Do you know what's in you are eating?

[Frenchieboy]

Here's some food for thought - No pun intended - Well maybe a little!

The post by Secretagentmole in the thread titled "Townies at their best" brought something to mind that often gets me wondering. How many of us actually stop to think about what all of the chemicals that are put into the food that we eat nowadays are effecting ours and our children's health (In tthe long term)?

Years ago (And I am still able to remember back quite a few, possible more than others and often many more than I care to at times) we rarely found many (if any) of these "chemicals" in the food we bought from the shops. About the most "horific" think that we commonly saw was something called "Monosodium Glutomate" (sp). We simply didn't have all of these E Numbers, Atrificial Preservatives, Artifical Flavourings and colourings that we find in just about every pre-packed foodstuff (Tinned, froxen, chilled etc) that we buy nowadays.

Do we know exactly what all of these "chemicals" are doing to our bodies in the long term?

For those of you that are old enough to cast your mind back say 50 years (For those of you that aren't old enough try looking up the figures on 'tinternet) and see how many cases of cancer there were in those days compared to the figures that we are seeing nowadays. I'm willing to bet that the numbers then were only about 20% of what they are nowadays!.

Another thing to think about is the fact that we are being told that too much salt is not good for us yet just about all of the pre-packed meat, in particular poultry, that is sold in the supermarkets nowadays is packed out with brine to build the weight/profit margine up, (Sometimes up to 20% - This I know for a fact as I spent some time working in the chicken processing and packing section of Sun Valley in Hereford, often on the back end of the "brine injection machine") And let's face it, what is brine? - Basically it's salt water!

Now I'm not saying that the huge rise in (Major) illnesses (And in particular cancers) over the years is totally down to what we eat. I accept that some of this is down to the toxins that we ingest through our skin and the polutants in air we breath but I personally believe that a fairly large part of this is down to the chemicals that are put in the foods that we eat!

What are your thoughts about all of these "chemicals" that are put into our foods nowadays (Without us having a say in the matter) and how they might be affecting us and our children in the long term?

[four-wheel-drive]

For the most part I only buy fresh food but I must admit it does make me think about the bread that I buy from sainsburys I get the stuff with the seeds in and I love it best bread ever for me but I keep it in the fridge and it never seems to go off ten days old and its still good I just do not understand that one.

[johnnythefox70]

I know a funeral director who says dead bodies don't compose as quickly as they used to do years ago all because of the chemicals and preservatives etc which we eat all our lives.

[Frenchieboy]

I know a funeral director who says dead bodies don't compose as quickly as they used to do years ago all because of the chemicals and preservatives etc which we eat all our lives.

If this is the case (And I would not dream of questioning it as I can see the logic) then it does tend to make to wonder how long these "chemicals" stay in your body and what effects they have on you!

[goodo123]

food science is a very contraversial subject. many many flavorings are toxic and some deadly in high concentrates and you will find these in products. but the reason they are used is to keep it cheap. if foods were produced like they used to be the prices would be sky high due to the huge food demand we have now thanks to the growing population. im under no illusion that these products can cause long term damage to us as some products have already been found to be cancerous etc. i however dont think there should be as much opposition to geneticly modified foods as there is. modifying a plant to give a better yield is common sense. its been done for years with selective breading etc. im not into this 100% organic thing either. why do i want to spend double for something which has very little overall benefit? lets take a potato for example. non organic grows in the ground in mud etc etc same as organic but the non organic has a chance it may contain a trace of something which may be bad for you?. Store the organic stuff next to the non organic and there is a risk of cross contamination surely?

[Frenchieboy]

I see and understand exactly what you are saying goodo123 and while I have to agree with what you are saying the question that we should still be asking is "What price do we put on ours and our childrens health and lives"?

[islandgun]

For the most part I only buy fresh food but I must admit it does make me think about the bread that I buy from sainsburys I get the stuff with the seeds in and I love it best bread ever for me but I keep it in the fridge and it never seems to go off ten days old and its still good I just do not understand that one.

