Following on from my post yesterday about sugar in meat and poultry products, I’ve just sent this email.

“Dear Mr Rowe

I regularly buy food from your stores, but have a question which I hope you can answer.

Could you please explain why so many of your meat and poultry products contain sugar? I recently looked at the ingredients on a pack of sliced cooked meat which showed a carbohydrate value of zero, but gave a total sugar value per 100g which I struggled to understand.

Both the whole roasted chickens and the roasted chicken portions are roasted in a sugar marinade.

In light of the current obesity epidemic, and the rising number of diabetics in this country would it be possible (if not advisable) to produce meat and poultry products which do not contain sugar? After all, most people would not expect to find sugar added to meat and poultry.

I look forward to hearing your comments. ”

When (and if) I get a reply I’ll let you know what he says.

Hope it gets results.

I like sweet foods, but I don’t want everything I eat to taste sweet. I rarely buy ready made (savoury) sauces, partly because so many taste far too sweet.

Thanks Patsy. I just can’t get my head round what looks like ordinary roast chicken having been cooked in a sugar marinade.

Well done lynne, very proactive of you. We should all take a leaf out of your book 🙂

Hi Judith,
What were you doing up so early? That’s two posts I read from the early hours ( your time). I always look at the time of the posts cos I’m sometimes reading them in what is the middle of the night for you.
Hope you get a better sleep tonight. 🙂

Hi cherrieanne a bit of stress waking me up at the mo – two nights on the trot! I have decided to just get up, make a cuppa, look at the forums and read for a while and when I’m tired go back to sleep! It’s worked quite well as I have ended up with the right amount of sleep. Thanks for your good wishes, I hadn’t thought about my early morning posts being spotted derrrr 🙂

Answer received:

“Thanks for emailing Steve Rowe about our meat and poultry products. As a member of Steve’s personal team, I’m replying on his behalf.

I’m sorry you’re disappointed that some of our meat and poultry products currently contain sugar.

Our cooked chicken and some of our meat products contain a very small amount of sugar. This is added for two reasons – to improve the flavour of the meat, and to enhance browning during the cooking process. It is used in very low levels and the products aren’t marinated in sugar.

I’d like to assure you that sugar reduction is very much on the agenda and we’re currently investigating alternative ingredients which deliver the same succulence, flavour & colour.

On behalf of Steve, many thanks for getting in touch.”

Two interesting points: sugar added to improve the flavour of the meat (!) and ‘products aren’t marinated in sugar’. I’ve never added sugar to meat, surely it has enough flavour of its own. And the label on the roasted chicken products clearly states ‘roasted in a sugar marinade’.

Methinks a response is necessary, but will have to wait until Saturday when I can hopefully get a photo of the label.

But at least they replied. And quickly.

Hope you’re ok Judith.

Thanks lynne I need to follow my own advice and stay strong 🙂

Give me a shout if I can do anything. 😃

If it’s not actually marinated in the stuff and it’s just put on the outside for the colour, then how does it help the taste? The problem is probably that they use factory farmed ‘forced’ chicken which get no exercise and fatten quickly, which results in profitable but tasteless meat. Good meat is tasty enough without additives.

My feelings exactly Patsy.

I need to get a photo of the label on the chicken in the shop and attach it to the email. If I can remember which cooked meat it was I’ll try for a photo of that label too.

Apparently the guy I emailed started off in the food department and worked his way up. Hopefully he will listen and act.

Hi guys a few of us got this petition going, asking for the NHS to encourage T2 diabetics to be encouraged to follow this diet.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/125704

I would love it if as many of us as possible could sign it – only UK residents allowed unfortunately!

Signed.

Thanks snooze39 🙂

Erm, it’s sooze actually…….I’m not asleep yet lol 😉

Oh sooze, i am sorry. I think i should be asleep it looks like I have brain fatigue 🙁

signed xx

No worries……I nearly am asleep now anyhow, it’s been a long day!

Thanks purplepenguin 🙂

I took the sneaky photos yesterday, ready to email in response.

Three poultry products, and this is what the labels say:

Sliced roast chicken
British chicken roasted in a sugar marinade

Whole roast chicken
Roasted in a sugar marinade

Roast sliced chicken breast
Succulent skinless chicken breast gently cooked with brown sugar and carefully sliced for the finest flavour and texture.

But their response stated ‘not marinated in sugar’!😳

How many people would just see chicken, think it’s healthy and buy it without checking? I know I used to.

I’ll email back tomorrow.

Great campaign Lynne! Go girl, go 🙂

You’ve really got your teeth into this one Lynne.
Go make him as uncomfortable as you can, more supermarket officials should be getting this treatment, after all, if this way of eating ever becomes mainstream, it will be them who have to adapt to survive.

