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

I want to know the methods used for info gathering...
Please come back Dinahmo

What point is the OP making?
That we’re all unhealthy and fat, if we live in the UK?
But not if we live in France?
Just asking.

All out in their S'Westers.. fishing in a stormy sea...

"Morning Pat, fish fingers for lunch, is it?"

MissAdventure

Didn't people ever give their chilren fish fingers, beans, tinned tuna, sardines on toast, welsh rarebit and things of that kind then ???

Perish the thought! Only organic home grown quinoa and milk from home reared goats, in between weaving their clothes from the goat hair!

Dinahmo please could you tell me where uou found the Amazing Maps info?

I've googled them but can't see the info you've posted about in the opening post.
Thank you.

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.

MissAdventure

Didn't people ever give their chilren fish fingers, beans, tinned tuna, sardines on toast, welsh rarebit and things of that kind then ???

Nothing UPF about tinned tuna, sardines, the makings of welsh rarebit or a decent slice of baker's bread. Beans and fish fingers are marginal

But no one is suggesting our food should be UPF free, just that we should eat less.

I always found that cooking from scratch was less hassle than eating ready meals, where several were needed to feed a family of four and most taste horrible until extra ingredients and flavour are added to them - and you still need to cook the vegetables, whether fresh or frozen.

No such thing as Vesta anything when I was a child. Just about everything except baked beans was cooked from scratch. My mother would hardly ever even buy biscuits. Not that there was much in the way of UPFs then.

A Vesta Paella was my occasional treat for myself as a student, when marginally less skint than usual.

Allira

^still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food^

My Grandma, born in the 1870s, would not recognise an advocado, mango, garlic, rice as an accompaniment rather than a pudding, plus many ingredients we take for granted now.

Your grandmother may well never have seen advocado, mango or garlic, but I am sure she would recognise them as food, not chemicals or soap or washing soda. I eat a lot of food now that I would not have recognised as a child.

By the way Michael Pollan is an eminent American food writer who first alerted the world to the debasement of modern food and the dangers to human health. I did not expect his name to be recognised, but wherever possible I give sources for quotes.

The addition of aspartame to drinks when sugar was removed means that most soft drinks arenow sweeter than they were before the sugar tax.

This is known as an unintended consequence. At the time the government said that removing sugar would make drinks less sweet and people would gradually become accustomed to food that was less sweet

Another unintended consequence was to drastically reduce the range of soft drinks available to people who can taste sweeteners in food - and do not like them, or who get headaches if they consume too much aspartame and too much can be very little.

I do not particularly enjoy alcoholic drinks and used to drink soft drinks when out or at social occasions. I am now reduced to drinking water or alcohol, and even fizzy water gets boring after the second glass.

Can we have a link to the paper please?

I've seen it referenced in a Soil Association paper but can't see a link.

Thank you.

MissAdventure

Didn't people ever give their chilren fish fingers, beans, tinned tuna, sardines on toast, welsh rarebit and things of that kind then ???

Yes of course we all did MissA and tinned spaghetti, Frosties angel delight and the crème de la crème Vesta Curry

MissAdventure

Didn't people ever give their chilren fish fingers, beans, tinned tuna, sardines on toast, welsh rarebit and things of that kind then ???

You’ve just described my usual diet there…

Didn't people ever give their chilren fish fingers, beans, tinned tuna, sardines on toast, welsh rarebit and things of that kind then ???

MayBee70

Strangely enough I saw a similar chart showing sugar consumption and England’s consumption is quite low compared to many countries. ( I think it was England and not the UK but I could be wrong) which quite surprised me.

We're not allowed by Government diktat so children have to consume aspartame instead which is far worse.

Strangely enough I saw a similar chart showing sugar consumption and England’s consumption is quite low compared to many countries. ( I think it was England and not the UK but I could be wrong) which quite surprised me.

So did I.

I don't buy hardly any processed food I cook from scratch still but I always have, know I have the time as now retired, but I did it when I worked.


full time

No, there was a range of birthday cakes available in UK supermarkets at the time. I know it's a long time ago, but just a marker of how radically things have changed.

23 years is a long time ago we probably made our birthday cakes here too

I'm surprised to see Ireland is so high up there. We were in Dublin 23 years ago and it was my niece's 1st birthday. I went in a large Tesco to buy her a birthday cake and couldn't see any. When I asked a shelf-stacker, she replied "We don't buy birthday cakes! We make them!". Things must have changed a lot since then!

Ready meals for lazy people.

Or people who, for whatever reason, cannot spend a lot of time cooking from scratch every day.

Who the eck is Charlie Bigham and is his ham big 🤣

still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food

My Grandma, born in the 1870s, would not recognise an advocado, mango, garlic, rice as an accompaniment rather than a pudding, plus many ingredients we take for granted now.

M0nica

Allira

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

I have just checked the ingredients of one of his pies. pretty good, but still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food (given as a definition of UPF by the US food writer Michael Pollan)

Pies?

Fish pie contains a couple of ingredients I don't use
Yeast, Caramelised Sugar, Colours: Paprika Extract, Turmeric Extract) although they seem fairly recognisable but apart from anchovies, I'm familiar with most of the other ingredients.

All food even if not recognised by Michael Pollan whoever he might be.

Allira

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

I have just checked the ingredients of one of his pies. pretty good, but still contains ingredients our grandmothers would not recognise as food (given as a definition of UPF by the US food writer Michael Pollan)