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"We are a nation of ultra processed food eaters" Sometimes I smash this in my gob. You?
Nahhh...but I'm a sucker for a Pukka ..
Chocolate digestive and a bit of Cadbury's chocolate are the only ones I partake in.
Very, very rarely do we buy processed foods as a main meal. Yes snack stuff like cakes and biscuits though.
none, but you would think baked beans would top that list 😕
Nope, a visit to a cereal factory cut those out 🙂 Not really eating chocolate cuts a lot out too.
I am partial to a bit of council bread, the less nutritious the better - it's only to stop me getting the sandwich filling all over my hands.
I eat baked beans about four or five times a week though and I won't hear anything bad about them.
you would think baked beans would top that list
I made baked beans from scratch once; something like two days of soaking and rinsing beans followed by a four hour cooking time. And I ended up with . . . baked beans.
Waste. Of. Time.
Interestingly, Heinz are quite an ethical company as far as the big boys go.
I eat baked beans about four or five times a week though and I won’t hear anything bad about them.
usually have them for breakfast 3 times a week but they would still be classified as "processed food"
From the link
Our lives have become too fast-paced to cook from scratch
This is bollocks, as a nation we generally just can't be arsed. Apparently the average Briton spends 20+ hours a week in front of the telly. There's nothing "fast-paced" about a life that can include 20 hours of TV, is there?
I prepare most meals from ingredients but I'm no stranger to the supermarket curry or pizza and usually it's because it's what I fancy eating, it's not because I've been doing anything "fast-paced"! And those Fray Bentos pies are bloody tasty.
I won’t hear anything bad about them.
The rest of us do, along with the accompanying smells...
silky mouthfeel
Mmmm.. want chocolate now 🤤
It was only a matter of time before we had "olive oil pressed by virgins thighs" along with "people are too fat and lazy" and i can't wait for the Vegans to come along.
I used to visit food factories in my job. The cleanest one I ever saw was a pet food manufacturer in Blackburn. They used to get much more hassle from the animal protection people than food standards agencies ever did.
Anyway, there's no such thing as an unhealthy (or healthy, come to that) meal; it's an unhealthy diet that matters.
I love a Fray Bentos. Once a year or so,
*puts down Fray Bentos sandwich and backs quietly out of the thread, trailing chocolate biscuit crumbs as he leaves*
I score zero on that list!
There used to be a statistic about the %age of weekly earnings we Brits spent on food and how laughably small it was in comparison to the French and other 'gastronomic' nations (something like 8% whilst they spent 20%). Not sure if it still holds true - there has certainly been an uplift in what we choose to eat in certain sectors of society at least.
Agree with above - any nation that can spend as much time in front of the telly as we do can't say there is not enough time to cook. It's just a choice. Plenty of folks who are tight for time but not everyone. We (wife and I) eat plenty out of the feezer during the week - but invariably we cooked it before it went in.
why did no-one tell me there were Turkey Dinosaurs?
the only processed stuff I eat regulary is biscuits.
the kids eat a lot of cereal, but not the obviously sugary stuff - just the sugary stuff that shouldn't really be sugary (weetabix, shreddies, corn flakes, etc.)
Only chocolate digestives now and then - but plain not milk, one does have standards.
Having read the article I'm going to have an emergency cherry bakewell in my pocket for when I need a sugar hit.
none, but you would think baked beans would top that list
None for me either and baked beans make a very cheap and healthy addition to a veggi chilli once you've rinsed all that sugary salty sauce of them.
You only have to see any of those on How It's Made to never eat them again
Did you see the one the other night on chewing gum? Kin hell...
This is bollocks, as a nation we generally just can’t be arsed. Apparently the average Briton spends 20+ hours a week in front of the telly. There’s nothing “fast-paced” about a life that can include 20 hours of TV, is there?
I prepare most meals from ingredients but I’m no stranger to the supermarket curry or pizza and usually it’s because it’s what I fancy eating, it’s not because I’ve been doing anything “fast-paced”! And those Fray Bentos pies are bloody tasty.
You say that, but, how processed were the ingredients?
I'm eating the leftovers of last nights cottage pie (which in itself contains the leftover meat and veg from Sunday's roast).
So that's processed food in terms of stock cubes in the gravy and the cheese certainly wasn't made from scratch either.
