Vindicated

Just found this on the BBC Food website. It made me want to jump up and down, waving my arms and shouting, 'Yes, yes, you morons! This is what I've been saying all along!'

Fresh is best

Often foods marketed at slimmers are not very nutritious. One so-called 'slimming' chicken and sweetcorn flavour packet soup mix contained no sweetcorn and only one per cent chicken, water and glucose syrup being the first two ingredients. Okay, so it's less than 60 calories a serving but where's the goodness in it?

The healthiest food you can buy probably doesn't come with a label. Fresh ingredients won't list their nutrients, additives (or absence of) or boast that they're good for you. But if you buy organic broccoli from a farmers' market you know that it has been grown without pesticides and that it's packed with nutrients. It might even have been picked that very morning.

So, beware of the claims of labels. Look for the Government-approved traffic light rating - if there is one - and look even more carefully where there isn't.

Where possible, prepare foods yourself. You'll know exactly what you're eating and nothing with a 'healthy choice' label emblazoned on it is likely to be as virtuous - or as delicious.