Guess which country has the most ultra processed food as a share of household purchases?

MissAdventure

I wonder who is buying all this ultra processed food, seeing as it's not any of us, or anybody we associate with.

My bet would be: those with full-time jobs and fractious children while shopping in the half-hour after picking the children up from day-care and getting home after work!

Second, not neccesarily the same as in the first group, all those who are ten-fifteen years younger than we and never learned to cook!

Third, men who have lost their wives, late in life, and have until widowed eaten food prepared first by their mothers and later by their wives. Many of these men never learned or wanted or were encouraged to learn to cook

Members of either sex who detest cooking,

Fourthly women who find it difficult to stand at a stove cooking any more.

Fifthly, men who find it difficult to stand and cook, and sixthly, people who have carers.

Sixthly those who are tempted by food that requires little preparation, less fuel for cooking and tastes OK.

Seventhly, people who aren't rapturous about lentils.

MissAdventure

Seventhly, people who aren't rapturous about lentils.

7.5 ly, those who avoid lentils because the lentils cause excessive flatus for them, potentially damaging the atmosphere.

MissAdventure

Ah, yes.
I've never known anyone to feed their family separate ready meals for each member.

That would be mad, as well as expensive.

A meal for four based on frozen ready meals rarely comes in one box, unless the portions are so small they need extra packets/ food from other sources.

Most homes only have one microwave so you spend ages putting frozen food in and out of microwaves, trying to keep one packet reasonably warm wjile another defrosts and heats through.

I cannot be bothered.

Mollygo

MissAdventure

Seventhly, people who aren't rapturous about lentils.

7.5 ly, those who avoid lentils because the lentils cause excessive flatus for them, potentially damaging the atmosphere.

😁

Don't forget sprouts.
There will be plenty of methane around after all those Christmas dinners.

Oh bother! I’d forgotten about the sprouts. . . . And let’s not omit the stuffing!!!

I think it should be made clear what are ultra-processed foods.

Good ready meals are not necessarily in that category and, for those unable to cook from scratch can be a good alternative.

The Britih Heart Foundation lists these:
Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat and grains.
Processed culinary ingredients: Sugar, salt, butter, lard, oils, vinegar.
Processed foods: Freshly made, unpackaged bread, tinned fruits and vegetables, salted nuts, ham, bacon, tinned fish and cheese.
Ultra processed: Ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, some breakfast cereals, biscuits, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yogurts, instant soups, and some alcoholic drinks including whisky, gin, and rum.

Other nutritionists may disagree.

NHS:
Ultra-processed foods include things like:

sweetened drinks
crisps
packaged cakes and biscuits
ice cream
sweets and chocolate
some ready meals
packaged meat pastries like pies and pasties

I'd add aspartame as a danger additive.

Allira

What's ultra-processed?
Is it Charlie Bigham? Is he ultra-processed?
If so, guilty as charged

We had one of his curry’s, quite expensive really & hardly any meat. Had one each even though it say serves two 🙄

I would have thought most ready meals must be processed, not that I know anything about ultra processing at all.

Is it the amount of different processes a food goes through before it ends up on the plate?

Despite all this dreadful ultra-processed food we British eat, we are surprisingly low on the list of stroke and deaths due to cardiovascular incidence in Europe:

www.statista.com/statistics/1417035/stroke-incidence-in-europe-by-country/
www.statista.com/statistics/1420801/share-of-deaths-attributed-to-cvd-in-europe/

MissAdventure

I would have thought most ready meals must be processed, not that I know anything about ultra processing at all.

Is it the amount of different processes a food goes through before it ends up on the plate?

It has more to do with the ingredients than the number of processes.

These are the ingredients listed by Tesco as being in their white batch loaf: Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Water, Yeast, Salt, Preservative (Calcium Propionate), Soya Flour, Spirit Vinegar, Emulsifier (Mono- and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Rapeseed Oil, Flour Treatment Agent (Ascorbic Acid).

How many of these would you have in your kitchen and how many would youuse if you were to make a white loaf.

When I made bread. Flour, yeast and salt were all I used.

Oh thank you.
I don't think I've got any of those ingredients.

They sound dangerous!

Wheat flour: calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin are in any non-wholemeal flour.
These minerals and vitamins are found in many foods.
Rapeseed Oil - I would put some butter or oil in a dough mix.
Vinegar - never used it.
Ascorbic Acid - aka Vitamin C

Emulsifier (Mono- and Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids) a preservative.
I wouldn't use it but I can see why manufacturers would need to.

MissAdventure

Oh thank you.
I don't think I've got any of those ingredients.

They sound dangerous!

They're not! 😁
If you didn't contain calcium carbonate you'd collapse.

Anyone seen the queues of secondary school kids in those cheap fast food chicken/ pizza/ chips etc shops?

vegansrock

Anyone seen the queues of secondary school kids in those cheap fast food chicken/ pizza/ chips etc shops?

We were never allowed out of school at lunch-time unless we had written permission and went home for dinner.

Neither were we.
We still went out though, discreetly.

vegansrock

Anyone seen the queues of secondary school kids in those cheap fast food chicken/ pizza/ chips etc shops?

They serve much the same in some schools.
The days of school dinners seem well and truly over.

MissAdventure

vegansrock

Anyone seen the queues of secondary school kids in those cheap fast food chicken/ pizza/ chips etc shops?

They serve much the same in some schools.
The days of school dinners seem well and truly over.

Unfortunately that's true.

MissAdventure

Oh thank you.
I don't think I've got any of those ingredients.

They sound dangerous!

I hope you’ve got water MissA.
And hopefully it’s not dangerous, though our water companies aren’t doing too good a job these days.

Anyway I’m far too lazy to make my own bread. We buy sourdough loaves or seeded uncut.
My son makes lovely sourdough loaves though.
He made this one.

Allira

Mollygo

MissAdventure

Seventhly, people who aren't rapturous about lentils.

7.5 ly, those who avoid lentils because the lentils cause excessive flatus for them, potentially damaging the atmosphere.

😁

Don't forget sprouts.
There will be plenty of methane around after all those Christmas dinners.

My father used to call sprouts (and baked beans) fart-fruits.

petal53

MissAdventure

Oh thank you.
I don't think I've got any of those ingredients.

They sound dangerous!

I hope you’ve got water MissA.
And hopefully it’s not dangerous, though our water companies aren’t doing too good a job these days.

Anyway I’m far too lazy to make my own bread. We buy sourdough loaves or seeded uncut.
My son makes lovely sourdough loaves though.
He made this one.

Hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, calcium carbonate, plumbing, F-, chloramine, chlorine dioxide, aluminium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, ferric chloride etc.

Consume as much as required, it has no calories.