Porridge and crumpets are junk food

ronib

After my flu jab, I was assailed by the advanced nurse practitioner to spell out how many units of alcohol a day I had and did I smoke. The conversation didn’t go very well and she declined to take my blood pressure at the end of it.
The government presumably is trying to crack down on obesity- another example of good intentions but poor delivery. Shall eat organic porridge every day from now on.

That was rather ridiculous of her not to take your blood pressure - just b*tchiness for the sake of it. As if it matters if she personally won't do her job properly - as some chemists have pharmacists that will take one's blood pressure if requested anyway.

Add that anyone can readily buy a blood pressure monitor off Amazon if they want to monitor their own blood pressure anyway - as I know when I got told I had high blood pressure (ie by people using the lowered modern measurements that they go by these days). As I recall - the one I bought was around £40/£50 - so I guess it's useful to have one in and do the job for oneself. Though I don't do it that often these days - after having got it down to 1970s acceptable levels and now it's down to those altered modern levels.

Right - time for my organic porridge with organic milk (ie defo not Arla then) and whatever fruit I decide to put on top of it today. It's very clear that producers are popping up one by one on my Facebook feed to say "Not us - we're nothing to do with Arla and we don't feed that particular junk to our cows".

vegansrock

Cows are routinely fed all sorts of hormones, antibiotics etc which all get processed in the cow.

This is why I only buy organic cows milk. Not only that but I make sure it is unhomogenised.

Allsorts

I use wholegrain oats, no sugar. Its the ones with all the added sugar that's the problem. I also eat crumpets with butter on now and then and marmite. Its sugar thats the problem.
Headlines are misleading.

Hear,hear Allsorts.
It's not good old porridge oats that's the problemo! It's the ultra processed instant, pre-prepared sugary muck that health experts
regard as junk food. Also why would anyone give children crumpets for ruddy breakfast! They're surely a just a comfy treat once in a while plus they have the nutritional value of a dead badger. Why are people so stupid today? 😙

Ilovedogs22

Allsorts

I use wholegrain oats, no sugar. Its the ones with all the added sugar that's the problem. I also eat crumpets with butter on now and then and marmite. Its sugar thats the problem.
Headlines are misleading.

Hear,hear Allsorts.
It's not good old porridge oats that's the problemo! It's the ultra processed instant, pre-prepared sugary muck that health experts
regard as junk food. Also why would anyone give children crumpets for ruddy breakfast! They're surely a just a comfy treat once in a while plus they have the nutritional value of a dead badger. Why are people so stupid today? 😙

LOL - at the "Why are people so stupid today?".

Any time I think that = I remind myself that if the average IQ is 100 (as I recall) then someone has got to be lower than that level - as there are people above that level.

I just wonder how many of us could put our hands on our hearts and say we eat healthily all the time? I’m not sure it’s got much to do with IQ, it is more to do with what tastes nice, what is cheap, and what is not too much effort to prepare. Hands up if you’re a 9 stone paragon of healthy eating and exercise virtue.

We had porridge (no sugar added) with a handful of blueberries yesterday morning and have just enjoyed Burford Brown boiled eggs with crumpets (👋 EV) earlier. I’m not usually such a rebel.

Casdon my sister is definitely under 9 stone, paragon of exercise and healthy eating. And quite miserable too.

I don’t agree with taxing foods of any sort. Taxing foods won’t make a jot of difference, but on the other hand , I suppose the government of the day benefit from yet another source of income.

Incidentally, I don’t eat breakfast, but occasionally have porridge for lunch.

They're surely a just a comfy treat once in a while plus they have the nutritional value of a dead badger.

Surely not, Ilovedogs22
Badgers are probably more nutritious than crumpets.
However, sourcing one might prove to be more difficult.

Actually, I congratulate any parent getting even so much as a crumpet down a teenager in the mornings before school.
Although my DS was always ready for a cooked breakfast (not badger) after doing a paper round.

Mt61

pascal30

whole oats with honey and milk cannot be harmful to children.
we had it every morning before school.. it's all the processed food with additives that should be avoided..

crumpets slathered with butter would be an occasional treat for me

Maybe with the honey (still sugar) & milk pumped full of chemicals 😩 Arla brand! I believe?

well we were lucky Mt61 my mum kept bees and we got our milk from a little local dairy (unpasteurised)..
I don't even know what Arla milk is..

