Is this food healthy?

[TheKidsHaveAllGrownNow]

I bought a jar of pickled ginger & chilli slaw from Asda. It was only about 20p in the sale. As far as I can gather it’s cabbage, carrot, ginger, red chilli pickled in spirit vinegar and rice wine vinegar. It can’t be bad for you, right?!

Yes, of course. Will probably pep up a sandwich nicely.

If it’s all you eat not ideal. As part of a balanced diet it’s fine

Depends on your definition of healthy? If its really is a fermented product like kimchi then they normally contain very good bacteria for your gut.

I'd be checking the salt and sugar content though.

Contains - Carrots, White Cabbage, Water, Lime Juice from concentrate [Water, Concentrated Lime Juice, Preservatives (Sodium Metabisulphite, Potassium Metabisulphite)], Spirit Vinegar, Rice Wine Vinegar, Ginger (4%), Sugar (contains Sulphites), Red Chillies (2%), Salt, Lactic Acid, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate)

So a few preservatives and so on but not the worst thing you could eat.

Thank you! Probably not too bad. Might go and get a few more jars if they are still there. I don’t think it is like kimchi as pickled, not fermented, but maybe there's not too much difference.

Do you forensically examine every type of food you buy? Surely you know the type of stuff that is not great. Sugar, high carb, high sat fat and UPF etc..

A jar of pickled ginger and chilli slaw is not going to kill you, but it would kill me, because healthy or not it sounds vile (to me).

No food is bad for you

Well no I don’t, which is why I was asking 🤣 Both jars have illegible labels so it was very helpful to ask.

Fermented vegetables are excellent for gut health and the one you bought sounds delicious.

but do check for other ingredients such as preservatives, sugar content, colourings. Still fine in moderation though.

ETA: you can look up the ingredients online if the label is illegible

@PansykavalierI think I was confused because these are pickled not fermented. I don’t think pickled is as healthy because it doesn’t release the healthy bacteria. Posting on here helped me work it out, it wasn’t so much about the ingredients label.

Sorry, I realise you said pickled but my poor brain somehow translated this to fermented… Both are natural processes but pickling adds vinegar.- which is absolutely fine, although it is said that fermentation results in greater benefits for gut health.

Anyway, I wouldn’t sweat it. The main thing is to avoid UPF and added sugars.