If you’re worried about what’s in the food you’re feeding your kids, you’re not alone. New Zealand Woman’s Weekly columnist Wendyl Nissen is appalled by the additives in food today, which is why she tries to only eat unprocessed foods her nana would have recognised.
Many of these feature in her Nana’s Pantry column, and now in Wendyl’s latest book,
Wendyl Nissen’s Supermarket Companion, which is a guide to buying good food. Wendyl, who also analyses the ingredients in processed supermarket foods in her New Zealand Herald column, Wendyl Wants to Know, says she feels terrible guilt about the food she fed her older kids, Daniel and Hannah (now in their twenties), when they were younger.
“I just didn’t think about colours and preservatives and additives back then,” says Wendyl. “Now I don’t buy anything without reading the label and working out how many ingredients there are. There is a lot of rubbish out there but there are also a lot of better alternatives – it’s a matter of knowing the difference.”
She now tries to feed her family as much homemade, fresh food as possible. She grows lots of vegetables, has chickens for eggs and makes her own bread every day. “It’s not that time-consuming, it just takes a bit of organisation,” says Wendyl. “Yes, processed foods are quick and convenient but it can be just as easy to make meals from scratch, if you know how. And they are so much better for everyone.”
Her book contains recipes as well as detailed information about additives and the kind of foods that contain them. Here Wendyl shares some of her favourite foods for kids.
INSTANT NOODLES
Most kids love the taste of instant noodles and can cook them themselves, which makes them very popular, says Wendyl. Unfortunately they are high in carbohydrates, saturated fat and salt, and low in fibre, vitamins and minerals. “What I found on closer examination was a snack which takes moments to prepare but needs 38 ingredients and additives to achieve the spicy, meaty and salty taste,” says Wendyl, who used to buy instant noodles for her daughter Pearl (14). “My daughter was basically eating noodles soaked in a chemical soup which had very little real food in it.” Wendyl promptly banned instant noodles but has kept Pearl happy by coming up with her own, far healthier version.
Additive-free noodles
- 1 cake unflavoured noodles
Sauce:
1/2 cup low-salt soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp chilli sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
Make up the sauce by mixing the ingredients together and keeping in a bottle in the fridge. Cook the noodle cake as per packet directions and then pour on 2 tsp of the sauce mix. This will give you a quick snack which has five ingredients (although the soy sauce has food acids and chilli sauce has a stabiliser). It takes five minutes to make the sauce and five minutes to cook the noodles.
ICE BLOCKS
Wendyl says her lightbulb moment about the sort of additives put in our food came when she researched a popular make of children’s ice block snacks – the plastic tubes full of flavoured liquid that you freeze at home. “It was shocking – five out of the six artificial colours they contained are banned in other countries. I feel really angry that this product is allowed to sit on our supermarket shelves where unsuspecting parents pick it up and deliver it to their children, thinking they are getting a harmless treat.” Instead, she recommends buying a plastic ice block mould and making your own ice treats. Some chocolate, banana and strawberry flavoured milks don’t have any artificial flavourings or colours (read the labels) so can be used to make frozen treats. Fruit juices can also be used.
BREAKFAST
Many cereals are not only laden with sugar but they may also contain artificial colours and other additives such as vegetable gum, which provides extra fibre. When buying cereal, look for products that list the sugar content as less than 15g per 100g. Also see how many other ingredients are listed. Plain old Weet-Bix is one of the best cereals available, with just 2.8g of sugar per 100g. (Avoid putting sugar on it in the bowl, advises Wendyl.) If you’ve got a child who isn’t keen on eating breakfast in the morning, try offering a smoothie. They are quick and easy and you can pop in lots of nutritious fruit. “Buy frozen fruit like berries and strawberries and always have a couple of bananas in the freezer as well,” suggests Wendyl. “Yoghurt will keep it creamy and fruit gives it its flavour and colour. But don’t use ice cream – that’s cheating.”
SMOOTHIES
Berry smoothie
1/2 cup frozen berries
1/2 cup milk
1 banana
Oatie smoothie
1 tbsp rolled oats
1 banana
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
