Slimming World scrap Muller Lights from list of Syn-free foods – and dieters are outraged
Fat-free Muller Light pots, mashed potato and canned pasta in tomato sauce have long been a staple on the plan
DIETERS are in up in arms after Slimming World announced it was upping the "syn" value of Muller Lights yoghurt and other "free foods".
Until now, the diet company has listed the yoghurt pots as been "syn-free" - which means dieters can eat as many of them as they liked.
But Slimming World's nutrition and food teams have updated their Food Optimising system which now values the fat-free yoghurt pots as worth one Syn.
The only syn-free yoghurts will be fat-free natural yoghurt, Greek-style yoghurt, skyr and plain, unsweetened dairy-free soya yoghurt.
Other previously "free" foods which have also been upgraded include tinned pasta in tomato sauce, which is now rated at 0.5 Syns per 100g.
Slimming World says that unlike dried pasta cooked at home, canned pasta is softer and takes little chewing - a process that is important for helping us to feel full.
"To help protect members' weight losses and help you get into more filling, healthy Free Food and Speed Food habits, tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce are no longer a Free Food," a Slimming World rep wrote on the company's Facebook members group.
"Even though some of these products are no longer Free Food, the Syn values are still very low, so you can choose whether to stick with old favourites or switch to Free Food."
Slimming World says that list of Free Foods has been expanded to include more vegan-friendly foods.
Plant-based options such as canned jackfruit, seitan, dairy-free yoghurt and cheese have all been added as Free Food.
"Using the very latest information on average protein, carbohydrate, fat, sugar and calorie content of thousands of every day foods together with the rapidly growing number of brands, products and flavours of yogurt available in every supermarket, our Food and Nutrition teams have created a much more robust way of categorising yogurt," the group says.
"That means we can now give product-specific Free Food allowances to the various types of yoghurt (such as Greek, skyr, dairy-free, quark yoghurts, protein yoghurts and more) – based on their specific energy densities, their nutrient content and how filling they are."
But not everyone is happy with the changes - with Slimming World members and critics taking to social media to lambast developments.
One member of the closed Facebook group writes: "It seems to me they are trying to influence our buying habits...pushing for quark and fat-free skyr etc is SW getting backhanders for pushing certain foods lol...I know loads of people who have lost stones eating muller lights for breakfast etc and mugshots so I ain’t changing anything it works for me!!!"
But as another person points out, some fat-free yoghurts are packed with sugars.
"I think having a yoghurt with your cereals on a morning is ok, but some people were eating the Muller lights like there was no tomorrow.
"One girl said she can eat 20 a day, and I think that's too much because they do have sugar in them."
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A Muller Light pot of Smooth Toffee yoghurt is just 51kcals and contains 0.1g of fat. It also, however, contains 7.1g of sugar.
The recommended daily limit for sugar is 30g - meaning that one pot is 24% of your daily allowance - so it's not a lot on its own, but if you're having more than one pot, it adds up.
A Slimming World spokesperson told The Sun: “Our Nutrition team routinely review our Food Optimising eating plan to ensure it’s up to date, in line with the latest guidance, and to take into account feedback from our 5,000 Consultants and 900,000 Slimming World members.
“As part of this process, we’ve been looking at how to give our vegan members more choice, and we’re delighted that a number of vegan foods, including canned jackfruit and plain and unsmoked seitan, can now be enjoyed freely by slimmers following our plan.
“In addition, a number of products – fat-free flavoured yogurts, tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce and instant mashed potato – that were previously Free on our plan, meaning they could be eaten without weighing, counting or measuring, will now have a small Syn value (all food and drink that isn’t Free has a Syn value and members enjoy between five and 15 Syns daily).
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"This is because some of these foods are often eaten in large amounts, as a ‘snack’ rather than being enjoyed as part of a meal, or because they’re less satisfying than alternatives, such as mashed potato made with fresh potatoes.
"As the new Syn values are still so low, Slimming World members can easily still include them within their daily choices, if that's what they choose to do, and fat-free natural yoghurts, dried pasta and potatoes will continue to be Free.”
Leading Harley Street Nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert agrees that "we definitely need some innovative ideas and to update current nutrition labels because something is not working in our approach to food".
But she's not keen on the value system employed by Slimming World.
"Naming certain foods as 'syns' just colludes with an unhealthy anxiety that prevails around food all too often," she told The Sun.
"The diet industry just fuels feelings of guilt and shame, it’s no wonder we have an obesity problem and a rise in eating disorders!
"In vilifying products and brands we are attempting to classify foods as either good or bad, and in doing so we are damaging our relationship with what we eat.
"For those lucky enough to have never strayed into eating disorders or struggled with their weight may not see it this way but for the ones who are supposed to benefit most from this Slimming World system, those who eat too much or not enough, labelling foods is a negative and guilt-ridden idea.
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"We should encourage positive messages surrounding what we can and should eat, not what we can't and shouldn't eat.
"An obsession over which foods are good and bad is an impossible, rule-driven way of eating that is familiar to so many eating disordered people, a behaviour that I see in my Rhitrition clinic every single day.
"Diet culture is seen everywhere from restaurant menus to supermarkets and I believe that if perceive what we eat as good or bad, it is often an extension of how we perceive ourselves."
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