Call for unhealthy sandwiches to be better labelled

Which? magazine has published a report highlighting the fact that pre-packed sandwiches can contain a scary amount of unhealthy salt, fat and sugar. They are calling for more information to be included on the labelling and for the nutritional content to be more easily understood.

Of course it is helpful to know how many calories and how much fat is in a sandwich but there is no doubt that manufacturers will include any ingredients they choose to enhance the flavour and make you want to go back for more tomorrow. And who can blame them?

In this age of credit crunch there has never been a better time to make our own sandwiches with our favourite fillings but in a low fat and healthy way. Pre-packed sandwiches have to have a spread of some kind to seal the bread and prevent leakage from the sandwich content as a pre-packed sandwich obviously has to last at least 24 hours if not longer. If we make our own, it will only be a matter of probably 5 hours before we come to eat it, in which case we don’t need the low-fat spread and we can substitute that with low-fat alternatives such as Branston pickle, HP Fruity sauce, Hellmans 3% fat Extra Light mayo, mustard, Marmite or Horseradish sauce. Whilst Horseradish and mustard are high in fat in themselves, if you have enough to matter, eating a sandwich would blow your head off!

When we’re trying to lose weight, the key to a successful sandwich is bulk. Putting as many salad vegetables into the sandwich such as lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sliced peppers and spring onion, and then adding a small amount of wafer-thin ham or chicken, can give you a substantial meal at significantly fewer calories and less fat than a pre-packed alternative.

Why not try some unusual fillings such as Horseradish with beetroot, cottage cheese and Marmite (if you’ve never tried this, it’s amazing), wafer-thin ham and my low fat cheese (available from Morrisons and Asda), egg, tomato and basil and Philadelphia Extra Light with smoked salmon.

The key to your success is finding a sandwich which you enjoy and which fills you up. For children, why not cut the sandwich into different shapes with the help of a pastry cutter and add carrot sticks to a rabbit shape and some seedless grapes with some star-shaped sandwiches plus a small yoghurt or Fromage Frais. Just use a little imagination and you can turn a healthy lunchbox into something your child is proud to show their friends and their teacher.