Brought to you by Red Rooster.
If you had to go without artificial colours, flavours and added MSG for 10 days, could you do it? Could your family do the same?
Recently I was asked to do just that. I took the challenge, and so did my family, knowing that it was going to be something that would benefit our health. Red Rooster have started an industry leading journey to become healthier and more natural. At present all foods cooked in their kitchens are free from artificial flavours, colours, and added MSG. They challenged us to go without too.
I asked Katie 180 {Nutritionist and straight-shooting knower of all things health} what preservatives and additives were and why you’d want to avoid them.
She said:
Food preservatives have been used for centuries. Traditional methods include vinegar, salt, sugar, drying, smoking, freezing, oil, alcohol and so on – with the outcome to stop bacterial growth and spoilage of food.
However the modern advent of food preserving includes additives that are used to prolong the shelf life of foods, enhance their colour and flavour, if not mimic the colour and flavour we expect from them as well as keep them stable; for example in one piece (a packet biscuit), a consistent texture (yoghurt), nice and soft (bread) and so on.
We know now that many of the additives used to preserve foodstuffs are harmful, particularly sulphites.
Sulphites destroy vitamin B1 (thiamine) and possibly also folic acid (B9) and as such biochemical reactions that utilise these B-group vitamins will be compromised. To name a few: synthesis of DNA, RNA, red blood cells, neurotransmitters and hormones. Sulphites are a trigger for a variety of sensitivity reactions but they are especially indicated in the advent of asthmatic episodes.
In Australia, sulphites are listed as additives 220 – 228.
Basically, the fresher and closer to natural form that a food is, the more “alive” it is and as such, the longer a food has been out of the ground and in a packet then the more “dead” it is.
Not all preserved foods equate to “bad” food; but it is wise to be on the look out for the man made chemicals that enhance flavour, colour and shelf life.
The ideal is to be eating a diet abundant in alive foods, and to be mindful when making ready-made food choices.
Hello alive foods. Goodbye dead ones.
Here’s how our 10 days went down.
Days one, two and three were a huge learning curve for me. I like to think that my family and myself eat well. Well, besides the odd cake and treat, we eat whole foods for the most part and I thought that this preservative and additive free challenge was going to be a breeeeeze. Yeah, right. My Ma is living with us at the moment too, so she was in on the challenge. And my Ma is a stickler for rules. She was organised and planned her meals, while I am quite the opposite and decided to wing it.
My first hurdle came at breakfast time. I made toast for the girls, with bread from Bakers Delight {which I’ve known for a while contains no nasties}, but when I went to get out the standard Vegemite I realised that it had ingredients I didn’t know what they were, so I resorted to avocado on toast. It was a hit {Lacey is obsessed with avocado ANYTHING, and Luella is quickly following in her footsteps}. As I was making lunch for Lacey, I came up with the Vegemite hurdle again, and so it was avocado to the rescue again.
My breakfast was muesli that I get from the Health Food Store in town, and as I used the last serving I planned to head into town and get some more later that day. Anything from the Health Food Store is additive and preservative-free right? Wrong. My muesli had additives and preservatives in it, and I didn’t know. I already failed on my first meal. Awesome.
The Heath Food Store educated me about sulphites {found in the dried fruits of my muesli} and told me that I could go about making my own using the organic dried fruits. Problem gone, solution found.
Days four, five, and six were when I found my groove. I actually enjoyed going back to basics, and I quite liked having the challenge of thinking differently. The easiest way to live without additives and preservatives was to eat simply. Simple as in fruits and vegetables and proteins. Lunches were brown rice crackers with tomato and cheese with cracked sea salt. Dinners went back to basics.
Shopping was a new experience. Thinking about making bolognese for the girls, I grabbed a can of tomatoes from the shelf at the supermarket, and noticed that something as simple as tomatoes can have nasties in the can. I opted for organic which was actually cheaper. School snacks were best sourced from the Health Food aisle of the supermarket. I made our own ice cream as a treat {using this recipe} and our own yoghurt too.
On our craziest night of the week {swimming lesssons, Hubby on night shift, mama not organised!} we got a Chicken from Red Rooster and had salads with it. It was nice to have an easy solution that wasn’t going to break the challenge.
Days 8, 9 and 10 whizzed by without me really realising. You know when you do a dry July, you’re planning your first wine after the month is up? This was different. I wasn’t about to embark on an additive binge.
Did I feel any different? I did. I don’t know if was because I had such an awareness about what I was consuming, and my family too… but I felt cleaner, and less hazy. It was harder than I thought, because I had to re-educate myself and spend more time planning and thinking about what foods we could eat. But it’s definitely changed me for the better. It’s something I’ll try to keep doing as best I can.
LOVE that plate! Where is it from, can I ask? The pattern is so beautiful. We very much avoid preservatives and additives. Does too much damage to growing brains! xx
I would love to try this. We try and eat “natural” whole food as much as we can. Having a Thermomix really helps because we make so much of our stuff from scratch, like bread, nut butter and stocks. I remember when I had to be on the low iodine diet for my treatment, I was amazed at the number of additives and preservatives in the most basic of foods.
When I first read this I was like ‘Yeah! I do it all the time!’ but I’m a sucker for protein shakes and bars so I guess I’d have to give them… I bloody love chicken though so it wouldn’t be too bad!
