Ultra processed food

jof said:

large scale scientific studies

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Are done. And are funded by... (one guess) and the answers are often quite favourable

One of the scientists somehow involved in the research of nutrition and food production at this time was Dr Magnus Pike of massive hand waving fame whilst explaining stuff.

Pavros said:

It's not just the food, it's laziness as well.

Some people can't be bothered to cook from scratch; it's sooo much easier to put a ready meal in the microwave. And now, you can have a takeaway delivered to your door so you have to do even less work before stuffing your face. I remember a Jamie Oliver series a long time ago when he was teaching people how to cook. One family had a brand new kitchen and a very large set of brand new pans. They had never been used and the oven/hobs had never been switched on.

Just like during the first lockdown. We were allowed out for an hour a day for a walk. As it was actually nice weather the first two weeks, I used to regularly see families together out for a walk. That novelty soon wore off and I saw less families out but more individuals.

If you don't want to move about or eat properly, then it will have an effect on your weight and health.

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There's some societal changes that have shifted this too - 35-40 hours modern work week came from a time when one person in a family would go out to work and the other would care for children, clean and cook.

Many families now have both parents out working, and there may be longer commutes on top of that. It's not very conducive to cooking properly and making time for exercise.

MashBag said:

Are done. And are funded by... (one guess) and the answers are often quite favourable

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Don't laff. I was serious.

Stoppit

Sandimas said:

So I'm currently battling cancer, so are a lot of my mates, all in our 50s. At the NHS rehab class I'd worked with 30% of the people there. I feel that processed foods maybe a contributing factor, although hard to prove e.g. greater testing might be finding cancer early.

Cooking a lot more from scratch now, cooking in bulk and freezing it, and growing my own veg. A lot more conscious about what I eat, although I'm still partial to the odd pasty.

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Cut out the carbs, start intermittent fasting(look up something call autophagy (bodies house cleaning))..something like 95% of all cancer use sugar as their fuel source....ive lost faith in the health service about 6-7yrs ago when I stumbled onto the ketogenic diet, I'm obviously the epitomy of health now!!! I did loose 5st just from diet change alone and then covid happened and rediscovering homebrew hasn't really helped

In a nutshell - If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.

JockyBrewer said:

There's some societal changes that have shifted this too - 35-40 hours modern work week came from a time when one person in a family would go out to work and the other would care for children, clean and cook.

Many families now have both parents out working, and there may be longer commutes on top of that. It's not very conducive to cooking properly and making time for exercise.

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I partly agree and partly disagree with this.
Yes, there are more families with 2 earners now... But, more people manage to spend hours in the gym than ever before (so make time for exercise) and more people now work from home so have no commute.
If they thought that cooking from scratch was important, they would make time for it but they prioritise their time for other things

I've not read the book but can certainly understand it's viewpoint.

Surely a meal using local produce is not only better for us, but also better for the planet? None of all the extra's put into food to extend the shelf life, hardly any food miles & full traceability. I've always wondered about the meat substitutes that are all the rage nowadays and whether there as good for you as they say and also what their carbon footprint is compared to an animal that was raised a few miles away and butchered locally.

I like knowing what went into my dinner and am fortunate enough to be in a position where I can choose the better option even if it costs a little bit more.

Pavros said:

I partly agree and partly disagree with this.
Yes, there are more families with 2 earners now... But, more people manage to spend hours in the gym than ever before (so make time for exercise) and more people now work from home so have no commute.
If they thought that cooking from scratch was important, they would make time for it but they prioritise their time for other things

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Absolutely, it's not a blanket change for everyone, just a more malign societal influence that has crept in over the past 60 years, and in my mind is one of the drivers of the UK getting fatter.

The much more recent big shift to working from home is changing things again. Many are finding more time for the gym and cooking, although I expect there's also a few people that move less than when they were travelling to a place of work.

Madhouse said:

I've not read the book but can certainly understand it's viewpoint.

