As I travel Australia empowering kids to make better food choices, I often see kids eating packets of noodle snacks in their lunchbox. These foods are in no way nutritious and do little to help our kids bodies or brains to concentrate or learn, let alone say full for any period of time. Quite simple what’s in supermarket noodle snacks are a whole lot of ingredients made in a chemistry lab.
Our mr 6yo son knows I would never buy them but recently asked me to make them for him. Along time ago we had made them for a bit of fun for home economics. Now he wanted to share some with his friends. If you want to see how simple it is to make a healthier noodle snack than the ones you buy from the supermarket, check out Ril’s How To Video on how to make healthier noodle snacks.
Now let’s break down the supermarket noodle snacks. For the purpose of this article, I am just looking at the Coles branded Noodle Snacks. When I empower kids, I teach them about how processed food is a combination of food science (the inside of the packet) and marketing science (the outside of the packet).
Food Science
When I empower kids to make better food choices, I tell them that food science is really what makes them go YUM! when they eat processed food. It’s what’s inside the packet.
But what goes on inside a packet is so much more. Here’s a great definition I found which helps explain it more:
“Food science is the study of the physical, biological, and chemical makeup of food; and the concepts underlying food processing. Food technology is the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution, and use of safe food.” This quote was from ift.org.
Food science plays a crucial role in helping feed the population of the world. It has been responsible for the making of foods that can sit on our supermarket shelves for a long time such as canned foods, long life milk, easy to make meals, microwave meals and of course, all those packets which may their way into lunchboxes.
There is no denying food science does have a place in our world. Our population has exploded and lives have become busy. We have moved from a world where families produced their own food at home, usually from produce they either grew or sourced themselves, to a world where people are largely disconnected from their food, how it’s grown or made. It’s now mostly created in a lab and made in a factory.
But does this make all the foods being made using the intelligence of food science and food technology good for us? Absolutely not!
We are now living in a climate where our generation of kids are getting sicker than ever before. There is sufficient research showing many of today’s foods made with food science and food technology, are having an impact on children’s health. Many of these foods offer little or no nutritional value and are messing with the way their bodies and brains are working.
This statement actually also holds true to adults too. But of course, I am about transforming children’s health, so I am focussing on what this means to our kids generation, then the generation they will bring into this world.
We need a disruption or an intervention. We need a large scale education program to reconnect people to the food they are eating and how it makes their body feel. We need to go back to basics of making food from real food ingredients, and just make really informed choices about the processed food we eat – this means reading the ingredients and asking yourself if you’re happy to be consuming them rather than just putting them in our trolley.
If you truly want to get an understanding of just how important it is – watch this you tube clip of researcher and author Michael Pollan, about How Cooking Can Change Your Life -it’s absolutely brilliant.
Below we explore the ingredients of noodle snacks, a popular lunchbox snack. Let’s take a look at this packet of food science.
Ingredients of Noodle Snacks
For this article, we’re going to look at the ingredients of Coles Noodle Snacks Chicken Flavour. I used the Chemical Maze app to help me decipher the additives and preservatives in this packet. Suffice to say, many of these ingredients will never be found in a pantry at home!
Wheat flour
This ingredient is understandable, you’d expect noodles to have some form of flour.
Corn Oil (antioxidant 304, 307 b)
It is not clear if this oil is made from GMO or non GMO corn.
Antioxidants are needed to stop food or in this case, the oil, from deteriorating or turning rancid. A great example of a natural antioxidant is the use of lemon juice on apples to prevent them from browning.
Both of these antioxidants in this packet are given a smiley face in The Chemical Maze App but the thing is, they are both modelled off naturally occurring antioxidants. 304 is vitamin C based (like citrus fruits) and 307 is related to vitamin E (like from nuts, sunflower seeds, soya etc). However, because of the sheer volume of processed foods our world needs now, it’s not practical for food manufacturers to get these antioxidants naturally, so most are now created artificially in a lab. Food science has become such a precise science that the makeup of these artificially created antioxidants is considered identical to those formed in nature. Perhaps this is how the company is allowed to get away with marketing it as no artificial colours, flavours or additives, even if they are made artificially in a lab.
