CHECK THE SMALL PRINT
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
How much do you really know about what’s in your ‘healthy’ foods? Here’s why the only New Year resolution you need this January is to always read the label…
It’s January, so that can mean only one thing - it’s time to reboot the annual new year health drive. I know there’ll be countless columns telling what you should and shouldn’t eat, how to enjoy January without touching a drop of alcohol and which of the latest fitness fads to join in, so I’m not going to do that.
For a start, I love my food too much, and I definitely don’t know anyone who enjoys January without a glass of something stronger than mint tea. As for exercise, there are plenty of people better qualified than me to coach you. But what I will suggest is that the new year might be just the right time to pause for a moment to think about what we eat more carefully.
Unfortunately, because we are all pretty time-starved, our diets in the west are more processed than we like to think. Often, it’s not something we’re even aware of. Foods that we think of as healthy options can often be riddled with additives that we just don’t expect to be there.
I discovered this when reading on the back of a packet of wraps how to fold them so they look like those neat little parcels you get in cafés (answers on a postcode please!). Below the origami-style diagrams was a piece of text that, for all I could comprehend of it, might as well have been written in Japanese. On further inspection, it turned out that this was the list of ingredients that went into creating my ‘healthy’ wrap. Strange, unpronounceable words along with the usual suspects of sugar, palm oil and emulsifiers.
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought all a wrap needed was just three ingredients – flour, salt, oil. This propelled me to look more closely at some of our other foods that I’d always considered to be healthyish and believe me when I tell you I wish I hadn’t! Turns out that we’ve been buying supermarket trolley-loads of ultra processed foods (UPF) without even realising it. Bagels, oat milk, spreads, even a lot of our meat is pumped full of stuff that serves no other purpose than creating Frankenstein products for supermarket shelves.
So, what’s the solution? Well, it’s not rocket science. It’s simply to choose local produce that is made properly. Freshly baked bread from the bakers, fresh milk from the farm shop, locally-reared meat from the butcher. This is something we have been trying to encourage at our Warner’s stores for the last 15 years. By partnering with local producers, it gives you, the customer, the choice to include more locally-produced products in your everyday shop if you want to.
I started out by saying I wasn’t going to tell you what to eat or what not to eat, so my advice for the new year is simply this – check the small print next time you pick up that packet of pizza dough in the supermarket – UPFs are everywhere!.
UPF-FREE LOCAL FOODS TO TRY IN 2025
La Parisienne Bread
There’s nothing beats proper bread and baker Thierry Paulin has been bringing us fresh loaves from his bakery in Tewkesbury for the last 15 years. According to Thierry, good bread only needs three ingredients – flour, water and salt and we couldn’t agree more!
Woodlands Farm Natural Yogurt
The Finch family have been dairy farming in Chedworth since 1928 and started yogurt production in 1990. One of their first products was ‘Nothing but Natural Live Yogurt’, which does exactly what it says on the pot and remains a best-seller today.
Cotswold Handmade Meringues
Working to an original recipe handed down by their mother, Muriel Morrissey, daughters Lisa and Jan continue to perfect their handmade meringues. The secret to that crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle texture? Just two ingredients - British free range egg whites and brown sugar.
All products available at Warners Upton-upon-Severn.