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| Banksy, Tesco Value Cream of Tomato Soup* |
Do you know what you're eating?
Recently I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the ingredients present in the food and cosmetics that I purchase. I’ve always been reasonably careful about what I eat and what I put on my skin and, more importantly, what I feed my son and what he rubs on his skin. But after watching a documentary on the tv channel Arte called "La grande malbouffe" about processed foods (malbouffe in French means junk food), I realised that I have not been concentrating enough on the labels on food and cosmetics.
As a food expert points out at the beginning of the documentary, the food industry is not transparent. Anyone who has tried to interpret the ingredients listed on food labels will know that reading and understanding these labels is not easy. The list of ingredients is often long, while the writing on the packaging can be misleading. Also, certain additives and enzymes are not considered as ingredients if they are used as processing aids.
Thanks to the documentary, I discovered a mobile app called Yuka, which “deciphers product labels and analyses the health impact of food products and cosmetics”. As well as telling you whether a product is excellent, good, poor or bad for your health based on a number of criteria, and whether something has too much salt or sugar, it also lists additives and lets you know whether they pose any risk to your health.
My son and I spent the rest of the evening scanning products in our cupboards, fridge and freezer. There were a few surprises in the kitchen: for instance, we discovered that while some types of fish fingers from a well-known brand (Iglo in Germany, Findus in Italy or Birds Eye in the UK) are considered excellent, one variety contains additive E450, which poses a high risk to health. Presumably the presence of this texturizing agent is the reason these fish fingers are considered “unsere knusprigsten”, i.e. our crispiest sort, as it is stated on the package.
The biggest surprises, however, were in the bathroom and bedroom, where we discovered several products that are considered to be bad for our health. All of the creams I had recently bought online from The Body Shop, for instance, turned out to contain endocrine disruptors or potential endocrine disruptors. The strawberry body butter even listed a carcinogen as one of its ingredients, while others contained allergens and irritants. I did actually write to The Body Shop to complain, but they insist that the ingredients in their products are safe. Nevertheless, I won’t be taking this risk, so I have decided to return the unused creams.
This brings me to an interview I heard on the radio yesterday on Newsday, which is broadcast on BBC World News. Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist, was talking about her new book, called Count Down. In the interview Swan argued that over the past decades there has been a «decay in the reproductive health of men and women». A major reason for this significant decline is the chemicals present in the environment which disrupt the body’s hormonal systems, i.e., endocrine disruptors.
Since I have become more aware of the potential presence of harmful or toxic substances in food and cosmetics, I have stopped buying certain products and found healthier alternatives. Next time you head to the supermarket or the pharmacy, or purchase something online, make sure you read the label and, if in doubt, scan it. Your health and your children’s health will definitely benefit.
*The picture is from the exhibition "Ritratto di ignoto. L’artista chiamato Banksy" (Portrait of the unknown. The artist called Banksy), at Palazzo Sant’Elia in Palermo, October 2020.