And then there's the whole definition of "processed food". What is processed, by definition in this context it means prepared and/or cooked! I mean look at the horror of shop bought bolognese sauce (Dolmio original). The only things you might not add at home are sugar (to balance the sugar content between batches), and acidity regulator (likewise). There's nothing inherently bad about getting your food 'processed' from a supermarket. Likewise if I a pie at home it wouldn't suddenly become healthy.
- Tomatoes (78%)
- Tomato Paste (10%)
- Onion
- Sugar
- Modified Maize Starch
- Salt
- Sunflower Oil
- Basil (0.3%)
- Garlic
- Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)
- Parsley
- Herbs
- Spices
You say that, but, how processed were the ingredients?
You've half a point there, I don't churn my own butter or make my own cheese but I suspect you understood what I meant. And if you think Dolmio only add sugar to a bolognese sauce to "balance the sugar content between batches" you're mistaken, it's done for flavour and as a cheap bulking agent.
You’ve half a point there, I don’t churn my own butter or make my own cheese but I suspect you understood what I meant. And if you think Dolmio only add sugar to a bolognese sauce to “balance the sugar content between batches” you’re mistaken, it’s done for flavour and as a cheap bulking agent.
Looking at that list, I suspect sugar is probably the most expensive thing by weight until you get to basil, and it's not exactly bulk, it's already 78% Tomato, and 10% tomato paste, so even if you don't allow for the tomato paste being concentrated (it doesn't say by how much) the full jar should have around 2.6% sugar (the same as fresh tomatoes)..
It's actually 5.6g/100g, so even not accounting for the extra sugar in concentrated tomato paste there are at most 2.1 teaspoons of sugar (1tsp =4g) in a jar of dolmio.
[i]thisisnotaspoon wrote:[/i]
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">And then there’s the whole definition of “processed food”. What is processed, by definition in this context it means prepared and/or cooked! I mean look at the horror of shop bought bolognese sauce (Dolmio original). The only things you might not add at home are sugar (to balance the sugar content between batches), and acidity regulator (likewise). There’s nothing inherently bad about getting your food ‘processed’ from a supermarket. Likewise if I a pie at home it wouldn’t suddenly become healthy.</span>
- Tomatoes (78%)
- Tomato Paste (10%)
- Onion
- Sugar
- Modified Maize Starch
- Salt
- Sunflower Oil
- Basil (0.3%)
- Garlic
- Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)
- Parsley
- Herbs
- Spices
Well personally if cooking bolognese I wouldn't add the modified maize starch, salt or sunflower oil either - I don't know about you.
But you make a good point, even if it wasn't the point you were intending to make - I checked the ingredients list on some cheese: "cheddar cheese (cow's milk)". The thing is that Dolmio has a whole load of things you wouldn't otherwise use, and it's likely to be far from the worst offender. As already pointed out, the need to balance sugar content between batches is BS - the added sugar is one of the reasons I don't like those, not so much from a health perspective, but because it tastes awful! There is a significant difference between cooking from ingredients and pre-prepped stuff (and yes I do eat some things on the list, but only a few).
Well personally if cooking bolognese I wouldn’t add the modified maize starch, salt or sunflower oil either – I don’t know about you.
Well you need to use some oil (I guess sunflower is cheaper than olive) to fry the onions and garlic.
And cornflour is hardly an unusual ingredient if you want to make a sauce a little thicker.
And as for not adding salt, you do need some in your diet.
And the sugar point, I presume you missed my second post, there's 2 teaspoons in a whole jar. And it's a common ingredient in most recipes* using tinned tomatoes as they typically have quite a lot less sugar than their fresh equivalents (you know when you get a horrible woody out of season tomato, that's what usually ends up in the tins).
* first recipie that pops up in google for "Spagetti bolognese" , it also adds vinegar so that's the acid ticked off the list too https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1416635/spaghetti-bolognese
Ive been nibbling through a Giant pack of chocolate digestives this week.......there may be one left! oops!
Also love a Cherry bakewell.....will devour three in a few seconds! more oops!
Despite my adoration of a frey bentos pie, Ive resisted for the past couple of years!
What is the biggest disgrace is the price people pay for their laziness / ignorance and convenience. At least twice as much for a jar of Dolmio sauce.
