Our high-sugar, calorie-laden al-desko lunch
Why that soup, salad or wrap you grab during your work break might not be the healthy option after all
THINK you eat healthy lunches?
You might need to think again, because many commercial soups, wraps and salads are loaded with calories, a new RTÉ documentary reveals
Some commercial soups contain a staggering seven teaspoons of sugar, a top chef has revealed.
And our habit of grabbing a sandwich to eat at our desks is leading to us becoming ‘depleted’ psychologically, one expert has said.
Chef Hilary O’Hagan-Brennan, of Dublin café 3fe, unearthed the huge quantities of sugar used in some commercially produced soups while making RTÉ’s What Are You Eating? which airs this week.
She discovered that a spiced chicken soup, considered a healthy option by many, was made with 28g of sugar per tub.
The World Health Organisation recommends that we consume no more than 24g over an entire day. Noting that even a root vegetable soup had 16g of sugar, she tells the show: ‘There is no place for added sugar in soup.’ And sugar wasn’t the only hidden ingredient in our convenience foods, presenter Philip Boucher-Hayes discovered when he looked into the nation’s lunch habits. He discovered that wraps, widely thought to be a healthier option than a sandwich, can be equal in calories to two slices of bread. And commercial tortillas are made with glycerol – a form of sugar – to maintain their texture, and emulsifier to bind the ingredients together. ‘Some chicken wraps have as many calories as a 12inch pizza,’ Boucher-Hayes said. Even salads can be problematic. Consultant dietitian Aveen Bannon says the benefits of salads are often undermined by large dollops of dressing. An average tablespoon of mayonnaise has 94 calories – and many people add two or three spoons per salad.
‘That’s 270 calories before a single solid had passed your lips,’ said Boucher-Hayes.
Honey-mustard dressing had a similar calorie count, while sweet chilli dressing had fewer calories but more sugar.
Ms Bannon says a healthier option is olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
A filling salad made with dark green leaves, tuna, tomatoes, peppers, grated carrot, beetroot and potatoes came to just 420 calories, including dressing.
The documentary charts the extent to which our eating habits have changed, with a quarter of us eating in the workplace and 20% of us working through lunch every day.
It’s not healthy, occupational psychologist Orlaith McManus says: ‘If we stay stuck in the same environment we can become rigid psychologically. And that’s not good for problemsolving of any kind.
‘We become depleted quite quickly. We have to have spots in the day to nourish ourselves or else we are putting our health and wellbeing at risk.’
What Are You Eating? is on RTÉ One on Wednesday at 8.30pm.