I've been all over the place looking for Solomon's rusks. It's so hard to find baby biscuits that do not contain too much sugar or salt. Babies below 1 year shouldn't need to take extra sugar or salt. Number one, their immature organs can't handle and don't need it anyway, and two, they do not know what they are missing if they haven't had it yet right? I especially do not want to encourage a sweet tooth, as diabetes runs in daddy's family.
Last month, I managed to find stick-like teething rusks. I think they were from Heinz and contained no sugar and just a wee bit of salt to make it hard. And boy was it hard, Solomon had to suck on it quite long before anything came off! I bought quite a few boxes and there were none left when I went back for more. Later, I found some Farley's rusks which were labeled 'reduced sugar', I bought two boxes and when I went back later there was only one left. Now, I can't find both these types and I just let Solomon suck on apple, guava and carrot pieces. All the other brands available in the market contain so much sugar, Nestle, Milna... I just don't understand it. The children don't need it, and they are so young, they'll be happy with just about any type of food at all, well most of them anyway. They're happy just sucking on non-edible stuff even! Keys, toys, shoes, clothes, toes, hankies, tv control, hand phone!
These few brands I found list sugar as their 2nd or 3rd ingredient. Ingredients are listed in order of largest to smallest quantity. So that's a lot of sugar. Moreover, the brand Baby Bites is made in China... I didn't even bother to look at the ingredients for that one. They didn't list melamine as an ingredient in their milk did they? Lots of companies are really sneaky in their labeling. They'll disguise sugar under the name of sucrose, glucose, etc... it's all still sugar. I also try to buy things with not more than 5 ingredients. It’s not very easy; you should give it a go the next time you’re at the supermarket. More ingredients usually mean the product is more processed and further from its natural state.
When we were in Hong Kong, there was this brand of drinking water, Bonaqua by Coca-Cola. In the hotel mini bar it cost HK$10, at a sundry shop by the hotel, it cost HK$2, and at Ocean Park it cost HK$18! Well, anyway, if you look at it's labeling real close, it says mineralized water. Not mineral water ok? It's actually just filtered water and they add potassium something and sodium chloride, which is just the fancy name of table salt! I'll bet lots of people think it's mineral water they're buying.Even on over the counter medicines, labels are very misleading. Over the counter means it is accessible to anyone. Since the public has access to it, it is up to their judgment to choose what to buy. Thus manufacturers go all out in their labeling to persuade the buyer, they go one step short of making false claims. Look at Panadol Soluble. It says, "for the relief of fever and aches related to cold and flu". ‘Related to’, mind you. You'll be amazed at the number of people who think Panadol is treatment for cold and flu. I think almost half of my customers make that mistake. Technically, the manufacturers have done nothing wrong. But I just think it's very sly marketing.
I have learned to read the small print on labels carefully. Look at butter and margarine. I try to avoid margarine or shortening. It's a human concoction; its original colour is grey and looks nothing like butter. I'd rather not consume something that ants and cockroaches do not recognize as edible. Even a low life form like mould refuses to grow on it! A lot of 'butter' looking products are actually not butter at all. Even those that come in bars, wrapped up in paper or foil. Read the ingredients. It might be called 'Butterlite' but not contain butter at all. Butter should only have milk, milk fat or cream listed as its ingredients. Those with vegetable oil, etc... are fakes. Real butter is much more expensive, some of the brands I know are Anchor, Golden Churn and that one with the star logo. Is it SCS or something? That's why I bake a lot. I want to try and avoid buying too many bakery goods which are loaded with trans fat. They definitely use shortening as it is so much cheaper and keeps better.
Sometimes I wish I had never heard of trans fat, as now I can't give my kids or myself an Oreo without feeling guilty! Why is all the yummy stuff always bad for you? Correspondingly, all the good stuff tastes crap! I had to mask some oats in chocolate chip cookies the other day. We always buy oats with good intentions and always end up with 1/2 of a tin of oats expiring in the cupboard. What can we do? Eating oats is like sucking on slimy dirt! Oh and those bran stick cereal things! My goodness, I do not categorize that as food! It's like eating cardboard twigs! I had to throw away 3/4 of a box because hubby and I could not get ourselves to choke down anymore of that vile stuff. No amount of disguising could save that; bran-stick chocolate cake anyone? The children wouldn't go within a mile's radius of it. I think it would serve mankind better as hamster feed... no, I like hamsters; hamster bedding, yes, that would be more appropriate. On top of being horrid, most healthy food happens to be expensive! Sigh; just give me one large fries, extra salt please.
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