Healthy diet? Swap your TV chef recipes for ready meals.

[paolo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/17/tv-chef-recipes-ready-meals

Zero surprise.

Not just the TV chef thing either. I think there's a bit too much received wisdom that home cooked is somehow healthier than factory made. In terms of rationality, it's not far off people who differentiate "chemicals" (like H2O), from things that are "natural" (like water).

Obviously if you just eat mung beans or lettuce, you'll not, say, be overdoing animal fats. But I'd hazard a guess that on a more like-for-like basis, the average home-cooked curry weighs in alot worse than it's factory (and thus portion-size-limited) equivalent.

 

[lizzieloo]

Salt tends to be the biggest problem, we do eat them though.

 

[teuchter]

I'd like to see the results broken down per chef as well as just comparing ready meal with TV chef.

How does Hugh compare to Delia for example? Are they all as bad as each other?

 

[paolo]

I'd like to see the results broken down per chef as well as just comparing ready meal with TV chef.

How does Hugh compare to Delia for example? Are they all as bad as each other?

Yes, that would be interesting.

I reckon Heston would do well. He's all about flavours, not excess.

 

[Miss Caphat]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/dec/17/tv-chef-recipes-ready-meals

Zero surprise.

Not just the TV chef thing either. I think there's a bit too much received wisdom that home cooked is somehow healthier than factory made. In terms of rationality, it's not far off people who differentiate "chemicals" (like H2O), from things that are "natural" (like water).

Obviously if you just eat mung beans or lettuce, you'll not, say, be overdoing animal fats. But I'd hazard a guess that on a more like-for-like basis, the average home-cooked curry weighs in alot worse than it's factory (and thus portion-size-limited) equivalent.

Well, I don't quite get the angle here. Frozen ready meals are certainly not healthy...as lizzie mentioned HUGE amounts of salt plus the fact that many foods lose nutritional value through processing, and the ingredients often aren't that great to begin with.
Healthy isn't just about fat and calories, plus looking at the list of meals they cherry-picked, I highly doubt people would think it was appropriate "diet" food or for people concerned with their fat/cholesterol intake.
At the same time, I do think people underestimate the fat and calories in restaurant food as well as home cooked in comparison to fast food and as this article mentions, ready meals.
For the most part meals with rich sauces and lots of carbs etc., should be seen as a treat.

 

[quimcunx]

TV chefs as with restaurant chefs tend to provide indulgent, rich, fancier creamier treat versions of a lot of dishes, IMO.

Also a lot of restaurants don't serve seasonal greens as standard with the sorts of dishes you'd expect them with, making you pay ridiculous prices on top of the course cost.

e2a: and agree that a lot of ready meals may well be a bit 'nutrition-free'.

 

[paolo]

Well, I don't quite get the angle here. Frozen ready meals are certainly not healthy...

The article doesn't say they are healthy. It says they are healthier than the TV chef meals they compared.

 

[Miss Caphat]

The article doesn't say they are healthy. It says they are healthier than the TV chef meals they compared.

healthier, according to certain standards but not others. They mention the high salt content of ready meals way down at the bottom, and they never mention vitamin and mineral content.
it's basically just that the portions are smaller.

 

[paolo]

e2a: and agree that a lot of ready meals may well be a bit 'nutrition-free'.

On a like for like basis? Would you say that the average home cooked curry is more nutritious? I'm not sure I could safely say either way without data, but I know how I cook for myself (don't laugh, I've started ) and the portion sizes I make for myself dwarf those in a tray. As do the portions I've seen doled out by friends, too. That's a bad start already.

 

[paolo]

healthier, according to certain standards but not others. They mention the high salt content of ready meals way down at the bottom, and they never mention vitamin and mineral content.
it's basically just that the portions are smaller.