Thanks Judith and Bill

I’ve just emailed the three photos and await their response. Should be interesting to see how they explain it this time 😳

Lynne, I can’t wait for that one!!! 🙂

Fortunately I wasn’t holding my breath!

This is the response received today.

“Thanks for your email. I’m sorry you’re disappointed by my response.
The information I’ve provided has come from our Food Technologist so I’m afraid there is nothing further I can add.
Your feedback has been passed to the team and I know they will use it when they’re reviewing these products and their sugar content.”

So they tell me the food is not cooked in sugar, I show them labels saying that it is, and this is their response. *head hits wall*.

Hi Lynne, they would make good politicians with their ridiculous avoidance of stating the truth, apologising and promising o put it right. Keep at them. In say 2 months point out that nothing has changed!! Or ask for the email of their Food Technologist! Not that you need any advice on chasing them down! Go girl 🙂

I just heard on the news as I was driving that Iron Brew are going to reduce sugars in the 60% of their drinks which are not low sugar …….as a response to the sugar tax. Not about peoples health then!

Hi Judith.

Agreed. The word ‘obfuscate’ sprang to mind.

I’ve just posted about an article I read earlier linking sugar with dementia!

Hi Lynne, the things we are finding out!!! While I was in the hairdressers I was reading a GPs replies to health problems. One really surprised me, she said that recent research indicated that gluten sensitivity was implicated as a cause of fibromyalgia!! A friend has it so I am going to speak to her later. We’re all well rid of gluten products on this diet! 🙂

Ahhhhh! I have that too but hadn’t heard that link! Interesting.

Lynne have you noticed it has been any better while on this diet? I think my friend has a degree of gluten sensitivity – I’ve said so before to her. She panicked when she was round at mine with other friends for a 3 course meal – all gluten free – because I had served salad with the starter (her husband heats her salads up) and because there were nuts in the vegetarian roast. She was convinced she would wake up in pain the next day. Next morning she phoned to say it was really odd but she felt really well …..derr. It was then that I said I didn’t think her upsets were down to unwarmed salad but to gluten sensitivity. I think she knows it anyway because she said it would be too much hassle to change her diet!!

Hi All!

Trying to find the original posting from Lynne, is the store M&S perchance? I have a bee in my bonnet about the sugar they put in chicken, fresh shelled prawns and so many of their salad products – as many people mention, I manage to make salad dressing without sugar and cook sauces without it either, so what on earth it’s doing in fresh, raw product sure beats me.

I am on the point of tackling M&S about this but didn’t want to cross-over with anyone else – Lynne – are you there please, can you advise?

Hi FiFiP. Just back and seen your post.

You guessed correctly. I’d picked up a packet of sliced cooked meat that showed zero carbs, but a figure for total sugar. That completely confused me, hence the original email to Steve Rowe. Apparently he started out in the food department and worked his way up.

Of course a reply came from his team! You’ve just got to love their response 😳
Talk about passing the buck! I even sent three photos I took in-store of chicken products cooked in/with sugar completely contradicting her original statement which sh has ignored.

It would be great if you contacted them as well. The more the merrier. We may get them to take action.

I googled Steve Rowe and found his email address. Shout if I can help.

Methinks I need to start checking labels in Asda, Tesco and Aldi. Those are the other supermarkets I use, but have been buying most from M&S.

I sometimes bought ready cooked rotisserie chicken in Asda, but found out that was cooked in sugar marinade so haven’t done that for a few years.

Thank you Lynne – I shall compose a suitable email and address any buck-passing tactics, if & when they appear.

I am also going to write a letter to The Times on the subject of ‘hidden sugar’ in light of Govt Guidelines etc, I mean for heaven’s sake, sugar in prawns, in chicken slices…… Are we really expected to become food-sleuths & inspect every minutely written label…… I know there’s sugar in cooked products, in sauces, in cake, in biscuits, but this is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE…..

Right, get off soapbox & address issue.

; )

If you’ve not seen my other post, earlier today. I read an article this morning blaming sugar as a contributory factor in dementia – also on the increase. It also says that dementia is often referred to as ‘diabetes of the brain’!

I really don’t know anyone who includes sugar in fresh meat/poultry/fish to ‘improve flavour’. I’ll consider my response to the email I received today before sending another email. But I’m fighting a few battles at the minute and just need to read-group!

It was interesting taking the photos – was trying to be inconspicuous while waiting for security to ask what I was doing. My shield of invisibility must have worked 😃

Please keep me posted on your campaign. We’re turning into a group of activists😱😃

I’ll keep the forum posted about any responses I get, am laughing now as I have visions of us all discretely photographing food labels in our local stores…….. Memo to self, must investigate Sainsbury’s tomorrow, need to get my deerstalker hat out of storage……….

‘Diabetes of the brain’ – scary thought, but something’s going on, 2 epidemics out there……..dementia & diabetes…..

Wasn’t a deerstalker – more Miss Marple LOL. At least we have camera phones now, much more discreet!

