The Price of Processed

[trixie88]

I know the smell of cooking smoked haddock is not a good smell to have in the house during the winter :bow:

oh yes......topped with cheese and poached egg, with a bit of spinach . Hmmmmm so good

 

[saxonborg]

I have a sort of long held dream to be able to walk down into village and buy fish fresh off the trawlers, take them back to the camper, fillet, cook (alfresco) and enjoy.

Don't try to do it on the Isle of Skye as it all seems to be loaded from the trawler straight into the back of a foreign refrigerated artic!!!!!

 

[delicagirl]

Don't try to do it on the Isle of Skye as it all seems to be loaded from the trawler straight into the back of a foreign refrigerated artic!!!!!

Lobsters landed at Dunbar go into a truck and are in the south of France within 24 hours..... - the fishermen get a better price there - cant blame them for that.

 

[saxonborg]

i've only recently started eating fish, never really fancied food you might choke to death on, and tried filleting a salmon which was , ironically, on the salmonella shelf in Tescos, £13 ta.
you need an extremely sharp knife, sharp enough to make you sweat a bit, and even after watching a Youtube instructional, i found the blade wandered a bit, leaving good size lumps on the spine, and even after filleting, there were some big bones that needed pliers to remove, and did a bit of damage to the meat. tried a cod after that, still struggling, so maybe i'll buy some sardines to practise a bit more, or just cook the gutted fish whole and scrape off the meat. oh, and all fish gets cooked outside the van/house on one of those cheapo gas rings

Try swordfish it's not as boney and it's very meaty.

 

[Channa]

Lobsters landed at Dunbar go into a truck and are in the south of France within 24 hours..... - the fishermen get a better price there - cant blame them for that.

Don't you believe it, one of our illustrious members works out of Dunbar , lobsters galore and has been known to take a few to meets in the highlands !!

my lips are sealed on the ID of this person, or I could tell yer but have to kill yer afterwards:lol-053:

A lot of our shellfish are exported to France and Spain spider crabs particularly. We just don't use them because they are fiddly yet their flavour is sublime.

It does frustrate me, A few years ago I was sous chef at a well known hotel in Beverley, menu revisited and the owners categorically stated they wanted a British menu. Here is the daft thing. Greenland Atlantic prawns or Thai for a prawn cocktail. We had Filey crab on our doorstep, Humberside largest producer of Pork in Europe, Rhubarb, vegetables , Wensleydale cheeses all Yorkshire.

Its Fresh fantastic to work with, and it is traceable more to the point. Really sad really.We don't do it more and of course consumer demand dictates we can import foods out of season Israeli strawberries etc

Back to the OP's point you can cook fresh from scratch, quicker healthier and often cheaper than take aways or microwave food riddled with chemicals to stabilise and extend shelf life.

I have never lost the buzz and find it immensely satisfying starting from scratch and producing a dish .There is a completeness about it unlike some other things we do were it never ends

Channa

 

[delicagirl]

i make my own curries and always alter the flavourings every meal - a dash of this, pinch of that, none of that today so i rarely get the same flavour twice.

yesterday i found a sell-by jar of madras curry sauce - really boring !!!

 

[bellars]

I was a research scientist and university lecturer investigating the effects of lifestyle (including diet) on health. While diet plays a significant role in health its benefits are dramatically out-weighed by the effects of regular exercise. I'm not talking about running/cycling miles everyday or even attending a gym but brisk walking, gardening and even hoovering suffice. There is also increasing evidence that even being overweight but exercising regularly (>150 mins per week) (so called "fat fit") are on a similar health trajectory to lean exercisers and much better than those that are lean and sedentary.

Fat But Fit? Study Reveals That Fitness, Not Weight, Predicts Risk Of Early Death | Huffington Post

As for E numbers being evil - check out what E300, E101 or E306 are!

