Be Excellent To Each Other

Obviously we need more investment in chickens.

To claim maternity pay, women on maternity leave could cook for the stupid and lazy poor people described It is the only way they will learn. or community service. Or whatnot. It'll be like that highly patronising program when they tried to convince kids being a waitress was an awesome job.

Yes?

Why hasn't this topic been re-named 'The Neigh Thread' yet?

I'm sure they could, assuming they want to spend a larger proportion of their precious time off hoofing it to wherever a better store might be (assuming one even exists remotely locally), spending more money, and then returning home and trying to cram it into a tiny freezer portion of a fridge-freezer. Like I said, I'm sure some people could do more of this, but many can't, and I'm getting sick of the attitude towards people who dare buy 'crap' food. (Note: I'm not saying you have this, Zardoz, but it's a sentiment that I'm seeing more and more across the web and news outlets.)


BSE hangover, presumably? British beef might be still seen as dangerous, despite the subsequent safeguards put in place making it safer than the EU standard, which is what Ireland adheres to.

As for the chicken shortfall, that's not surprising, given how much more meat Brits eat these days and how much of that is chicken. Perhaps we should just turn somewhere into a massive free-range chicken farm—say, Surrey.

Oh come off it Craig, Zarz is quite right. Quite simply, you're pushing this "people couldn't possibly take the time or trouble to use a greengrocer, butcher, market and/or farm shop" too far now. Honestly. How the hell do you think people managed a few years ago, or still manage in France, Italy, Portugal, Spain or a whole other bunch of places where food/diet is prioritised higher than it typically is in the UK? (I spend a lot of time in those countries, through both business and pleasure. The average Italian would sooner die than troff down chicken nuggets or burgers made of reconstituted slush off the factory floor, less still feed it to their kids). And as I said before, I DID "cram food I'd cooked into a tiny freezer portion of my fridge" when I was in digs; unsurprisingly this wasn't some appalling ordeal or prospect. Anyway, how much money do you think it costs to drive to and from out-of-town supermarkets in many cases?

We're fortunate enough to live in leafy Cheshire and there are a profusion of tiny farm shops where we can buy amazing quality meat for LESS than they are in supermarkets, pound for pound, and as Chinny has said (a) I/they know where they come from and what they've been fed (b) Said carcasses haven't travelled halfway round the globe, having been "reared" in indescribable battery farm conditions. (Makes me laugh how no-one's allowed - quite rightly - to even so much as marginally mistreat a wee dog in the UK, but we're just fine when it comes to "non cute" animals at least as sentient like pigs or cattle - they can go insane in their own filth for all we care. Or even old human beings in Staffs hospitals come to that )

By the same token, I drive through Moss Side in Manchester - a poor area - and it's full of ethnic food shops and there's a butcher and greengrocer as well (as well as a HUGE Asda). Where I used to live - Longsight, an equally poor area - it was the same story. So, y'know. Get real.

Yes. You kept reading, right?

No butcher or Greengrocer in Speke, Liverpool. There is a Morrissons though

Genreally speaking I try and use Supermarket meat for stuff like curries, stew and the likes with lots of added flavour and you mums (butchers) meat for the meaty flavoured dishes like, steak, stir-fry, sex,etc.

I also find your mums meat to be so much better and pound for pound slight more expensive. However a chicken breast here is the size of my hand but costs about a fiver (something silly anyway, need to check next time I go)

It is very odd to see the conversation drifting from the real problem of supermarkets et al not knowing what's in their supply chain to talk about "crap" and so on in relation to food. It's just food. No one has said any of the horse contamination causes any risk to health, and it's worth remembering that, for now at least, every generation is living longer than the last. So what, exactly, is the point of eating "better"? So long as you mix good and bad, have some greens and the odd bit of fruit, you're fine.

Surely if you bring it down to brass tacks, and try to take out any class sneering then the point would be how healthy you are and whether you die too young. And as Ben Goldacre puts it:



Food - pretty much irrelevant, with the caveat that you're doing as above and not just eating the same thing all the time. In fact, I'd quite aggressively claim that I've eaten fairly cheap ready meals fairly regularly, and fast food too, and (thanks to plentiful exercise and outdoorsy lives) I'm healthier and will live longer than 99% of the population. And next time someone in person starts banging on about nutrition I'm going to prod them in the stomach and invite them to find fat on mine. Yes, if you're a lazy git then you should keep off the 'worse' food. If not, eat what you like.

Chickens from my butcher are good but cost £4 lb or more. So yes can see an average one costing £15.00. My butcher is in Ascot so almost as bad as Mayfair!



From the Ascot butcher they are around £2.20 each, they are very big and 1000% better that supermarket ones. You can cook them in the oven with just salt and pepper and they are tender and moist.

The very rare times I get chicken breast from the supermarket I soak them in lemon juice for a day to make them tender.

Its also nice to see that Findus has sorted the labeling issues out now as well

Sorry mate, but that's just a total shocker, there - probably the most ill-informed post I've ever read on BEEX, including all the 'your mum' jokes! Where on earth to start with this...?

I'm no doctor, that's for sure. But equally, to claim as if somehow diet is 'unimportant' to either someone's health or longevity is utter nonsense. If that's somehow not the case, why on earth do doctors routinely test for things like cholesterol - which is very largely driven by diet and inarguably a big factor in heart disease, the biggest killer in the UK? Why do people go on low fat and low cholesterol diets and/or are encouraged to eat foods rich in omega oils and so on that lower cholesterol, as well as providing a whole suite of other benefits? Why does the government have 5-a-day health campaigns for people to eat more fruit, if fruit itself is of little or no benefit? Why are specific vitamins and other key substances added to food? You are what you eat!