There at least 3 epidemics: diabetes, dementia and obesity. And let’s not forget hyperactivity – I’ve seen how my granddaughters act after a Subway kids meal😱 They were nearly running round the walls.!

Yes, 3 of course, sorry!

I know what you mean about hyperactivity, mind you that’s back down to diet, which brings it back to sugar + refined carbs…..

Anyone seen the 2 Jacques Peretti documentaries on BBC2 last year, The Men who Made us Fat, as well as The Men Who Made us Thin?

Compulsive viewing, both are ‘must-sees’, establishes when the fat-epidemic all started…. with maize, the US Govt subsidised production of this crop immediately post the Great Depression era…..then in the 1970’s the food businesses started introducing the by-product, corn syrup into food to bring costs down……..

I think it’s on You Tube now.

Up the revolution FiFip! You and lynne are real BSD warriors.

Note to self: time I caught up with technology and bought a smart phone then I could join you two in deer stalker, magnifying glass in hand:)

Judith, smart phone optional – but more discreet than regular cameras on these missions 😃

Judith. Apologies, just remembered I’d not answered your question about fibromyalgia.

I’d thought even before the BSD that bread especially caused me problems, especially joint pain. But it would build up and cause other problems. Unfortunately I’d got into the ‘anything between 2 slices of bread’ habit so I was in a lot of pain. Quite often I used a walking stick to help me up the stairs to bed, and sometimes still other times as well.

Very quickly after starting the BSD all that changed. I’m in a lot less pain and I can’t remember the last time I used the stick. I’d started to use it at airports, because the walking around large airports caused me a lot of pain. And my holidays lady year the stick was with me all the time – all that walking. When I went to Prague recently the stick stayed at home.

The ‘tired all the time’ has lessened and I do have more energy, think more clearly and concentrate better. I also get less irritated – things that would have really got to me can now normally be ignored.

So quite a lot of changes for the better – all for cutting out carbs 😃

Hope this answers your question/helps.

Just been round Asda. Guess what – they’re cooked chicken includes sugar, although the front label does not mention it as clearly as M&S. I don’t think Asda’s labelling and nutritional info is as clear as M&S. Mentioned the sugar in poultry to the lady at the checkout and she was amazed – had never heard of it and would never add sugar to meat/poultry herself. Just suggested she read the labels in store.

When I’ve got more time (and it’s not school holidays) I’ll investigate further 😃 Might even get adventurous and check Morrisons and Tesco. Curious to see which is the best/worst , not only for sugar but for labelling/nutritional info😳

Good afternoon Lynne, I am not surprised that Asda is loading it’s chicken with sugar as well, predictable. Haven’t got out today but plan is to check Sainsbury’s and Co-Op as these are the only 2 other stores we have in addition to M&S. I’m in town at the weekend & during my usual ram-raid of Waitrose, I’m going to take a look at their chicken & prawns. No Morrisons or Tesco anywhere near where Iive or visit.

Labelling, now that’s another nice little nut to crack….. Traffic lights, % ……. As most people have no clue as to what 5 by volume actually means it’s a real can of worms.

Showed a young friend of mine exactly how much sugar was in her Weight Watchers ‘safe’ cake…….DISGUSTING. She had no idea but 1 portion had just under 22g of sugar in it……. 24% of the nasty little thing was SUGAR!!!!

Its no wonder we are fighting such an uphill battle when weight loss companies are peddling products that are a quarter sugar!

Heinz own WeightWatchers……… explains a lot…..

Yes indeed… but I think it won’t be too long now before everyone gets on the low carb wagon. Then for a while we can expect low sugar/carb products to be more freely available but horrendously expensive while they recoup losses and pay for the new marketing and manufacturing processes!

Too right jpscloud – Bill1954 has been saying this from the outset and he is not wrong!! It sounds like you have all turned into crusading sleuths!! fantastic!! Power to the people! 🙂

Hi all, sorry a bit late with this, a weekend away for an Irish wedding- they do know how to party!
Some time ago I looked at the cold/cooked meats and sugar issue for a different reason, and was amazed that the ONLY sugar free products I could find were CooP “Loved by us” Brunswick ham, and the Waitrose smoked Brunswick ham. I didn’t check other supermarkets though. All the rest, ham, chicken slices etc were all prepared with sugar (or dextrose- same thing!). Crazy.

Good sleuthing maryr, I’m still reeling with shock at the amount of sugar added to meat 🙁

Hello captainlynne, I recently bought an ‘extra tasty’ rotisserie chicken from Tesco’s deli section. I asked the lady serving me what the ‘extra tasty’ was, expecting her to say garlic or black pepper. But to my horror, she told me that the chicken was coated in sugar!! I was absolutely horrified. I mean, why would you? What chance do we have when you have to be careful buying something as simple as a rotisserie chicken?

Molly