Well you need to use some oil (I guess sunflower is cheaper than olive) to fry the onions and garlic.
butter for sauteing the carrots, celery, onion. no garlic, dont eat it with spaghetti, it's a ragu sauce. * chucks grenade* don't forget the milk and chicken liver
if you use oil, cold pressed only dear boy.
And as for not adding salt, you do need some in your diet.
I try and keep my salt intake to foods with naturally occurring salt, rather than added. So things like bacon, butter and onion bagels.
Seafood sticks, biscuits, and bread off that list
Most of our main meals are from scratch but I have a sweet tooth and most chocolate and biscuits are processed. Another reason to cut down on sugar
I've no idea why Dolmio is the whipping boy for processed food haterz - I mean, I bought a massive jar the other day for £1.30, I couldn't make it for that, it'll make two pretty decent batches for us.
Oh won't something pleeeeeease think of the children, have you seen the sugar content?!?!?! it's a jar of bloody tomatoes, a fruit as anyone who knows tomatoes are a fruit will tell you, sugar and fruit - whoever saw that coming. The ingredients often look worse than they are "modified maze starch" sounds like something made in a lab by sinister scientists - but, most kitchens have a bag of Corn Flour laying around.
Yeah a lot of foods on that list are shit, but none of them are completely incompatible with a healthly diet, even the tinned pie and dinosaur things.
The thing with the Guardian is that it's for well-meaning snobs, they're not saying "what are we eating?" No, it's "What is Britain eating" and by "Britain" they mean, those poor, poor people who spend their weekend desperately searching the supermarket to see how many calories they can get for £1 to stop their kids starving - bullshit.
The only difference between Guardian readers and Telegraph readers is that the Guardian lot pretend they feel sorry for working class people because they're burdened by being stupid and lazy.
The problem with shit food, be it processed or otherwise is that, once you've got a taste for it, it tastes nice - it doesn't matter if it's ethically sourced artisan cod, hand battered and served with triple cooked chips on a ****ing shovel or "large cod and chips mate" from the Fish Shop under the flats, if it's all you ever eat you're going to be in trouble.
Oh yeah, whilst we're point scoring - none for me, Son likes those Pasta and Sauce packet things now and again and my Wife does love Cadubury's chocolate now and again, and by 'now and again' I mean 1 week in 4. I rarely eat processed food, I don't know why, it's just not my thing - I'm still fat and have shit skin. Go figure.
Very rarely eat Batchelors pasta 'n' sauce, but the tomatoey one not chicken & mushroom as it's useful & convenient when camping/caravaning.
McVities milk chocolate digestives - yeah, get through about a small pack a week.
Very occasionally a Muller Crunch Corner of one type or another.
Don't do CDM any more after what Kraft did to it.
other than that, no, none of it even appeals TBH.
I hate cooking.
[i]thisisnotaspoon wrote:[/i]
Well you need to use some oil (I guess sunflower is cheaper than olive) to fry the onions and garlic.
Mince comes with it built in.
And as for not adding salt, you do need some in your diet.
When did somebody in this country last die from a salt deficit in their diet? Once again it's an unnecessary flavour enhancer thing with processed food. It also appears in recipes because people have got a taste for it (whether processed food is the chicken or the egg), not because it's necessary.
And the sugar point, I presume you missed my second post, there’s 2 teaspoons in a whole jar. And it’s a common ingredient in most recipes* using tinned tomatoes as they typically have quite a lot less sugar than their fresh equivalents (you know when you get a horrible woody out of season tomato, that’s what usually ends up in the tins).
Nope, I read it and the quantity involved doesn't change the fundamental point - I have a suspicion that adding sugar in recipes may be an attempt to match the flavour of the processed version (alternatively it's just for the same reason as the processed version that people feel far too much need for sugar) as it's utterly unnecessary and personally it's one of my biggest bugbears about commercial sauces that they're far too sweet. Yes, I like fresh tomatoes which are naturally sweet, but cook lots with tinned and never ever add any sugar and it tastes great.