Surely a meal using local produce is not only better for us, but also better for the planet? None of all the extra's put into food to extend the shelf life, hardly any food miles & full traceability. I've always wondered about the meat substitutes that are all the rage nowadays and whether there as good for you as they say and also what their carbon footprint is compared to an animal that was raised a few miles away and butchered locally.

I like knowing what went into my dinner and am fortunate enough to be in a position where I can choose the better option even if it costs a little bit more.

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Purely 'eating local' in the UK is going to severely limit your diet for half the year or more.

If you want fruit and veg in the winter most of it will need to come from the continent (or further afield), and it's a lower energy consumption to do that than it is to grow them in the UK using heated greenhouses.

Not denying that, but we could do a lot more with seasonal produce.

But why does the chicken in your meal-deal sandwich need to be from Thailand? That's because the consumer is demanding value and shareholders demand a return on investment.
I work in food and the material cost for ingredients produced in the UK is 6 or 7 times the cost of the same type of material from other parts of the world and that's the price delivered to the door. Shoppers say they want British until they have to pay a premium for it, seen it a thousand times in shopper marketing, a response soon changes from "I'd definitely buy it" when you tell them the RRP is double what they usually spend.

Maybe it's all because we eat too much, if portion sizes were smaller we wouldn't need cheaper ultra-processed food to fill us up because we could make a nutritionally better meal for the same price? Maybe we just prioritise other things, so would rather buy a lasagna than make it. Maybe we need to plan more and take a sandwich rather than going to Greggs or Pret.

Everything in moderation though, the kid's love a Maccy D's for a treat and we all fancy a night off the cooking once in a while - maybe that's the key to it all, maybe it's just that we've gone too far and we need to dial it back a bit and the middle-ground is where we need to be.

Pavros said:

I partly agree and partly disagree with this.
Yes, there are more families with 2 earners now... But, more people manage to spend hours in the gym than ever before (so make time for exercise) and more people now work from home so have no commute.
If they thought that cooking from scratch was important, they would make time for it but they prioritise their time for other things

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Certainly wasn't the case when my kids were young.
Both me and the Missus worked and we used to scramble to get home by 6pm to pick the kids up from the childminders (who would have fed them)
At which point, we then had the usual nonsense of Scouting, swimming, football and other clubs every night.

Usually by the time one of us had time to cook it was gone 7pm (and often 8pm) and sadly, the thought of making a proper meal had gone out of the window.

I've always made a point of cooking properly at weekends though.

Takeaway food for example....I noticed the price increasing and the quality dropping even well before covid.
My absolute favourite is an Indian. My last Indian takeaway was 4 years ago. I make everything myself now. My last takeaway was a Chinese as I was tired after night shifts and it's what everyone else fancied. I threw mine in the bin after a few mouthfuls as it was rubbish. My Mrs didn't bat an eyelid as she knows what I'm like,people with us were a bit stunned.

I am also coming to the conclusion that a lot of people start the day with breakfast cerial or toast which starts a vicious sugar boom/bust eat more cycle.

MashBag said:

I am also coming to the conclusion that a lot of people start the day with breakfast cerial or toast which starts a viscous sugar boom/bust eat more cycle

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I lost a load of weight since cutting out breakfast completely and having just a small lunch.

Have been able to maintain weight by gradually increasing portion sizes, and eat pretty much I want at weekends.

Massive psychological component, but I have zero doubt to my mind that sugar is more addictive than opioids and nicotine.

I've not tried smoking...

Brew_DD2 said:

Massive psychological component, but I have zero doubt to my mind that sugar is more addictive than opioids and nicotine.

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That's not a bad way of looking at it.

Brew_DD2 said:

Massive psychological component, but I have zero doubt to my mind that sugar is more addictive than opioids and nicotine.

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I'll have to start sprinkling crushed up tramadol on my cornflakes.

Been there,done that...