Georgia Harding Interview

Georgia Harding Interview Joanne: Today, we have the lovely Georgia Harding with us from Well Nourished. We are talking to her today about sulfur or sulfur dioxide or sulphites. If you could just explain who you are and what you do, that would be great. Georgia: I m a naturopath. I ve been a naturopath for over 20 years, which makes me feel kind of old but yes, it s obviously something that I ve lived and loved all of that time. I don t practice at the moment, I run a website for Well Nourished, which I developed, I ve lost count, I think it was probably three or four years ago where I just shared my passion for health and creating healthy meals using whole foods basically. At the moment, I divide my time between raising two kids, running my website, I develop recipes for Well Being s Eat Well Magazine and Jamie Oliver.com and yes, I just love every minute of what I do. I just love helping and inspiring people, trying to make health as simple and as common sense I suppose as possible because I think that people do get quite confused over what is best for them and their kids and yes, that s me in a nutshell. I ve been really blessed to do what I do and yes, to be at a point that I can share this information with a wider audience. Yes, I m technologically disabled so when it comes to the day-to-day running of my site, that doesn t always go smoothly but yes, the practical tips and stuff that I share. I love cooking and I love cooking easy and teaching people to cook via the websites so that s what I do. Joanne: Well, we will put all your details below so people could click. You run a great Facebook page on lunchbox ideas as well, which is really super cool, so we ll link that below. Now, sulphites. They re big no-no our house due to my daughter s respiratory issues especially. I would love for you to talk about what sulphites are. Georgia: Yes, okay. Well, first and foremost, sulphites are an additive very commonly found in quite a few of our foods these days, increasingly common unfortunately. Their primary role is to preserve food so they re a food preservative. All packaged food needs preserving so sulphites are very commonly used for that role. They re also an antioxidant, so again, stop that decaying process. They re also good at preserving color so that s another real benefit and they are used a lot to preserve the color of food. A really common example would be apricots. When they are treated with sulfur, they retain that lovely orange color. When you buy organic apricots, they re brown; they don t looking. Tracey: Yes, I agree and it s also found, sulfur dioxide, in a lot of wines, which I know people aren t aware of. I just want to bring that up as well so that people could understand that it s in just in more than food, I guess, it s in drinks and

things as well. A lot of people will have a really bad hangover and they re thinking it s the alcohol but sometimes it can be a reaction to the sulphites within the wine. Georgia: Yes and look, sulphites are added to wine, there s no denying that but they are actually a natural byproduct of food fermentation. Even your sulfur-free wines, the ones that they don t add the 220s to can have some sulphites. If you are sensitive to sulphites then yes, wine probably isn t your best choice of alcohol. Joanne: Don t shoot the messenger; it s not our fault, okay? So don t shoot the messenger. Georgia: I know, I know. Joanne: All right, so what are some side effects that sulphites or sulfur dioxide can do to us? Georgia: Like you said, for some of us, a lot of people wouldn t even be aware of the effects of consuming sulphites. Obviously, the consumption of any additive is not a good thing for anyone and sometimes the symptoms are not really obvious. They seem to be most obvious in people with respiratory problems. Asthmatics tend to feel the effects of consuming too many products from stock that contain sulphites. For some people, wheezing, hay fever-like symptoms so it could be quite mild. A lot of people think that they just suffer from hay fever and they could be reacting to sulphites in their diet. For other people, digestive symptoms, gastric irritation, some people might get some skin problems like hives, hot flushed skin after consuming them, fatigue, a fast heart rate in some rare instances. It s one of those things that they re probably very difficult, unless you do, as I said, suffer with a respiratory condition, they re not always the most obvious thing to react to. But yes, it definitely is a problem I think with any additive and this is a naturally occurring additive as well. It is a naturally occurring substance. As I said, it can be a byproduct of natural processes like food fermentation. I think this increase in response to sulphites is probably just due to the sheer volume of sulphites in our food chain at the moment. I find a lot of people who suffer with food intolerances and food allergies are over exposed to start with. Their immune systems are very primed to respond to these things and sulphites are no different. Tracey: I was going to bring that up about, like, we seem to be over-consuming. Not so much over-consuming food as such, but the types of food that we are consuming (or used to be consuming) are laden with all sorts of things and sulphites being one of them...