"Vitamin and mineral content" - are these factors in our primary health issues? Heart disease for example?

e2a: Yes I do agree about smaller portions. I know when I go out and get massively pissed, I can turn around to my less embarrassing friends and say "yeah.. it's only because you drink *less*" )

 

[quimcunx]

On a like for like basis? Would you say that the average home cooked curry is more nutritious? I'm not sure I could safely say either way without data, but I know how I cook for myself (don't laugh, I've started ) and the portion sizes I make for myself dwarf those in a tray. As do the portions I've seen doled out by friends, too. That's a bad start already.

the only 'positive' I noticed on my scan of the article was that ready meals had more fibre. Mostly it seems to concentrate on calories, fat and maybe salt. But what about vitamins? If I buy a ready meal I tend not to cook up accompanying veg. I don't cook tv chef recipes as a general rule when I cook. Don't laugh, I do sometimes. I always include veg. I usually up the veg proportions on the plate in comparison with ready meals that do include veg. Not sure abut TV chefs as I don't watch much of that sort of thing.

 

[stuff_it]

I think the important thing is that a telly chef recipe is quite often a treat whereas a lot of people virtually live on ready meals.

 

[paolo]

the only 'positive' I noticed on my scan of the article was that ready meals had more fibre. Mostly it seems to concentrate on calories, fat and maybe salt. But what about vitamins? If I buy a ready meal I tend not to cook up accompanying veg. I don't cook tv chef recipes as a general rule when I cook. Don't laugh, I do sometimes. I always include veg. I usually up the veg proportions on the plate in comparison with ready meals that do include veg. Not sure abut TV chefs as I don't watch much of that sort of thing.

Calories fat and salt are probably the biggest contributors to premature death. You don't see "Vitamin Ratings" on packets, and I'd guess that's why.

I think what I'm positing here - and it clearly doesn't apply to your own cooking - is that, like for like, the factory slop might not be as bad as it is perceived to be. I mean comparing curry with curry, or pasta dish with pasta dish.

I recently discovered the joy of making a creamy salmon pasta confection. I have absolutely no doubt mine was twice as bad as a ready meal equivelent. But twice as tasty. And twice as filling. Because well, I made a bit more than I needed to, and hey, ate the lot. Nom nom.

 

[paolo]

I think the important thing is that a telly chef recipe is quite often a treat whereas a lot of people virtually live on ready meals.

Framed like that, I can't disagree.

One slight troubling factor: Americans won't touch ready-meals. Tesco tried flogging them there ("Fresh and Easy") and failed massively. Americans. That super-slim nation. So the correlation isn't as easy to make as one might want.

 

[teuchter]

Reading the BMJ document they say that nutritional values are based on the raw rather than cooked ingredients. They say that as this is how values are allowed to be calculated for the ready meals, they did the same for the recipes. That's fair enough but I was a bit surprised to read that the published data for the nutritional value of cooked foods is "limited". Really?

I basically know very little about all this (and recognise Paolo's remarks in the OP about "natural" not necessarily being better) but surely you have to wonder a bit about what difference the method of cooking makes (and any other additional processes that have to takle place in a factory situation, and for food that is designed to have a shelf life rather than being eaten immediately). Seems like this study didn't look at that at all.

 

[paolo]

Reading the BMJ document they say that nutritional values are based on the raw rather than cooked ingredients. They say that as this is how values are allowed to be calculated for the ready meals, they did the same for the recipes. That's fair enough but I was a bit surprised to read that the published data for the nutritional value of cooked foods is "limited". Really?

I basically know very little about all this (and recognise Paolo's remarks in the OP about "natural" not necessarily being better) but surely you have to wonder a bit about what difference the method of cooking makes (and any other additional processes that have to takle place in a factory situation, and for food that is designed to have a shelf life rather than being eaten immediately). Seems like this study didn't look at that at all.

Hadn't spotted that subtlety. I wonder if it would change the results hugely, compared with the portion-size issue? Left to their own devices, most people eat too much (simplistic derivation from our Type 2 diabetes rates).

 

[Miss Caphat]

"Vitamin and mineral content" - are these factors in our primary health issues? Heart disease for example?

e2a: Yes I do agree about smaller portions. I know when I go out and get massively pissed, I can turn around to my less embarrassing friends and say "yeah.. it's only because you drink *less*" )

no, they're not primary health issues but surely it's important to most of us
most studies that have been done afaik show some sort of correlation between the levels of highly processed foods in obesity and a range of other health issues. Isn't this why people started wanting to eat more fresh, home-cooked meals to begin with?