I make a lot of bread and it contains flour, yeast, sea salt, water,

Shop bought bread often contains the above and wheat protein, vinegar,dextrose,soya flour,vegetable fat,emulsifier,E472e Mono and diacetyle tartaric acid,esters of mono and diglycerides of fatty acids) flour treatment agent E300 (absorbic acid) presevative, calcium propionate (to inhibit mould growth)

My bread is best eaten on the day but can be re-warmed for a crispy crust and is very popular

[Mentalmac]

The biggest issue is cost, for the most part a family on average w age can simply not afford to buy all organic type foodstuffs.

I try to eat only fresh along with the family, and shooting helps this along somewhat with the rabbits etc... but sometimes you nip to the shop and the only stuff with no chemicals in is exceedingly expensive when you add it all up.

One chemical to watch is sodium nitrite, apparently a nasty old stuff, they put it into sausages and stuff to keep shelf life up but it's a toxic chemical in a larger amount.

[turbo33]

Its something I've been banging on about for years Frenchieboy

[spinach]

We are still living longer!

Cancer increase also happens when we don't die of other things ,like TB, syphilis .

We've been using salt and salt Peter for years and I'm sure they have an effect, interesting facts about life expectancy differences between hard and soft water. Would you eat something shot with lead, who's to say that isn't as bad as many improvers.

John.

[kent]

Got to be careful with this one, many other things carried us off earlier 50 years back and we also lagged our pipes with asbestos and had fire buckets in factories full of it in its dust form, lead pipes and icebox linings, toxic smog from coal and industrial polutants. I was talking to a doctor the other day about statistic changes in heart failure, she said studies are now leading more to less smoking rather than fats in our diet as the curve tracks the smoking ban in pubs etc. I think far more danger exists in new types of sugars and trans fats now in our food that are not being examined correctly than in straight forwards chemicals that have to be tested. That said if I can avoid it I do for one thing nothing tastes as good as proper unadulterated fresh food well prepared and cooked at home.

[four-wheel-drive]

I laugh at people buying milk I tend to buy semi skimmed and I see people looking at the dates on the containers the stuff that I buy will last for weeks in the fridge as they have taken all of the fat out of it it is fat that makes it go off I cannot remember the last time that I had milk go off I tend to do a big shop about every seven to ten days and both the milk and bread if still good to eat after all that time years ago we had ( PROPER MILK ) delivered and and on the second day you could tast that it was going off

[secretagentmole]

As I said where I buy our meat from does not treat the raw meat with any flavourings, colourings or preservatives. The sausages are 97% meat, 97%, 3 % is rusk and additional spices (such as the pepper in the black pepper, sage and red onion, salt, but no MSG). They dry cure their own ham and bacon on site, do pancetta as well. In fact for lunch I had their premier pork sausage, a couple of rashers of pancetta bacon, one of their free range eggs (hens can be seen from the shop), in a nice butter muffin with a slice of Monterey Jack cheese. Mmmmmmm.

 

The funny thing is when you cook their bacon it does not disappear to nothing in a sea of suspicious white liquid, it has a superb balanced unchemical flavour, it just is bacon! The sausages do not shrivel to nothing and swim in a sea of fat, in fact if the owner makes the sausages you get 4 sausages to the lb! The steak is sliced fresh in front of you, rib eye, rump, sirloin, filet. His mince is made from the trimmings off the steaks. Minced steak, literally, once when he ran out he minced some rump steak in front of us so we had the mince we wanted.

 

For my birthday we are having a roasting joint of sirloin of beef (better known as a Baron). The cattle he raises are Limousin, as they take longer to mature,giving a better flavour. They take 28-32 months, rather than the 14-16 of the usual British cattle. They also grow all the food for the cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry on the farm. They do not by in commercial food, they do not have any control over what goes in that. We have ordered the Easter turkey (£5 a kilo), they are also seen from the shop.

