Did anyone watch "What are we feeding our kids?" on BBC1

[MarchXX]

Here's link.

i astounded that there has been little to no research of the effect of UPSs on our brains and bodies. The results on Chris (after one month) were dire indeed.

Chris's brain scans before and after were shocking but not surprising as UPF food manufacturers spend multi££££millions on research to find the perfect bliss point to skewer and keep new addicted consumers eating their products again and again.

I was interested in the huge increase in our consumption of UPF foods since 1980 but would have liked to see the difference from 1970 or 1960 because when I was a child growing up (in 60s) there was virtually no UPF foods in our home, all meals were cooked using fresh meat/fish, eggs, veg and fruit with some dried/tinned goods and no ready meals/takeaways. Eating out (or takeaways) was a very rare treat indeed and snacking between meals was frowned upon and not encouraged.

The representative from the food industry was, not surprisingly, reticent about their role in the deteriorating health of our nation's population. Nestle's success in infiltrating remote communities with their UPF-packed supermarket-boats and creating new addicted consumers (and an obesity epidemic) was an eye-opener but not at all surprising seeing as their role in exploiting breastfeeding mothers in third world countries is well known, too.

Anyway, did anyone watch it. What did you think?

@thehairyhog cold pressed rape seed oil actually has half the saturated fats and 10x the amount of omega 3 compared to olive oil! It has 10x less saturated fat than coconut oil! It’s also grown in this country.

Oils are not a good source of omega 3, it's the omega 9 in olive oil that's important. But yes rapeseed is a much better alternative to sunflower which is in so much.

I have always tried to cook from scratch with my dc. I remember when they were little making pasta salads and chicken drumsticks for their packed lunches. I was considered a bit weird but I didn’t care. Ultra processed food has always worried me. We eat too many cakes and biscuits, which is bad but I try to bake as much as I can. All meals are homemade and I have found a local noodle bar and pizza place that make authentic food for those times when we have a takeaway. Far better than dominoes which is all about profit rather than good food

I also buy a lot of our bread from local bakeries. Made that morning so not packed full of preservatives.

Of course we need to cut back on some "ultra processed food" but panicking about a wrap seems excessive to me.

It's not panicking. It's just realising that a lot of foods marketed as healthy are little better than the foods you'd consider to be junk food. And it's looking at something as simple as bread, which only needs to have a few ingredients in it, and seeing a list as long as your arm of substances which you would never find in anyone's domestic kitchen. It doesn't panic me at all. It pisses me off and makes me a bit sad tbh.

Well... so far today I've eaten porridge (organic whole oats, water, grated apple, honey). Made a loaf in the breadmaker yesterday. Lunches (especially packed lunches for the dc) are what I find hardest tbh. They have too many crisps and biscuits. Dinner is much easier - meat/fish, veg, potatoes, rice etc. I always make pasta sauce from scratch, but I do use things like soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce for stir fries.

and a jar of Lloyd Grossman sauce

Why not just add a tin of tomatoes though. Would do the same job.

I knew that as soon as I posted about lloyd grossman sauce someone would say that. Seriously, I am a pretty good cook. There is no way that adding a tin of tomatoes is the same thing as adding a jar of LLoyd grossman sauce which has already been cooked for a long time with a tried and tested great tasting recipe. It just doesn't. To get a great tasting sauce like that you need time and a careful balance of herbs and seasoning. And that's why people will always go to the easy ready made sauces.

I'm like the PP, I make bolognese with meat, garlic onions, butter mushrooms, some balsamic vinegar or left over red wine various other chopped vegetables - we like peppers, tomatoes, olives, courgettes, grated carrot - then I'll add a tin of tomatoes and some basil and cook it down for a bit and then I add a large jar of Lloyd grossman sauce. If I don't add the sauce as the final stage it does not taste as good. It doesn't have the depth of flavour. If I was in a real rush I would do the meat, onions and a jar of the sauce and its still nice. If I did meat, onions and a tin of tomatoes in a rush it would taste shite.

If I had hours to potter and cook then it would be different but I generally don't.