Georgia: Yes and they re very, very prevalent. If you look at most processed foods and even things that you think aren t processed like people buying, say, choosing fruit salad, if they are out at a I was recently at Australian Zoo with the kids. One of the choices was those big packaged fruit salads that were probably prepared the day before. More than likely, that would have been treated with a sulfite to preserve it, preserve the color and stop it from fermenting and rotting overnight. A lot of those self-service salad bars, make your own sandwich bars and those types of things. We are also seeing a lot of these days, a lot of veggies like a friend said the other day, she s trying to say, Oh, it s so cool, I found cut apples at the supermarket, because my daughter won t eat whole apples. I had to say to her, Well, look, it s not just apple in that packet. It s treated chemically to make it still look and taste good. So yes, sulfite is a sneaky, really sneaky little additive because it does creep into our food chain more than we would probably know. Tracey: On a bag of grapes, it will often say a little warning label about sulfite on the bags that you could get because they re heavily treated as well. Yes, no, I agree. Georgia: Another food that s often perceived as quite healthy is dried fruit. It s one of the hugest, which I m sure you were going to move on to. But yes, it s one of the hugest offenders that people are consuming really large quantities of sulphites via dried fruit because it s, yes, one of two additives that s used to preserve dried fruit so yes, yes. Joanne: What s the other additive that s in there? Georgia: The two that I m aware of, it s usually vegetable oil; they ll either coat it in vegetable oil, which I just can t stand. Often there s another anti-oxidant that would be thrown in there because otherwise the vegetable oil will go rancid and yes, sulphites. They are the two that I m aware of. There s possibly more, I don t know. Joanne: Yes, because dried fruit is such a common element of a lunch box, even adults or children. With asthma, I believe on the rise, and croup, and different respiratory issues, it does make you wonder well, what s going in all these foods? Even muesli bars and breakfast cereals like granola is quite a healthy thing at the moment but then there s all that dried fruit in there so you re getting that sulfur dioxide as well. Georgia: Yes, absolutely. Look, I m personally just not a fan of dried fruit. Unless you can dehydrate small quantities of fruit at a time, I don t have a problem with that but yes, shop bought dried fruit is not something apart from the sulphites, I

just find personally with my children, it just causes massive sugar spikes with them. They get on this bandwagon of just needing it. It just doesn t satisfy the way a piece of actual whole fruit does so yes, I very much lean I actually very rarely, even my recipes; it s probably one thing that sets them apart from a lot of recipes, that I don t add dried fruit to my recipes. Muesli bars are full of dried fruit and my mueslis and stuff, yes; I just try and avoid it as much as possible. Tracey: Good advice, good advice. But is easy for parents to I know for me, I would head to the supermarket and I would throw in those little packets of Sultanas because you re in a shopping trolley, how easy is it, the kids can pick them up, it is a great little snacks for those moments. Because you can have it in your handbag, it can sit in there for weeks at a time, because they don t go off because they re treated and everything and they are really convenient for parents. What are some things that we could eat then if we re avoiding some handy little snacks and things like that when we re in those situations that we just want to have something handy in our handbag that we can, Quick just eat this, to the kids? Georgia: I think the other real attraction with Sultanas and currants and things like that, is that they are little so they take loads of time. They occupy them for a long, long period of time. Look, for me, my kids are older now but when they were little, I definitely would tend towards I always, always had small containers in my handbag. Actually, even when I was pregnant, I did this just because I d get the munchies quite often, but little containers of nuts and seeds were always my little go to. Yes, my kids, I get creative with nuts and seeds for their lunchboxes. Because we re at a nut-free school, it s seeds and I ll often bake up batches of lightly toasted or dehydrated, the nuts and seeds and actually make up little flavors for them. I do a salt and vinegar one for example and yes, a tamari one, might do an Italian spice. I do an Indian spice one that they love. Tracey: You made my tummy grumble. Georgia: I just do them in big batches so on big trays and toast them and then put them into big jars and keep them in the fridge and they re just handy grab and go type of snacks. Yes, for me, it was generally that or whole pieces of fruit. I taught my kids from a very young age not to be relying on me cutting up fruit. They learnt from a very young age just to eat whole pieces of fruit. Yes, as a result, now they re pretty resilient kids because they had a lazy mom and they learnt to do it.

