Aspartame

[Anna]

I don't buy squash but I read all labels on tinned and packet food. To those with food intolerances but who like to keep a tin of soup in the cupboard it may be worth trying Amy's Kitchen range of soups. For example, comparing the ingredients in cream of tomato soup we find:

Heinz: Tomatoes (84%), Water, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Dried Skimmed Milk, Milk Proteins, Cream, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract, Citric Acid

Amy's Kitchen: Tomatoes (tomato puree, diced tomatoes) (66%), water, cream (4%), sugar, onions, salt, cracked black pepper.

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't buy squash but I read all labels on tinned and packet food. To those with food intolerances but who like to keep a tin of soup in the cupboard it may be worth trying Amy's Kitchen range of soups. For example, comparing the ingredients in cream of tomato soup we find:

Heinz: Tomatoes (84%), Water, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Dried Skimmed Milk, Milk Proteins, Cream, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract, Citric Acid

Amy's Kitchen: Tomatoes (tomato puree, diced tomatoes) (66%), water, cream (4%), sugar, onions, salt, cracked black pepper.

Bit mean on the old toms, Amy, ain't she? 66% plays 84%? Am I missing something?

I was never very keen on tomato soup, I recall, looking back over 30 years since I last had any...

[Anna]

I should have added they have a good range of dairy, lactose, gluten and soy free. Yes, I suppose 66% doesn't sound very high but it's a lovely chunky tomato soup that actually tastes of - tomatoes! Their lentil soup is also very tasty.

[Nick Armstrong]

I should have added they have a good range of dairy, lactose, gluten and soy free. Yes, I suppose 66% doesn't sound very high but it's a lovely chunky tomato soup that actually tastes of - tomatoes! Their lentil soup is also very tasty.

Yum - lentils. Now you're talking. Any lardons in there?

How's Amy's pea'n'ham? That's my favourite soup, I think

(I think tom soup is a victim of my 'no hot fruit' thing, thinking about it....)

[Anna]

Yum - lentils. Now you're talking. Any lardons in there?
How's Amy's pea'n'ham? That's my favourite soup, I think
(I think tom soup is a victim of my 'no hot fruit' thing, thinking about it....)

No pea'n'ham, as all their range is vegetarian! And, avert your eyes, their lentil soup also contains, Celery!!

[Nick Armstrong]

No pea'n'ham, as all their range is vegetarian! And, avert your eyes, their lentil soup also contains, Celery!!

[salymap]

I thought Robinson's could be trusted but see my bottle of Orange and Barley water contains Aspartame,although it states 'no added sugar'.

It certain tastes too sweet for me anyway.

[cloughie]

I don't buy squash but I read all labels on tinned and packet food. To those with food intolerances but who like to keep a tin of soup in the cupboard it may be worth trying Amy's Kitchen range of soups. For example, comparing the ingredients in cream of tomato soup we find:

Heinz: Tomatoes (84%), Water, Vegetable Oil, Sugar, Modified Cornflour, Salt, Dried Skimmed Milk, Milk Proteins, Cream, Spice Extracts, Herb Extract, Citric Acid

Amy's Kitchen: Tomatoes (tomato puree, diced tomatoes) (66%), water, cream (4%), sugar, onions, salt, cracked black pepper.

Surely it's fairly simple to make your own soup and then you know what's in it - importantly the amount of salt!

[Keraulophone]

Having grown up on it, I cannot resisit the sweet warming taste of Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup, accompanied by buttered sourdough toast. (No one else chez K can abide it, though.)

The list of ingredients isn't too shocking, though I do object to claims of 'low sugar' and 'low fat' on the label: how low is low? I'd call nearly 12g of fat per 400g can rather high.

Having just read the above, I hasten to add that homemade plum and tomato is my favourite.

[amateur51]

Surely it's fairly simple to make your own soup and then you know what's in it - importantly the amount of salt!

spot on Cloughie and they're made so much more easily and faster with the aid of a microwave and a hand blender - take some out before you blend so that it doesn't become blandly uniform in texture

[french frank]

I don't buy squash

I suppose it depends on one's general diet: I like Rock's squash with its bit of (organic!) sugar, but I don't eat cake, sweet biscuits, chocolate or sweets. Most of my sugar intake comes from fresh fruit.

As for soup: the bone of the gigot is currently simmering in the saved cooking liquor from the flageolets and garlic sausage on Sat. Meanwhile the Monday stew (not the real deal because the meat is already cooked) has lamb, onion, garlic, red pepper, porcini, chestnut mushrooms, white wine and - celery!

I don't really understand about stringy celery. If it's stringy when you're chopping it up, you pull the strings off - but the heart is never stringy and is delicious with cheese. Plus it must be added to stock (boiled veg all thrown away anyway).

[Thropplenoggin]

"I'm Aspartame!"

"No, I'm Aspartame!"

"I'm Aspartame!"

[continues for quite a whilel]

[amateur51]

I suppose it depends on one's general diet: I like Rock's squash with its bit of (organic!) sugar, but I don't eat cake, sweet biscuits, chocolate or sweets. Most of my sugar intake comes from fresh fruit.

As for soup: the bone of the gigot is currently simmering in the saved cooking liquor from the flageolets and garlic sausage on Sat. Meanwhile the Monday stew (not the real deal because the meat is already cooked) has lamb, onion, garlic, red pepper, porcini, chestnut mushrooms, white wine and - celery!

I don't really understand about stringy celery. If it's stringy when you're chopping it up, you pull the strings off - but the heart is never stringy and is delicious with cheese. Plus it must be added to stock (boiled veg all thrown away anyway).

Exactement, ff

We need to remember that people living with diabetes are in constant peril from the hidden sugars that manufacturers put into food. As you say, ff there are lots of sugars in fruit such that dieticians advise us to drink only one smallish glass/day which I reckon is fairly counter-intuitive.

[Simon]

Good topic to start, TS.

Here's a link that should interest many readers:

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm

It may surprise some, but from my experience anyway it certainly doesn't appear to be overstated.

The corruption of the food industry is well-known, though there isn't much that as individuals we can do about it, unless like me you are fortunate enough to be able largely to grow your own/buy from local suppliers who can be trusted.

What annoys me is that the press, who also know of this corruption, continually fail to give it the publicity it needs. (Apart from such as the Eye, of course, which too few people read). I expect it's because of advertising revenue, as usual. And because the press is, after all, only interested in butterfly stories; long-term, serious campaigns against vested interests that will be for the benefit of the people at large, seem to have died away now, sadly.

I can't vouch for the main report's author, but the author of the Kinghorn report on Stevia, which is an alternative sweetener, I happen to know is trustworthy.

[Anna]

Slightly off-topic. Disturbing article in yesterday's Guardian linking diet and dementia, Alzheimers now being called "type 3 diabetes" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...trophic-effect