Now I don’t want anyone to think for one second that I think the world is full of harmful foods just waiting to damage our health and ruin our chances of enjoying a good and varied diet but there are a few other ‘badies’ out there to beware of, so let’s get the major ones out of the way and then we can get to the more exciting positive stuff!

Fats… are absolutely essential, but it needs to be the right sort, what I call the ‘happy fats’ – the omega ones, the ones we find in olive, sesame and walnut oils, we find them in small oily fish, nuts, seeds, avocado’s….and in many more foods – another blog on this one to follow.

I think most people are well aware that too much saturated animal fat is not too good for us and moderation is the key here, so if you are a meat eater, trimming down excess amounts of it is a good idea. Obviously grazing through blocks of cheese and dairy products needs to be checked as well – although if you use milk please buy ‘full fat’ as most of the good nutritious bits are in the fat (again more on dairy and milk another day).

What I really want to bring your attention to are HYDROGENATED or TRANS FATS… these are BAD. A lot of manufacturer’s have stopped using them now but have substituted mono or di-glycerides. Some say the substitutes are harmless, some say they are exactly the same as hydrogenated fats -ie. the fats (oils) have still been hydrogenated (heat treated and messed about with) in the process of creating them. So, what’s the big deal with these bad boys and why do we use them in food and what do we put them in.

The short version is that they are used to improve consistency and shelf life of the products they are in…….and they are in LOADS of things. As a rule of thumb, if your food has come straight out of the ground, off a bush, vine, tree, straight out the river, off the farm (with some exceptions) then it won’t contain these corrupted fats. If your food has been created into something other than it’s simple natural form for your convenience then there is a strong chance they are there, lurking within  – look at the label. Common culprits are ‘spreads’ deserts, bread, pastries, basically as I said processed foods. A lot of food labels are now proud to present the fact they do not contain hydrogenated fats but just check out the mono and di glyceride content.

These fats are the next best thing to plastic when they get into the body, they are indigestible and toxic, the liver is clueless as to how to handle them so we mainly tuck them in the fat cells to stop them causing any damage anywhere else! No active, self-respecting bacteria can digest or decompose them (foods containing them don’t go ‘off’ – which food should!) and if you left a tub of spread out in your garden no wild animal’s would entertain the idea of eating it – in the same way they wouldn’t drink whisky either! Baaah!!