Pseudo-healthy restaurant chains
Lots of brands make you think you’re eating healthy, but in fact, they are not telling you the whole truth.
We’ve personally found it really hard to eat healthy when eating out. That’s in part why Vita Mojo was born: to give you (and us!) a healthier quick-service alternative as well as control and transparency over your meals. To eat well without compromise.
When we recently visited 8 different quick service restaurants that brand themselves as ‘healthy’, we found that few menus were transparent, many meals had added nasties and the majority of meals contained highly refined carbohydrates.
Added nasty stuff
Unfortunately, almost half of the establishments we visited still add stuff you just don’t need and make it really hard to find out what’s in your meal.
Sugar tops the list (a.k.a. the single worst ingredient in the modern diet), but we also routinely found added glucose syrup, artificial flavourings and all sort of preservatives.
Most preservatives aren’t considered harmful per se, but some do have some proven negative health effects and as too few long-term studies exist for us to make up our minds using science, why risk it?
Take Maltodextrin for example. It is generally used as a thickener or filler to increase the volume of processed food.
Because maltodextrin is a fast-digesting carbohydrate it can be a good source of quick calories during or after a workout but for any other situation, it simply adds extra calories to your meal with no nutritional benefits.
If you are trying to lose weight, you’ll want to avoid it altogether. The high GI (glycemic index) of maltodextrin means it can cause spikes in your blood sugar levels.
We believe fresh, good quality food tastes just fine without all the added nasty stuff. We wonder what pushes others to do so?
Cheap fillers (& macronutrients)
A surprising amount of outlets (5 out of 8) served refined carbs (e.g. white bread, pasta or white rice) as approximately 40–50% of the meal. The protein portions were often small — especially if in a wrap or baguette — and veggie content was equally sub-optimal.
These refined carbohydrates are poor in nutritional value and are there to ‘fill you up’ — giving you a short-term feeling of satisfaction. Eating the odd sandwich for lunch is not bad, but if it’s every day for a sustained number of years this might very well increase your chances of heart disease and other health risks.
Methods (& micronutrients)
What also shocked us are the cooking methods used. Many meals were presumably shallow fried using vegetable cooking oil (soybean and sunflower are favourites). There are countless numbers of studies that have shown that these are pretty bad for your health. With the exception of two menu items, we only use coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil. On top of that our food is almost exclusively raw, steamed or roasted — maximising its nutritional value on all levels.
Many of the meals we looked at had little vegetable content, hardly to the level that you’d expect for a nourishing ‘balanced’ meal. Although we have been accustomed to the 5-a-day fruit & vegetable recommendation, many (including the NHS) are now advising to aim for 10-a-day. This is essential to get all the micronutrients you need. Some of the lunch meals we saw wouldn’t even provide you with 2 out of your 10-a-day. And playing that amount of catch-up in the evenings is just not feasible.
At Vita Mojo, we believe in empowering individuals to better their lives. For us, this starts with healthy food that’s tailored to suit your nutritional needs. Considering the number of diet-related issues the UK faces today, we do however need the industry to step up its game with some of the basics if we’re going to tackle them seriously.
We’ll continue to shed the light on the London food scene in the coming months. In the meantime, we’d encourage you to ask for more transparency in what goes into your food. And do make sure to let us know on any shocking discoveries you might have made recently!
