Skip to main content

Review: Tesco "free from" ginger cookies (with gluten-free oat flour) wheat, dairy and gluten free

Tesco "free from" ginger cookies 


http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=268624669

Hello everyone!

Winter is here and it's been snowing in Norfolk - as well as in the rest of the U.K.  This is the time when all the resolutions of eating only fresh, nutritious food, raw and healthy, disappear at the same speed that the outside temperature decreases.

Two weeks ago I decided to go wheat free - just like that - or cold turkey, someone would rather say more idiomatically. Anyway, after reading the first 90 pages of The Wheat Belly recipe book by Dr. Davies, anybody with a brain will start wondering if wheat is such a healthy food after all.

This is not to say that Dr. Davies is 100% correct in his assumption, but let's discuss this in another post - suffice to say that in the middle of January, when most people enjoy wheat-based dishes such as pasta, bread, pasties, cakes etc. I suddenly decided to see if I would feel any different by ditching wheat.

As Dr. Davis wisely warns us, if we resort to "free-from" products we will fall into the trap of a higher G.I. as they are usually full of sugar and fat, or even worse, dairies, to make up for the lack of gluten (which is what makes wheat products so soft, bouncy, desirable and addictive).

However, Dr. Davis can talk as much as he wants of the dangers of higher G.I. foods  for those who are diabetic, pre-diabetic, sedentary, old, overweight etc but as for me, I am not ready to give up at the same time quinoa, amaranth, rice and corn just because of their glycemic index.

This is because I am slender, I work out regularly, my blood tests are normal and diabetes does not run in my family, nor I will wilfully stuff myself with sugar - I don't even buy sugar.

Having said that, I must have been ravenously hungry last week when, right after buying some spelt bread (a glorious alternative to wheat bread), I spotted and bought some 'Free from' Ginger Cookies, which are gluten free and wheat free...

Which is why you are getting the benefit of a review!

Ingredients:
Gluten Free Oat Flour, Crystallised Ginger (20%), Sugar, Palm Oil, Tapioca Starch, Gluten Free Oats, Golden Syrup, Ginger Powder, Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Crystallised Ginger contains: Sugar, Ginger, Preservative (Sulphur Dioxide)

Energy: 484 calories, (91 calories per cookie) Sugars 7.9g per cookie.

Here is my opinion, for what is worth:

Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9/10
Crunchiness: 10/10
Look: 10/10
Allergy friendly: 10/10 (no dairies either, wow!)
Diabetic friendly: 1/10

However, I must warn you that, as you might have gathered by reading the nutritional label, this cookie is sickly sweet. In fact, I'd personally would have liked 50% less sugar, or maybe even less than that.

It's a bit hard to chew, just like any other ginger biscuit, it resembles perfectly well a normal biscuit, it tastes like any other biscuit, but the sweetness is over the roof. I was able to eat two because I was rather hungry, but that was it. Ugh!

I could also add that I am concerned regarding the use of Palm oil, and I'd rather Tesco used coconut oil, which is healthier and fights fungus, helps joint mobility etc.

Plus, dates or stevia could have been used to sweeten it without adding refined sugar.

This comment can easily be applied to most biscuits on sale, especially the 'free from' ones, which are un-necessarily loaded with refined sugar. 

How can one imagine that a person who has an allergy, or is celiac, or is into health foods, would want to eat regularly something with so much sugar, which is itself a cause of allergies (i.e. candida infestation), obesity, decay and more than I can type?

Clearly, food product creators need to be in touch with the reality of nutrition and what sugar does to one's body: it creates havoc.

Food companies: please eliminate refined sugar, lower the G.I. of your products and give customer a choice! And please, do not add aspartame (a well-known neuro toxin) to your so called 'sugar-free' products. Just use Stevia, or Xylitol!

For more info about sugar-laden products that you would not think of, go to:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2301135/15-WORST-health-drinks-Orange-juice-Innocent-smoothies-sugar-13-Hobnobs-3-half-doughnuts.html

And now that I have gleefully ruined your appetite, may I wish you a good night, as it is, after all 21:30.

A presto!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The pirate drawing!

I love how Marie has coloured my pirate. Such a cute choice of pastel colours. Who on earth said that pirates must wear just black and earth colours! This is great! Brava! I found this on the Colouring Heaven FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ColouringHeaven/photos/ms.c.eJxFjlsOACEIA2~_04WER7n~_xVVT4Ipl0ShlOPilIRExYP06g7ABinQvIwz3EnRocZZSCBbBiLxF6EqXE2KUY0kp~_EW4lv0wrkDugXepZSriAiVKxqNI402eDnTC8HWvWSdR0ybc23lvNZaGEHyX2Osg~-.bps.a.1577375305909106.1073741851.1461766297470008/1580873155559321/?type=3&theater

Back to Basic, my book about self reliance, is now on sale on Amazon

For years friends and acquaintances have asked me questions about self reliance. After much research and pretty much repeating the same things I thought, 'That's it, I'm going to put the information together in a bundle and they can have it as a book.' This is how back to Basic was born. It's designed to help you if you are a beginner and have no clue about self reliance. Looking at the general state of the economy, it's a good idea to organise our lives to live more frugally. Plus, this book will be great for my children, when they grow up and try to remember how to do things. Right? Here are some of the topics: why we are in debt smart shopping budgeting dehydrating gardening sprouting home-made toiletries smart shopping for Christmas clever and cheaper ways to have fun You can buy it in paperback or as a Kindle.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-basics-make-through-times/dp/146641152X Back to Basics Get started with your self rel...

Sewing: Indian dress

Five years ago I designed and made an Indian dress using a white fleece blanket that was on offer in our local supermarket. It was just a fun project but I ended up adding a fringe, beads and the lot, plus some embroidery, and I even lined the entire dress with satin. When it was finished and I tried it on, it was like being enveloped by a warm white cloud. I loved it and I tend to wear it once a year, when it snows. :) Wicked sense of humour, I know. That dress is special to me also because in the month when I worked on it I became pregnant with my now five ear old daughter, Kim. Making the dress was fun and it costed me only £5,00 for fabric and probably £5,00 for beads. There is so much we can do when we have time, passion and a good idea. I'm not saying that you should go around dressed like American Indians though! Franz