The Chemical Maze App also lists that 304 (Ascorbyl palmitate) maybe palm oil derived. As I educate the older children (yrs 5 & 6) in my Mad Food Science Program, sometimes you have to look beyond just ourselves and ask what is the impact of what we’re eating on the world we’re living in. Personally, I would prefer not to eat foods where the oil is derived from pillaging the land and displacing orangutans.
Seasoning [yeast extract, sugar, salt, Maltodextrin, Soy Sauce (soy, wheat), flavour enhancers (621, 631)
The seasoning of these noodle snacks is made up of the ingredients listed in the brackets, so we need to understand these.
- yeast extract – the creation of yeast extract in the chemistry lab involves many steps. The result is the creation of a free glutamate which is like MSG. This article by the amazing Cyndi O’Meara explains a whole lot about yeast extract – a fascinating read. Here’s what Cyndi says glutamates do – “excite the nervous system, which is the neural tree that reaches every part of your body, meaning that symptoms of reaction to free glutamates can be as far reaching as a migraine to itchy skin, flushed red skin or hyperactivity.”
- Sugar – the quality of this sugar is unknown, however, from a cost efficiency perspective if it likely to be simple processed white sugar
- Salt – similar comment as for sugar
- Maltodextrin – this is derived from the starches of foods such as corn, rice, potato etc and so essentially it is a sugar but without the sweetness. It’s high on the glycaemic index but in some processed foods it’s not used as a sweetener per se, but rather a thickener or filler to a product.
- Soy sauce – is usually traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, wheat, salt and water. Soy sauce is not great for people with an intolerance to gluten. Tamari is a gluten free replacement for soy sauce.
- Flavour enhancer 621 – this gets one red unhappy face in the Chemical Maze App. This concoction is known as Monosodium L-glutamate. Chemical Maze lists some of the potential effects and symptoms of 621 as bronchospasms in asthmatics, irritability, allergic and hyper-sensitive reactions, behavioural problems, learning difficulties. Oh and maybe GM.
- Flavour enhancer 631 – this gets one red unhappy face in the Chemical Maze App. This concoction is called Disodium 5′ – inosinate. Similar to 621 Chemical Maze lists allergic reactions, behavioural problems, headaches, should be avoided by asthmatics plus also lists skin ailments such as eczema as potential effects and symptoms. Also potentially GM.
This seasoning which excites kids tongues and brains so they go YUM, is not perfect for the school lunchbox! Imagine being a teacher on the receiving end of a classroom of kids with these man made cocktails in their system. Seriously, the more I see what teachers are dealing with, the more I realise they are worth more money!
Spices
This is really unknown. I do not feel like sitting on the phone to the manufacturer to find out what’s in this because I would probably be told they are unable to tell me in case anyone copies their mix. Given the price point of this product and the other ingredients, I would hesitate to say these spices are probably created in a lab too.
Salt
There is 191mg sodium in this bag. This equates to under 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt per bag. That doesn’t sound too bad but that obviously doesn’t include any other salt a child may get in a day. I decided to look at whether this product would be considered high in salt. Catherine Saxelby is an accredited nutritionist and runs a great blog called Food Watch. On her website she suggests to determine whether a food is high in salt, to look at the amount of sodium per 100g. If it’s more than 600mg sodium per 100g then it’s considered high in salt. This packet has 765g of sodium per 100g. As such, this product would be considered high in salt. Foods high in salt have been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease.
Sugar
It is true, this product overall has negligible sugar but then I pose the question, why is sugar even required in a snack which is supposed to be savoury?
Research indicates these foods have a cumulative effect. One packet of these occasionally may not cause any problem but if kids are eating foods like this every day (and we know many are), then it’s now an everyday food. It builds and builds in their little bodies. Then it becomes only a matter of how long it will take to have an impact on their health. Today, tomorrow, 1 year, 5 years, who knows? Every child is different.
