Ultra-processed food

[NormanH]

Is not good for you, but it seems that the UK is the champion at consuming it...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/02/ultra-processed-products-now-half-of-all-uk-family-food-purchases

[Théière]

That's a tad misleading I feel, It may well be 90% of some families food but no where near as much in others say 10%.

It would be even more interesting to see the incomes of the major consumers as I would hazard a guess they are in the lower income levels.  A sad reflection on the gap between rich and poor?

[woolybanana]

The figures for France do not reflect at all what I see in supermarket trollies or the queues outside Macdonalds so what are we to believe?

[andyh4]

There is a perceptible change in France towards things like frozen pizza, towards McDo and other pre-prepared homogenised foods. I do not yet see it in the number of pre-prepared meals in frozen cabinets or in microwavable plastic cartons, though they clearly exist.

At one time I was using such meals as sustenance while working out of a hotel where the costs of a meal were well beyond my daily cost allowance. They filled a hole as sustenance but I would baulk at calling them food.

Perhaps we are slowly moving towards the world of Solent Green.

[BritinBretagne]

I’m not sure that your data collection system carries much weight. Not a lot of academic rigour involved in relieving boredom by looking in supermarket trolleys or presuming that every McDonald’s customer you see in France isn’t being mirrored in the U.K.

Last time I went into a British supermarket I bought very little, far less than I expected to, and a large part of that was the volume of processed food being offered on buy two get three offers. Not appealing at all. It doesn’t surprise me when I see the obesity figures for various U.K. locations it’s far too easy to eat badly.

[woolybanana]

Anecdotal evidence may or may not be any use, agreed BiB. But my point was that the figure of 14% for France was suspiciously low. Subject to ahhhhh, manipulation, perhaps,depending on who gathered the data, or the wish to present a favourable image for the culinary capital of the world.

[Chancer]

I had eaten crap food all my life as money went up but time went down convenience Junk food became more and more of my purchases.

 

On moving to France I found that there was a lot less available which for me was a good thing.

 

Then when I had a complete life change several years back (thanks to this forum) and started eating healthily I became more and more obsessed with what other people put in their trolleys, still shopping in the low end shops like Lidl by and large what I see is pretty poor but would be a lot worse in the UK with the greater choice, loads of sugary drinks, sugary cereals, in fact pretty much everything for the petit dejeuner is a catastrophe, cakes, haribos, Nutella and of course trolley loads of pinard.

 

90% of what I buy now is fruit, veg and dairy, the latter I should reduce, I eat vety little meat now and mainly unprocessed.

 

Its interesting that the foods that Brits miss most, those that they bring back or have delivered are the highly processed addictive ones. 

[Hoddy]

You really cannot judge what people eat by the content of their supermarket trolleys. At one stage in my life I was growing all my own vegetables, mostly fresh but doing a lot of preserving and freezing when I had too much. Looking at my trolley an observer might have thought that I ate no fruit or vegetables at all when in fact I was eating vegetables which were (if I say so myself) of very high quality.

[YCCMB]

What a bizarre basis for a "survey":

..."the figures are not directly comparable, extracted from national surveys carried out differently and from different years..."

.." The UK data came from....2008"

So, the most we can deduce is that ten years ago this is how people were eating in the UK.

How, pray, is this "news"?

[NormanH]

Perhaps because the journal Public Health Nutrition has just published it in January 2018?

https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2018/01/12/PHN_links_for_all_papers_in_the_special_issue_on_UPF.pdf

[YCCMB]

Well, they took their sweet time. The latest data available from the UK NDNS includes data up to 2014 and was published in 2016 Likewise the ONS figures for Family Spending in the UK, which are available up to March 2016. So Public Health Nutrition is, for whatever reason, choosing to base its rather spurious findings on data from 10 years ago when data from 2-four years ago has been freely available for at least two years. Goodness knows what point they are trying to make. Least of all when that's compounded by the addition of what seems likely to be equally out-of-date information, collated on an entirely different basis in umpteen other countries.

[alittlebitfrench]

I personally believe processed food is equally as dangerous as smoking.

But don't be fooled, France is as addicted to processed food as much as the UK.

You just have to look at the shelf space in supermarkets dedicated to pre made meals. Also, the popularity of Lidl which are truly are on a mission to create a cancer epidemic with their food. Not forgetting, the amounts of ocean killing plastic used in order package it.

Do you not what, I bought a tin of sardines from Lidl and it had a bit of plastic in it. It is true !!!

But people will buy this poison because they are skint and too busy to cook.

A sad reflection of the world we live in.

