Australians families fork out an average of $149 a week on groceries, according to a report out last month. But what if some of our favourite trolley items had hidden health benefits you may not be aware of?
That’s precisely what Professor Alice Roberts investigates as part of her documentary Favourite Foods: Are They Good For You? - and the results are rather surprising.
Here are a few of the gems gleaned from her work:
Carrots and capsicum can make you more attractive
While both carrots and capsicum are known for having plenty of vitamin C, another characteristic they share is that both have been linked to glowing skin.
Professor Roberts explains that the pigment carotenoid - which gives the veggies their bright hues - has been shown to slightly alter skin colour in a way that makes us appear visibly “more attractive”.
To prove this, she sits in on an experiment where ten people of different ethnic backgrounds and skin tones are asked to consume one whole capsicum and 150mL of carrot juice every day for six weeks. Their skin colour was measured with a spectrophotometer before and after, and a photo taken.
Most involved in the experiment pointed to their after photo, in which their skin had a more golden, “glowing” tone, as more attractive, while the spectrophotometer also measured a noticeable difference in skin colour.
Milk might be the ultimate sports drink
Brightly coloured bottles of Gatorade and Powerade are a staple at Saturday sport days, but as Professor Roberts discovers, milk can actually be better at rehydrating our bodies after exercise.
The supermarket staple has sodium and potassium to replace electrolytes lost in sweat, but it’s the protein it contains that makes milk stay in your stomach for longer than sports drinks, allowing the fluid to be absorbed more slowly.
Professor Roberts tests this theory herself by doing three separate workout sessions in which she loses exactly 1.5 per cent of her body weight in sweat each time. She rehydrates with plain tap water the first time, a sports drink the second, and milk the third.
Interestingly, both water and the sports drink prove equally effective for rehydration with about a half of the volume of liquid drunk being retained, while the other half leaves the body in urine. They have nothing on milk however, with an impressive three quarters of the dairy product being retained by the body and just one third expelled.
Cheese could help you lose weight
While many waistline watchers cut cheese from their diet while trying to slim down, Professor Roberts believes not every gram of fat in the calorie-laden snack “really counts”.
She says it's been suggested that the calcium in cheese "combines with some of the fat in food to form a soap-like substance which slides straight through your intestines without being absorbed by your body".
To see the results herself, Professor Roberts follows a woman through a two-week process where she eats a strictly calorie controlled diet. During one week she includes very little diary, while in the other she indulges in cheese, milk, yogurt and custard.
Interestingly, analyses of her stool samples show that she excreted 50 per cent more fat – or the equivalent of 30 grams – on the high-dairy, high-calcium week, leading Professor Roberts to conclude that cheese isn’t quite as bad for your waist line as commonly thought.
However, a 2003 study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism concludes that “the hypothesis that calcium supplementation at 1000 mg/d in conjunction with moderate dietary restriction has a beneficial effect on fat mass or weight loss over a 25-week intervention” was not supported.
Mushrooms love to sunbake
Despite being found in the vegetable aisle, mushrooms belong to the fungi family and grow under the cover of darkness.
As such, the white variety – which are one of the most popular among Australian grocers – are full of minerals such as selenium, potassium and B vitamins, but lack any vitamin D.
Amazingly however, Professor Roberts says that thanks to a chemical known as ergesterol, white mushrooms can make their own vitamin D when exposed to sunlight in a similar way that human skin can.
So if you place your mushrooms in direct sunlight for an hour, they’ll end up packed full of vitamin D.
In Our Favourite Foods: Are They Good for Us, Professor Roberts discovers the real story behind the food we buy, taking a look at everything from the problem of flouride in teabags to how bananas can be a weapon in the fight against heart disease and stroke. SBS, 7.30 pm tomorrow Thursday October 13, then on SBS On Demand.
SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
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