To be astonished at the stupidity of the Smart Swap campaign?

[Farrowandbawlbauls]

Yes, we all need to eat better and move about more but I've just seen the advert for swapping sugar loaded fizzy drinks for sugar free ones.

Am I alone in thinking it's one of the most ill thought of things they've come up with yet?

The sweetners in sugar free drinks are dangerous. The sugar free stuff usually advertised is most of the time, worse than the full fat stuff.

Link

I can see why they are doing this as it is a huge problem in this country, but I don't thing they've thought this through at all.

Oh yes and it's one molecule away from being plastic

Your point?

This is the same change4life that's partnering with Nestlé, let's not forget

EndoplasmicReticulum - if you actually typed up the chemistry then it would not read as simple as what I had already posted.
The facts are still the facts but whilst the food industry make fast and easy food and the government do not educate on how to prepare fresh meals then people will choose to ignore what is staring them in the face.

Re that margarine info. I was also told about that by someone that worked close to that field of 'expertise' and I thought that 'margarine' itself had been banned for human consumption? don't know.

Personally, I use Bertolli or butter.

meboo - that is not your own posting though, you have c+pasted it.

I do not disagree that fresh meals are better, I don't personally buy margarine because I prefer butter.

But I do object to nonsense statements like the one about "only one molecule away from plastic" and "it's full of chemicals"

I'm a science pedant.

A publicly funded campaign advising people to eat marg , low fat products (often with sweeteners added) and fizzy drinks is unbelievable.

Fairisleknitter That's exactly what I'm trying to say.

Alarm bells were ringing because I just KNEW that somewhere alsong the line supermarkets and junk food companies will be sponsoring this and as they have the Government in their back pocket one way or another it just makes a mockery of everything we were taught as children about healthy eating - which is everything all decent nutritionists and doctors will tell you. A healthy, balanced diet.

Before someone mentions it, I am aware of the spelling error in the title and have asked MNHQ to add the missing T.

I think we can just agree that these foods are not healthy, no matter what the governments say.

I think 2 reasonable shopping rules are:
Don't buy it if your grandmother wouldn't recognise it
Don't buy anything with more than 5 ingredients (although obviously you can cook things with more than 5 in)

let's face it you can barely fit a 'fag paper' between corporate interests and 'public health concerns' these days. especially when the former is paying for and advising the latter.

sad fact is that actually so long as the meat isn't getting pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and the veg aren't covered in pesticides we'd probably all be better off going back to a meat and two veg kind of diet - and then where would the likes of nestle be?

Diet drinks make you eat more - so whilst a straight swap of Diet Coke in place of Coca Cola is a good idea because the refined sugars and empty calories are no good for you, your body is not fooled by the false sweetness and seeks out sugar/carbs in compensation.

The old joke about an extra large Big Mac meal with Diet Coke turns out to be true.

I'd love to know which muppet came up with this latest idea though..and how many doctors, nutritionists etc are against this and what they actually say.

oh and eggs! don't forget eggs which though once falsely maligned are actually really good for you and the best 'fast food' you can get.

honestly the mind boggles at hte stupidity soemtimes - special k? no, just throw away all cereal and have an egg and slice of multi grain toast which will keep you fuller for longer and actually have some nutrtion in and STILL have less calories.

low fat spread? no just don't spread stuff on your sandwiches if you want to cut back because it's not essential to wipe fat on your bread in fact bread isn't even essential.

i'm also baffled by things like low fat biscuits.

smart swapping really is things like swap the fizzy drink full stop and drink more water. or, if you like a drink, ditch the beer and drinking long white wine and sodas for example. want low fat dinner? cut the fat off of your meat numpty, pick a lean cut, swap meat for fish, have a veggie meal etc.

i feel like adults should know better but i'm really sad they're starting to apply this nonsense to kids. petit filous is one of my pet hates - filled with goodness? it's made with skimmed milk powder and fructose glucose syrup ffs.

corporate muppets farrow - not hcps unless they're hcps turned nestle advisors or the like.

Aspartame is NOT in everything Farrow....not if you eat fresh, whole foods. And johnny it's evil stuff....certainly not bunkum about it poisoning people.

And I agree that it's shocking this....complaining about obesity and then churning out nonsense like this!

70s kid here and can fezz up to a bloody awful diet of sweets, crisps and fizzy pop( sold at infant school) moms dreadful findus cakes, angel delight and fray bentos pies!

Still we were skinny because we played out after school until dark, all weekend and holidays and weren't sat in our arses playing computer games.

Think we worry and blame food far too much for obesity.

Awful I didn't say it was.

Oh right....I see ASDA TESCO and MARS are amongst the sponsors of this shite. list here

Please forgive my stupidity about this but are there any spreads that are healthy? The olive oil ones or the spreadable butters? Or is it just normal butter that is ok?

Yanbu! I thought exactly the same. If it's aimed at adults, why the childlike animation and tone? If it's aimed at children what the hell are they playing at? The 5 suggested swaps were all totally insane for children - fizzy drinks to diet drinks, cheese to low fat cheese, butter to margarine, blue milk to semi skimmed and I can't remember the last, but equally as mad. I can understand why people might advise adults with weight problems to switch to low fat versions, but only for the purpose of weight loss. But for general health it's terrible advice, and for children it's absurd.

It's the same as everything else as far as I can see Annonynon (love that name BTW) it's a matter of everything in moderation.

It doesn't matter if you use full fat butter because you shouldn't be eating anything that requires a lot of it. Have it on toast but don't plaster it on, have a little in vegetables but don't drown the vegetables with it every single time. Think of it as a flavour enhancer...

To me that's how it works anyway.

Some of the cheaper 'olive' spreads have palm oil in which I won't buy.

Annonynon Which? magazine, says many alternative spreads contain harmful 'trans fats', which can be worse than saturated fats.
Somerfield's own-label spread had an average of 21g of trans fat per 100g, while high levels were found in other brands including Willow, Clover, Anchor SoSoft, Golden Churn and Pura Buttertaste.
Health experts believe consumption of trans fats should be limited to less than 5g a day. One piece of bread spread with the Somerfield product would account for 1.7g.
The Consumers' Association said: 'People are not getting what they believe they are paying for. Apart from that, spreads which customers believe are made mainly from olive oil are often nothing of the sort.'

I remember on a thread last year a MNer discovered how to make her own spreadable lurpack.

I block of lurpack in a food processor with some oil and blitz until well blended.

If you compare that to another spreadable butter...there's a damn sight more added to the shop bought one than there needs to be.

Butter is after all only milk and salt. Add oil and you have a healthier spreadable version.

It works too.