of packaged processed foods that go into lunchbox.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Because you're right, kids love them.
- 12:07Speaker 3: Anything that's white and salty and crunchy or sweet, they
- 12:10Speaker 3: love them. And it's PESTI power. You know, parents are
- 12:14Speaker 3: time poor. These foods are quick, convenient, tasty, kids love them.
- 12:19Speaker 3: You know, it's a win wind from that perspective. But
- 12:21Speaker 3: it's very much a lose lose from a you know,
- 12:24Speaker 3: hitting the hip pocket like they're expensive, and from a
- 12:26Speaker 3: nutritional perspective, they're often very low in fiber and nutrition.
- 12:30Speaker 3: They're very high in processed ingredients, and so really for parents,
- 12:34Speaker 3: I think if you can give them maybe one package
- 12:38Speaker 3: processing and their lunchbox too maximum, but really trying to
- 12:42Speaker 3: limit the number.
- 12:43Speaker 2: Of packaged foods each day.
- 12:44Speaker 3: So it's just not a free for all because often
- 12:47Speaker 3: kids have your free range to the pantry and they
- 12:49Speaker 3: will literally go and just grab another packet of oreos
- 12:52Speaker 3: or another packet of crackers, or another packet.
- 12:54Speaker 2: Of chicken crimpiece.
- 12:55Speaker 3: So it's setting clear boundaries for your family around what's
- 12:59Speaker 3: except maybe they have one packet in their lunch box
- 13:01Speaker 3: and one packet after school and that's it.
- 13:03Speaker 2: Or maybe you have none.
- 13:04Speaker 3: Maybe you just have bulk rice, crackers and cheese and
- 13:07Speaker 3: chop thedgees, or maybe you do toasted peanut butter after
- 13:10Speaker 3: school and there are no crackers. So it's trying to
- 13:12Speaker 3: set some clear boundaries for your family, buying in bulk
- 13:15Speaker 3: where possible, and really trying to limit these process foods
- 13:20Speaker 3: because at the end of the day, it is a
- 13:21Speaker 3: lose lose, even though kids love them, it's not good
- 13:24Speaker 3: for finances and that's not good for their nutrition.
- 13:27Speaker 1: Yeah, it hits your hip pocket, but it also hits
- 13:29Speaker 1: your hips absolutely.
- 13:32Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 13:32Speaker 3: It drives into it drives obesity.
- 13:34Speaker 2: These white fast sugars.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that one. I made that up right there.
- 13:40Speaker 3: I love it.
- 13:40Speaker 1: So I'm as guilty as anyone on this. And this
- 13:42Speaker 1: is the last question, because we're out of time, and
- 13:45Speaker 1: I know the answer, which is why I make a
- 13:47Speaker 1: big deal about it, And yet I'm inclined to ask
- 13:50Speaker 1: are we making too much of a big deal about this?
- 13:52Speaker 1: I mean, when we were kids growing up, our parents
- 13:55Speaker 1: just gave us heaps of junk. We're eating fairy bread
- 13:57Speaker 1: and taking cupcakes to school, hands that cookies and whatever
- 14:01Speaker 1: else Mum through in the oven the night before on
- 14:03Speaker 1: the weekend, and we were pretty happy to eat all
- 14:05Speaker 1: the sugary junkie stuff. It just was it was coming
- 14:07Speaker 1: out of our ovens and our fridge and pantries rather
- 14:09Speaker 1: than coming off the supermarket shelves.
- 14:10Speaker 2: That's exactly right. It's coming out of mum's oven.
- 14:13Speaker 3: It's using ingredients that your mum knew that you know,
- 14:16Speaker 3: she made it out of you know, ingredients in her
- 14:18Speaker 3: fridge and her pantry. It's not highly processed foods. Sorry,
- 14:22Speaker 3: I should say highly processed ingredients. And this is the
- 14:25Speaker 3: difference I think. You know, back in the day, it
- 14:28Speaker 3: was a sandwich and apple a cookie. I don't think
- 14:32Speaker 3: there was as much packet fits. I think today it's
- 14:34Speaker 3: so accepted. It's like that herd like mentality. Everyone has it,
- 14:38Speaker 3: everyone's doing it. It's fine, it's normal, it's okay. But
- 14:42Speaker 3: it's actually not okay on so many levels. But yet
- 14:44Speaker 3: it happens to all of us, you know, my kids included,
- 14:47Speaker 3: because they love that stuff, because it's tasty, it's sugary.
- 14:50Speaker 3: Where possible, though, I will try and bake a few
- 14:53Speaker 3: things when I make time, when I carve out, you know,
- 14:56Speaker 3: thirty forty minutes on the weekend to make a batch
- 14:58Speaker 3: of cookies or make a batch of you know, black
- 15:00Speaker 3: being brownie, which is one of my favorite recipes. I
- 15:03Speaker 3: don't have to rely on the packet food as much.
- 15:05Speaker 3: So if we can try and be a little organized
- 15:08Speaker 3: on the weekend just to batch cook some foods, then
- 15:11Speaker 3: we won't have to rely on these, you know, the
- 15:13Speaker 3: oreos and the diny teddies as much.
- 15:15Speaker 1: So you're saying, though, that a home cooked anzect cookie
- 15:18Speaker 1: or a home baked cupcake is going to be I mean,
- 15:23Speaker 1: it's still still chunk food, but you're saying it's not
- 15:26Speaker 1: as bad as the holy process stuff that comes off
- 15:27Speaker 1: the supermarket shelf.
- 15:29Speaker 3: Correct because you can add in an extra egg, you
- 15:31Speaker 3: can use homewheel flour, you can throw in a bit
- 15:32Speaker 3: of chea, you know, all of these little tweaks that
- 15:35Speaker 3: I often talk to parents about. You can make it
- 15:37Speaker 3: more nutritious but still tasty, and that's going to That's
- 15:40Speaker 3: where the beauty is because they're still getting a so
- 15:42Speaker 3: called treat, but it's going to be a lot healthier
- 15:44Speaker 3: and a lot more wholesome with real food ingredients.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Yeah, we just have the sugar or or drop it
- 15:50Speaker 1: bay more than that and the kids don't notice.
- 15:52Speaker 2: That's exactly right, Karina.
- 15:53Speaker 1: I love this conversation. They're never long enough. If if
- 15:56Speaker 1: people want to want to hear more from you, because
- 15:58Speaker 1: you've got so much to offer, where should they go
- 16:01Speaker 1: and what can they get?
- 16:02Speaker 3: So head to my website, Nourished with Karina dot com.
- 16:05Speaker 3: I've got lots of free information, free recipes there I've
- 16:08Speaker 3: also got my flagship Nourishing Kids support program, so you
- 16:12Speaker 3: can click on the link to find out more about that.
- 16:14Speaker 2: There to help parents.
- 16:15Speaker 3: Busy parents who are filling overwhelmed with feeding set up
- 16:18Speaker 3: a really healthy feeding plan for their family, so you
- 16:21Speaker 3: can find all of that on my website Nourish.
- 16:23Speaker 1: With Karina dot com. We will link to that in
- 16:24Speaker 1: the show notes. Really appreciate your time and I love
- 16:27Speaker 1: these chats. Thanks so much, Thanks Justin. The Happy Families
- 16:30Speaker 1: podcast is produced by Justin Roland from Bridge Media. More
- 16:33Speaker 1: information and resources available on the show notes and at
- 16:36Speaker 1: happy families dot com dot u