I’ve no idea why Dolmio is the whipping boy for processed food haterz
It may be because bolognese is incredibly easy to make without a jar of sauce, takes no longer and tastes no worse. £1.30 for a jar (for two batches) isn’t expensive, but is more expensive than the tinned tomatoes I’d use. Anyway, I’m not aiming to teach YOU how to cook but I’ve had this argument with my wife for 15 years. She uses jars, I don’t.
I try and keep my salt intake to foods with naturally occurring salt, rather than added. So things like bacon, butter and onion bagels.
I know you're being Ironic listing a load of other processed food, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news, bacon doesn't come out of the pig that pink or tasty.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/01/bacon-cancer-processed-meats-nitrates-nitrites-sausages</span>
>i’ll just leave this here
Good selection of guilty pleasure meals.....
remind me of...
Mince comes with it built in.
See, in a thread about people not being able to cook, that really isn't something you want to admit to.
The onions always go in first as they need to cook at the highest temperature. Then the garlic, then the mince. The onion needs to cook at 200+C, the garlic quite a bit less (it'll burn if you throw it in the oil first), then the meat lastly as the Maillard reactions that give cooked meat it's flavour only need around 160C to occur.
Putting the onions in last just results in raw onion as by that point there so much moisture and other stuff in the pan it'll never get hot enough.
[i]thisisnotaspoon wrote:[/i]
Putting the onions in last just results in raw onion as by that point there so much moisture and other stuff in the pan it’ll never get hot enough.
BS - I'm guessing you've never tried cooking them that way and have been seduced by what you've been told is "correct".
Though in a thread about food snobbery you may be winning with that latest comment 😆
Bolognese sauce - tin of chopped tomatoes - 50p, onion - 16p, garlic -30p, stock cube - 11p tom puree 50p cost - £1.58 Tesco price £1.79 for a jar, or 2 for £3.00
Now, you're not going to use an garlic or a tube of tomato puree, so you can take some money off for those. I've not put the herbs & spices in as they'll come from the cupboard or the herb garden (depends on how middle class/hipster you are) quite quickly you're making something a darn sight tastier, cheaper & healthier than dolmio
I have a suspicion that adding sugar in recipes may be an attempt to match the flavour of the processed version (alternatively it’s just for the same reason as the processed version that people feel far too much need for sugar) as it’s utterly unnecessary and personally it’s one of my biggest bugbears about
I learnt to make a ragu almost 50 years ago. My mother taught me and she was taught by an Italian chef. We all use(d) sugar.
From that list the bread and chocolate digestives(but Aldi ones as they're nicer than Mcvities).
Due to Mrscarlos having a list of allergies longer than my armspan we make most meals from scratch , the food we make is healthy enough but our portion size needs more attention if we want to get rid of our contented bellies.
bacon doesn’t come out of the pig that pink or tasty
O rly? 😭
I have a suspicion that adding sugar in recipes may be an attempt to match the flavour of the processed version (alternatively it’s just for the same reason as the processed version that people feel far too much need for sugar) as it’s utterly unnecessary and personally it’s one of my biggest bugbears about
I learnt to make a ragu almost 50 years ago. My mother taught me and she was taught by an Italian chef. We all use(d) sugar.
I believe the sugar helps neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes.
Apparently the average Briton spends 20+ hours a week in front of the telly.
Watching cooking shows at that!
I put a flat teaspoon of sugar in my tomatoey pasta sauce, along with a glug of balsamic.
I'm bloody good at it (if I do say so myself) and it tastes more like restaurant food than Dolmio or whatever.
My mother taught me and she was taught by an Italian chef.
was the recipe lost in translation?
Dolmio is pretty tasteless, compared to a nice home made sauce IMHO. I'd rather have a simple spaghetti with a bit of olive oil, chilli, garlic and oregano tossed through it, than the jar of the lazy.
YMMV.
None for me either and baked beans make a very cheap and healthy addition to a veggi chilli once you’ve rinsed all that sugary salty sauce of them.
Can we just go back to this, can you not just buy a can of non baked beans and use that without having to rinse the sauce off?
The thing with the Guardian is that it’s for well-meaning snobs, they’re not saying “what are we eating?” No, it’s “What is Britain eating” and by “Britain” they mean, those poor, poor people who spend their weekend desperately searching the supermarket to see how many calories they can get for £1 to stop their kids starving – bullshit.
