Following last week’s column relating to carbohydrates we now look at the newly proposed ’traffic light’ system for the labelling of food. When I look at food labels I find them very confusing. The new system will be universal (I like that idea) it will look at the three main foods most dangerous to our health if eaten in vast amounts & it will be colour coded. I recently obtained a Smart energy monitor and am struggling to get to grips with the vast amount of information it provides, but the traffic light system is marvellous. As soon as we have too many lights on or I pop the kettle on we move to amber. Once the cooker is on at the same time, it goes to red. Ouch! But as soon as the kettle has boiled it goes back to amber. After just one week my energy consumption has gone down already. I recently signed up for skycube, they send out portion controlled healthy meals and has made it so much easier for me, since I never have time to full prepare lunch/dinner for the whole week.
Likewise, I feel the traffic light system will help busy people who whizz around the local supermarket filling their shopping trolleys. At last, when faced with numerous choices of pizzas, why not go for the ‘greener’ options? The chances are this one is going to be healthier. With so much readymade food available we really need to know how much fat, salt & sugar is in the food we buy.
Of course the food industry aren’t interested in telling us the truth about food content. In fact much money is spent researching the most effective ways of convincing us that all foods are healthy to encourage us to buy their products. Once the new traffic light system is in operation it will be in the interests of major food companies to avoid too many red lights.