High salt levels in processed foods

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1591976,00.html

-- Ian

 

This is a hifi forum. We are here because we are a very small group of people who like a quality product. I suspect that is also true when it comes to food. Most people don't notice poor quality and even if they did wouldn't be that bothered. Liking good food is seen as elitist, quirky and snobbish. Oh how very different to the continent where food is important and natural

 

We order nearly all our food from www.northernharvest.co.uk, and very nice it is too. Sausages that are 95% meat, gorgeous meat and fish, and all organic vegetables and fruit. We cook it ourselves, and add very little salt, certainly nowhere near the maximum amount recommended. The big supermarkets are awful, all the bogof offers are funded by their suppliers or farmers who are told to work with them or risk losing their contracts.

 

I am lucky living in the food capitol of Manchester, I have all sorts of fancy food shops near by, the local butchers supplies the Midland Hotel (a famous 5 star hotel in the city centre), I have a localy famous deli and a well known organic supermarket (Unicorn) on my doorstep.

I should get more food from these shops but they are expensive.

 

yeah, there a couple of excellent butchers in my village - so tender and fresh...

edit - their produce, not the butchers themselves...

 

Are you local?

 

I wish I could convince my parents to buy more proper meat instead of the supermarket BOGOF crap made of the dogs the delivery vans run over.

 

Again it comes down to cost. Most will take cost over quality. And the only way to get anything cheaply is to cut corners in quality. Whne this is applied to food manufacture then it's the animals that suffer and then the farmers, just so we can save a few pence here and there.

And yes, as a rule I shop locally and buy locally grown organic foods where ever possible despite the extra cost involved.

 

Luckily I live near Ludlow, which is dribbling with fancy foods and Michelin starred restaurants...
It's almost impossible to buy cheese that hasn't been hand-rolled on the thighs of a Brazilian maiden.
And I only buy beef if I've actually met the cow before it's slaughtered (nearby mates have got a herd of pedigree Herefords..)

 

yeah, are you..?

 

Me? I'll never leave, despite the nose bleeds

 

There's such a thing as brain-washing for a good purpose. If you want to be put off meat, I recommend a book called "Why You Don't Need Meat".

 

I don't advocate that people should be vegetarian, and I certainly am not, but its also important that people know what they are putting in their bodies.

The fact is this. People expect and often need food to be cheap. They need to feed a whole family. Often Government help for parents with low incomes is not sufficient. The government therefore are in a predicament, just as much as they are with beer and smokes.

Where beer and smokes are concerned, the revenue gathered from them more than of sets the health costs at the end plus some. Where food is concerned, if its cheap it keeps people quiet. So the government does very little to stop the crap that is sold.

All I am saying is take your weekly food bill and divert it to different food. I promise you do not need to spend more money. Instead of that one convenience microwave meal at lets say £1.49, instead purchase two cans of chickpeas, some fresh veg and a can of chopped tomatoes. Its all about learning new tastes and getting an idea of what you can do to your own body, that the super markets have taken away from us. They have taken away the control of what we eat.

I am not saying lets create an uprising. We all like the occasional pizza, oven chip or kiev, but once in a while. If anyone here has this as a staple diet, then sorry you are in serious shit, this food is not even remotely good for you in any sense of the word. Don;t read the crap on the side, it tells you nothing, its what they don't tell you that you need concern yourself with.

 

I agree but you need to be sensible if you worry so much about what you eat you will just die of a heart attack. I certainly am watching what I eat a lot more. Even things like take aways I get a Subway now instead of fish and chips, now I know Subway is not exactly healthy but I don't have any sources on it so it has to be a lot better than fish and chips.

I eat a lot of pasta meals now, such as pasta with proper cheese.

I tend to eat corn flakes instead at about 8:00.

What I really need to do now is cut out the fizzy drinks and get my teeth fixed (I will need some crowns and caps).

My change of diet has certainly helped clear my face up anyway

 

It's probably worth reminding people that a healthy diet is not enough on it's own. Excersise is vital for a healthy body. At least three 20 minute sessions a week. Walk rather than take the car, use the stairs rather than the lift, carry the shopping home in a rucksack rather than get a taxi. It's easy to incoporate into a healthy lifestyle.

 

Thats no problem for me, I walk at least 1 mile a day and usualy a lot more in the summer time. I also carry heavy bags quite a lot as well. Thats the advantage of not having a car.

I know people who use the car to go to the leaisure centre which is 400 yards away.

 

I was a veggie for 5 years because of the treatment of livestock - but was seduced back to the red side by proper sausage..
I do only eat meat whose origin I know - i.e local.
There's no excuse for intensive factory farming - frinstance my m8s organic grass-fed Hereford rump steak is £10 a kilo, and local organic pork sausages are £3.50 a kilo.

 

yeah, this thread inspired me to buy some nice local fillet steak before...yum...will have tonight

 

Well, cats can't live without meat, whereas we can

 

yeah, they had no fish...