ChileanEasyPeelers Challenge

We try to eat healthily in our house, right from day 1 I had said that when Macy started weaning that I was going to avoid anything sweet and she always had water or milk to drink.  As a result she does eat lots of fruit and veg and although does love her sweets etc she actually loves fruit more 9 times out of 10. 

I signed up for the #ChileanEasyPeeler Challenge, sponsored by Citrus Fruits from Chile along with Britmums.  We were sent some easy peal mandarins, which are low in calories and fat and full of vitamin C, a rich source of fibre, folate, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Easy peel mandarins have a high water content as they contain about 87 per cent water. No matter how much you encourage Macy to drink, she usually forgets and you can’t think about it all the time, so picking foods with a high water content like these helps to keep her hydrated. I find that during summer we eat a lot of fruit.

On the way to ballet, a snack for the car journey

Our challenge was to enjoy a summer day out as these delicious little oranges are easy to pack up for days out and lunch boxes.  However, our stumbling block has been that since the oranges arrived it has done nothing but rain and Macy has hot lunches at school!

Her face lit up when she opened the box and saw all the oranges.  She loves the fact that she can go and peel them herself, they are so easy to take out with us as they aren’t messy and she can eat them on her own.  They are a great little snack between school pick up time and dinner.  She often has swimming or a dance class so I don’t want to give her anything substantial but she is usually a bit hungry, these oranges are great just as a little snack that is light enough before she is swimming or dancing. 

This post is an entry for the BritMums #ChileanEasyPeelers Challenge, sponsored by Citrus Fruits from Chile.

Eating Healthily with Red Meat

In our house we try to eat healthily, I usually do vegetables and meat for dinner most nights, the meat aspect however does tend to usually be chicken or fish most nights and sometimes a couple of nights we have red meat normally in the form of beef mince (always 20% less fat) in a spag bol or pastor pie.  I never really pay attention to the media when they shout about such and such being bad for you, causes this that and the other etc etc.  I believe in ‘everything in moderation’ so we never tend to cut anything out particularly and try to have a bit of everything. 

Recently there has been a lot of bad press about red meats (lamb, pork, beef) and yes it does tend to have a bit more fat, however you can still enjoy it with less fat – Tesco sell both lamb and beef mince in a lower fat option.  We have enjoyed pork steaks recently with a marinade and I have cut the fat off – I don’t actually enjoy fat so I don’t miss it.

In light of this the Meat Advisory Panel (an independent group of health and nutrition experts) has partnering with BritMums to promote red meat in the diets of children.  So the #HealthyRedMeat challenge was born!  Red meat provides a range of important nutrients that are often low in toddlers and children – including iron, zinc, and B vitamins, selenium and potassium.  I really liked the sound of the challenge as I do try hard to provide us all with a healthy diet.

Our trouble is getting our 4 year old to eat red meat – she just doesn’t seem to enjoy it, perhaps we should have encouraged her more when she was weaned.  Dr Emma Derbyshire (a public health nutritionist and mother) says: “Including a small portion of red meat in the diet a few times a week after weaning can help to bridge nutrient gaps and so help to maintain good health through childhood and beyond.”  I think Macy is just lazy with chewing, the only red meat she will eat is in the form of mince!  So that leads nicely on to the recipe we used, it had to be fairly quick and easy as I have a house full at the moment and work as well, so I found "The ultimate makeover: Shepherd's pie" By Angela Nilsen on BBC Good Food.

For the filling
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 onion, chopped
3-4 thyme sprigs
2 carrots, diced (total weight 300g)
250g lean minced lamb (we used 10% fat)
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder, made up to 350ml/12fl oz stock with boiling water
227g can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
400g can green lentils with no added salt, drained
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
For the topping
650g Maris Piper or King Edward potato, roughly chopped
250g sweet potatoes Sweet potatoes , roughly chopped
2 tbsp half-fat crème fraîche
1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk


Method
Heat the oil in a large, deep sauté pan or saucepan. Tip in the onion and thyme sprigs and fry for 2-3 mins. Then add the carrots and fry together for 5-8 mins, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to brown. Stir in the mince to break it down. Fry for 1-2 mins until no longer pink. Stir in the flour, scraping the bottom of the pan in case the meat sticks, then cook for another 1-2 mins. 

