Does more expensive food mean it is healthier?

SEAN PARNELL
AUGUST 28, 2015
THE AUSTRALIAN
How do you explain away your poor eating habits? Is it the weather? Are you too busy to eat healthy? Is it a rare indulgence? Maybe all the paleo, superfood, lemon-cleansing, low-carb, fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, slow-eating, regular fasting diets leave you confused? Well, if you need a reminder to concentrate on the basics, and ignore the profiteers, here are some tasty morsels to make you think healthy again.
They don’t have the flashiest labels or the bold health claims, but supermarket own-brands may be worth considering. A study published in the journal Nutrients compared private-label supermarket brands with equivalent branded foods and found average salt content to be significantly lower in the down-market alternatives.
More than 15,680 products were analysed across 15 major food categories over several years. In 2013, for example, salt content was an average 17 per cent lower in supermarket brands — 27 per cent lower in desserts, 24 per cent lower in biscuits and 22 per cent in processed meats.
Says Bruce Neal from the George Institute for Global Health: “Excess salt in food leads to high blood pressure and greatly increases risks of stroke and heart attack.”
You should know by now that most soft drinks are sugar drinks, but what about sports drinks? Health groups have been running a Rethink Sugar Drink campaign and urge people not to confuse sports drinks with healthy drinks.
Sports drinks contain up to 13 teaspoons of sugar a bottle — more than a can of Coca-Cola, according to Peter Aldritt, chairman of the Australian Dental Association’s oral health committee. “Not only are sports drinks acidic and high in sugar but people tend to sip on them frequently during exercise rather than consuming them all at once,” he says. “This increases the time that teeth are exposed and leaves them vulnerable to dental damage. Sports drinks are designed for elite athletes and not the average weekend warrior. Frequent use can increase your risk of tooth decay.” If you’re exercising and want to stay hydrated, why not try water?
Know your fats: saturated fats are not associated with an increased risk of death but trans fats are. According to Canadian research published this week in the British Medical Journal, which is contrary to some dietary advice, there is no clear association between higher intake of saturated fats and coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, ischaemic stroke or type 2 diabetes. But industrially produced trans fat was associated with a 28 per cent increased risk of coronary heart disease mortality, and a 21 per cent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease.
It comes as those people at the George Institute look to recruit families for a five-week trial of whether better labels help guide shopping choices. “Poor diet accounts for about one-fifth of all disease in Australia and is the main cause of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity,” says Nicole Lifrom the George Institute. “It’s also the reason so many Australians suffer from heart attacks, strokes and kidney problems.
“Unhealthy processed and fast foods are a big problem, but growth in the number of time-poor consumers means they are often the easy alternative. The search for ways to improve food choices is central to the prevention effort.”
For all the cooking shows on TV, you may think everyone is obsessed with food. It’s not that simple. (Is anything simple with food?) Roy Morgan Research has divided the population into seven distinct sections based on attitudes to food, cooking, health, eating out and home entertaining.
The research shows that the “Just Feed Me” group — who simply eat what they’re given and don’t care about the rest — accounts for 23 per cent of Australians, three in five of them men. Another 17 per cent of the population falls into the “Zappit” category who opt for ready-cooked meals and takeaway. In this group, men and women are evenly represented. For the remaining 51 per cent of the population, covering several distinct categories, food is high on the agenda. The “House Proud” people (22 per cent) are interested in taste and nutrition, and are most likely to be complimented on their cooking.
“Trendsetters” (9 per cent) are interested in new flavours and new experiences, “Entertainers” (8 per cent) love the social aspects of food, while “Old-fashioned cooks” (12 per cent) love a traditional home-cooked meal — even if they buy the same things for the same menu every week.