As many of you who have been here a while know, we try our best to follow an additive free diet as much as possible. My kids often react to preservatives and specific colours {reactions can range from hyper behaviour to rashes and skin eczema, lucky for us their reactions are fairly mild} and so for this reason and for general health we avoid additives in our food. You can read more of my additive centred posts here.
When we first started on our additive free journey, it was completely overwhelming. One look at the back of packages from the supermarket and I wanted to cry – all those names and numbers! I would have given almost anything for a resource like The Trusted Trolley {brought to you by four awesome Aussie Mums!!} when we embarked on changing our lives and the way we shopped and ate. I relied on books and lots of research and spent A LOT of time working out better choices and learning how to make more things from scratch in order to cut out additives from our diet. But The Trusted Trolley makes going additive free just so much easier. I cannot sing their praises highly enough!
A visit to The Trusted Trolley website will provide you with information on why we should avoid additives {did you know the average Australian consumes 5kg of additives in a year!?} as well as a printable list of additives to avoid that you can find here.
Their website is packed full of great info really worth the read if you’ve been considering making some changes. I love how they also include a common-sense guide to how to get started – I have always said that it’s important to take baby steps and that is exactly what The Trusted Trolley promote too. The longer you’re on your additive aware journey the easier it gets, I promise!
With an easy to follow Additive Safety Rating, you can quickly identify additives that are not safe with the red trolley icon. But whats more is that as a member of their online safe food database, you can build your shopping list from pre-selected foods that do not contain any additives from the ‘red/avoid’ category! That seriously makes life much easier, when your choices already exclude the foods that contain additives that are known to cause adverse reactions in many children. But their safety ratings for additives also include an ‘orange’ rating for those additives that are suspect {for example those banned in other countries but still allowed here in Australia} and a blue ‘certain people’ rating for those additives that some people with heightened sensitivities may wish to avoid such as additives that can trigger reactions in people with asthma.
For members, searching for safe food items on the database is very simple and they also include easy steps to follow.
For example, a search for Vegemite comes up like this. You can see the highlighted ingredients like ‘Yeast extract’ and ‘509 – Potassium Chloride’ and ‘150c – Caramel III’. Clicking on these will give you more information on each additive. While Vegemite does not contain any ‘red’ additives, it does contain additives some people may find beneficial to avoid. I love how you can easily and quickly get this information and read more about the additives in specific products with just a few clicks!
Clicking on ‘150c – Caramel III’ brings up its info page – full of everything you need to know about that additive so you can make an informed decision.
This is seriously time saving stuff. The fact you can do this all from the comfort of your own home {instead of standing in the middle of the supermarket aisles checking out the product ingredients against the additive info in a book or on a website on your smart phone!} is unbeatable.
Above is an example of a search through the categories provided on the Trusted Trolley Database. I clicked on the Rice, Noodles, Pasta & Pasta Sauce category on the left, and then on Pasta Sauce and I get a list of products I know do not contain ANY ‘red/avoid’ additives in them as they wouldn’t be included on the Trusted Trolley’s database if they did. I can then ‘Add to Shopping List’ with one click, or click on the product for more information. They really make it easy! And are adding products to their database all the time.
Search for products, maybe find a better alternative if needed by comparing products in the database, add the products you want to your shopping list, print it out and hit the supermarket with a list of safe foods all ready to get you to the checkout that much faster.OR, if you’re like me and you do grocery shopping online and have it delivered it is even more useful. Most often, ingredients aren’t listed for products on the supermarket websites so it makes shopping for safe products difficult! I have been using my Trusted Trolley membership over the past couple of months to help me double check products or check on something new that I might be interested in before adding it to my online grocery cart. It has definitely been a huge help!
If you’ve been wanting to learn more about additives and have been trying to cut them out of your food choices but have felt too overwhelmed or don’t know where to start, I really feel this could be a big help to you!
And I am so so excited that the lovely ladies from The Trusted Trolley are giving away a 6 month membership to one of my readers!
