Don't buy food with these words on the package! How many do you have at home?

This article was reviewed by Pa Li Ze, chief physician of nutrition, member of the Science Popularization Committee of the Chinese Nutrition Society

In daily life, going to the supermarket to buy things is a very common thing, but for the following foods, no matter what brand they are, as long as there are these words on the packaging, I advise you not to buy them.

Don’t buy food with these words on the packaging

1. Soy sauce and vinegar - "preparation"

Brewed soy sauce is a liquid condiment with special color, aroma and taste made from soybeans as the main raw material, supplemented with a small amount of other raw materials such as wheat flour, bran or rice husks, etc., which is fermented by microorganisms.

Prepared soy sauce refers to brewed soy sauce as the main ingredient, to which acid hydrolyzed vegetable protein slurry is added, and then a small amount of food additives are added. The total nitrogen content is used as the standard, and the content of brewed soy sauce in the prepared ingredients shall not be less than 50%.

Brewed vinegar refers to vinegar produced by microbial fermentation of raw materials rich in nutrients such as starch and protein, which contains acetic acid, lactic acid and other organic acids and other aromatic components.

Prepared vinegar refers to vinegar made by mixing edible glacial acetic acid and water in a certain proportion without going through a fermentation process. Its ingredients are relatively simple, with acetic acid being the main sour substance, and the content of other organic acids is extremely low.

Health hazards of consuming prepared soy sauce and prepared vinegar

There is a risk of excessive levels of chloropropanol in the preparation of soy sauce. Chloropropanol compounds are toxic to the liver, kidneys, nervous system, and blood circulation system of the human body, and have certain mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. During the production process, brewed soy sauce will be further diluted to reduce its nutritional value.

While consuming prepared vinegar will not make your body feel uncomfortable in the short term, if consumed for a long time, excessive glacial acetic acid will cause an irritating reaction in people with weak gastrointestinal function.

To this end, on June 29, 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an announcement to strengthen supervision and management of the quality and safety of soy sauce and vinegar.

The announcement pointed out that products labeled as "prepared soy sauce" or "prepared vinegar" must no longer be produced and sold; and illegal activities of using non-edible substances such as industrial salt and industrial acetic acid to produce food will be severely cracked down.

This means that "prepared soy sauce" cannot be called soy sauce, and "prepared vinegar" cannot be called vinegar, and they cannot be sold anymore. Go check the soy sauce and vinegar you have stored at home to see if they have the word "prepared". If so, it is recommended that you throw them away as soon as possible.

2. Noodles - check the sodium content on the nutrition label

Usually the ingredients list of instant noodles is very simple, just flour, water and salt, but some instant noodles will add "sodium carbonate".

Sodium carbonate is also called edible alkali or soda. Many people confuse it with baking soda, but the two are actually not the same.

Compared with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), sodium carbonate is more alkaline. Excessive intake will disrupt the acid-base balance of gastric juice and may cause symptoms such as indigestion. Especially for the elderly and weak people with gastric acid secretion disorders and insufficient gastric motility, noodles containing sodium carbonate are not recommended.

When buying dried noodles, it is also important to look at the sodium content. Generally speaking, in order to improve the gluten of noodles and make them easier to preserve and extend their shelf life, salt (sodium chloride) is added during the production process of dried noodles.

That is to say, when cooking noodles, even if you don't add a spoonful of salt, you are still consuming salt. If you add salt, soy sauce, bean paste, chili sauce and other ingredients during cooking, it is easy for your daily salt intake to exceed the standard (the daily salt intake per person should not exceed 6 grams)!

Excessive sodium intake increases the risk of high blood pressure and osteoporosis, and also increases the burden on the heart, kidneys, cardiovascular and other organs. Therefore, when buying noodles, it is best to choose sodium-free noodles (sodium content 0%) or low-sodium noodles (sodium content below 500 mg/100 g).

3. Milk – “Flavored Milk”

Is the milk you drink for breakfast real milk? Many people like to drink "breakfast milk", "chocolate-flavored milk" and "red date-flavored milk" for breakfast. In fact, these are not real milk, but "flavored milk".

According to national standards, the protein content of pure milk must be greater than 2.9% (that is, greater than 2.9 grams per 100 ml), while the protein content of some high-quality pure milk can reach 3.3%. The protein content of breakfast milk is generally above 2.3%, which belongs to the category of flavored milk.

Some breakfast milks also add peanuts, egg powder, oats, iron fortifiers, zinc fortifiers and other ingredients to make them look more nutritious. However, the content of these added nutrients is too small to be of much significance to the overall balanced diet.

Therefore, when buying milk, please look for "pure milk", and it is recommended to choose "flavored milk" with caution.

4. Yogurt – “Flavor”

If the yogurt you buy has the word "flavored" in its name, such as "flavored fermented milk", "yogurt", "lactic acid bacteria beverage", etc., it is often not real yogurt.

"Flavor" often does not refer to taste, but to other ingredients added by merchants to improve the taste and nutrition of yogurt, such as fruit grains, grains, nutritional enhancers, additives, etc. Of course, the most commonly added ingredient is sugar.

The protein content of flavored fermented milk is generally lower than that of plain yogurt, and the sugar and fat content is higher than that of yogurt.

In general, in terms of nutritional value:

Yogurt/fermented milk＞Flavored yogurt＞Lactic acid bacteria beverage

How to tell if what you bought is yogurt? If the product name is "fermented milk", "yogurt", "sour milk", "sour buttermilk", etc., it generally refers to yogurt. If you are not sure about the name, you can look at the "product category". If the product category is "fermented milk", it is yogurt. If it says "flavored fermented milk" or "lactic acid bacteria beverage", then you have to choose carefully!

5. Oats - "wheat flour, corn flour"

I believe many people have heard that eating oatmeal can help lose weight and control blood sugar. So after eating it for half a month, the weight did not drop at all, but the face became a little rounder... Obviously you bought the wrong oatmeal.

When buying oats, you should read the food ingredient list carefully. One type is oats only in the ingredient list. This is real natural oatmeal, which has a rougher taste and the best health benefits. Another type is rolled oatmeal, because oatmeal grains are hard and difficult to cook, and it is easier to cook after being flattened. You only need to brew it with boiling water before eating.

There is another type of product that contains wheat, wheat bran, flavors, creamer and other ingredients in addition to oats. The nutritional value of this type of product is far lower than that of pure oats, so it is not recommended for purchase.

How to choose food?

1. Nutritional value

If you cannot identify the nutritional content when choosing food, you can look at the ingredient list. In the ingredient list, the higher the ranking, the higher the content, and then decreases in sequence. Therefore, try to choose natural raw materials at the top.

2. Be careful of routines

Nowadays, many businesses play word games. Knowing that people are afraid of high-sugar foods, they claim "no sucrose" in their promotions. But no sucrose does not mean no sugar. It may also contain maltose, galactose, lactose and fructose syrup. Don't fall into the word trap of the business!

3. Less additives

Many additives now have very cryptic names, making them difficult to identify. I hope the following terms will be useful to you!

Sweeteners: those with the words "sugar", "honey" or "sweet", such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium, saccharin sodium, saccharin, cyclamate, etc.

Pigments: Those with the word "color", such as sunset yellow, carmine red, bright blue, lemon yellow, temptation red, etc.

Preservatives: words like "benzoic acid, sorbic acid, sulfite", etc.

Thickeners: those with the word "gum", such as gum arabic, carrageenan, pectin, agar, gelatin, etc.

Source: Science Popularization China WeChat Official Account

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