Your post even seems to suggest that eating too much (or too much fatty, sugary, over-refined crap so typical of factory-meals) doesn't have much to do with the obesity *plague* that has now befallen this country, complete with its attendant diabetes and heart disease? I mean, "omg wtf" etc?

I'm sure it's possible to compensate for a bad diet to some extent through exercise, though whether or not that's actually the case will depend on genetic and age factors too. Even if this can be achieved at 25 or 30, that's far from certain to be the case at 50, believe me.

Also, it's quite possible for people to be "fat inside" as well, despite being outwardly fairly trim, and again, that's largely driven by diet. Once again, it's very dangerous medically (this was explored somewhat as part of that TV series, I forget specifically who or what, where the guy was doing a combo of very high intensity, very short burst workouts and fasting, as well as changing the types of food he was eating).

In summary, "Eat what you like" is a really, really bad piece of advice for a great many people and totally counter to just about any medical recommendations I've ever seen or heard concerning food, including the aggressive government health/bad eating TV ads that are doing the rounds right now. The government is desperate to stem the tide of obesity/junk food/excessive drinking that's becoming so commonplace now, because if they don't sort it, the NHS is going to be crushed under it in 15-20 years.

Waitrose have pulled a product, due to it having pork in when it was supposed to be beef.

I'm a cheerful consumer of ready meals, yeah I can knock up a decent meal from WONDERFUL AND INCREDIBLE WHOLESOME INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ME A BETTER PERSON AND MY SOUL SHINE WITH WONDERFUL RADIANCE if the moods takes me (I usually put something together for me and Mrs AE of weekend), but I've got nothing against lobbing something contained in a plastic tray in the microwave for a few minutes and consuming the results.

I certainly don't understand this sneering superiority that some folks have about it all.

I like my takeaway food and I like my ready meals. I particularly like a Big Tasty from Maccy D's or a pizza or kebab from the local takeaway. I'm not overweight, I take regular exercise, last time I had a full check-up at the docs I was green lights across the board - so leave me the fuck alone with my microwave fucking curry.

As long as you're basically healthy what fucking difference does it make?

What JBR said, really.

Well, it just goes to show I guess. Factory food = bad food, and you can't trust any of 'em.

What a ridiculous statement.

Factory food is not 'bad food' by definition, it can be perfectly nutritious.

It may not meet your personal lofty standards but it's not necessarily bad food.

The problem is, as whichever minister it was said the other day, the British have a very weird relationship with food. It's simple - get some balance, and within that eat what you want. So yes, eat more fruit *if you're eating none*. It isn't so good that you should pile it on and on, just eat some. Same with greens. Once you've got some balance, though, you're covered. And I'll repeat, or clarify my point - the generations since the war grew up on processed food, which is the bete noire of the trendy (though not from scientists) "good food vs crap food" lot, but they are the longest lived generation. I agree with parts of what you say, but the obesity epidemic is down as much to quantity as anything else, which has been entirely obfuscated by a largely class-driven drive to blaming the type of food. Of course that plays a part *but not if you get some balance*.

Cholesterol's arguable, I believe, but even so, when testing for that you're looking at your average lazy git, waiting for the lift, wondering how on earth they can possibly cover the couple of miles to work if the tube's not working, etc. etc. Slight changes are all that are needed for most; bit more walking, few more greens. And why? Because this just isn't that important. But the perception of its importance is hugely swayed by bullshit coverage of supersize vs superskinny etc., which allow the easy conclusion that well, because diet is the most important factor in their life expectancy, it must be important for all. Rubbish, utter utter rubbish.

So there are two things. Those who eat no, or next to no, fruit or veg. Yes, they need to be encouraged to eat more. Same as those who barely drink water, they need to drink a bit more. But these messages then get generalised and simplified for the hard of thinking - clearly we don't all need 8 glasses of water, we're all different sizes. And, in fact, you get water from food and other drinks, so you don't need 8 glasses on top, but that's how it's presented.

And the same with food.

Plus I'd remind you that "you are what you eat" was presented by Gillian McKeith. If you are what you eat, I'm chocolate and fast food, largely (though with the crucial balance of some veg and fruit, too), but if we had a league table of fittest Beexer? Well, you'd put stupid sexy throughsilver up against me, but you wouldn't want to put yourself, trust me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21434077

UK slaughterhouse and meat firm, raided by the police.

The "sneering superiority" as you put it is basically down to the fact that, if I'm being completely blunt about it, I don't like the fact that parents in this country think nothing of habitually feeding their kids shit, factory food (and/or McDonalds etc.). As I've said, it's ultimately a free country, but those kids are totally reliant on their parents to feed them a proper, balanced meal.

Fuck's sake. It's not rocket science? Did you not see those people on Jamie's School Dinners, undermining what was trying to be achieved by passing fucking McCheesburgers and fries through the school gates? So you know the kind of thing I'm talking about, right?

As for the (incredibly stupid) "I'm alright now!!111!" argument, what would you say to the 30 year old guy who smoked 40 a day, saying he's got "green lights" from his doctor about his health? Fuck me. THE POINT is that, you may well be fine at 25, 30, 35, but statistically there is a very good chance that you're storing up *entirely avoidable* shit for later in life (and by that I don't mean old age). I understand that that's even true for kids; it's thought that their diet has a direct bearing on their future-life health, including stuff like diabetes, obesity and the rest.

Finally, as for "leave me alone with my microwave curry", yet another problem here is that clearly, you cannot trust what you're eating - it might be a diseased, drug-filled, cancer-riddled horse? It's all very well saying "this shouldn't happen" and you'd be right, but guess what old chum, they're not going to be DNA and chemical testing every single punnet of supposed beef madras. So go figure.

Jeez. