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

[paolo]

I think what would serve people well would be a simple, universal, way of estimating how healthy a meal is.

At present there is an attempt at this (the colour pie chart), but it's for ready meals only.

I think it would be useful if the same metrics were there for other meals. In the big selling recipe books, for example. How about at your local restaurant? Wouldn't it be useful to compare dishes?

Or even be able to do it with your home cooked faves? Enter the ingredients and quantities in a web app?

The choices of healthy or unhealthy food are about all food, not just factory packs. I think we should be able to understand this regardless of source, and of course not need a lab for evaluating our own concoctions.

 

[Callum91]

My granny is blind and has mobility issues. As a result all her meals (aside from the odd sandwich) are ready meals that get cooked in the microwave. She manages to live independently still because of ready meals. What worries me about them is how few calories some of them contain, her christmas dinner (Birdseye I think) is only 330 calories. Considering this will be her only hot meal of the day I do worry that she isn't getting enough calories. Granted, pasta/indian/chinese ready meals tend to have more calories but I doubt she's even getting 1,400 calories a day.The salt and sugar levels are MUCH better now than they were 5 years ago, from my own observations.

 

[MillwallShoes]

big supermarket ready meals have come on a bomb in teh last few years imo. the tesco and sainsbury curry range are top notch for a friday night in! nothing beats freshly cooked stuff with fresh ingredients, but some of the stuff we've had has been nice and tasty.

 

[Callum91]

The Sainsburys Chinese range is fantastic, love their sweet & sour chicken. Just a wee bit pricey for the one meal.

 

[stuff_it]

My granny is blind and has mobility issues. As a result all her meals (aside from the odd sandwich) are ready meals that get cooked in the microwave. She manages to live independently still because of ready meals. What worries me about them is how few calories some of them contain, her christmas dinner (Birdseye I think) is only 330 calories. Considering this will be her only hot meal of the day I do worry that she isn't getting enough calories. Granted, pasta/indian/chinese ready meals tend to have more calories but I doubt she's even getting 1,400 calories a day.The salt and sugar levels are MUCH better now than they were 5 years ago, from my own observations.

It depends what else she eats but if someone is small and not that active they can get by on less.

 

[SpookyFrank]

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?

Funnily enough that's what I eat pretty much all the time. I've never struggled to choose between a microwaved lasagne and a Heston Blumenthal goldfish and hand grenade lasagne, if I want lasagne I'll make lasagne.

 

[mincepie]

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.

I'm interested in all this, but I'm not sure what we're seeing here is (as others have said) a very fair comparison.

If I buy chicken breast to make a curry from Tesco, it will be chicken, all be it rather 'farmed' chickens and with all that goes with that.
But a Tesco chicken curry..does that contain any *real* chicken or is it just beaks and legs and all the bits that didn't sell as proper chicken all minced up?

There are some health benefits too from making your own curry- physically in terms of walking about the kitchen, the exercise needed to make it, and also mentally - actually 'doing something' and that some will say the physical exercise will help with your mental state too -exercise can reduce depression etc

 

[Cid]

I'm interested in all this, but I'm not sure what we're seeing here is (as others have said) a very fair comparison.

If I buy chicken breast to make a curry from Tesco, it will be chicken, all be it rather 'farmed' chickens and with all that goes with that.
But a Tesco chicken curry..does that contain any *real* chicken or is it just beaks and legs and all the bits that didn't sell as proper chicken all minced up?

I had one the other day, it's chicken breast. Was alright, although their idea of hot (spicy) is laughable.

 

[Callum91]

It depends what else she eats but if someone is small and not that active they can get by on less.

She's diabetic, eats toast and a banana for breakfast, maybe a sandwich for lunch and a pre prepared salad then the ready meal for dinner. She's 90% chair bound but does manage to get around her flat, although she is overweight (but losing weight, her appetite is getting worse). For her (and most people I suspect) it's a case of health (nutrition) vs practicality. She can just about manage to stand for 5 mins in front of her microwave whilst it cooks but would certainly be unable to stand at an oven and cook, let alone prepare, a meal along the same line as the one's she get's from a ready meal. M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco and surprisingly Lidl do good ready meals, according to her. She doesn't rate Morrisons, Iceland or Asda (and can tell between all the various supermarkets quite easily as I've found out trying to save money ).

Edit: oh and Booths too, their range is fantastic. It looks like real, human food.

 

[Miss Caphat]

I'm interested in all this, but I'm not sure what we're seeing here is (as others have said) a very fair comparison.

If I buy chicken breast to make a curry from Tesco, it will be chicken, all be it rather 'farmed' chickens and with all that goes with that.
But a Tesco chicken curry..does that contain any *real* chicken or is it just beaks and legs and all the bits that didn't sell as proper chicken all minced up?

There are some health benefits too from making your own curry- physically in terms of walking about the kitchen, the exercise needed to make it, and also mentally - actually 'doing something' and that some will say the physical exercise will help with your mental state too -exercise can reduce depression etc

good points...also the more you cook and pay attention to ingredients and recipes, the more you learn to tailor your own recipes for less fat, salt, calories etc.

 

[Frances Lengel]

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

Deep fried lasagne most definitely does exist - I'm pretty sure it originated in Glasgow along with deep fried pizza where a lot of the chip shops were traditionally run by Italians. It might sound unpleasant, but I imagine in the days before central heating deep fried lasagne and chips would be a pretty efficient winter warmer

As to the article in the OP, well it's patent bullshit - All they seem to be interested in is fat, a person needs fat in their diet, fat isn't a bad thing. I cook from scratch always, I don't care how healthy it is - Excersize and genetics both trump diet in terms of general health anyway & despite my best efforts, I'm a healthyish guy. I fry my crap in lard and douse it in salt but it's a point of pride to prepare it all from scratch rather than eating factory slop - An adult not doing their own meals is nearly as bad as an adult not cleaning their own house - It's just wrong.

Ps, Miss Caphat, that second para wasn't directed specifically at you, that was just an all purpose polemic

 

[RaverDrew]

Frances always strikes me as a beans/spaghetti on toast kinda fella when "cooking from scratch" jazzed up with dried herbs, tobasco, and grated cheese of course.

 

[Chz]

One thing I reckon makes a huge difference is that most recipes - celebrity chef or not - tend to have rather generous portions unless they're specifically in a "light meals" book. I'll wager the recipes are better on an equal portion basis.

 

[Frances Lengel]

Frances always strikes me as a beans/spaghetti on toast kinda fella when "cooking from scratch" jazzed up with dried herbs, tobasco, and grated cheese of course.

Rumbled.