 

The prices he charges are comparable with the medium quality meat from the supermarket, only the quality is way beyond any meat from the supermarket. Sometimes he has half price specials too. Damned good value, superb quality and meat with flavour.

Oh and the food fed to the animals is taken and put back onto the fields, so what comes out goes to produce what goes in! A nice natural cycle!

[Zetter]

We are still living longer!

Cancer increase also happens when we don't die of other things ,like TB, syphilis .

We've been using salt and salt Peter for years and I'm sure they have an effect, interesting facts about life expectancy differences between hard and soft water. Would you eat something shot with lead, who's to say that isn't as bad as many improvers.

John.

 

This is a good point by John

 

How many people are alive now who lets say 70 years ago wouldnt not be especially in a lot of cases children. Infant mortality was sky high hence the need for big families as prior to the antibiotic revolution a lot of children and adults died from things you would not even see now. Those that survived tended to have the more powerful immune system to fight off such horrors as scarlet fever never mind those with birth issues such as heart defects or the like who would not have survived.

I think personally part of it is the price we pay now for long life expectancy and the expectation that medical science can save our children who in the past would not have stood a chance. Part of it is probably food and environment but I am sure part of it is we now survivie a lot of what would have killed us in the past and it has been proved that those with weaker immune systems are subject to high risks from cancers.

[Nikk]

Our meat comes from a butcher, veg comes from a grocer and fish comes from a fish shop. We know what we are eating because it's all home made including the bread.

 

As an example I was talking to my dad yesterday about something similar. The RDA of Salt is something like 6 grams, we measured it out to see how much that was and it's loads. As we cook our own food and use little salt we can put as much as we like on our meals and I am very sure it will never get close to 6 grams in a day.

 

salt is put in processed food as a preservative, a can of baked beans has nearly 2 grams of salt it in. If you put two grams of salt on a home made pizza it would be inedible! So how do they manage it? They use sugar to balance the flavor. Sugar takes away the saltiness of food but you then end up with processed meals filled with salt and sugar.

We are still living longer!
Cancer increase also happens when we don't die of other things ,like TB, syphilis .
We've been using salt and salt Peter for years and I'm sure they have an effect, interesting facts about life expectancy differences between hard and soft water. Would you eat something shot with lead, who's to say that isn't as bad as many improvers.
John.

 

We haven't found out how long this current generation (fed on rubbish) will live for though. People who are dieing at 85 etc we born in the 1930s and had a more sensible diet.

[kent]

Our meat comes from a butcher, veg comes from a grocer and fish comes from a fish shop. We know what we are eating because it's all home made including the bread.

 

As an example I was talking to my dad yesterday about something similar. The RDA of Salt is something like 6 grams, we measured it out to see how much that was and it's loads. As we cook our own food and use little salt we can put as much as we like on our meals and I am very sure it will never get close to 6 grams in a day.

 

salt is put in processed food as a preservative, a can of baked beans has nearly 2 grams of salt it in. If you put two grams of salt on a home made pizza it would be inedible! So how do they manage it? They use sugar to balance the flavor. Sugar takes away the saltiness of food but you then end up with processed meals filled with salt and sugar.

 

 

We haven't found out how long this current generation (fed on rubbish) will live for though. People who are dieing at 85 etc we born in the 1930s and had a more sensible diet.

It has been stated that the parents of children who themselves were born in the 60s and 70's will outlast their offspring born 80's onwards due to diet, exercise and lifestyle. This is not just a wild theory I fear

[spinach]

A quote from a Daily Paper recently" a third of all babies born in 2012 expected to live to 100"

I agree with most, eat fresh cook all your own etc but if you want to live longer try vegetarian diet.

A war diet was very healthy but it was dreadful I can not remember anyone saying how great it was ! Thought they often had a bowl of fruit some even ate it when they weren't ill.

As far as the" current generation fed on rubbish" I think you've got to look at the demographic of that generation and and split it down, cultural and financial and the poorer.

