1,000 calorie scone peril

That’s how fattening one can be with jam, butter and cream

FIRST there was the fierce debate over how it was pronounced.

Then it was butter knives at dawn over whether the cream or the jam should be spread first. But now the innocent scone is at the centre of another furore – as a potential health hazard.

Researchers have warned that some scones available on the high street contain the equivalent of almost ten spoons of sugar, and when spread with cream, butter and jam, supersize versions come close to an astonishing 1,000 calories – half the recommended daily intake for a woman. A variety of 57 scones sold by large independent coffee shops and cafes in Northern Ireland were tested by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and local councils. This included plain, fruit and luxury versions, some of which were based around Mars bars and Cadbury creme eggs.

The report found the average scone calorie count was 408 – 384 for plain, 414 for fruit and 431 for luxury, with an average weight of 129g. But one fruit scone, which weighed 233g (more than 8oz), contained about 750 calories and 39.2g of sugar, which is equal to just under ten teaspoons. The tests did not take into account toppings and so the FSA said adding butter or cream and jam would raise the count by an average of 187 calories.

A luxury raspberry and white chocolate scone was found to contain 14g of saturated fat – the same amount as that found in seven pork sausages and 70 per cent of what a woman should eat for an entire day.

Fionnuala Close, from the FSA, said the research was designed to help tackle obesity, adding ‘it is important to know what calories are in larger scones and to choose smaller portions, when available’.

FOR decades our diet- obsessed culture has been fixated on particular food groups. First, we were told to cut out fat, then carbs, now sugar. One year, butter was bad for us, then it was eggs, then red meat. One after the other, individual foods have been demonised as though they were intrinsically bad. But all this time, we’ve been missing the real danger.

As the Mail reported yesterday, a major new study found the most urgent threat to health is ultra-processed food: ready meals, sugary drinks, cereals, cakes, biscuits, pizza, hot dog sausages, energy bars, powdered slimming products, factory bread and pies, sweets, dehydrated soups, chicken nuggets . . . In other words, any food that requires industrial manufacturing unavailable in the average kitchen.

Epidemic

Well, what’s new about that, you might ask. Of course processed food is bad for us. Doesn’t it cause cancer?

Yes, nutritionists have known for a long time that processed food is linked to an increased risk of cancer.

But this study, led by the Sorbonne University in Paris and looking at more than 40,000 adults aged 45 and over, has established that the risk extends to illnesses of all kinds: to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, the obesity epidemic and more.

While we’ve been worrying about calorie counts, and chasing fads that have us ‘eating a rainbow’ of differentcoloured foods, the problem was much more insidious. More than half our national diet — 51 per cent — consists of ultra-processed food.

Britain’s eating habits have changed radically in the space of two generations. Even the most health- conscious of us habitually buy ‘meal deals’ — a mass-produced sandwich, a sugar-rich carbonated drink and a chocolate bar.

We send our children to school with a packet of crisps and a tube of plastic-packed stringy cheese, along with a carton of fruit juice.

We tuck into breakfast cereals that are more than 50 per cent sugar by weight.

Without realising it, we have become the biggest consumers of ultra-processed food of any country in Europe. It’s no coincidence that we are also the nation with the worst obesity crisis and an epidemic of type 2 diabetes.

Our addiction is far worse than in France, where people prefer to freeze freshly prepared food rather than stock their cupboards with factory-made dinners. Ultra-processed food makes up just 14 per cent of their annual consumption.

This may be why researchers were able to detect such a marked increase in early death among subjects who did eat food laden with additives.

For every 10 per cent rise in ultra-processed food in the diet, the risk of death within a decade shot up by 14 per cent from what, in grim jargon, is known as ‘all-cause mortality’ — death for any reason.

The same 10 per cent rise pushed up the intake of sugar, industrial oils and salt, while reducing healthy levels of vitamins and fibre.

But that’s not the only lethal aspect of these foods: chemical additives and manufacturing methods such as super-high cooking temperatures that wipe out healthy bacteria are also to blame. In short, everything about ultra-processed food is bad.

You might naively suppose that, now this has been proven, Britain’s food retailers will be rushing to do things differently. But if past practice is anything to go by, they’ll simply find new ways to convince us that cheap, empty carbs and sugar are ‘healthy’.

Just look at the list of permitted additives. One of them is titanium oxide, a whitening agent found in the icing on cakes. It’s used in paint, too. The International Agency for Research on Cancer calls it ‘possibly carcinogenic’ and one study links it to the bowel disease Crohn’s.

Titanium oxide has been proven to be toxic even in low quantities, yet it is still a legal additive.

And ultra-processing isn’t just convenient for manufacturers, it’s a licence to print money. Take the potato: there’s a limit to what a consumer will pay for one, even if it’s sold by a middle- class retailer such as Waitrose or Marks & Spencer, promoted with the promise that it was handwashed in mineral water.

But when it’s processed into ‘skins’ and ‘crinkle-cut chips’ and ‘ kettle crisps’, there’s practically no limit to what people will spend. The profit margins on ultra-processed food shoot up exponentially.

That’s why manufacturers are constantly looking for new ways to process food. There’s so much more money to be made in brightly- coloured, multi- flavoured children’s cereals than in plain oatmeal.

One of the ways they do it is with ‘hyper-palatability’. Food scientists search out combinations that hook us by the tastebuds so, even if we know a food is bad for us, we persuade ourselves it’s a one-off treat.

Degraded

Glazed doughnuts, the type you see in display cabinets at a service station, are a typical example. They make no useful contribution to anyone’s diet — but they are created to manipulate our tastebuds.

Typical hyper-palatable food combines refined oil, sugar and salt to create overwhelmingly sweet food with a barrage of flavours that keep us coming back.

Don’t be fooled by that word ‘refined’ either. These edible oils are processed in an industrial refinery, just like petroleum. They are nutritionally degraded and, like so many other factory foods, dangerous to health.

And it’s not only oils. Massproduced bread is made with enzymes — chemical catalysts — that bestow a fluffy appearance while increasing the loaf’s shelf life. But these enzymes are known allergens, and according to one theory could be partly responsible for the epidemic of food intolerances that were unknown just 25 years ago.

The enzymes are also linked to breathing problems in workers in the mass baking industry. Yet because these chemicals are classified as ‘processing aids’ rather than ingredients, their presence in our food doesn’t even have to be declared on the label.

Horrors

In the face of this catalogue of horrors, you might imagine that the trend for ‘plant-based foods’ and veganism will drive healthier eating habits.

Sadly, manufacturers and retailers are using this as one more way to bamboozle customers. If you see processed food promoted as ‘healthy’ or ‘ balanced’, it’s a marketing label, not a scientific one.

The trend to blame the livestock industry for all our woes, and to pretend that anything ‘plant-based’ is better for us, is a Get Out Of Jail Free card for anyone seeking to rebrand a box of sugary carbs. Even the most tooth-rotting breakfast cereal is ‘vegan’.

To say that these foods are automatically better for the planet is a deception. Looking at the ingredients in rebadged ‘ healthy vegan’ ranges makes my hair stand on end. It’s a con trick being played on the public, who have never been warned by the Government what ultra-processed food does to the human body.

If you want your family to be healthy and to boost their longevity, the rule is simple. Eat unprocessed food, as close to its natural state as feasible. The further it gets from Mother Nature, the more likely it is to be actively bad for you.