It isn’t porridge, it’s the ready made tubs which are full of sugar

pascal30

Mt61

pascal30

whole oats with honey and milk cannot be harmful to children.
we had it every morning before school.. it's all the processed food with additives that should be avoided..

crumpets slathered with butter would be an occasional treat for me

Maybe with the honey (still sugar) & milk pumped full of chemicals 😩 Arla brand! I believe?

well we were lucky Mt61 my mum kept bees and we got our milk from a little local dairy (unpasteurised)..
I don't even know what Arla milk is..

Arla is a company with different brand names and suppliesdary products to supermarkets and other outlets.

There is controversy at the moment because Arla is supposedly trialling Boevar which is an additive to cattle feed which allegedly prevents methane emissions.
Apparently this chemical does not go through into milk or meat, so we are told.
Consumers will judge for themselves.

www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/dairy-markets/arla-faces-backlash-over-trials-with-methane-reducing-bovaer

Thankyou Allira.. very useful

pascal30

Thankyou Allira.. very useful

I think they have already started but not sure if these products are in the supermarkets yet.
I only know because DD told me, it has been kept rather quiet.

I expect crumpets are in because they have a high salt content. I've just looked a t a packet and 2 crumpets contain 1.6 gms of salt. 5 or 6 gms is the recommended maximum daily intake. So crumpets, spread with salted butter 'could' contribute to a too high salt intake.

It's all a question of eating a balanced diet, really.

I have porridge oats everyday - as porridge in the winter and with yogurt when it’s warmer. I do go for the organic oats after listening to Tim Spectre about the amount of pesticides that oats absorb if not organic (strawberries are a similar issue) but absolutely the Zoe team and Tim’s work with peer reviewed scientists inputs on the podcast (which are free to listen too - you don’t have to be a member) has certainly changed my eating habits for the better. Ultra processed foods and artificial sweeteners are absolutely the work of the devil! The government really need to understand the latest research not the really outdated view of reducing fat and sugar being the primary objective.

Nowt wrong with porridge, I've been having it for breakfast nearly all my life 83 years Left to soak in water overnight, small amount of milk added in the morning cooked and fresh fruit added it hasn't done me any harm - yet.

I was reading somewhere that the porridge refers to the ones that have stuff added to them to make them sweet etc. Not the proper unflavoured porridge oats. I can understand why crumpets are on there, white carbs that 90% of people slather an obscene amount of butter on and is a staple breakfast for many. Look at the bigger picture. They are trying not to promote high fat high sugar foods at peak times that's all 🙄

Try organic oats from your local health food shop. The taste is completely different to the boxed stuff and is delicious.
We are bombarded with information about healthy eating and most of it is obvious anyway. So if people decide to have takeaways and eat ultra-processed food it is because they themselves decide to do so. We don't need the government telling us what to eat. And I don't agree with those who say some people can't afford fruit & veg because it is often given away at foodbanks.

Unless oats are organic they are highly processed - mot traditional Porridge oats have no additives whatsoever but most of those on the supermarket shelves are not organic which means they have been subject to heavy use of pesticides. Heavy use of pesticides is correlated with dementia and Alzheimer's . If you add milk to that porridge and it's not from regenerative organic farming, then pretty soon it's likely to have come from cows fed with Bovea to reduce the methane in their cow farts and Bovea is demonstrated to contain several carcinogenic ingredients. So whilst it might make sense to say, oh it's only a little bit of insecticide coated porridge, it's only a little drop of carcinogenic milk maybe if people also thought that it's only a little bit of this, that and the other that's full of chemicals to preserve food or to give a nice foaming toothpaste, they might realise that actually they're subjecting themselves to a huge chemical load on a regular daily basis. And that's not just about sugar. As for the synthetic sweeteners - more chemicals.

Crumpets? Well, I love them and have just had two but the ingredients list is very worrying.

I’ve never seen whole meal crumpets?

I was looking for medium oatmeal in the supermarkets recently to make skirlie for Christmas lunch. I was amazed at the huge selection of porridges on the shelves. Many were flavoured, and no doubt sweetened. In one supermarket, I saw fine oatmeal, which isn’t suitable for my purpose. I have been able to find it in the past, but not this year, so ended up buying it from Amazon.

Porridge is an excellent healthy start to the day - especially with blueberries and a tiny spoonful of local honey.Toasted crumpets are comforting ,and are fine if you don’t have more than two.They are certainly better than sugary cereals which are loade with calories and additives.