The only difference between Guardian readers and Telegraph readers is that the Guardian lot pretend they feel sorry for working class people because they’re burdened by being stupid and lazy.
The problem with shit food, be it processed or otherwise is that, once you’ve got a taste for it, it tastes nice – it doesn’t matter if it’s ethically sourced artisan cod, hand battered and served with triple cooked chips on a **** shovel or “large cod and chips mate” from the Fish Shop under the flats, if it’s all you ever eat you’re going to be in trouble.
Pretty much a conversation I’ve had with my g/f, who really can cook, because her mum, who she learned from while growing up in the pubs they lived in and ran, has a thing about ‘junk food’, whereas my s/o and I both feel that only an unvarying diet of heavily processed food with a high salt and sugar content will do you no good at all, whereas having a McD or Kentucky Chucky once in a while won’t cause any problems. Jo, my g/f, makes her own coleslaw, vinaigrette, spagbol sauces, and the only things on that list we have had in the house are Macvites Digestives, one packet in the last six months, and a couple of Warburtons loaves. She’s very insistent on having vegetables with meals, and mashed spuds means exactly that, no instant stuff, although there’s likely to be plenty of butter, possibly some milk, black pepper, and sea salt.
I’ve eaten better in the last five or six months since she moved in than in the last fifty-odd years! 😄
none of those in my house and I dont eat any of them
i cook almost everything from scratch and only ad suga to cakes - even then its usally about 1/2 pf what they suggest
can you not just buy a can of non baked beans and use that without having to rinse the sauce off?
yes you can even buy the bean most often used for baked beans [haricot ] but that is uncommon
I'm having a protein bar for mid morning snack. Can't decide if it's processed shite or not
Mid morning ? It's 8:30am !
I've just dug a Tesco Chicken Jalfrezi ready meal out of the freezer to have later on with a beer, when I get back home after doing some fast-paced living.
It's got marinated chicken in a tomato and chilli sauce, Basmati rice with spices, Bombay potato and an onion bhaji. All that and the only ingredients listed that aren't some sort of actual food are the raising agents, Disodium Diphosphate and Sodium Bicarbonate, and Paprika extract and curcumin for colouring. Microwaves in 7 minutes, and according to the label it's an implausible sounding 596 kilocalories.
Let's see you home chefing heroes make that for the £2 it cost me (OK, it was on offer!). No skimping on the 15 or so herbs and spices either!
I don't even have a TV.
Not where i am weeksy!
[i]CountZero wrote:[/i]
and mashed spuds means exactly that, no instant stuff, although there’s likely to be plenty of butter, possibly some milk, black pepper, and sea salt.
Do people really mean packet stuff when they're doing mash? It's so, so easy to do properly (personally I tend to just add butter, have stopped adding milk as it's not necessary, but I'm sure your g/f's mash is great)
The onions always go in first as they need to cook at the highest temperature. Then the garlic, then the mince.
Do it that way and the mince will boil rather than fry. No Maillard reaction there.
Let’s see you home chefing heroes make that for the £2 it cost me (OK, it was on offer!). No skimping on the 15 or so herbs and spices either!
Given that I buy spices in bulk from the Asian grocer, chicken thighs are cheap from my butcher and the only other things needed will be onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, I reckon I could beat £2 a portion easily.
Do people really mean packet stuff when they’re doing mash?
Apparently people buy Yorkshire Pudding mix too. Takes all sorts.
Do it that way and the mince will boil rather than fry. No Maillard reaction there.
Boil in what?
It's own juice.
I’m sure your g/f’s mash is great
Its brings all the boys to the yard
I have no idea what meat costs but the local asian superstore does 10 kg of onions for £1 and rice at about £ 50p per KG spices are massive bags for about £1 £ 2 spend on curry would make a fair few KG of veggie curry[ 10 servings?] - no idea how much chicken costs
but I’m sure your g/f’s mash is great)
She just does the spuds, she usually gets me to do the mashing up ‘cos she’s left-handed and that’s her weak hand after a brain haemorrhage, so I make absolutely certain it ain’t lumpy! I only put a small amount of milk in, and then only if I think of it, there’s usually a load of butter to make it creamy, black pepper, (lots), some chilli flakes, and sometimes grated cheese.
’Tis good mashed spuds, though... 😬