Death by Junk Food

Hrm. Here is one of those posts where I rant a little about something stupid I've just read.

I don't know if you're aware, but in the last week or so there has been a lot of talk in America about the number of people world wide dying due to their consumption of either salt or sugar. For example research from the Harvard School of Public Health found that there were 180,000 deaths world wide in 2010 related to the consumption of sugary drinks. Further, 2.3 MILLION deaths world wide in 2010 had a relationship with excessive salt intake. Is that insane or what. That is 2,480,000 people who could have made some dietary changes and possibly prevented their own death.

What has really bugged me though, is a lovely infographic I found on the Everyday Health website, putting these figures into 'perspective'.

It can be found at http://www.everydayhealth.com/heart-health/deadly-sugar-and-salt-in-perspective-infogram-2264.aspx?xid=tw_everydayhealth_sf

Now this lovely diagram has been put together because apparently, some ‘experts’ are saying that 2,480,000 of us dying each year from our diet choices is really not as bad as it sounds. When compared to deaths from all injury, at 5.8 million, sure, it doesn’t look so bad, the little bars on the graph are wayyyy smaller. Did you know though, that sugar and salt related deaths are 42.76% of injurious deaths? Combined, they’re only slightly lower than alcohol related deaths, according to these statistics, and they are twice that of deaths due to car accidents.

Personally, I find this disgusting. And I find it particularly repulsive for ‘experts’ to undervalue us by suggesting that any number of people dying due to something that is so simple and easy to change, is not that bad.

As adults in the developed world, we have the luxury of choosing what we put in our mouths. Granted, there are situations when time, or money may dictate our decisions. Day in and day out however, we have to make better choices. There is no need for that many people, for us, to die due to our diet. It just doesn’t have to be that way.

In light of these figures, one of the scariest things to be released recently was a report by Choice magazine that showed excessive salt present in our kids snack options. The deaths of 2,300,000 people in 2010 were related to their intake of salt, and here we are, many of us unknowingly, plying our kids full of salt. On top of this, according to News.com.au, a recent survey of school canteens conducted by a parents action group found that 15% of school canteens surveyed still had soft drink on the menu. Did you know the government banned the sale of sugar sweetened drinks in schools in 2007? A snapshot of 60 schools in NSW showed that only 27% of them were complying with nutritional guidelines for school canteens. Do you see anything wrong with this? We’re setting their fresh little taste buds up with a lifetime love of things sweet and salty. This needs to change.

So what can you do to cut down your salt and sugar intake today?
I’ve put together a quick table of easy, inexpensive swaps you can make today. Try making at least one swap a week. Be aware that most of the salt that we eat actually comes from packaged foods. Always check the nutritional panel and if you’re not sure how to do this, see my post Know Thy Label

Reducing salt (sodium) intake

Foods to reduce	Foods to include
Canned soup	Make your own, or choose the low sodium kind
Stock’s and gravies	Buy the low sodium kind
Soy sauce and other sauces	Get the low sodium kind, like Spiral Low Sodium Tamari or use fresh or dried herbs to flavour your food.
Deli Meats like chicken, ham and turkey	Deli meats are processed meats with binders and salt added. Use actual chicken, ham or turkey. If you buy it in bulk, or buy the whole chicken and cook it, you’ll have a few days worth of meat
Cheese	You can still have cheese but in moderation
Prepackaged snacks like chips and buiscuits	Compare labels for lower sodium kinds or look for healthier snack options
Table salt	Use salts like Himalayan Salt or celtic sea salt, they are not processed and have a higher mineral concentration. Add salt during cooking and don’t put it on the serving table.
Breads	Choose wholegrain breads over white bread, but always check the salt content, it can be quite high
Takeaway foods including baked goods– You can’t control their salt content	Make your own breakfast, lunch and dinner, a little preparation goes a long way
Canned fruit and vegetables	Always choose fresh over canned
Tomato sauce and diced canned tomato	Again look for low sodium kinds or dice and crush your own whole tomatoes.

If you want to know more about reducing your intake of salt, check out the Victorian Goverments Better Healthy Channel http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Salt.

Reducing sugar intake

Foods to reduce	Foods to include
Bottled juice	Eat the fruit or make smoothies, this way, you still get the fibre
Soft drink (and energy drinks)	Swap to diet or try drinking water. If you’re looking for the sweet fix, try a piece of fruit
Breads	Choose wholegrain breads over white bread, they are lower GI.
Takeaway foods – including baked goods	Choose options with lower sugar levls, You’ll need to know how to read nutritional panels. Make your own breakfast, lunch and dinner, a little preparation goes a long way
Canned fruit and vegetables in sugary syrups	Always choose fresh over canned, or those in water over those in syrup
Chocolate and lollies	Try eating dark chocolate, lollies are just out! Try fruit instead

Healthy snack options for kids

Apple Chips - Super Healthy Kids

When it comes to kids food ideas it can be hard to distinguish the good websites from the bad. They all like to use the word ‘healthy’ but apparently I have a different opinion on what constitutes ‘healthy’ than they do. So after much searching the best kids food website I found is called Super Healthy Kids. http://www.superhealthykids.com/, They have some gorgeous looking recipes, not to mention educational tools, so if you or your child are struggling with the healthy food concept, I’d recommend visiting their site.

I also found some great tips for looking after your childs health on Discovery Health. Visit  http://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting/10-tips-on-keeping-kids-healthy.htm. It talks about ways to get healthy food into your kids.

All in all, these deaths are not acceptable. Lets make the changes today so we’re not the statistic tomorrow.

Chris