Ingredients: We Consume Three Times More Ingredients Than We Think

Let us explain

How many ingredients do you think you eat per day? Say, somewhere in the thirties? Or, do you not even bother to look at the ingredients list? (And, don't worry, you're with the majority if so with 8/10 people admitting to never stopping to consider what's in their food and drink products.)

Well, take another guess because you're actually eating on average 121 different ingredients every day.

So now that we know the healthy foods that are actually really bad for you and why chewing gum is actually really bad for your libido (who knew!?), it's time we looked into just what we're eating.

Ryvita’s Nutritionist Rob Hobson commissioned a poll to track British people's eating habits and found that we're all consuming around three times more than what we think we are.

Rob commented: 'The research found that each day, we consume far more ingredients than we think. Most people think that the food they eat is much more simple and pure than it actually is, I would urge shoppers to look at the labels on their food and drink so they are aware of what ingredients they are consuming.'

Simple foods that have loads of ingredients in

Cornflakes

On average, they contain 13 ingredients such as maize, sugar, salt and multiple additives such as dextrose and artificial flavouring.

Cream of tomato soup

The average tin of tomato soup has 16 ingredients in it including acidity regulator, sugar and modified maize starch.

Lasagne

Lasagne has a surprising 51 ingredients – nearly double to what we think we consume in a single meal – consisting of ingredients such as xanthan gum, milk proteins and coconut fat.

Chocolate digestives

These can have 24 ingredients or more, including soya lecithin, flavourings and E476 (Polyglycerol polyricinoleate.)

Rob Hobson concluded: 'By making things from scratch or becoming savvier in the supermarket by reading labels, we can understand what we are consuming and help manage our RDA for things such as salt, sugar and saturated fat. For a nutritious lunch, why not make a delicious beetroot hummus that is rich in iron and laden it on top of a fibre packed Ryvita?'