ARE ready meals causing serious damage to your health?

British consumers now spend more than $AU6 billion on quick-fix chilled and microwave meals.

The salt and sugar content has long been flagged as a problem but they aren’t the only factors that are raising concerns from health professionals.

ARE ready meals causing serious damage to your health? Picture: iStock.

Dr Richard Hoffman, a lecturer in nutritional biochemistry at the University of Hertfordshire, says many of the meals contain substances linked to cancer, dementia and diabetes, reports .

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Hoffman said there are numerous reasons we should be ditching the convenience foods.

LOST NUTRIENTS

Cooking processes can be just as important for our health as the sugar, salt and fat content.

Boiling vegetables too long means nutrients such as B vitamins from leafy vegetables, and anticancer glucosinolates from members of the cabbage family are lost.

Steaming or using the cooking water minimises loss, but the ready meals manufacturers’ methods are unknown.

A balanced diet with optimal nutrients can prevent many diseases, including heart disease and Alzheimer’s.

Boiling veg too long means nutrients such as B vitamins from leafy vegetables, and anticancer glucosinolates from members of the cabbage family are lost. Picture: iStock

GHOST VITAMINS

Makers of ready meals don’t have to label total vitamin content, and probably don’t bother figuring out how many of the myriad of cancer-preventing compounds in plant foods are lost during production.

Even when they do mention vitamins on their labels, this can just mean that the vitamins were in the raw ingredients.

So the vitamins may not be in the end product.

HEALTHY INGREDIENTS SWAPPED FOR CHEAP ALTERNATIVES

Many ready meal makers swap healthy foods for cheaper alternatives.

For example olive oil, which has proven benefits, is often substituted for rapeseed oil.

Antioxidants that lower the risk of cardiovascular disease are lost in processing but these can be identified by savvy shoppers as the ferrous gluconate (added to stabilise the black colour) mentioned on the label.

Sugar is one of the main health risks flagged but it’s not the only issue. Picture: iStock.

DODGY MEAT

Carcinogens known as heterocyclic amines are produced in meats roasted or grilled at high temperatures.

Popular meat products such as chicken nuggets and kebabs have high levels of substances known as AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts).

These are linked to an increased risk of diabetes and also possibly of dementia.

People with diabetes or kidney disease (who are less able to excrete AGEs) are advised to limit their intake of foods containing these substances.