• vegetable oils I mean! Fish and algae oil are

I take omeprazole sometimes but prefer not to.
The NHS issues more than 50 million prescriptions each year for the medication which is used to treat heartburn, ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems,
They are proton pump inibitors - reduce the amount of acid in the stomach.
But I'm sure we need them because of bad diet.
If we cut back on how much and what we eat I doubt anyone would need to take these. You can buy them over the counter too.
Just pointing this out as it is probably due to long term poor food choices.

Brown the onions for your bolognese sauce. Add tomato puree as well as a tin of tomatoes. Add mixed herbs or separately oregano, thyme, basil.

Tastes fine. Add a touch of sugar if you want it more Lloyd
Grossmany.

Bottles labelled vegetable oil are often rapeseed oil. I dont' know why they changed the label. Maybe people didn't know what it was.

I think it was the name. That’s why they called it vegetable oil.

The key to great bolognese with no bought sauce is the cooking time imo. I don't even put red wine in mine as it disagrees with me. Short prep time,then a few hours in the oven with no lid on. Definitely plenty of tomato puree, not just tinned tomatoes.

@thehairyhog yes but rape seed oil only has very slightly less omega 9 that olive oil. It isn’t right to tell people it isn’t nutritious!

I disagree, but others can do their own research

*@HasaDigaEebowai I do a great bolognese without using a jarred sauce. I fry onion and garlic then brown the mince. Add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of water. Add some sun-dried tomato paste, a bit of tomato puree, balsamic vinegar, pinch of sugar, some dried herbs (or fresh), mushroom ketchup, red wine, bit of stock. Let it cook and reduce down a bit for half an hour or so. Delicious!

@TheoMeo I have a hiatus hernia which was badly exacerbated by two pregnancies, so absolutely do need to take PPI’s (Omeprazole) regardless of what I eat. There are other conditions such as H. pylori infection and in rare cases things like Zollinger Ellison syndrome, where PPI treatment is very necessary.

It’s unhelpful and misleading to make such sweeping statements about medication, though I do agree that for a lot of people their reflux and indigestion is exacerbated by lifestyle and diet.

And another tip for onion hating children - I now puree a chopped onion in my nutribullet and then cook that. No more picking out bits of onion!

@HasaDigaEebowai I do a great bolognese without using a jarred sauce

Obviously it's possible, that's not my point. What I'm saying is that if you have ten minutes you can use a sauce, if you just use tomatoes you will need longer to make it taste as good. And that IMO is why many people use them even if they are perfectly capable of cooking from scratch.

I’ve found Jars of toms do cook down fairly quickly if you use a frying pan ( use 2 tins into well fried onions ) a little balsamic and cheeky slurp of apple juice ( instead of pinch of sugar) garlic and seasoning plus herbs of choice. With the wide surface area and kept at a bubble they really do reduce fairly quickly due to the large surface area of heat from below and exposure to air above.

Obviously it's possible, that's not my point. What I'm saying is that if you have ten minutes you can use a sauce, if you just use tomatoes you will need longer to make it taste as good.

Yes, although I still don't think the sauces taste great tbh. If I've got ten minutes, I just won't make bolognese!

They will reduce quickly but they won't taste the same as if they have been cooked for over an hour iMO. They certainly won't in ten minutes.

Why not just cook a load of sauce at the same time then freeze it? Freezer space permitting.

I watched only a bit of this programme but it was really shocking. I am also wondering if I should get a bread maker now as the supposedly healthy brown bread we eat has all sorts extra on the ingredients list and I suppose would be classed as ups
I worry that virtually all our food is ups. Am I right it would include most cereals? Unless we have for instance shredded wheat

the French government have no policy for UPF as far as I'm aware (except for a tax on soda which has been in place a while), I live in France and consumption of UPF is on the increase too

I thought it said on the documentary that the French government had a target to reduce consumption by 2025, but I may be mistaken.

@bendmeoverbackwards

Are some foods just ‘processed’ rather than ultra processed?

The programme divided food into four categories -

Unprocessed/minimally processed - basic cuts of meat and vegetables
Ingredients - fats etc. found in a typical home kitchen
Moderately processed - tinned foods that might have a preservative added
Ultra-processed - fast food, processed meats, some cereals and yoghurts, snack foods.

It was the last category they were specifically saying should be avoided, and the first category that we should be increasing in our diets. Processed as opposed to ultra-processed wasn't much discussed but I got the feeling they weren't seen as causing the rise in obesity.