Eating More, but Cooking Less
The Welsh eat more fat, more calories and more cholesterol than anyone else in the UK. Here, John Sullivan, of Vin Sullivan Fine Food Wholesalers, casts his eye over the nation’s shopping habits
HAVING been in the food industry for 40 years supplying high quality produce to some of the leading chefs running restaurants and hotel kitchens for many years, I realise that the rot really has set in with people’s diets, and they are not entirely to blame.
When I visit local stores I can’t help but peer into people’s shopping trolleys. I am sure this habit flouts shopping etiquette, but who won’t own up to spying what other people are buying as they load it on to the conveyor belt at the check out.
The upshot of this voyeurism is that it gives a remarkable insight into the nutritional nous of Welsh shoppers.
Quite often I am appalled – shoppers buy mounds and mounds of food and yet the appearance of fresh, quality produce is extremely limited, hiding as it does between the microwave meals for one and the pots of sugar-laden desserts.
So much hype has surrounded the infamous Turkey Twizzlers – which amazingly have seen a marked increase in sales since the Jamie Oliver programme – and yet there are so many other culinary disasters lurking in the bottom of the average shopping trolley.
And the saddest part of this is that it is not all the consumers fault.
Food labelling has become fiercely difficult to understand, food is not about being blinded by science. If you aren’t a dietician then calories or sodium content might as well be a foreign language in terms of how much use it is to the average shopper.
Sadly, long gone are the days when learning about food and cooking started in the kitchen helping or watching your mother prepare and cook the family meal, now it is eat at any time, ready prepared calorie laden food available 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Food is regarded as the lowest priority in terms of household budget, unlike the continent where it is still number one. So is it any wonder that food manufacturers are forced to push down costs to produce an affordable yet not necessarily nutritious meal?
Dietary trends have moved away from home cooking and fresh ingredients, a fact of modern life, but the point is that while many wish to eat well and feed their families healthy foods actually achieving this is virtually impossible.
The old adage that no food is bad for you in moderation is still credible – it’s just that there are so many unhealthy foods on the market now that it is difficult to eat them in moderation.
Frighteningly, even when we are trying to eat a balanced diet, we can’t really be sure because we have no idea of knowing the quality of what we eat or where its come from.
Here are some of the items, I see in shopping trolleys all the time and my view on them:
Chicken Nuggets – this family favourite hoodwinks us into thinking that chicken is the main ingredient but with most coated foods the coating can make up the weight of the product.
Frozen Ready Meals – convenient, but the pretty pictures of the wonderful meal on the outside of the packaging bears little resemblance to the pathetic array of actual contents inside.
Kids desserts emblazoned with cartoon characters – these are insidious. Parents buy them for their kids because they believe they are a healthy option which will be eaten because their TV hero is on the packaging. Don’t be fooled, these have an extremely high sugar content which can outweigh any goodness they may have to offer.
Fizzy drinks – one can has about 10 teaspoons of sugar and is often loaded with caffeine, artificial colourings and other nutritional nasties. Unsurprisingly linked with tooth decay and obesity. The diet option is in a way even worse because it leads people to believe that they are better for you.
Low Fat Foods – while not necessarily bad for you they are not actually as good for you as the name might suggest. They have a lower fat content but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they contain the vitamins and minerals needed to keep you healthy.