Joanne: Oh, I love that. No, I love that because my son will gobble down a whole he ll just grab an apple from the fruit basket and eat a whole apple because your second child, it s like, Here have this. I m not going to chop it up for you. Where my first child, Oh, I ll peel it, I ll dice it and I ll even puree it for you, so now that s all she wants. Georgia: Yes, yes, I always say it to new moms, start as you intend to continue. If you intend to cut up their food for the rest of their lives, do it when they are babies. Because kids definitely form strong habits. I had a lady this morning ask me about one of my kids lunches that had a drumstick in it. She s like, I can t believe your kids eat that cold, and I thought, Oh my God, we didn t have a microwave when my kids were little so they ate everything cold, absolutely everything. You d be surprised at the things that they eat cold because that s just the way it s always been. Tracey: Love it, love it, awesome. Joanne: Okay, so one last question before we go. I just want to know, what do we look out for? What are we looking out for on the ingredients and even the texture and style of the food? Georgia: Well, the obvious thing is 220, usually, it s about 220 to 228 is your groups of sulphites. They re not always listed that they have to be over a certain amount from my understanding. I m not really any expert on food labeling laws but from what I ve read, they have to be over a certain amount so you do need to be really careful. Anything that has its color preserved really well. There was a time actually, I m told that they used to spray meat with it to keep it red and I m told they used it with crustaceans as well to maintain the color. I have read that, that s no longer the case in Australia. They re not allowed to do that say with meats, for example, but I ve also read some conjecture that it s not really policed very well. I can t say that there s a particular texture that you would look out for but as I said, just try and steer away from processed food as much as possible, buying organic dried fruit. If you are going to buy a dried fruit, organic dried fruit would be your best option although I d just suggest that you try and avoid it if possible. Yes, as I said, sulphites are naturally occurring as well. We ve already spoken about problems with processed foods containing sulphites when they are naturally occurring, which I don t see as, as big a problem as the processed stuff. Yes, as I said, just be cautious of buying those things. Fruit salads and salads that are premade are often treated with sulphites to keep them looking good when you buy them.

Tracey: My understanding with the meat is that anything fresh in a deli is, like you said, it s illegal to treat with sulfite so anything you get from a butcher or fresh like that, but if it s in a packet. So any, fresh meat - mince, chicken breast, all those sorts of things are not allowed to be treated regardless of in a packet or not. But anything that is like bacon, that processed type, saveloys, not that we buy them, those sorts of things can still be treated with sulphites. But because you might be buying them from a deli, there s no ingredients labeled so you have to ask the store of where you re purchasing. Georgia: Yes, absolutely. Again, it gets back to process. Once again, the meat s processed so it s most likely treated. Anything that has a shelf life is more than likely treated with sulphites or another type of preservative but sulphites are definitely the most commonly used preservative without a doubt. Joanne: Generally, you will know with the mince as well because the outside will start to go brown and then when they scoop it, the inside will be red. If the outside is completely red I mean, it could be nice and fresh as well, but if you think it s the end of the day and you can see the back bit and that s bright and red, when they scoop it, it s all bright and red, you might want to question, Do you use sulfite in any of your stuff? Yes, but you will be able to see. It will start to brown on the outside and that s a good thing really. Georgia: A really good thing to mention is definitely, people need to ask questions of their food. Don t be afraid to check in with your butcher or your fisho. To start with, it is a bit uncomfortable and perhaps takes a little bit of time, but once you ve identified, I ve identified butchers and so forth in my area that are really ethical with their meat production and I really trust their processes. Yes, and that s where I go to shop. I ve ask that question once, I m happy with the answers that I ve received and yes. The more of us asking those kinds of questions as well, the more it s going to change the industry, the meat production industry, you name it, it s going to change. Another thing I actually found the other day is my son wanted some sushi, we were out, I wasn t prepared. We walked past the Woolworths and they had the sushi thing in the middle. Well, their sushi is actually treated with sulfite or the one that I picked up anyway. It s so frustrating because sushi s been one of my really healthy go to s if you are out and about but yes. If it s premade and it s been sitting there, you better off going to a sushi train or something like that. They freshly prepare it and I m happy with that. Tracey: Couldn t agree more with all of that. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom with us, it s been awesome.

Georgia: Very welcome. Thanks for having me ladies. Joanne: Thanks so much and take care. Georgia: You too, bye.