If Trump does not kill us all the food we eat will.

[BritinBretagne]

Which Lidl food fits into the category you have identified? Lidl branded food is not manufactured by Lidl it is bought in from outside suppliers and the majority of them sell prestige products. I once bought two inexpensive booklets in Germany, one for Lidl and the other for Aldi which had pages dedicated to their branded products. On each page their was a photo of a product, the name and address of the producer plus a photograph of one of their well known products. All those independent books did was to highlight what great value the store’s own brand products were.

In addition every Lidl, Aldi, Penny Markt, Netto, Plus etc in Germany has a large bin after the checkout where customers can, and do leave any excess packaging. Then there’s the 25 cent phand on each and every bottle or drinks can sold...

[nomoss]

What is a phand, please?

[BritinBretagne]

For a start it’s a spelling mistake by me. It should say Pfand. It’s the German word for deposit. All (there are some that sneak through) drinks bottles and cans sold in Germany are subject to a 25 cent deposit. That’s €1.50 on a six pack of cola or €6 on the bottles in a crate of beer. The crate has its own deposit. The deposit is refunded. You do not have to return the cans and bottles to the same place you bought them. The system works well and has certainly cut down on the amount of plastic and tin waste around.

[alittlebitfrench]

There was a programme on French TV not so long ago talking about tomatoes and in particular pureed tomatoes.

Apparently a lot of Italian branded stuff (even the famous brands) comes from China and it is not the sort of tomatoes you want to eat. Even though the tin says 'made in Italy' does not mean it comes from Italy. Apparently the Carefours own brand comes from China.

In the meantime, China is buying up prime agricultural land in France, growing crops and selling it back to rich people in China. So we eat their crap, and they eat our good stuff.

What a world we live in.

[AnOther]

Where on earth do you come up with the shit you post ?

If it's backed up by facts then post links, if not then you're just trolling.

[alittlebitfrench]

You talking to me Another ?

If you are, OH watched the French problem and told me about it. She is hardly going to make it up.

I guess the programme is still on replay.

[Théière]

Close Lidl, stop cancer, simples [8-)]

[AnOther]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]You talking to me Another ?

If you are, OH watched the French problem and told me about it. She is hardly going to make it up.

I guess the programme is still on replay.[/quote]Yes but same comment, put up or don't post unsubstantiated drivel.

[nomoss]

[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="alittlebitfrench"]You talking to me Another ?

If you are, OH watched the French problem and told me about it. She is hardly going to make it up.

I guess the programme is still on replay.[/quote]Yes but same comment, put up or don't post unsubstantiated drivel.

[/quote]

+1. Just stick to your normal drivel[:D]

[alittlebitfrench]

Don't shoot the messenger AnOther.

So what you are saying is that programme does not exist and my OH lied ?

Sticky wicket on you are !!

Unless you don't believe the French investigative journalists and they were making it all up. In which case you need to get out more.

Just out of interest, which part don't you believe ?

[Chancer]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"] OH watched the French problem and told me about it. She is hardly going to make it up. [/quote]

 

Unlike yourself!

 

You can eat very healhily with food from nowhere else but Lidl, that is exactly what I do.

 

Its true many around me at the tills have made very unhealthy choices but they just dont have the opportunity to make the really unhealthy choices that they could make in a UK supermarket or even a UK Lidl.

 

All Lidl's branded products (made on the same lines as the other marques and grand distribution) are the best quality, Intermarché/Super U etc will have whole rayons of multiple offerings of just one product like a plain yoghurt, Lidl's mantra is one need one product and 9 times out of 10 it will be of equal quality to the best in the other shops, their muesli sold in the UK is superb and has won many awards better than the brand names and much cheaper, of course its far too healthy a breakfast food for it to be sold in France [:D]

[YCCMB]

I know...fact...of at least a handful of well known and the premium brands which have Lidl or Aldi equivalents and are indeed made on the same production lines in the same factories as their branded counterparts. I've heard it directly from the people making the premium brands.

I'm willing to take a gamble. Especially if it saves me money.

I also buy loads of cleaning products at Lidl and Aldi. I've found they do as good a job, if not better, than even other supermarket own brands. Other stuff, I Buy selectively, or because I can't buy it elsewhere.

As an aside, Aldi currently has 6.8% of the U.K. grocery market, Lidl 5%. They're growing that share at around 80% a year. Around 23% of their shoppers are people with reasonably high disposable incomes.

I don't buy convenience foods from anywhere because I don't eat them...unless you count having a tin of baked beans in the cupboard for emergencies.