John.

[rimfire4969]

Grow your own is the only way to be 100% sure what you are eating. I grow veg, fruit, pigs, chicken and in the past beef. I swap some of my pork for beef or lamb. If I have too many of some veg or another I do a swap for something different. I am very lucky to have room and time to do this.

 

One of the farmers I shoot for raises beef cattle, 2 or 3 of us get together and buy a beef calf from him for an agreed price early on, a year or so later he sells them on we get ours to the slaughter house and split to beef between us.

 

Sorry for going a little of track with the topic.

[Nikk]

A quote from a Daily Paper recently" a third of all babies born in 2012 expected to live to 100"

I agree with most, eat fresh cook all your own etc but if you want to live longer try vegetarian diet.

A war diet was very healthy but it was dreadful I can not remember anyone saying how great it was ! Thought they often had a bowl of fruit some even ate it when they weren't ill.

As far as the" current generation fed on rubbish" I think you've got to look at the demographic of that generation and and split it down, cultural and financial and the poorer.

John.

 

I fear that poorer people are being encouraged to believe that package food is cheaper when I don't believe it is. Supermarkets are often more expensive than grocers, butchers provide better meat for the same money and home cooked food should be cheaper than packet alternatives or at the very least the same cost. The problem is that when ever anyone with money says anything remotely like this they get attacked, even Jamie Oliver who (annoying as he is) has done a lot of good to draw attention to diets particularly in schools. One thing you never get from packet food is leftovers and it used to be leftovers that formed the basis of lunches etc, think soup, sandwich meat, stock.

[secretagentmole]

The biggest issue is cost, for the most part a family on average w age can simply not afford to buy all organic type foodstuffs.

 

I try to eat only fresh along with the family, and shooting helps this along somewhat with the rabbits etc... but sometimes you nip to the shop and the only stuff with no chemicals in is exceedingly expensive when you add it all up.

 

One chemical to watch is sodium nitrite, apparently a nasty old stuff, they put it into sausages and stuff to keep shelf life up but it's a toxic chemical in a larger amount.

Thing is he is cheaper than the Supermarkets or Butchers, he is not organic per se, I believe he uses some fungicides on wheat etc. He is just good quality, tasty, real meat. He puts no preservatives into his sausages!

[islandgun]

I posted a thread yesterday about allergies, and that we were finding an increase every year of people claiming low tolerance and allergic reaction to certain foods, and indeed many people complained of allergies on the thread I'm wondering if some of these allergies are not for example to do with gluten or dairy but more to do with the additives which are routinely added to foods today.

Edited February 28, 2014 by islandgun

[Zetter]

I am increasingly of the opinion that a lot of allergies are the result of living in an increasingly sanitized/ processed world where people especially children do not get exposed to common low level pathogen which help build their immune response.

[Frenchieboy]

I posted a thread yesterday about allergies, and that we were finding an increase every year of people claiming low tolerance and allergic reaction to certain foods, and indeed many people complained of allergies on the thread I'm wondering if some of these allergies are not for example to do with gluten or dairy but more to do with the additives which are routinely added to foods today.

I see where yoy are coming from and I agree that could so easily fit in line with my thoughts on all of these "additives" which were not in our foods so many years ago at the time when a great many of these "Allergies" were not even heard of let alone "common place"!

[norfolk dumpling]

There's always a danger in looking back to the good old days and blaming current food production processes for today's ills but I suspect a lot of today's cancers come from what happened 30-40 years ago. The biggest risk today is overeating and laziness - ie the fat ******* you see every day.

[alastair0903]

Whoever says Limousins are a slowly maturing

Beef bread is bare face lier ! Quiet the opposit really when compaired with true English breeds Dexter . I do totally agree with the rest of the thread and have recently to started buying gammon for nearly twice the price I used to , the difference now is that I don't get a pan full of brine just a nice gammon steak that is the same size as when I started cooking it !