 

[Miss Caphat]

Calories fat and salt are probably the biggest contributors to premature death. You don't see "Vitamin Ratings" on packets, and I'd guess that's why.

you do here.

 

[stuff_it]

Framed like that, I can't disagree.

One slight troubling factor: Americans won't touch ready-meals. Tesco tried flogging them there ("Fresh and Easy") and failed massively. Americans. That super-slim nation. So the correlation isn't as easy to make as one might want.

Americans have loads of ready meals, or as they call them 'TV dinners'. I get the impression that they are mainly frozen things though.

 

[paolo]

I'm only trying to compare like with like. Factory curry vs home curry, factory pasta dish vs home pasta dish. Obviously factory salad, vs home cooked slab of pork is going to compare unfairly, as is vice versa.

 

[paolo]

Americans have loads of ready meals, or as they call them 'TV dinners'. I get the impression that they are mainly frozen things though.

I was going on the reports of why Tesco failed in America... fair dos... maybe the tesco ones were more like UK ones, so vaguely more fresh than the frozen versions.

 

[Miss Caphat]

Framed like that, I can't disagree.

One slight troubling factor: Americans won't touch ready-meals. Tesco tried flogging them there ("Fresh and Easy") and failed massively. Americans. That super-slim nation. So the correlation isn't as easy to make as one might want.

wtf are you talking about? we invented them

 

[Miss Caphat]

Americans have loads of ready meals, or as they call them 'TV dinners'. I get the impression that they are mainly frozen things though.

trust me, we have a wide variety of frozen and non-frozen "ready meals"

 

[Miss Caphat]

thinking about this some more, it's as if the article is saying "it's more healthy to eat a store bought single serving lasagna than bake and eat a whole home-made triple cheese deep fried one...so you should eat the store bought lasagna"

instead of saying "triple-cheese deep fried lasagna is not very healthy, even when made with fresh ingredients from the farmers market. You should eat something like a piece of baked fish with steamed vegetables and brown rice instead"

 

[Thimble Queen]

Deep fried lasagna?! That sounds well wrong but also oddly right

I'd rather make my own meal from scratch. That way I have a better idea of what's in it. Also I think homecooked taste better than box meal. As stuff it said chef meals are treats....

 

[miss direct]

No such thing as ready meals in Turkey. Sometimes I miss them, when I come home after a long day at work, but generally, I've got used to it and have learned how to cook a lot of the things I might want.

The article seems daft. Did the famous chefs ever claim that these recipes were healthy? I use my Delia Smith book a lot, and seeing as she's an advocate of using real butter, cheese etc, of course some of the recipes are high in fat. At least I know what's in them!

 

[pogofish]

Instead of dwelling on celeb chef recipes and ready meals, which are at fairly extreme ends of the scale, what about just plain ordinary cooking, which plenty folk do day to day, or for a few days at a time?

 

[Miss Caphat]

Deep fried lasagna?! That sounds well wrong but also oddly right

I'd rather make my own meal from scratch. That way I have a better idea of what's in it. Also I think homecooked taste better than box meal. As stuff it said chef meals are treats....

thanks. I made it up It probably does exist though
agree w/ rest of your post also

 

[stuff_it]

thanks. I made it up It probably does exist though
agree w/ rest of your post also

 

[smmudge]

"Vitamin and mineral content" - are these factors in our primary health issues? Heart disease for example?

Well they should be. If a meal is 1000 calories but packed with more vitamins and minerals that's going to be much better than a meal with 500 but is just empty processed crap which will leave you feeling hungry and reaching for more food 20 minutes later. The article (and the study I presume) points out that the TV chef meals are filled with more protein as if that's a bad thing. Not to mention it goes on and on about fat and in particular saturated fat when it has been shown that it isn't actually that harmful for you.

IMO they've left out too many indicators of a good meal (vitamin and mineral content, use of processed carbs, bulking agents or other additives) and put some irrelevant ones in there so it isn't really all that meaningful.