To think that recipes like this should be banned

[wol1968]

...or at least come with a big fat warning triangle. It's Miranda Gore Brown's recipe for Hazelnut Tiramisu Cake, in this month's Essentials. It's basically a nutrition-wheel red-out, with chocolate, double cream, mascarpone, butter, sugar, sugar, booze, sugar, chocolate...you get the picture. Calorie content: 1074 cals a serving.

I'm not a food prude. I'm not a health nut. I like a slice of cake as much as the next woman. But really? Is it physically possible for anyone except endurance athletes, Arctic explorers and lanky teenagers to eat this without it affecting their health? This kind of recipe is more like drugs than food, TBH, and I think it's probably deeply irresponsible to be promoting it when so many people are worried about obesity. Yes, you can choose not to eat it, or have a smaller slice. But I'm not sure it should be glorified as delicious even though it probably is

AIB completely U to feel a bit disturbed?

If it's homemade from good quality (though very rich) ingredients, it's going to be a lot healthier than processed junk food. You could easily consume that number of calories on fast food and feel hungry again an hour later. As part of a healthy diet it has its place, as a weekend treat perhaps. you could always have half a portion!
Really want some now! :-P

here MissB

Rationing actually provided more calories than today's daily guidelines simply because people were so much more active. It's one of the reasons why we're often short of nutrients too. Because we don't do enough, we don't eat enough food to get the nutrients we need (that and processed food has lost a lot of nutrients etc)

Is there a link to the recipe yet? I have the urge to go shopping and make a cake now...

Private that national food survey was collated by asking a bunch of people to say what they ate. Not v scientific, extremely likely that lots of people lied or simply underestimated. I believe so anyway, you only have to look around at the culture of constantly available, high calorie/low nutrient food today. Somebody is buying it and presumably eating it!

Private there are more up-to-date studies that show our (or the UK's) calorie consumption is something like 3300 calories per day on average. Maybe they added in the soft drinks and confectionary that the BBC-referenced study missed out!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_food_energy_intake

Make that 3440 calories/day...

Yes, I did say that here was an issue with the soft drinks!

Anyway, it is true that our calorie requirements are far less now than they were then, but that calories in themselves are not harmful.

The tiramisu that started this is fine, if you're eating a good variety of other foods and getting enough exercise so that it doesn't cause you to gain weight. Much better for you IMO than low fat spread on "diet" crackers, followed by yogurt full of artificial sweeteners. Or the same number of calories in (processed) pizza or chocolate bars.

It annoys me when people discuss healthy eating as if that means low fat/low calorie. For most people (especially children) it doesn't. Not having enough calories is very bad for you too. The low fat thing has been preached since the 1970s and look what's happened.

but i never have just one serving? can anyone really stop at one serving? maybe if you have eight people in your house?

well, few things, firstly, I'd not make that cake because coffee has no place in anything other than a coffee mug and anyone who likes coffee in a cake is a freak.

Secondly, it's a very faffy cake, normal people don't make that for everyday. I have never worked out the calories in a 'special occasion cake', because they aren't normal eating days.

People aren't fat because they massively over-ate on their birthday or mothers day, they are fat because they over-ate a little bit every day.

And finally, if your idea of a reasonable portion of a cake like that is 1/8th then you have a portion control issue.

Banned? Can I join the Recipe Police? What will the uniform look like?

Yes, it's an irresponsible recipe. Sugar is addictive and detrimental to health.

To suggest sugar overload is fine in our culture though, currently. I don't think it will always be this way. At some point the truth about sugar will reach a tipping point and it won't only be the nutritionally aware and the health conscious that are in the know.

People laugh now about Coca Cola originally containing Cocaine, and find it weird that all the old films are filled with people lighting up cigarettes.

Awareness shifts, but slowly slowly.

'A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play' used to be a real ad slogan for Mars bars.. Just look at the awareness shift since then.

People overloading on sugar will be looked at in the same way as we look at people smoking, by the next generation or two. IMHO. Health dinosaurs.

If you are going to ban sugar, then you need to ban cakes, unless you think making them with fake sugar replacements is a good idea.

It's not an easy recipe, it's not something you will regularly knock up for a midweek dinner pudding, it's a special treat recipe. If you aren't overeating the rest of the year round, having a small slice (and smaller than the 1/8th they suggest) at the end of a special dinner won't make you gain a dress size.

Costa medium full fat cappuccino and a chocolate muffin is around 600 calories. I'd rather have half a slice of home made tiramisu.

all things in moderation OP. Sounds dreamy the cake!

Agree with Private.

Unfortunately those who get to shout the loudest about "healthy eating" are usually those with something to sell ie the big companies who have the clout and influence. So a lot of people are getting "medical/dietary" advice from Nestle, Kellogg or Unilever.

People trust these brands and trust what they say and because they see the words low fat, heart healthy or whole grain they think that equals healthy and gives them the green light to stuff their faces with it. These phrases are all just marketing slogans

Sounds amazing! = in our house!

Now if you'd suggested OP, that we make fizzy drinks the equivalent of alcohol, then I think YWNBU....it's the habitual, mindless consumption of sugary crap that is a big problem for people's health, not an occasional piece of cake.

It's horrible whats sitting on the shelves in the supermarkets masquerading as food. Kellogs are positively evil, IMHO, knowing that their gmo corn causes cancer, and carrying on selling it.

I was aghast when I saw the new Weatherspoons menu that lists the calorie content of all their dishes. There were LOADS of things over 1000 calories per serving. It really shocked me.

I think its fine to splurge occasionally, but obesity IS becoming a huge problem so its good to list calorie content I think.

YABU of course. As so many have said this is a special treat like fish and chips or any other of those things which should really be eaten rarely and in small quantities.

Sometimes I don't understand all the fear about obesity. I do understand that type 2 diabetes is ridiculously expensive for the NHS, so obviously that's really bad. But obesity seems to have become a national obsession. Surely there are worse things to worry about and isn't it almost making it worse? Does it really cost that much? Someone can only die once and surely there isn't a massive price difference for the NHS in the cost of one person's death to another - excluding type 2 diabetes. It just seems another way of dividing and infantilising people, which probably makes people feel even worse.

Sneaks out surreptitiously to buy Essentials..... curls up with wine to read recipe.

I wonder if the OP actually works for Essentials

Can we ban patronising arses who don't understand that other people are capable of making their own informed choices without any interference from busy bodies?

aer wouldn't that be lovely :)

Cheers to that idea

I made a chocolate caramel cake today. There's half a dairy, eggs, a small chocolate farm, and a great big pile of sugar in it. And 4 tbs of flour. Luckily this is a grinch-free house, and everyone seems highly appreciative.