 

[yorkslass]

i've only recently started eating fish, never really fancied food you might choke to death on, and tried filleting a salmon which was , ironically, on the salmonella shelf in Tescos, £13 ta.
you need an extremely sharp knife, sharp enough to make you sweat a bit, and even after watching a Youtube instructional, i found the blade wandered a bit, leaving good size lumps on the spine, and even after filleting, there were some big bones that needed pliers to remove, and did a bit of damage to the meat. tried a cod after that, still struggling, so maybe i'll buy some sardines to practise a bit more, or just cook the gutted fish whole and scrape off the meat. oh, and all fish gets cooked outside the van/house on one of those cheapo gas rings

Try tweezers Mr B, pretty good lo fish bones.

 

[Channa]

I was a research scientist and university lecturer investigating the effects of lifestyle (including diet) on health. While diet plays a significant role in health its benefits are dramatically out-weighed by the effects of regular exercise. I'm not talking about running/cycling miles everyday or even attending a gym but brisk walking, gardening and even hoovering suffice. There is also increasing evidence that even being overweight but exercising regularly (>150 mins per week) (so called "fat fit") are on a similar health trajectory to lean exercisers and much better than those that are lean and sedentary.

Fat But Fit? Study Reveals That Fitness, Not Weight, Predicts Risk Of Early Death | Huffington Post

As for E numbers being evil - check out what E300, E101 or E306 are!

Actually I think you are the first to mention e numbers, At the end of the day as I see it they are no more than a classification system of additives or in some cases components of an ingredient eg turmeric a natural product.

E951 Aspartame as you are very well aware under the microscope. Do the benefits outweigh the negatives is the acid question. E223 also found in kitchen detergents. My point is there are good and bad ones but how does the average Joe work it all out ?

I do agree though, lifestyle choices are an important part of the equation, walking to the shop for a newspaper rather than taking the car. walking to the next bus stop rather than the closest on a visit to town.

Channa

 

[maingate]

I don't see many obese dog walkers Andrew.

 

[Rob H]

The pice of processed.

I have been looking closely at the contents and doing a little internet research on what actually goes in and how much of it, to the processed food we buy.

1. Artificial Sweeteners

Experiments have found that sweet taste, regardless of its caloric content, enhances your appetite, and consuming artificial sweeteners has been shown to lead to even greater weight gain than consuming sugar. Aspartame has been found to have the most pronounced effect, but the same applies for other artificial sweeteners, such as acesulfame potassium, sucralose and saccharin.

2. Synthetic Trans Fats

These are common in foods that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, such as crackers, chips, most store-bought baked goods, and any fried foods, just to name a few examples. Synthetic trans fats are known to promote inflammation, which is a hallmark of most chronic and/or serious diseases.

3. Artificial Flavors

What’s particularly alarming when you see a word like “artificial flavor” on an ingredients label is that there’s no way to know what it actually means. It could mean that one unnatural additive is included, or it could be a blend of hundreds of additives. Strawberry artificial flavor can contain nearly 50 chemical ingredients, for example

4. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

This flavor enhancer is most often associated with Chinese food, but it's actually in countless processed food products ranging from frozen dinners and salad dressing to snack chips and meats. MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damage or death, causing brain dysfunction and damage to varying degrees -- and potentially even triggering or worsening learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease and more.

5. Artificial Colors

Every year, food manufacturers pour 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes into U.S. foods -- and that amount only factors in eight different varieties.6 As of July 2010, most foods in the European Union that contain artificial food dyes were labeled with warning labels stating the food "may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.

6. High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

It’s often claimed that HFCS is no worse for you than sugar, but this is not the case. Because high-fructose corn syrup contains free-form monosaccharides of fructose and glucose, it cannot be considered biologically equivalent to sucrose (sugar), which has a glycosidic bond that links the fructose and glucose together, and which slows its break down in the body.

Fructose is primarily metabolized by your liver, because your liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it. Since all fructose gets shuttled to your liver, and, if you eat a typical Western-style diet, you consume high amounts of it, fructose ends up taxing and damaging your liver in the same way alcohol and other toxins do.

7. Preservatives

Preservatives lengthen the shelf-life of foods, increasing manufacturers’ profits – at your expense, since most are linked to health problems such as cancer, allergic reactions and more. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydrozyttoluene (BHT) are preservatives that affect the neurological system of your brain, alter behavior and have the potential to cause cancer. Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) is a chemical preservative so deadly that just five grams can kill you.

