Monday 2 November 2015

Ugh...

First of all, welcome to Mrs. L. Hughes and Johanne Forth via Bloglovin.

Rhonda at Down to Earth blog, ( see my blog roll to the right), always adds links to her Friday blog. This one in particular caught my attention See hear

If ever there was a reason to not eat so much processed food, this has to be it. So okay, we might not be able to recreate all of these ourselves, but why so many ingredients, why so many fats, why so much sugar, why so many chemicals?

If you take the time to read what is in these products, and in particular what is in the ones you eat on a very regular basis, would you still eat them? We do on occasions use the chicken soup in a pie as a thickening and flavour. What is in that is ridiculous.

If you flavour your meals with packets in particular, your taste buds seem to adapt to them. When deciding to give them up and create a similar meal from scratch, you may well be disappointed with the lack of flavour.

However, if you persevere, your taste buds should adjust. When they do, I think your body will thank you for it.


16 comments:

  1. Yes I agree. I'm not a fan of salt, never have been and don't add any to my own meal when it's served, just add a small amount when cooking veg, etc. The thing I find most noticeable is sugar. When you don't normally use that much and then taste something processed which you thought was savoury, it's surprising how sweet it tastes.

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    1. If I add a little salt to my cooking, none is added at the table and visa versa. We find we just can't eat many bought sweets as they are just too sweet.

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  2. A nightmare - I have been told not to eat processed foods by the Doctors as my system does not work as efficiently as it should do which causes problems with the medical conditions I have - not that I have been a big one for processed foods. Occasionally though I do buy the odd pie (I try and make most of them) and do a batch baking system as have to . With OH now being diabetic I never thought to look for sugar in a steak and onion pie. Black treacle was added - what is sugar doing in meat pie. That was a pie from M & S so it pays to read the labels and be aware of what extras go into food which are completely unnecessary. Why can they not leave food alone. Pattypan

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    1. I forget to take my glasses when shopping so poor DB has to keep getting his out. Sugar and salt just seems to be in everything. Maybe black treacle was used as an enhancer although like you, can't see any reason to use it.

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  3. It's even more worrying seeing all those little piles of powder and so few actual recognisable foods in those images.

    You're so right about our tastebuds developing to accept the manufactured foods. It's sometimes hard to get them back to liking the natural flavours but well worth persevering. I need to do this with mayonnaise, I used to make our own, but have been back to buying it for around a year now, it's addictive stuff this Hellmann's, but I must get back to basics and make my own again.

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    1. I think it a good article because of all the little piles and pools. We use bought mayo mainly because we hardly use it and fresh would go to waste.

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  4. Well said, and thanks for the pointer to this article. I think our palettes adjust in the same way when you cut out salt - horrid at first, but eventually you adjust. Have a good day.

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    1. I'm still trying to adapt to no sugar on our porridge, getting there slowly.

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  5. We eat very little processed food and most of our flavourings are herbs and spices.
    I do, however, put just a tiny amount (about a teaspoonful) of black treacle in with beef for stew, pies etc.
    My paternal grandmother, who was senior cook at The King's School, Chester, taught me that it enhances the flavour of the meat, and she was right, it really does!
    The only time we use mayonnaise is with added garlic as an occasional treat with chips, our dressings are normally flavoured vinegars. Our jams are usually home made, using agave nectar or honey as sweeteners, soups have herbs and spices to replace salt, I never use salt whilst cooking as DH insists on grinding fresh salt over his meals, so he does that and I use just the tiniest amount on my meal. Certain foods just need salt though, a roast beef sandwich without salt wouldn't be worth eating!
    Super processed foods are okay as a very occasional treat, cheese and onion crisps are an addiction of mine, but I make kale crisps to nibble on and have a packet of cheese and onion about every two months or so.
    I always take my glasses when shopping and check ingredients in everything, avoiding those with too much 'garbage' in!

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    1. Thanks for that and guess that solves the mention of black treacle in red meat pies!

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  6. I have worked in the food industry in one way or another for most of my working life and this does not come as a surprise to me. I do not buy processed foods as a general rule, I did have a couple of deliveries from AF but most of that went to James and Fran to help their budgets. I bought tomato ketchup this year as my tomatoes were late and I ran out, I do buy brown sauce at times but should really try to make it. I buy tinned tomatoes and cooked beans, I do buy baked beans but only when I run out of or am too lazy to make my own. I am looking at the American pressure canners at the moment as my freezer space is so limited. I have used molasses in beef casseroles but more often use a spoonful of cocoa powder for the richness.

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    1. Nothing seems to be as simply as you would think is it? I do buy baked beans even though they have sugar and other things in them. Interesting about cocoa as I use it in chilli but forget when making stew or casserole!

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  7. We have a charity sweet box at work. The flapjack
    a colleague of mine loves has over a 4 month eat by date. I say what the heck and flip does it have in it to stay fresh that long.? Crazy I wouldn't eat anything like that. Yuk yuk yuk.

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    1. Me neither but I suspect an awful lot of things have similar ingredients.

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  8. I recently read a book called, "Fat, Sugar, Salt... How the Food Giants Hooked Us" and it is incredibly eye opening and disturbing! However, sugar and salt are often added as preservatives even in home cooking, just think how much sugar we often add to fruit preserves! I try to avoid most processed foods AND be conscious of how much I am adding to my own cooking. It does take a while for taste buds to adapt though!

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    1. True about home preserves but for us, we only eat 1 tsp of jam each morning so don't consider that too bad. We know it is in things we make but aren't always sure whereabouts things are hidden amongst all the jargon. The internet comes in handy for that.

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