What ARE we eating.

omnicorp

In light of the new (or not so new) Sudan 1 Red crisis, and the revelations that Tesco was lying on their food labelsm, I looked at some food packets to see the ingredients, and you would have thought that you are looking at the supplies needed for a science lab rather than food that is going into and running my body.
A seemingly harmless thing like a packet of sliced ham contains a whole coctail of chemicals and other suitably long names.
Is this what we are putting into our bodies?

Why?

are we not worried about the quality of our food any more.
Why are we so obsessed by cheap, crappy, and potentially poisonous food?
We are getting richer, but food is getting worse.
Who cares if we can buy three packets of sliced chemicals (ham) for the price of one?

I don't

Sangre

Bravo,
Chemicals = bad.
Preservites = bad.
Additives = bad.

Who cares if are food is safer and is less perishable....its got a CHEMICAL NAME FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!

Yeah, don't have it on hand but you can boil down an apple to chemical additives etc., e.g sugar, starch, water, e140 etc.,
Tbh, I'll trust the health standards of Ireland and the EU. I'll be more worried about the people stuffing their faces with sweet and fast food.

Getting rich but the food is getting worse? Thanks but I'll pass on 19th centurary food standards and hygiene.

omnicorp

not hygiene. That's better.
As for trusting the health standards of Ireland and the EU, they're allowing this to happen.

Sleepy

You are chemicals, everything in this world is made up of chemicals.

There are far too many chemicals in food, particularly in the cheaper foodstuffs but if you read the labels when you're shopping you can tell easily enough whether you're comfortable ingesting the chemicals in question.

In large part this just comes down to our own laziness. We as a society don't seem to have time to cook properly any more, it's all part of the hectic 'lifestyle' culture we live in nowadays. There should be more education about what we should and shouldn't be eating and personally I'd like to see some form of health classes brought into secondary school. Not just about what foods we should be eating and how to cook them, but also sexual health issues, fitness issues etc. Unfortunately in Ireland there'd be a massive problem doing this because either the teaching unions would object to the extra hours involved of the education boards would have a problem dropping 'useful' subjects like Irish and/or religeon.

Zombrex

omnicorp wrote:

Why are we so obsessed by cheap, crappy, and potentially poisonous food?

Because it is

A) Cheap

Laced with sugar

C) Laced with Salt (actually look at how much salt is in something like Corn Flakes :eek: )

D) Laced with other things that make are brains go "ummmm"

The amount of salt and sugar in food these days is just ridiculous. You can't by any pre-packaged food without over dosing on the stuff, even if you would never think it is high in it (eg. Corn Flakes has very high levels of both sugar and salt).

omnicorp

well, why doesn't the government do something about this?

simu

The govt and the EU do take care of it to a certain degree - there are many food regulations and inspectorates in place plus health campaigns that encourage people to have a healthier lifestyle. These food safety systems sometimes fail as in the Sudan case but overall, people in Europe are living longer than ever before so something must be going right!

Things like sugar and salt aren't bad for you in small amounts so you can't just ban them - people must learn to consume them sensibly. As for additives etc, generally, they are banned when evidence shows them to be unsafe - unfortunately, sometimes it takes time and money to get proof of this.

omnicorp

well,in most cases we don't need them.
And there can be strict regulations on salt.
more salt in Corn-Flakes than in Sea water then in corn-flakes is a disgrace.

GuanYin

To be perfectly honest, consumer products and the additives used haven't changed a whole lot in the past couple of decades yet the increase in instances of intestinal diseases has increased dramatically over the past 5-10 years.

What has changed in the same time is the diet regieme of the consumer. Most of the foods, if taken moerately as part of a healthy balanced diet, will do you no harm. When you start dieting - especially carb free or high carb, you alter the environment of the microflora in your gut and thats when disease causing organisms and molecules that were previously either outcompeted or metabolised, cause damage.

In the cases of Sudan red et al, thats down to poor practice or dishonestly on the food manufaturers side but all in all we shouldn't worry. Just eat healthily and you'll have no worries.

simu

omnicorp wrote:

well,in most cases we don't need them.
And there can be strict regulations on salt.
more salt in Corn-Flakes than in Sea water then in corn-flakes is a disgrace.

Well, I agree with you there - these things should be stated more clearly. Usually, they give the amount of sodium instead of the amount of salt becaue the amount of sodium is lower, for example.

There should be much stricter scrutiny of ads for "healthy" food and food for kids as well.

omnicorp

I think it's hilarious that people buy this stuff.
Half of the "diet" products from weight-watchers are loaded with salt and other artificials.

"Artificially Flavoured Sugar Water, The Breakfast of Champions"

My school recently installed vending machines- Roll on obesity crisis

GuanYin

omnicorp wrote:

I think it's hilarious that people buy this stuff.
Half of the "diet" products from weight-watchers are loaded with salt and other artificials.

"Artificially Flavoured Sugar Water, The Breakfast of Champions"

My school recently installed vending machines- Roll on obesity crisis

Well its up to people to look after themselves and thats what the companies will say. Practically any food produced, if not consumed in responsible amounts with the right supplimental diet is bad for you (for instance, if you eat only green peppers for 3 months you're gonna get sick, but green peppers are a good thing right?). Thats an extreme argument but its all well and good blaming the food companies for churning out junk when people are being stupid enough to eat 5 choc bars a day.


As an aside you're in school??!?????!?!?

My god, I'm envious. My cynicism was only fledgling at your stage, while you have the bitter views of an old old man (j/king)

Shabadu

Some of the subjects I study are Product Development and Gastronomy, which is basically the sociology & culture of food. People are making more money, but most people are unwilling to pay good money for food.

