Lighter Life Ingredients

Had a very interesting exchange with a club member on Lighter Life! Thought you may be interested…

Member:  I was wondering whether you would have time to answer a question for me…  Upon looking at the ingredients (in Lighter Life),  I wondered if there might be stuff in them that don’t try and cure my intolerances.  Wondering if this diet is minimally injecting me in minute amounts of the items that cause cravings etc.  I am at my wits end, so picked up your book and refreshed myself and then had this thought, maybe I am not illiminating all traces?

Zoe:  Please check out my blogs – there are 2 particularly on lighter life. It won’t surprise you to know I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole and yes it is full of milk, sugar and sweeteners, so is likely feeding all sorts of cravings. Don’t do it! Eat real food!

Member:   It is totally incorrect that there is sugar in the lighter life packs, yes, slim fast hence why I never did that, but not lighter life, have the ingredients in front of me. I agree with everything else you say and the article but not that there is sugar in lighter life, that is totally wrong.  There is no sugar or salt at all.

Zoe: I have a packet in front of me too – a client kindly gave me one for research. The ingredients are:
Skimmed MILK powder, soya protein, soya oil, dietary fibre, thickeners (guar and xanthum gum – nice!), flavourings, GLUCOSE SYRUP, SODIUM citrate, potassium chloride, maltodextrin (this is starch SUGAR), colouring, magnesium oxide, vitamin and mineral mix (because you have to put some nutrients in) and aspartame (SWEETENER).

I said it is full of milk, sugar and sweeteners and the number one ingredient is milk, glucose syrup is the sugar (they are not going to make it easy for you and actually call it sugar). More sugar in maltodextrin – let’s hide it again. Plus the nutritional analysis says 31.8g sugars per 100g (that’s high enough to justify my comment) and the final ingredient is sweeteners, so I stand by my view of the heap of junk!

I didn’t mention salt, but, as you did – sodium is listed – again – let’s not call it salt and make it easy for the consumer. To get the salt figure from the sodium content you multiply by 2.5, so this has 3g of salt per 100g.

Can you see how food manufacturers lie to you?! I won’t – I have no reason to! Eat real food! Nature provides it – not someone out to make money from you!
Very best wishes – Zoe x

UPDATE: Member: Hiya! Made me laugh as that shut ME up LOL!!  Fair enough.  They have hidden it via another name, so hence why I thought otherwise.  That is SHOCKING then with most of it sugar! Nothing more to say other than thanks for taking the time to prove to me Zoe. One now has your book strapped to my hip. xx

Zoe: p.s. I forgot to say from whom I got the Lighter Life packet – it was from a lovely nurse (who freely admitted she should have known way better). She lost 4 stone,  then developed gall stones (was flown home from an anniversary round-the-world trip-of a lifetime) and then spent the next few months in and out of hospital (regained the weight) and ended up having her gall bladder removed.

(There is a direct connection here as our gall bladder is required to ‘emulsify’ fats – effectively to separate and break down the fat so it can be removed. With virtually no fat being consumed, the gall bladder thinks it’s redundant!)