Obesity

[Oldhippy]

Pretty sure there are drugs in Pringles. Providing a resealable is a waste of plastic.

 

[Reynard]

In all of my nearly 40 years in the Food Industry I have never ever met a single person who is looking to engineer a certain Fat/Salt ratio into a product to create that pleasure point to sell more. Though I have seen various bits of taste research that hints at what makes something more moreish with a view to understanding how to make stuff less 'addictive'... Maybe I need to get out more often.

This was touched on in the documentary - that it's not a deliberate thing to hit that pleasure point, but it apparently crops up as an unintended consequence of stuff being run past panels of tasters / product reviewers etc. Same sort of thing applies to sugar / fat ratios.

 

[Reynard]

I do think we definitely need to see more on the education front - teach the kiddies from primary level upwards, take advantage of that curiosity to get a good grounding in the basics.

Cooking, gardening and healthy eating should be on the school curriculum - not "Food Technology" in its current format*. Cooking is a life skill anyways, and all three are sides of the same coin as it were anyway.

* Friends with teenage kids have told me of a lesson to make cottage pie, where the kids were asked to bring in the following - a can of mince, a packet of instant mash, a pouch of pre-chopped onion and a can of peas.

 

[lazybloke]

This was touched on in the documentary - that it's not a deliberate thing to hit that pleasure point, but it apparently crops up as an unintended consequence of stuff being run past panels of tasters / product reviewers etc. Same sort of thing applies to sugar / fat ratios.

The fat/salt discussion reminded me of Salted Caramel ice cream. I'd happy have that at a tasting session, rather than the usual mundane stuff like toothpaste.

 

[Blue Hills]

In all of my nearly 40 years in the Food Industry I have never ever met a single person who is looking to engineer a certain Fat/Salt ratio into a product to create that pleasure point to sell more. Though I have seen various bits of taste research that hints at what makes something more moreish with a view to understanding how to make stuff less 'addictive'... Maybe I need to get out more often.

i'd be pretty surprised/amazed if that wasn't the case - i reckon the higher ups know what they are after and those below fall into line.
Shell knew, as a famous bit of grafitti told/reminded us.
the tobacco industry knew.
the food industry knew/knows,

 

[mudsticks]

So here is the part-baked Foodie Obesity-reducing manifesto....

In no particular order:

For health, nutrition and environmental reasons we need to move towards a more plant-based and nutrient high diet, particularly vegetables and reduce dependence on foods that are heavy in fat and sugars and offer little nutritive benefit other than calories. Nudging to be used to drive people to make better purchasing choices, so some examples:

• Increase the sugar tax to all foods, cakes, confectionary, pastries, biscuits and sugar etc. (High calorie, no nutritional value)
• Increase tax on all processed meats but not fresh/frozen joints, chops, mince etc - where meat is reduced in size by cutting/chopping
• Increase tax on White bread and refined white flour based products, white rice etc. such that brown/wholemeal/whole grain forms are cheaper
• Dried beans and pulses to be tax-free, Frozen Veg to be tax-free
• Increase Duty on Take-Out alcohol
• Fortification of 'replacement' products - e.g Iodine and Calcium fortification of non-dairy Milks, Iron fortification of meat replacers etc

I would also ban advertising and sponsorship for take-away foods/delivery services and products such as High Sugar drinks, Confectionary, Cakes, pastries, Alcohol etc - basically those foods that would be given a nudge taxation rise.

Public Health - we need to move to a prevention rather than cure model by changing investment in the NHS (the cost to the NHS/Public purse is significant and rising).

• Free school meals for all children to school leaving age based on a diet as proscribed above - High Veg, low free carb
• Free milk at break and lunch
• Free Breakfasts in particularly deprived areas
• School Nurses - routine health/nutrition MOT during school years
• School 'activity' to be increased sport or similar physical
• End food banks
• Bariatric surgery to be more widely available - the benefits outweigh the costs
• More regular adult health-checks as if you were going private, access to dieticians etc.
• Greater encouragement to be active. Nudges to encourage walking and cycling rather than cars - School runs being a perfect example

Finally, the biggie: It's well documented that Obesity and other ill health issues are related to socio-economic factors, education, deprivation and lack of opportunity. This needs to change.


So, shoot-away!

All this is fine in theory, the problems and the solutions with improving much of the food and farming system have been rehearsed for decades.