 Pour in the stock and stir until thickened. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato purée, lentils and Worcestershire sauce and season with pepper. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 45 mins, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Drop all the potatoes into a large pan of boiling water. Bring back to the boil, then simmer for 12-15 mins or until the potatoes are tender. Drain well in a colander then tip back into the pan. Mash with a masher or, briefly, with an electric hand mixer until smooth. Beat in the crème fraîche and milk with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

Spoon the meat into a 1.5 litre pie dish and remove the thyme sprigs. Top with the mash and smooth over with a knife. Use a fork to create a ridged pattern on top. Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake for about 20-25 mins until piping hot and the filling starts to bubble around the edges. If the top is not brown enough, pop it under the grill for 5 mins or so until the mash is crisp and golden. Let it sit for 5 mins then serve. 

I amended the recipe slightly as I didn't use Creme Fraiche (seemed wasteful to buy it and use 2tbsps and leave the rest) so I just used butter and milk. I also put in some garlic as I do believe it has good health benefits. What I also liked about the recipe was the fact that it made use of veggies such as tomatoes, carrots, sweet potato and lentils.

This post is an entry for the BritMums #HealthyRedMeat, sponsored by the Meat Advisory Panel.

Pedigree at The Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition

Feed The Good?

I was invited by Pedigree and Mumsnet to attend an event at Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition to learn more about how Pedigree dog food is develop and learn more about canine nutrition.  I was interested in learning more about canine nutrition, having agility dogs it is especially important they are getting a fully nutritious diet.  There is an age old myth about pedigree and how it is packed full of rubbish just to bulk it up and I wanted to know the truth, I don’t really know how people can say this when they have probably never picked up a packet recently or recently fed it to their dogs.

I must admit when our feeding trial came through I was surprised at the amount of wet food and when I calculated Sweep’s daily allowance according to what they had given me it works out at 3 pouches a day plus a cup of dry food.  The Pedigree Tracks app calculates the exact weight of dry the dog needs.  Pedigree recommend feeding 50% wet, 50% dry so I questioned this on the day (having always just fed dry as it is more convenient and better for their teeth?)  Interestingly enough, I found out that the wet food contains about four times less calories per gram than dry food so it can help over feeding as you feel like they are getting more to eat. However for me the main thing I learnt was that because it contains more moisture than dry food, this is good for urinary tract health.  For me I have a cat who can suffer from urinary tract infections and wet food could actually combat this.  For the dogs I don’t think it would improve their health as they have never suffered however in future if I was to ever have a dog who suffered then this would be a way that may combat it.  Nutrition wise there is no difference between wet and dry, obviously if feeding only wet we need to be making sure we take care of their teeth, either teeth cleaning, Dentastix or Dentaflex (I did a trial with these, they were great, click here).

We started the day with a tour of the facilities.  I hadn’t realised how much goes on behind the scenes before dog food hits the shelf!  They have a lot of vets working with them and specialist nutritionists.  Pedigree is ultimately owned by Mars which is still a family run business with over 80,000 associates across 77 countries.  They went into the dog food industry in 1935 and they own Banfield Vet Hospital who is the biggest employer of vets.  So you can be sure they are qualified enough to know what a dog’s needs are!

They have a laboratory on site where they do all sorts of testing before they develop a food, for example they take dog stomach cells and test different ingredients on the cells to see whether they inflame to make sure it isn’t going to cause a bad reaction in a dog.  They are able to test different things on different bacteria found on the dog’s teeth to see whether they will help reduce gum disease, plaque etc.  Waltham recently found out that puppies need a higher level of Vitamin A in their diet and didn’t keep that to themselves, they shared it across the industry.

Their animals kept on site are happy and healthy and there are plenty of animal carers onsite who only look after a few animals so they get plenty of attention and by the end of the day they are quite happy to relax for the evening.  The animals are trained positively with reward based methods.  Pedigree aim for 85% of their food to be digested and 15% to come out as waste (poo!) and they can track that easily.  