Enter below and don’t forget to share the giveaway with your friends! Please make sure to use a valid email address as I will use this to contact you should you be the winner. Also please leave your name with your blog post comment! Ends 11:59PM WST Monday 29 July 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!
xx
By entering, you agree with the Terms and Conditions.
Competition starts now {Tuesday 16 July 2013} and ends at 11:59PM on Monday 29 July 2013.
The competition is open to Australian Residents aged 18 years and over.
Entrants confirm that their entry is original and they own the copyright of their entry and that it does not infringe on the copyright or intellectual property of any third party.
Entries will be deemed void if forged, manipulated or tampered with in any way.
Winner will be announced here on this blog post and contacted via email and will have 5 days to contact me to claim their prize. Failure to claim their prize will result in a new winner being selected.
Winner agrees to have their personal details {name and email} released to The Trusted Trolley.
Prize is not transferable or redeemable for cash.
The judges’ decision is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
xx
disclosure: I was not paid for this post and all opinions are my own and shared honestly.
I’ve been thinking about making our diet “cleaner” for a number of months due to asthma for 2 of my 3 kids plus myself and due to behaviour issues. I think we would all benefit from the changes. But a website like this would make the changes not to overwhelming.
My son goes vrazy with additives/colours!
What a great idea! Off to check out the website now. Ive been interested in additive free eating for awhile. Living ‘cleaner’ will benefit all of us!
I’ve been thinking about membership with The Trusted Trolley for a while now, would love to give it a try. Thanks for the comp!
Karen L 🙂
Oops, meant to say – we’re in the fairly early stages of cutting all nasties out of our diets. I’ve really noticed a difference in both my son and daughter’s behaviour and also my son’s ability to concentrate well at school.
Karen L
I want to cut it from our diets because I believe that the increase in cancer and other diseases today is the cause of the crap that is in our food. I’m trying to get back to basics and instill those good values in my children in a bid to create the basis for a happy and healthy life.
Although we are not completely additive free (yet!), we have certainly been additive aware since the beginning of the year and I can certainly see the difference it has made to our family. What a fantastic tool to help us along our journey.
We are slowly becoming more and more additive free and aware. I hate the idea of ‘poisons’ inside my little ones bodies and the effect these may have on all of us down the track. LOVE that we now have a website like The Trusted Trolley available. thanks for sharing Bianca!
My son suffers frm eczema and some behavioural issues that I believe are exacerbated by certain additives
Tasha M
One of my sons has some medical issues, another has some behavioural issues and we all have excema, all of which is exacerbated by certain food triggers which I am still working out, so a membership would be perfect to help me find out more about which foods to possibly avoid as well as helping me navigate the confusing labels.
I work on actively cutting out additives for gneral good health for ou whole family. This website looks fantastic, thanks Bianca!
For behaviour issues with my children we are additive free generally a few slip in but quite good.
I’ve been cutting out additives for nearly 2 years and have found our whole family eats and feels better. My daughters excema is rarely a present these days and the persistent cough she had that 3 doctors told me was asthma has disappeared! I carry my iPhone with me when we shop and use the E300 app to let me know what numbers to avoid but having a pre-prepared shopping list would make that even easier!
I’m loving learning about additive free foods. It was finding your blog that got me started. It’s a slow process for me, but so interesting. Only trouble is, I get the idea of next thing we are changing, or modifying, but my husband is the one that has to do the work
Dawn Taylor
[email protected]
I too have started researching what is in our foods and qhat it does to our bodies, and the more you read, the scarier it becomes! I know any changes will make us feel better, my son’s skin clear up and feel happier in general! This would be a great resource to tap in to!
Tifki(at)hotmail(dot)com
wow what a fantatsic website. All those names and numbers are so daunting this would make choosing the right ingredients so much easier
We enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and I want to ensure the meals and snacks that we have in our house are totally good for us. We have a few health issues in my family too including Asthma and Eczema which can be triggered or cause bad reactions from poor food choices. To add to this, my daughter has a few allergies so buying food that is safe and additive free is really important (and life altering!). Having the Trusted Trolley in my pocket would give me confidence about what I was choosing was the safest and best for every one.
