Friday, June 26, 2009

[fatty salads] when you least expect it

A survey by consumer watchdog Which? found Morrisons' Smedleys Atlantic Prawn Marie Rose Salad contained 855 calories and 66.3g fat - more than a McDonald's Big Mac and medium fries and 70% of the fat a man should eat in a day.

Which?
bought a selection of 20 pre-packed salads on the high street and found another unhealthy option was Asda's Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, which contained 43g of fat, nearly as much as six Cadbury's Creme eggs.Almost a quarter of the salad is made up of high-calorie dressing (13% mayonnaise, 10% Caesar dressing).

The manufacturers have a double problem - they need to put enough chemicals in to preserve the salad fresh for long enough and western people's tastes are, frankly, sugary and salty. When a weight-conscious lady buys a fresh salad, she may have it in mind that it's healthy but equally, the body won't take withdrawal from its sugar, salt and saturated fats.

People are deluding themselves into an appearance of healthiness.

In Russia, as you imagine, what you see on the shelf is what you get. Grains are brought in, in kilogram plastic bags, a paper label is stuck on and that's that. No additives. Trays of bread are carried through and dumped in huge tubs. A cow that's been recently cut up has the portions laid out in bain-marie that day. The grandmother or mother prepares it that day into various dishes, including beef and rice patties, say and the salads prepared. The Russians have a weakness for white products and mayonnaise, so these are where the bulk of the calories are.

I was looking at ASDA's shelves two days ago and overheard someone saying that these particular noodles were 'healthy'. Healthy? There were the noodles in the packet [not the best carbs for a start] and then came all the E numbers, this chemical, that chemical, beef 'flavour' [as distinct from beef] and so it went on.

It was poison.

This is the gunge which people are feeding into themselves. There's a chippy I know and when you hold the fish vertically, the grease drips off onto the paper. Yet that's what people are used to, that's what people want.

I was looking at a nutrition chart on beef and other meats and discovered that if you have meat from the neck down to the chest [apparently the Americans call this 'chuck'], it gives 500% of your recommended choleterol intake. What we call 'fillet steak' [and the Americans apparently call 'brisket'] had 13% per portion of cholesterol. So even in the cut were vast differences.

Now, which would be the cheaper cut?

Good nutrition does appear to be a question of having the dosh, it does seem the preserve of the well-off.

8 comments:

  1. 'Bad Food Britain' on an Amazon banner on my blog (shameless plug I know) gives you all the information you need to know about this sort of thing.

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  2. Not shameless at all. Glad of it - send me the code please, JPT.

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  3. Oh cheer up, Hob. Much of the stuff passed off as nutrition "science" is little more than superstition. My advice is that you eat a mixed diet that you enjoy. That way you cover yourself for the cases where the doctors happen to be right, where they are ignorant, and where they are wrong.

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  4. That's far too sensible, Dearieme, for this day and age.

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  5. The good news its been shown that a starvation diet could help you live longer.

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  6. James: not sure of the code but if you click on the link in my blog you'll find it!

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  7. Seeing the calories and fat of some of the prepacked food is quite shocking. There is no need for so much fat and you can't taste the food properly.

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  8. The biggest health hazard for people is animal fats. One can get protein from plant life so do not need to eat animal fats.

    Even though food was rationed after WW11 they ate healthier than we do now.

    We all have to move away from pre- packaged, processed foods and animal fats.

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