It's not for malicious reasons that the food developers are creating new and more complicated additives for food, it's because the consumer is demanding cheaper and cheaper food. Most meat is jaw droppingly cheap today, meaning that in the west people are now eating meat on average twice a day. Animals are being raised and slaughtered in massive numbers. The beasts life has been shortened dramatically thanks to feed, breeding, and steroids in some parts of the world so they can be processed sooner.


The farmer, particularly dairy, makes a pittance from the middlemen and is instead fed E.U. subsidies, there is still a disgusting surplus of food floating about in frozen containers to maintain the pricing status quo. Co-operatives, where people pay the right price directly to the farmer for proper produce is the way forward IMO.

People need to be educated about eating properly raised animals and organic produce in general. Hugh Fearnly-Whittingsall is someone to read if you're interested in ethical, delicious food as opposed to the homogenised tasteless pap that's squirted into those depressing white plastic containers.

Must stop rambling.

den.fitz

so what can we eat?
what is so wrong with fruit, Hey!?!

Shabadu

den.fitz wrote:

so what can we eat?
what is so wrong with fruit, Hey!?!

You can't live solely on fruit.

Buy organic, free range meat 3 times a week.

Eat lots of varied organic fruit and vegetables.

Eat oily fish at least once a week.

Eat lots of wholegrains, no cra*py white bread.

Use olive oil, and real butter.

Aim to do this 80% of the time, don't forget everyone needs cake sometimes.

Have the odd jar as well if you want.

Capt'n Midnight

omnicorp wrote:

well,in most cases we don't need them.
And there can be strict regulations on salt.
more salt in Corn-Flakes than in Sea water then in corn-flakes is a disgrace.

Only by dry weigh..
IIRC cornflakes about 1% salt and sea water is about 3.5%
oh and "fortified with vitamines" is marketing speak for we have to add them in by law after processing..
A quick look at the weetabix box and per 100g (%'s) they are 68g carbohydrate but only 4.7g is sugar/simple carbohydrate also they have 0.27g of sodium. Salt and sugar are on the ingridents list so pure cereal would have even less. Have a look at the side of the frosties packet to see how much sugars are in it !

Ham is interesting stuff, AFAIK you used to be allowed to have up to 25% by weight dehaemonoglobinised blood and 25% added water (polyphosphates make protiens swell up to adsorb water) and the rest could be MRM , mechanically removed (recovered ?) meat. http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/report/volume13/chaptec2.htm

4.11 ... The definition of meat included 'the skin, rind, gristle and sinew in amounts naturally associated with the flesh', as well as the more commonly consumed organs such as heart, kidney, liver and also head meat. ... Thus, under the Regulations, MRM was meat.

Of course if you decide to go for soya as an alternative to meat, take note that much of the soya produced in the US is GMO, so unless the label says the soya used isn't GMO then it could well be.

Lets not forget the tracker bars, ingrediants are usually something like Musuli (containg sugar) sugar, glucose syrup, honey etc. you can see that it's mostly sugar, but because sugar is not the main ingridient they aren't classified as confectionery and so there is no VAT on them. You are happy because you think it's healthy, they are happy because it's another 20% on the gross margin.

Oh and as for "sunny delight" marketed as a healthy fruit drink, well its only about 5% fruit. looks like Rhodamine and Fluorescine are the Purple and Green colours used in it.

BTE: If you can't live on fruit alone, what is the story with vegans ??

Shabadu

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

BTE: If you can't live on fruit alone, what is the story with vegans ??

Nuts.

Pulses.

Textured vegetable protein.

Grains.

Vegetables.

None of the above are fruit, yet all are animal product free.

Is Tofu a fruit? How about bread?

Commissar

Jr.Shabadu wrote:

The farmer, particularly dairy, makes a pittance from the middlemen and is instead fed E.U. subsidies.

So buy direct. My family regularly buys animals from an uncle. He gets them slaughtered and, hey presto, a freezer full of lamb, pork, beef etc.
And everyone's happy. Farmer gets a good price, slaughterer gets some cash and we get enough good, cheap meat. to feed us for months.

edit:sp

Shabadu

Commisar wrote:

So buy direct. My family regularly buys animals from an uncle. He gets them slaughtered and, hey presto, a freezer full of lamb, pork, beef etc.
And everyone's happy. Farmer gets a good price, slaughterer gets some cash and we get enough good, cheap meat. to feed us for months.

Jr.Shabadu wrote:

Co-operatives, where people pay the right price directly to the farmer for proper produce is the way forward IMO.

Agreed.

omnicorp

yes.
we need more farmers markets.

Shabadu

If you look at the last few points on my 'vegetarian thesis' thread in the food and drink forum there's some good info about co-ops and the like.

pwd

Steve Jobs used to be a fruitarian, which is someone who lives solely on fruit.

Processed food is unhealthy. The more processed the food is the less healthy it is. It's not just additives that make it so, but what is removed also. White bread lacks the most nuitrititious elements of the grain and has a glycomic index closer to sugar than wholegrain bread. This means that, unless you consume plenty of fat with it, it gives you a short burst of energy and an insulin spike, and contributes to the onset of type-2 diabetes.
Monosodium glutamate is one of the things that "make the brain go ummmm". It is a flavour enhancer that causes you to compulsively eat the food that it is in. Most foods that you sort of contuinuously eat when you start them contain it. Like pringles, once you pop you can't stop.
It is possible to eat a very healthy diet without taking more time than for processed foods. Usually I cook to large quantities of food at the weekend, stir fires, Indian, curries usually, as well as a lot of brown rice. Then I reheat the food in the pan or oven during the week, and fry the rice in an egg. Rice is still very tasty if you reheat it, partuicularly if you fry it the second time, in a way the pasta/noodles/potatoes are not.
[I was going to say that microwaves damages protein in food, however googling suggests that I was misinformed on this]