Crap processed food

(ianrobo) #1

Lovely article here in the guardian about the crap in processed food here in UK and these names very well known

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/12/ultra-processed-truth-10-bestselling-foods-cherry-bakewell-fray-bentos-pies

(Christina) #2

We have practically the same food in Ireland. I moved to France last November and was really surprised to see a very ample supply of ready meals, canned vegetables and healthy supply of dessert breakfast items that arenā€™t freshly made croissants.

People are losing the ability to cook whole food meals, keto or not, and itā€™s a worrying trend that more and more supermarket shelves are being populated by convenience foods.

(ianrobo) #3

Yes even France !! Carrefour etc are better than the UK & I though with their fresh food choices and in towns and villages the proper food shops still survive !

(Allie) #4

Too many people choosing convenience over healthā€¦ Iā€™ll stay focused on my health.

(Trish) #5

Sadly, thereā€™s even more crap on this side of the pond as the EU has far stricter regulations on food safety, additives, etc, than we have here in Canada.

(ianrobo) #6

I thought Canada was ok as we know the US is even worse ā€¦

(Trish) #7

No, we have our own issues. A few years back I was eating those noodle and sauce side kicks and they had BHT in it. When I looked that up it was listed as a known carcinogen not allowed in food or even in cosmetics in the EU yet apparently it was fine here. Sigh. There were others too that were prohibited in Europe and California (CA has its own regs that are more strict and differ from most other states for whatever reason Iā€™ve discovered) but I found the stuff in our food here. And of course the lack of labelling. In EU stuff is labeled as contains red dye x which may cause y. I believe (please correct me here Europeans if Iā€™m wrong) that GMOs are also labeled. Not here.

(ianrobo) #8

Yes food here if contains FMO has to state it and this is about the politics of food and trade deals etc after Brexit. EU has far higher standards and whilst food is still crap like that in the article nothing is hidden

(ianrobo) #9

I can understand why Richard and Carl may want not to discuss food politics beyond the issue of fat/sugar but it is a wider part of how big food want min regs to create max profit

(Trish) #10

LOL. Ya, itā€™s one of those things that people have very strong opinions about.
Itā€™s true though in the article that you can buy far more unhealthy calories for a dollar than you can healthy ones. A buck will get you 220 grams of potato chips here. 2 litre of pop 88 cents. A pound of ground beef 5 ish bucks. A navel orange 1.40. Head of lettuce 2.59. Hmmm what are the poor going to buy? But I guess that could be a whole other heated conversation LOL.

(ianrobo) #11

It is part of it as it is of course corn and wheat that is subsidised to produce the crap. I belive I read if same subsidies given to ā€˜real foodā€™ then cost would be way down

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #12

The high price of whole foods is also an issue in South Africa, so one of the things Tim Noakesā€™s foundation does is to teach poor people how to make their food rand (I almost wrote ā€œdollarsā€ā€”oops!) stretch farther. One of the things the foundation figured out is that if people eat more healthily, they donā€™t have to make time-consuming visits to the doctor to pick up meds, which means they donā€™t have to give up any wages, donā€™t have to pay for transport, and donā€™t have to pay for the medsā€”which gives them a lot more to spend on decent food!

(ianrobo) #13

oh sure in the round it is cheaper I have no doubt on that but the sales pitch is so welcoming, so easy to believe people think a cheap food is good for them, it is cheap for a reason !