Helpful Pies.

[Paul]

My day is a bit screwed, got up late because I went to bed late yesterday (due to water problems) And meals got later and later because of dealing with water problems today (plus people 'phoning up to check I am OK). So it is gone midnight here and I am just cooking my dinner.

I'm having a store bought pie of a brand I have not eaten since before I went on dietary restrictions, so I read the ingredients panel. It begins "Chicken, wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron,...." Great, a Phosphate blocker and iron. Two of my daily medications are already in the pie!

[Charlie B53]

Most of the time I rarely look at the list of ingredients.  Many of those things that I cannot pronounce I often do not even know what they are.  I would have to Google each one.  Afraid I would soon lose my appetite.

So is this little bit of 'medication' going to cause a problem?  I wouldn't know. 

For me, if I don't know about it most likely it wouldn't make me much difference at all.  As you very rarely eat this item I would shut up and enjoy it.

[JW77]

My day is a bit screwed, got up late because I went to bed late yesterday (due to water problems) And meals got later and later because of dealing with water problems today (plus people 'phoning up to check I am OK). So it is gone midnight here and I am just cooking my dinner.

I'm having a store bought pie of a brand I have not eaten since before I went on dietary restrictions, so I read the ingredients panel. It begins "Chicken, wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron,...." Great, a Phosphate blocker and iron. Two of my daily medications are already in the pie!

Fortified flour is default in the UK, and cheaper companies add bulking agents, chalk in flour potassium and phosphate emulsifiers and preservatives.


Only places that don't throw a load of additives in, most of the time are UK stores M&S and Iceland

[Charlie B53]

Additive?  To put this in terms I can easily understand.  Is that like the coke dealer cutting his stash with manitol to make it look like he has a whole lot more?

We have the FDA here in America to oversee what companies add to our food products.  Unfortunately, lobbyist wine and dine enough Legislators to pass laws that allow them to add some things that may not be so good for us.

I don't doubt much the same occurs across the Pond.

[Paul]

Those additives that are important to me are not added as padding. Calcium Carbonate (a phosphate blocker) is added to make flour more free flowing. Sodium Bicarbonate (which alkalies the blood making excess potassium and phosphate less likely to kill you) is a rising agent, makes cakes look like cakes and not pancakes. Iron is added because most people don't get enough and "fortified with iron" is a good selling point.

Without calcium carbonate, cakes and pies would be less evenly made (lumpy or thick in places, or both). Without sodium bicarbonate cakes and pastries would be flat. And although not adding iron would not change the taste/look of the food, governments actively encourage this additive as is is good for the health of the nation.

[cassandra]

The same for magnesium stearate being added to my sweets (Frizzlers) to make sure they're evenly coloured, and sweet (I'm not diabetic) and at the same time increases slightly people's magnesium level 

[Paul]

I am diabetic and I eat sugar free sherbet lemons, which are lemon flavoured boiled sweets with sherbet in the middle. I kid myself that I am doing this because the sherbet contains sodium bicarbonate, but really I am doing it because I want sweeties!