We had a presentation on their factory and how the food is produced and what came across was how passionate they are about the quality of their food.  They have a specialist person who checks quality every couple of hours and on top of that they have a morning and an afternoon panel who also check on the quality – things like smell, chunk size etc, they say there are about 16 quality checks before food hits the shelves.  The factory works to high standards and you could actually eat the food yourself, the meat used is all parts of the animal that would normally get thrown away so it sustainable as it is cutting down waste.  Things like the carcass from the chicken, liver, lungs etc they are all high in nutrients but humans don’t like to eat them so they end up in our dog food, in the wild the dog would probably choose to eat these first as they are the tastiest!  The law says that to declare food as beef or chicken there must be a minimum of 4% of that meat and they have to declare that however Pedigree say that there is normally around 30-40% meat but it might not necessarily be chicken or beef and might be other meat.  This is then what is classed as a meat derivative.  Everything in the food is there for a reason and to give the dog a balanced diet, carbs are needed for energy not to bulk the food up.  No artificial flavours and no added sugar, salt is added as it is required for a balanced diet.

We had a talk from Sandra McCune about dogs and children and how they can really enrich the lives of our children.  In the USA children are more likely to grow up with a pet than a father!  Dogs have been proven to make us healthier, Dolling et al. cited by Mills 2013 found that savings to the NHS would be about £2.45billion!  Different studies have shown that children with pets have up to 2 weeks less days off sick from school than those without pets, those brought up with dogs are less likely to develop allergies and asthma and children like to talk to their pets about any troubles they may have so this means they are also less likely to suffer from anxiety and to be more empathetic.  Dogs in the classroom can help children focus and this is shown by the amount of reading programmes being developed.  So all in all pets can really enrich our lives and our children’s lives.

So all in all what I got from the day is the overwhelming message that Waltham/Pedigree really are trying their very best to create a better world for pets.  They really are feeding the good.

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have 

volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid to attend the event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

Baby Snacks!

I am in the process of weaning Macy, as a result of her reflux she has really gone of milk - it causes her so much pain! I received a voucher for a free pack of Heinz Apple Biscotti and took them out with us as a snack. They were brilliant as she is not yet eating anything hard, so snacks can be difficult, there's only so much banana and yoghurt she can eat! These melted in her mouth and were good fingers of biscuit so she could hold them herself.

However I got home and googled them and was horrified to find how packed with sugar they are, I thought they were supposed to be healthy snacks, but actually there's less sugar in digestive biscuits! I have compared the amounts per 100g for Low sugar Heinz Rusks vs Heinz Apple Biscotti vs McVities Digestive.

Energy 1771 / 1783 / 1975kj
Energy 419 / 423 / 471kCal
Protein 6.6 / 10 / 7.1g
Carbohydrate 78.0 / 71.4 / 62.8g
- of which sugars 20.3 / 20 / 16.6g
Fat 9.0 / 9.7 / 21.3g
- of which saturates 4.0 / 4.5 / 2g
Fibre 2.1 / 5 / 3.6g
Sodium 0.01 / 0.2 / 0.5g
Iron 7.0 / 6 / mg
Calcium 390 / 317 mg
Vitamin A 450 / 380ug
Vitamin D 10ug
Thiamin 0.53 / 0.5mg
Riboflavin 0.82 / 0.5mg
Niacin 8.8 / 9mg
Vitamin B6 ? / 0.7mg
Folic Acid  ? / 100ug
Vitamin B12 ? / 0.7ug

To be honest I am really confused about how much sugar she should be having, I can't seem to find anywhere that tells me what the maximum amount is. Plenty of websites giving you an idea for adults but nothing for babies!! Lots of websites say to avoid anything with added sugar, which I didn't think these had (sugar from fruit?) and still seem very high!

Her favourite lunch is Heinz Cheesy Pasta and that has 11.5g per 100g. One article I did find in The Mirror stated no more than 2g per 100g! So even her meals are well over that!

I am really confused by it all and although I am doing my own cooking I just don't know how much of her daily intake of vitamins etc she is getting. At least with the boxed cereals I can ensure she is getting her RDA of all the vitamins, why do we have guidelines on vitamins and not sugar! It's no wonder there is a problem with obesity in this country!

If anyone has found any guidelines for sugar intake please let me know.