We were having so much trouble behaviourally with my son for years – hyper, extreme sensory seeking, inability to concentrate, impulsiveness – essentially he was diagnosed with ADHD. This meant that pre-primary was becoming very difficult for him and for us and I was worried. As we didn’t want to go down the medication route, I chose to try diet, not really believing it would make a difference. So one month ago I took out all additives, processed sugars and most preservatives from his diet. The difference in my boy was amazing – and only took a couple of days. I didn’t tell his teachers as I wanted to see if they noticed, and they couldn’t believe it. We have a new boy, with no ADHD, and a bright and bubbly personality that everyone can now see. I truly can’t believe how food can affect us, and the trusted trolley will be an amazing help on this journey.
Like alot of the other comments, we are currently having behavioural problems with my son who is almost 3, I find dealing with 2 toddlers and meals to be the most difficult time of the day and of late seem to take the easy way out which is not a good thing, I’d like to know more what they are consuming and what they could be doing to their bodies. We cut out a lot of processed sugars, additives and preservatives almost a year ago now and was amazed with the result, we are currently on a waiting list for an Autistic assessment which seems to be talking forever already been waiting 4 months, I believe the trusted trolley would be fantastic to help transform my little boy back to my little boy rather than a little boy who is constantly bouncing of walls and running from one end to the other end of the house day in day out.
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I am about to attempt cutting out additives in our diets to see if it has a positive impact on my 4 year old daughter’s behaviour. Every day we are dealing with irritability, tantrums, screams and tummy pains, all of which escalate as the day goes on. The evening is spent in extreme exhaustion and things seem to be getting worse with no signs of improvement. I need help 🙁
Elissa K
Hi Bian a, I had been thinking about finding out more about the trusted trolley so this would be fantastic to win. Thanks, felicity Clegg
[email protected]
Like a lot of your other readers, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the additives in the foods my family is eating. One of my daughters has started to have some behavioural issues and is also struggling with her weight, which is heartbreaking for me. The Trusted Trolley looks like a fantastic resource for someone like me to use to try and tackle these issues with her.
I think it’s important to eat real food, not food like substances.
I’ve been trying to switch my family to a better life style choices especially with food. And I think it may possibly help with my eldest’s daughters behaviour.
I would love this to help me find a way to stamp out additives from our diet and especially to show hubby just how bad some of the additives are
I have started he babe steps and am quite overwhelmed. With a son on the autism spectrum and a husband whose cirrhosis seems to flare for no reason I am trying but would love to belong to the trusted trolley to help,
The biggest reason for wanting to cut out additives from my families diet is for our health, my husband suffers asthma and I really do believe that it is additives that is setting it off. I am also having a few behavioural issues with 2 out of 5 of my children which I also firmly believe is due to additives. I keep getting over whelmed with it all and it has been a very slow process to make the changes. I would like all of our bodies to have less chemicals and crap in them.
The biggest reason for wanting to cut out nasty additives from our diet is for our health and well being. I have tried to get better at interpreting food labels and eating healthier. The trusted trolley membership would be a great help! Now that we have a little bub it is even more important for my husband and I to consciously eat more healthy foods and to teach our little one good food habits as opposed to trying to in teach bad ones and I would hate for his health or behaviour to be affected by poor choices and lack of knowledge. We want our family to make a good change and have the best start in life. Celeste Spencer
I have slowly started cutting out additives and preservatives and have started to make most food from scratch. Having a healthy diet and food habits is something I feel is important to pass on to my children. A membership for the Trusted Trolley would be a great help, additives can be so confusing!
I have had people tell me my daughter has ADD, but I know her behaviour depends on what she eats, I just ned to get it right!
I find their behaviour is SO much better with our the additives!