Marketing Science
When I teach kids about how to make better choices of packet food, I draw a distinction between the food science inside the packet and marketing science on the outside of the bags. Many people blindly buy processed foods without any consideration to what’s inside the packet. Marketing science is really the art of getting a consumer’s attention and building their desire and trust so that they purchase. There are many different ways this can be done.
Colours
What’s the colours of the packet or the brand? Have you noticed how red, yellow, green are often used in processed food packets. This article about the psychology of colour by entreprenueur.com is great, as this image from their article.
In using this colour psychology, this bag of noodle snacks sends messages of warmth, friendly and growth, with a bit of imaginativeness thrown in too.
Pictures
Oh the cute pictures or the use of characters drives me mad. Cute little purple monsters that look fun, Disney characters that are so recognisable, movie characters etc. All this generates an excitement level in kids. They develop an association and WANT to have the food. I wrote about how much of an impact this has in this article about The Dark Side of The Force. I was prompted to write this after our son wanted to have Star Wars Microwave Popcorn because it had to be good because it had Star Wars on it.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this. Leave me a comment.
The Words
Sometimes there’s words for the kids like – “Crispy, Crunchy, Ready to Munch Noodle Snacks Are A FUN LUNCHBOX TREAT!”
Then there are words for us parents. Like many products say lunchbox friendly. Ah, the only thing that’s friendly about these products is they are easy to pack. They don’t help our kids learn and they impact the learning environment for the whole class and the teacher. They can also affect how kids socialise in the playground. And the impact on the environment is horrendous. Many of this packets are single use plastics which will live long beyond the years of us and our kids.
In this bag of Coles Branded Noodle Snacks – these words are designed to give us comfort – oh they must be alright:
“No artificial colours & flavours, or preservatives” and “No ADDED MSG”
Technically these words are accurate. Marketers are extremely smart of knowing the food labelling requirements and they use it to their advantage. Most consumers do not even realise the food labelling requirements impact how the food can be marketed.
In this bag of noodle snacks, it is technically accurate that there are no artificial colour, flavours or preservatives. However, the flavours and preservatives are still made in a chemistry lab and are not real food by any stretch of the imagination.
As soon as you see the words “No ADDED” you know that somewhere in that packet the ‘ingredient that’s not added’ actually exists but just has not been directly added or is insufficient in the amount to be considered necessary to be listed as an ingredient. Like in these noodle snacks, there is no ADDED MSG but there is glutamates which are created as a byproduct of processing.
My Words of Advice
Become wise – look beyond the technically accurate words and ask yourself what does it mean. FLIP THAT PACKET OVER AND READ THE INGREDIENTS!
And my mantra, be a stand for your children’s health. Take the stand and make a habit of eating more real food, and reducing the amount of processed packaged food you have.
Unless you have a strong resolve, trying to stop all processed foods at once will become too hard. Do your research of the ingredients and start to change the areas which concern you the most. Choose one thing, make it a way of life, then change the next. This gradual transition will make life easier. For instance, if eating more fruits and veg are your priority, make all snacks at home fruits and veg first. Then when the kids are used to eating this as their first go snack, then start introducing it in their lunchbox too.
Remember, if you have packet foods readily available, kids will gravitate to these first. These foods are made with food science designed to elicit this kind of behaviour. You can minimise this simply by making real food more readily available and accessible quickly for your kids.
Articles Used For Research
http://www.eufic.org/en/whats-in-food/article/food-should-also-look-good-why-antioxidants-are-so-important
https://web.archive.org/web/20171108115416/http://foodscience.ucdavis.edu:80/about/
https://changinghabits.com.au/what-you-need-to-know-about-yeast-extract-a-hidden-form-of-msg/
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/is-maltodextrin-bad-for-me#1
http://foodwatch.com.au/blog/measures-and-conversions/item/how-to-convert-sodium-to-salt-and-salt-to-sodium.html
This is also an interesting read about 2 minute noodles
What’s so bad about 2 minute noodles and what to eat instead