Now, as those people who have met me can testify, I am not 'Body is a Temple' Lentil eating, flat shoe wearing, gym bunny but have been making a conscious effort to eat what I have cooked and am finding a huge positive, physiological difference. Please don't get me wrong, I like my food but i am finding it quite interesting.

I think when I begin my Full Time life, I will have more opportunity to cut out the processed food and look forward to seeing what effect this has in the longer term.

I just wondered about others experiences?

You're addressing the converted, Fully agree with your comments, wifey and I have altered our nutrition to reduce / remove additives from our intake, ... feel better, weight loss to a more respectable weight, blood pressure and cholesterol are well inside recommended norms, bonus .. higher quality unadulterated foods taste better, whats not to like.

Rgrds,

Rob H.

 

[Clunegapyears]

The dog's gone healthy too!

We already eat pretty healthy - cook from scratch and I don't touch bread or pasta etc. Try to be a bit along Palio lines.
Oscar our rescue Welsh springer was on Arden grange with his previous owner and I won't go into graphic detail but faeces were too often and very moist! Switched to an 80/20 grain free and "perfect poos"! What goes in comes out for any animal!

 

[n brown]

tonight i'll make Bengali patties from some 5% pork mince i got off the salmonella shelf in tesco, reduced from £3 to 90p. mix with chopped onion, garam masala ,cayenne pepper and fresh coriander and fried in olive oil with bombay spuds.
as you say , butcher's sausages , made from meat , a bit of rusk and seasoning in natural, not plastic, skins, are fine to eat. at about 8 to a pound for £3 60. that's 4 meals worth , with spud and greens, a cheap,but good quality, meal imo
sourdough bread from tesco is also good. maybe a bit dear, but some things are worth paying a bit extra

 

[Channa]

conchiglie pasta is my favourite, I prefer in bologneses rather than spaghetti ..As David says you get bits of sauce and meat in the shells.really satysifying meal
garlic buttered baguette , glass of wine simple but beautiful

Channa

 

[GreggBear]

Well done that is a massive achievement..... :goodluck: i hope you are giving yourself non-food rewards ??

Certainly am... Ambulance back from welders is this month's big treat for me! Thanks for the kind words:wave::wave::wave::dance:

 

[n brown]

just finished them , with a bit of fresh salad , mayo and the bombay spuds , my biggest accolade is that i would have been happy to be served a meal like that in a restaurant, instead of the disappointing overhyped stuff i usually get.
as for the sourdough, by the length of time it takes to toast i can tell there's little sugar in it,but if i could find a genuine baguette , and believe me i've looked, i'd eat them daily !

 

[sparrks]

When people learn to eat the correct foods and eat what their body requires rather than what they can eat, then the obesity problem will disappear. The eat all you can shops should be shut down.

 

[trevskoda]

I don't see many obese dog walkers Andrew.

No but i have seen many obese dogs being walked,or draged.

 

[trevskoda]

The killer here for years was the ulster fry,now replaced with fast food outlets which ever night passing i see them que up in there cars at t/time.
Me i eat and cook a lot of fish but have had strokes,the vet sorry doc told me its 50/50 what you eat and ones dna.
To cook fish without much pong,fillet fish and place on a plate then put about half a egg cup of water on plate and a small amount of butter on top of fish,place in m/wave at half power and about 3/4 mins it will be just right.
I do my veg in a steamer and spuds in jackets in m/wave,about 12 mins for 2 big uns.
Very little suger for me but love a bit of apple tart warmed with some milk and yogert over top or ice cream,yum yum.

 

[Channa]

When people learn to eat the correct foods and eat what their body requires rather than what they can eat, then the obesity problem will disappear. The eat all you can shops should be shut down.

Overall I agree with you quality over quantity in an ideal world. A lot of the eat as much as you can outlets are not what they seem use smaller plates etc. And at the end of the day a marketing ploy to get bums on seats on the quiet days.

What annoys me more , to the extent I shall use the word detest, are the growing number of outlets that cook stupid size portions and then challenge customers as to how quick they can scoff it ...In my opinion may as well serve dog food , because it is about gluttony rather than tasting flavours of the meal.

I find that disrespectful to customers and the industry

Channa