Trouble is with impending post brexit trade deals with US or whoever the chances are we will have lower standards on food production, labelling , and not be allowed to protect quality home grown produce in the way in which we could inside the EU.

There's a high chance we'll end up with a two tier food system

On the one hand deregulated cheap stuff imported from anywhere produced to uncertain standards.

For those who don't know the difference, or can't afford to choose better.

With a few more niche producers like me supplying those who care .

Unless of course the great British food citizen actively supports measures to improve the situation.

 

[Kingfisher101]

Oh; chicken livers. Yes. Seem cheap at the supermarket for something so tasty, easy to cook, and nutritious.

I actually never knew people actually eat these, I thought they were just for cats.

 

[Reynard]

Good to see you back @mudsticks

 

[Reynard]

I actually never knew people actually eat these, I thought they were just for cats.

My two turn their noses up at those...

 

[mudsticks]

Good to see you back @mudsticks

Thank you

Chicken livers are yum, from a half decent bird of course

The cat wouldn't get a look in

 

[KnittyNorah]

I actually never knew people actually eat these, I thought they were just for cats.

When I had cats and dogs, I would be cooking chicken livers and pinching them out of the pan as they sizzled, saying one for me, a little one for you, one for me, a bit for you, one for me, a couple of tubes for you, one for me, another one for me ... until eventually they were all gone and not one of them had touched a plate or a dish ... straight out of the pan into a mouth - human, feline or canine!

 

[Reynard]

When I had cats and dogs, I would be cooking chicken livers and pinching them out of the pan as they sizzled, saying one for me, a little one for you, one for me, a bit for you, one for me, a couple of tubes for you, one for me, another one for me ... until eventually they were all gone and not one of them had touched a plate or a dish ... straight out of the pan into a mouth - human, feline or canine!

That's more or less how we roll here chez Casa Reynard. Like tonight, for instance...

Tuna for me. Tuna for Poppy. Tuna for Lexi. Tuna for me. Tuna for Poppy. Tuna for Lexi. Und so weiter...

N.B. This was freshly-grilled tuna that I was meant to be flaking up to put in tonight's salad.

 

[KnittyNorah]

* Friends with teenage kids have told me of a lesson to make cottage pie, where the kids were asked to bring in the following - a can of mince, a packet of instant mash, a pouch of pre-chopped onion and a can of peas.

I was reminded of a similar sort of thing a friend with a teenage daughter told me about a few years ago. The teenage daughter was - quite rightly - disgusted beyond measure, being a keen cook herself and her mother at the time a professional chef at an upmarket golf club. And both of them bloody good all-round cooks.
Young Alice apparently told the teacher in no uncertain terms what she thought - and had support from a couple of her classmates in flatly refusing to bring in the weird assortment of tinned and packet ingredients demanded of them, instead saying they would make the item - whatever it was - out of 'proper' ingredients. And they did.

 

[Reynard]

There could be a practical/ policy reason for that. All of the listed items are sealed. Would you want to eat cottage pie made with mince that has been knocking around at the bottom of a schoolchild's satchel all day?

Granted it would be less of an issue for tatties, but all the same, they can still teach most of the skills, which is what it's really all about, using the pre packed things.

I get what you are saying - up to a point. When I did Home Economics at school, most of the ingredients were provided.

But teach you the skills? No, I'm not so sure about that. Going back to the cottage pie made from packaged ingredients. I mean you don't learn how to wash, peel, cut up, boil and mash potatoes. You don't learn when they are underdone or just right. You don't learn about how not to put too much meat in your pan else it will steam and not brown, you don't learn how to deglaze your frying pan and add flour to make the gravy. You don't learn about seasoning or what consistency things should be.

It's just plopping ingredients together without learning any of the basic skills.

It's just like Delia Smith's "How to Cheat at Cooking"

 

[KnittyNorah]

There could be a practical/ policy reason for that. All of the listed items are sealed. Would you want to eat cottage pie made with mince that has been knocking around at the bottom of a schoolchild's satchel all day?

Granted it would be less of an issue for tatties, but all the same, they can still teach most of the skills, which is what it's really all about, using the pre packed things.

Seems to me the skill that's being concentrated on there is 'how to use a can-opener'. And 'safe and appropriate transport and storage of foodstuffs' is a skill which needs teaching to many, too.