This is a great way to go about making a change to the way we eat – for the better. I’m going to pay closer attention to what I’m putting into my shopping trolley and just go back to basics. Eating as much food as close to its original source as possible.
Mom has been doing this on home-cooked meals since my brother was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome in 1996. Eating out in restaurants is an exception, though, because you don’t really know what they use in their dishes unless it’s a fancy restaurant where you can address your restrictions, etc.
SCATTERBRAIN
When I started IVF I went to a nutritionist and we totally re-looked at what we ate/eat. I cheat occasionally, I don’t worry when I eat out and things like that. However at home I try to stick to the 80/20 rule. 80% organic wholefoods with no additives and preservatives. 20% I am allowed to cheat. I did this with the nutritionist recommendations when trying to fall pregnant, now it is second nature. Over time I find I want/crave less and less of the 20%. Except for all dairy…chocolate, icecream, cheese then all bets are off. Dairy is my drug of choice.
Congrats on your challenge! I’ve been eating healthy and I’ve really started to feel the difference too. I’m very impressed with this challenge but I don’t believe I could do it long term. I do try to eat fresh rather than in cans, but practicality get the best of me 🙂
Funny how quickly you can get into the habit of thinking differently isn’t it? I’ve always made meals for my son from scratch rather than buying baby food in jars/pouches etc and was really aware of what went into what and where I could purchase the best value organic products. He turned two a month ago and reading this I’ve realised how I’ve changed as he’s got older, on the whole he now eats when we do and has what we have. Snacks and sauces are often bought for convenience. As a family we still eat plently of fruit and veg but you’ve definitely given me incentive to rethink our meals and what goes into them. Here’s to healthier eating for all (with the odd indulgent naughty cake now and then obviously!)
We (I) try to be preservative and additive free as much as possible in that I try to make snacks from scratch etc when I can but I hadn’t even thought to check the muesli!
Yes, I did whole30 back in May, no dairy, sugar, grains or legumes for 30 days. It wasn’t easy but I stuck to it. It taught me a lot about food choices, for instance if you can’t have sugar you can’t have any prepackaged foods as they all contain some sugar. Your left with veges, fruit, meats, chicken, fish, eggs & fats. I have since reintroduced some dairy but try to avoid grains if I can. Haven’t eaten rice or pasta since May. I feel so much better for it & have lost 14 kgs as well.
It’s so good for you, and once you get into the groove and know what brands are better than others, it’s not that hard at all. I’ve written a post on it with some useful tips if anyone is interested on how to get started. So worth it – especially for the kids!! 🙂
oh – forgot to put a link in lol. http://healthynaturalchanges.com/additive-freeisthewaytobe/
I’m glad you were feeling fresher, that’s awesome!! I’m totally sensitive to MSG, I avoid it at all costs. We live additive free. We find shopping at our local growers market every week is the easiest way to keep in track xx
I put our family on this diet 18mths ago and we ahvent looked back. We went on it fir my eldest’s behaviour , but found out quickly that almost overnight our youngest starting sleeping with no calling out/distubances. This continued until we challenged it with a party then it was back to the hyperactive behaviour and sleep disturbances. It took us about 5 weeks to ‘cross ‘ over . Now I would not go back. I myself am not completely free of these things but I do try.
I do try to not eat much additives or preservatives but I fail when it comes to chocolate and vegemite!
I think I need to give this ago. I’ve been eating more packet things lately without too much thought because it’s easier with a baby but it’s probably not doing much for my health. It’s good to know about Red Rooster chickens too. We have a Red Rooster up the road so will remember to buy a chook from there on the nights when I haven’t organized dinner.
So glad you gave this a try – it’s not until you start reading labels that you realise how much “bad stuff” is in the food we eat (hence why I’m always going on about it!). 🙂
Oh I should add I’ve been preservative and additive free (ok maybe 95% of the time) for over a year and I feel all the better for it!!!
The salads you made to go with the chicken look beyond amahhzing. Tell me what you put on that plate
That is totally crazy! I can’t believe there are so many preservatives and additives in everything. I don’t think I could do this challenge…doesn’t help that I have a twice weekly Maccas quota to achieve 😛
I have been doing this for over 10 years. It’s daunting and overwhelming at first, but when your health and wellbeing depends on it, it’s a no brainer. Over the years, more and more information is coming to the surface about the negative effects of additives/preservatives/numbers that I am so glad I started this journey. I think it’s also important to educate our kids about this so they grow up making informed decisions about what they feed their bodies.
Great challenge ! Am currently on an elimination ‘diet’ as I am reacting to something and don’t know what – so am doing a similar thing back to natural foods and no processed stuff it is hard! Made me realise how much my kids eat processed crackers biscuits etc for school snacks! It was a good reminder to think before just grabbing something to eat!
Hate to say it but Red Rooster actually contains MSG and a heap of other nasties in the form of hydrolysed vegetable protein and maltodextrin. It makes me mad that their marketing campaign claims ‘no artificial flavours or colours just good old fashion TLC’. Out right lie.
http://www.redrooster.com.au/menu/84/Whole-Roast-Chicken#nutritional-info
That said, well done on such a great campaign, its really great that people like yourself are spreading the word about added nasties.
xx love your blog!!
Thanks for letting me know Tina. I’ll share your comment with the Red Rooster team and let them know. x