With the cost of living rising so much these days, what with higher energy bills and so forth, especially in our country at the moment food prices are becoming very expensive at the moment.

So what we tend to do is tighten our belts and save money where ever we can, but will it start to actually affect our health if we scrimp when it comes to food, a reporter from the Mail on Sunday newspaper, went out and bought certain foods to see what and how they compared nutrition wise.

And to see if cheap foods were really worth what they are worth, supermarkets these days tempt you with their offers of buy one get one free, weekly specials and also they use some clever marketing which promotes their own brands of foods. Which tend to be very much cheaper than the well-known brands, so here are the findings.

Yoghurt

Well-known brand which was Muller Vitality

Nutritional information

Cost 41p per pot

contained 125 grams

calories 118

fat 2.1 grams

sugar 17.5 grams

fruit it had 10 percent

health rated 8/10

Asda’s own brand of yoghurt

Cost per pot 6p

contained 125 grams

calories 98

fat 0.9 grams

sugar 16.3 grams

fruit it had 3.5 percent

health rated 4/10

Co-ops own brand of yoghurt

Low-fat strawberry

Cost 25 p per pot

contained 125 grams

calories 125

fat 1.8 grams

sugar 22.1 grams

fruit it had 10 percent

health rated 7/10

Morrisons own yogurt brand

Cost 29p per pot

contained 125g grams

calories 100

fat 0.9 grams

sugar 17.5 grams

health rated 4/10

Sainsburys own brand yogurt basics

Cost 7.3p per pot

contained 125g

calories 104

fat grams 0.8

sugar 17.5 grams

health rated 6/10

Tesco’s own yogurt brand

Cost 7.3 per pot

contained 125 grams

calories 100

fat 0.9 grams

sugar 17.5 grams

fruit it had percent

health rated 4/10

Waitrose’s own yogurt brand

Cost 37p per pot

contained 150 grams

calories 108

fat 0.25 grams

sugar 18.9 grams

health rated 9/10

Breakfast Cereals

Weetabix was chosen for this particular item.

Well known brand which is of course

Weetabix

Costs per box £ 1.78 for 24 biscuits

Asda’s own brand

£1.15 for 24 biscuits

Sainsburys own brand

50p for 24 biscuits

Co-ops own brand

£1.42 for 24

Waitrose’s own brand

£1.21 for 24 biscuits

LIDL’s own brand

50p for 24 biscuits

Morrisons own brand

£1.15 for 24 biscuits

Tesco’s own brand

50p for 24 biscuits

Most of these where ok apart from the odd few which had less vitamins and some had more added salt which may be unsuitable for younger children. Really as far as these are concerned it’s a matter of using you’re your own judgment.

Baked Beans

When it comes to eating nutritional food baked beans are one of the better alternative’s you can eat so let’s see how the cheaper brand compare’s to the lesser known brands.

Heinz Baked Beans

Cost 52p per 415g tin

Asda’s own brand

Cost 18p per 420g tin

Tesco’s own brand

Cost 18p per 425g tin

Waitroses own brand

Cost 35p per 420g

All these beans scored 8/10.

As far as nutriton was concerned some had more salt than others

Co-ops own brand

24p per 420g tin

health rated as 2/10

Lidls own brand

22p per 420g tin

health rated as 5/10

Morrisons own brand

20p per 420g tin

health rated as 7/10

most of the beans where ok apart from the odd brand which had a lot of salt.

Sausages

Well known brand

Walls Pork Sausages

£2.15 Per 100g

257 calories

17g fat

1.5g salt

health rated as 5/10

Asda’s own brand

Eight Sausages

Cost 48p Per 100g

228 calories

12.6g fat

1.6g salt

health rated: 3/10

Co-ops own brand

Sausages

£1.00 per 100g

255 calories

20.7g fat

1.3g salt

health rated 6/10

Lidls own brand

Sausages

99p per 100g

228 cals

14.1g fat

1.1g salt

health rating 7/10

Morrisons own brand

Sausages

63p per 100g

311 calories

24.9g fat

1.3g salt

lots of saturated fat.

health rating 2/10

Sainsbury’s own brand

Sausages

63p per 100g

259 caloires

15.8g fat

1.3g salt

health rating 1/10

Tesco’s own brand

Eight Value Sausages

63p per 100g

235 calories

15.3g fat

1.3g

health rating 3/10

Waitrose’s own brand

Sausages

£1.29 per 100g

202 calories

13.1g fat

1.1g salt

health rating: 6/10

Wholemeal Bread

Well known brand

Kingsmill

£1.22 calories per slice

1.5g fat

0.4g salt

health rating: 8/10

Asda’s own brand

37p

77 calories per slice

0.6g fat

0.4g salt

health rating: 6/10

Co-ops own brand

65p

75 calories per slice

0.7g fat.

0.4g salt

Health rating: 9/10

Lidls own brand

65p

78 calories per slice

0.8g fat

0.4g salt

health rated 9/10

Morrisons own brand

72p

72 calories per slice

0.7g fat

0.3g salt

health rated 5/10

Sainsbury’s own brand

75p per slice

77 calories per slice

0.9g fat

0.3g salt

Health rating: 10/10

Tesco’s own brand

37p

80 calories per slice

0.8g fat

0.4g salt

Health rated 9/10

Waitrose’s own brand

75p per slice:

77 calories per slice

1g fat

0.4g salt

health rated 9/10

Drinks

A carton of orange juice was used here

Del Monte 98p per litre

Asda’s own brand

Orange juice 49p

Co-op’s own brand

Orange juice 89p

Lidl’s own brand

Orange Juice 58p

Morrisons own brand

Orange juice 58p

Sainsbury’s own brand

Orange Juice 58p

Tesco’s own brand

Orange Juice 49p

health rating 8/10

It is quite interesting when you look at the bigger picture as far as this is concerned, when it comes to buying food that sometimes you can make healthy choices and save money at the same time. When I buy particular foods I don’t always go for known brand names, the baked beans that we buy come from Sainsbury’s and I can honestly say that I can tell any difference between, the better well known brands that are sold.

As far as yoghurt is concerned I think you are probably far better off buying some plain yoghurt and adding your own fruit, so at least you know then that you are adding nutritional value to it, and really the moral of the story to take away from this is to read the nutritional label on the back.

Which so very few of us do I think when a lot of people go shopping, because there is so many people that go to supermarkets these days at any one time, it tends to turn into a bit of a commando raid and you just get your food without even looking at the nutritional content of what you’re buying.

And myself I think this sometimes is a big downfall for a lot of people, because once you are consciously aware of what you are eating it is far easier to lose weight.

The best real alternative is to buy natural foods only and that way then you know what you are getting, it doesn’t take that much effort to cook foods from their raw state, food manufacturers have long realised that, people are lazy so this is why they keep.

Producing all the TV dinners that you see because they know they are convenient for modern day people and their lifestyles, who can’t be bothered to cook. Why do you think that those people that you see in town centres that collect data and ask certain questions about things, it’s because the data that comes back from the market research is used to find out about what we do and how we decide, how and what to buy.

And there is such a thing now that people will monitor, you’re buying habits and come up to you and ask you why you’re buying a particular product, I don’t know whether they are called supermarkets psychologists or not but their sole job is to find out what you make you purchase the item.

Or not as the case may be in a nutshell it’s basically about finding what you want, and making it as convenient as possible as it is for you. This Food is about money and that is all the food manufacturers are not interested in your health.

Source http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk

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