Recently the Australian government has put in place a health star rating system. When changes like this occur there are always questions about how well they will work. When the new system was designed which revolves around a star rating there was a massive push back by the food companies.
The system makes food companies rate own a scale of 1 to 5 how healthy the food is based on the criteria that has been created. The problem is that the criteria is created deal with factory made foods. The question is what happens when a totally natural food is thrown into the same basket so to speak. If we applied the same rules to natural foods would we get a 5 star rating?
You will be shocked to see what we end up with!
The question is does this new system really work? Ultimately people should not be consuming any factory made foods at all. Natural foods are safe and good for a persons health. The factory made counterfeits are health destroying.
Recently a post appeared on Facebook which highlights just how badly things can go wrong and when they do, people that are not aware and are following the rating advise are actually doing damage to their health.
When will this madness stop?
Here is the absolutely brilliant letter written to the Australian Government written by Caitlyn Walker
Please Note: One of our readers have contacted Sanitarium who claimed that they sourced only non GM ingredients for their product. Please see explanation at the end of the article.
Dear Australian Government (responsible for the recent Health Star Ratings),
My friend recently posted the photo of the coconut oil and the up&go and it served a big truth to me. One that says that your new campaign is not only misrepresenting what healthy foods are, but that it is nothing short of misleading to the consumer. I want to point out one example, in a case of hundreds. You have given Organic Coconut Oil a rating of 0.5/5 and an Up and Go, a rating of 4.5/5. To me this would imply that the Up and Go is ‘healthy’ and the coconut oil is far less.
Let’s take a look at the ingredients of the two products you have rated. Firstly, the Organic Coconut Oil of which has one, natural ingredient, organic virgin unrefined coconut oil. Now let’s take a look at the Up and Go, which may I remind you, you gave an almost perfect health rating to. Taken directly from the Sanitarium website, here are the ingredients of an Up and Go:
Filtered water, skim milk powder, cane sugar, wheatmaltodextrin, soy protein, vegetable oils (sunflower, canola), inulin, hi-maize™ starch, corn syrup solids, fructose, cocoa (0.5%), oat flour, mineral (calcium), food acid (332), flavours, vegetable gums (460, 466, 407), stabiliser (452), salt, vitamins (C, niacin, A, B12, B6, B2, B1, folate).
Now I don’t know about you, but I for one sure know which is better for my health. And here’s a tip, it’s definitely not the product that you have given a 4.5 star rating to. I’m not quite sure what ingredient you took in to account when giving the Up and Go such a high score? Perhaps it was the cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, soy protein and vegetable oils or maybe it was the concoction of genetically modified ingredients.
According to your government website, the HSR of a product is based on a calculation that considers the amount of energy, saturated fat, sugars, sodium, protein and fibre in a food, along with the fruit, vegetable, nut and legume content. If you gave organic coconut oil a low health rating because it is ‘unbalanced’, I suggest you speak to the majority of people using this product. I think you will find that they are using it in a very balanced way and not on its own!
To anyone reading this, I hope this opens your eyes to what this is all really about. Big companies and profit. It seems that just like the Heart Foundation tick you will find on many products, it is a case of how much money a company has to buy the tick or the rating rather than the health and wellbeing of the consumer. If this message made you think or resonates with you, please share it and let’s show Australia the truth.
Sorry Government, you haven’t fooled me. And to all of you out there that have been, I hope this serves as a reminder that when it comes to our health, educating ourselves is paramount.
Regards,
Caitlyn
**The intention of this post was always to EDUCATE and EMPOWER people. For those of you who don’t seem to be able to see past the coconut oil (Hint: this was never about the coconut oil or the comparison between 2 products – Yes I am aware that coconut oil and Up and Go are 2 entirely different products and yes I am aware that the rating was designed to compare like products. I am also aware that coconut oil on its own is not nutritionally complete as the minority keep pointing out and no where have I suggested to go and drink 250mls of it!), you have missed the point. What this post was written for was to question the health star ratings set by the Government. This post is about the high ‘health’ rating given to a product such as Up and Go. To me, a high health star rating would imply that the product is good for me and I stand by the fact that anything full of genetically modified ingredients, along with refined sugar, high corn fructose syrup and vegetable oils (amongst other things), isn’t ‘healthy’ (regardless of whether it’s a comparison to other like products), and that by implying so the consumer is being mislead**
Sanitarium advised the following in regards to the use of GM foods.
Thank you for contacting Sanitarium regarding the use of GM ingredients in our products.We are pleased to confirm that Sanitarium only sources non genetically modified ingredients to make all our products.Below is a link which will take you to the relevant section on our web site.If you have further questions please feel free to contact us again.
