Questions for UK users!

curvysunshine

I married an Englishman and we're working on the whole spousal visa process so I can move over. I have a 3 month visit coming up!

My question for you is, what are some of your favourite healthy UK brands? I know many of the things I eat here haven't made it over there, and browsing sites like tesco online I'm still a bit lost. What are your favourites for any kind of food? Bread, pasta, ready meals, sauces, cheese? Tell me your secrets!

Firefox7275

If I eat bread and pasta I buy wholegrain store brand. Dairy: Wyke Superlight half fat cheddar but note that you cannot cook with it (Asda), Tesco extra light soft cheese (= Philadelphia), Pakeeza whole milk plain yoghurt. Loyd Grossman tomato pasta sauces are tasty and natural ingredients, I mostly have the puttanesca or tomato and chargrilled vegetable, for Asian sauces I buy dry ground spice blends or store brand curry pastes and make up with block creamed coconut or a can of tomatoes. Marigold reduced salt vegetable bouillon powder from Tesco and Asda, Branston for baked beans.

I know a few people who rave about Aldi own brand products from ham to sauces and the ones I have tasted have been good but I've never checked out the ingredients.

MeeshyBW

Depends the sort of foods you are used to eating. If you let me know the types of food then I will tell you the best healthy equivalent.

I am Gluten free but I can still answer your wheatbase questions! (lol)\

Bread: Hovis best of Both (Which is half white half wholegrain if you prefer a lighter bread)

Bread: Vogels (Soy and Linseed - they have load of varieties I think this is a US bread. You can get it in Sainsburys and Waitrose

Cheese: If you want cheddar type cheese which is the most popular in the UK you wanna go for Cathedral City Lighter - by far the best selling cheese in the UK. Melts mell and can be used in place of any full fat cheese.

Cream Cheese: Philadelphia Light - they do different flavours too. Even a chocolate one now!

Milk: Semi-Skimmed is richer than 2%. I know you can buy 2% is Sainsburys. Skimmed is like 1% I believe.

Mayonnaise: Best selling mayo is Hellmans which is very thick in consistency. A more liquid mayo would be Heinz. i prefer Heinz lighter.

Pasta: Napolina make decent quality pasta in wholegrain varieties. Wholegrain pasta is difficult to find in the UK.

Noodles: Soba noodles - Clearspring variety are best. RIce Noodles & Egg noodles: You can usually get these in the chiller at the salad section. Most dried varieties are the same. Not much variance in quality.

Potatoes: We unfortunately don't have Yukon golds over here but Rooster Potatoes are a good replacement.

Eggplant = Aubergine

Cilantro = Coriander

Pasta Sauces: I don't buy them regularly myself as they are full of sugar. you are better off buying crushed tomatoes and making your own. personally I find Lloyd Grossmans sauces watery. I do but some pasta sauce for the kids ot use when they want to feed themselves if we are out. Seeds of Change are the best in my opinion.

Ready Meals: All supermarkets will have their own fresh ready meal sections. They mostly all have what we call the traffic light code on the front which will tell you the fat, carbs, sugar salt content as red, amber and green which is helpful. I cannot comment on frozen ready meals. They are pretty uncommon in the UK and not very popular.

Pizza: Most stores will have their own fresh pizzas. A more authentic ready pizza would be a Pizza Express pizza. Forzen Pizza - Probably Chicago Town or Ristorante. Ristorante are a decent thin crust, are pretty cheap and you can pimp them up.

Bacon: You can now by oscar mayer bacon in Sainsburys and some Asda stores. IMO this bacon packs the best flavour punch for cals consumed. Back bacon is more popular in the UK. I always buy smoked.

....... Let me know if you want any other foods and I will do my best!

beckarini

Co-op do a really good wholewheat pasta range, and thir organic and good for you type ranges are really nice.
Any big supermarket will have low-cal and low-fat options for most foods.
I love food from Aldi or Lidl because it's more european and you can get great quality stuff for very little money (they have the best meat of any supermarket I've tried too!)

RunningFromFat

'Innocent' make really good smoothies, and things called 'veg pots' which are a microwave meal with lots of veggie and some rice or noodles and they are made only with real ingredients, no nasties at all.

New Covent Garden Soup company is excellent too - really nutritious and healthy soups, again only ever made with real ingredient. I know tesco do their own fresh soup which is also really tasty and only £1 a carton (each carton serves 2 meals).

Hovis wholemeal is my favourite bread.

Whole Earth crunchy peanut butter is made with 97% peanuts, and tastes delicious.

Porridge oats are generally all good, so no need to spend extra on the branded products, I just buy tesco's own brand.

Cathedral City or Pilgrims Choice cheddar is my favourite. I only ever buy full fat though, as I think if you don't, the cheese is not worth having!!

I'm sure you will become an avid tea drinker living in England so I would suggest Yorkshire Tea or PG Tips, made with a splash of milk.

That's all I can think of right now. Hope that is helpful!! xx

like_milk

It's hard because we don't know what you normally eat. You may have to change your diet a little.

I must admit, I don't really buy into 'light' or 'low-fat' and just buy normal food stuff, and often only supermarket brands. Does fine. You can easily get wholegrains/wholewheat products.

To clarify on milk, 2% is the standard milk consumed (semi-skimmed / green bottle), you also have skimmed / red bottle (0.1%) and sometimes you can find 1% but it's not that common.

If you do want ready meals then I would recommend popping into Marks and Spencer and stocking up on them there. They are normally quite pricey but are better quality and tend to contain more wholesome ingredients. They have a couple of healthy ranges, a 'count on us' range and a 'fuller for longer' range, either would be good. I wouldn't recommend buying Weight Watchers meals as if you look on the ingredients they're mostly water and chemicals!

I have to second the New Covent Garden soups! So delicious and great for those 'I cannot be bothered to make my own' days!

I guess the best thing you can do is just take a look around some of the supermarkets and see for yourself, and try some new things.

MeeshyBW

I agree with the Covent Garden soups - they are relaly popular (But I don;t like pre packaged soups... usually too salty!)

I have a feeling Like_mlk is right about the Milk. I got confused. It;s the 1% you can buy in Sainsbury's, it's has an orange label. I haven't bought it for ages but I know they had it about 12 months ago. Hubby hated it. Much prefers Semi Skimmed which is like 2% (actually 1.7%)

The Innocent Smoothies are just fructose bombs. I would avoid them. They are not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. Any pre packaged smoothie has to be pasteurised by EU law therefore most f the nutrients are lost during the heat process.

I prefer Meridian peanut butter. It is JUST peanuts. no salt, sugar, pam oil etc. If you want some good nut butters check out these guys: http://www.realfoods.co.uk great website and I shop there often.