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Food

Porridge and crumpets are junk food

(142 Posts)
M0nica Thu 05-Dec-24 10:31:05

According to the latest government paper governing when foodstuffs can be advertised on tv www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgrwzx8er9o

Considering many children walk down streets where junk food shops and take aways are ubiquitous and for many are where their parents buy food. Not to mention that children go into supermarkets of all kinds with their parents, who buy most of the food they eat, is banning food adverts from television really going to have any effect on children's eating habits.

I am reminded of the sugar tax. It was intended to reduce the sugar conten tof drinks so that they would be less sweet and peole would gradually begin to prefer foods with less sugar.

What actually happened is that manufacturers replaced the sugar with artificial sweeteners, making the drinks sweeter than ever.

All that will happen this time is that manufacturers will remove fat and sugar rom products, replace them with sweeteners and other ultra processed chemicals that give food a fat feel, and we will e in the ame situation as we are with sugar reduced drinks, foods full of more and more chemical food substitutes, that are also contributors to weight gain.

For more information read any thing written by Chris Tulleken and Tim Spector on UPFs

nanna8 Mon 09-Dec-24 12:43:40

Just thinking that sugar cane is a natural product unlike some of the chemical sweeteners. No doubt one day they will turn tail and encourage something like this that is grown in fields rather than manufactured in a lab. Much cheaper to chuck in chemicals than pay people to farm sugar of course! Everything changes with time.

M0nica Tue 10-Dec-24 09:10:51

I love beef dripping on toast, with the jellied meat juices marbling it and a quick shake of salt on top. I can feel it doing me harm, just thinking about it.

Governments are so stupid with these blanket bans etc. The only people who take any notice of them are the worried well and those with eating disorders, who weaponise these bans.

The rest of us tend to see any ban as an invitation to misbehave. Why else did advertisers use the phrase 'naughty, but nice' as a slogan for advertising cream cakes.

MissAdventure Tue 10-Dec-24 10:07:07

Oh I've not had dripping for years but boy, could eat some now!!
My nan used to make marvellous toast with dripping on it.

Allira Tue 10-Dec-24 10:08:57

I love beef dripping on toast, with the jellied meat juices marbling it and a quick shake of salt on top. I can feel it doing me harm, just thinking about it.

Oh yes! As my mother used to say "A little of what you fancy does you good".

Once in a while is fine, surely?

MissAdventure Tue 10-Dec-24 10:11:13

Remember the thread about people who just ate what they wanted, had a good few drinks and cigs and lived to be 100?

M0nica Tue 10-Dec-24 12:01:15

MissAdventure

Remember the thread about people who just ate what they wanted, had a good few drinks and cigs and lived to be 100?

Unfortunately for every one who over indulges and lives to a greaat age, many thousands more die younger than they need for the same reason.

MissAdventure Tue 10-Dec-24 12:06:19

No doubt at all that they do.
I suppose there are also people who worry themselves to death, about food, covid, family, the state of the world, their carbon footprint, their in laws, others' spelling, and all manner of things.

Complicated lot, humans.

growstuff Tue 10-Dec-24 12:15:38

nanna8

Just thinking that sugar cane is a natural product unlike some of the chemical sweeteners. No doubt one day they will turn tail and encourage something like this that is grown in fields rather than manufactured in a lab. Much cheaper to chuck in chemicals than pay people to farm sugar of course! Everything changes with time.

Cocaine is a natural product too.

Some natural products are highly toxic.

MissInterpreted Tue 10-Dec-24 12:23:13

Even good old H2O will kill you if you drink too much!

MissAdventure Tue 10-Dec-24 12:35:03

Yep.
Depletes your sodium levels or something, doesn't it?

MissInterpreted Tue 10-Dec-24 12:40:23

Yes it does.

Mogsmaw Tue 10-Dec-24 16:59:49

I don’t think anyone is suggesting porridge is a junk food. They want to limit the advertising of sugar-laden breakfast cereals, so all “breakfast cereals” are included. If they start making exceptions the food industry will find ways to squeeze their rubbish back onto our screens. The same is true of crunpets, they are a “breakfast good”, just like pop tarts.
It’s long been illegal to advertise infant formula. Manufacturers developed “follow-on” milk together back onto our screens, a product we never knew we needed! Until they told us.

M0nica Tue 10-Dec-24 19:52:12

These broad brush methods are just too clumsy for the purpose they have in mind and I think they are counter productive.

When people see, after years of being told how good porridge oats are for your health, that they are now classified as junk food, they just shrug their shoulders and treat all advice about to eat with the contempt it deserves.

How about using a carrot (so healthy) rather than a stick to beat people who do not conform to food instructions.

Find a modern replacement for Delia Smith to do programmes on television teaching the basics and show how eating well(healthily) needn't be expensive, not all strawberries in winter, avocadoes and Kiwi fruit, but brassicas, root veg, rhubarb and apples. Have interludes in tv programmes when guest chefs introduce different healthy products and show how easy they are to prepare and how attractive they are.

Make eating healthily fun, enjoyable and affordable.

By chance today, we had just the sort of food i have in mind for healthy inexpensive eating. We had mackerel fillets for lunch, one each, with potatoes(crushed with some Dijon mustard and oil folded in, and cabbage. Tonight we had carrot and coriander soup with a bread roll and easy peeler oranges. We did have fresh raspberries, for 'afters' at lunch time, but nobody is perfectsmile

Jaxjacky Tue 10-Dec-24 20:15:14

I agree MOnica I’d also like to see a TV programme and/or an influencer on YouTube and TikTok showing how to use a slow cooker, a pressure cooker and a microwave for making healthy meals using cheaper cuts of meat, vegetables etc. All equipment that’s equally useful if used correctly, as the endemic air fryer which many people I know use for chips, chicken wings and previously frozen UPF.

Mt61 Wed 11-Dec-24 00:50:26

I had my two crumpets (out of my stock pile in the freezer) organic peanut butter & organic banana 😋
For supper I had a small cup of organic milk (now switched to that) & 2oz of organic oats made into a milky drink, which helps me to sleep 😴

M0nica Fri 13-Dec-24 22:06:05

Mind you, government edicts do not stand a chance while retailers run offers that run against all government rules.

Yesterday we travelled north to visit family and pulled into a service station to get some sandwiches for lunch. I went upto the till with 2 rounds of sandwiches and 2 bottles of drink and the woman behind the till told me to take 2 packets of crisps.

I didn't want any crisps so I said 'no'. She then said that if I took the crisps the price of our lunch would go down because we would be buying a 'meal deal'. If we just had sandwiches and a drink they would be priced individually and cost more.

I took the crisps, and fed them to our grandson, 6 foot tall with a 26 inch waist, who will need to eat an awful lot of meal deals to reach any obesity level.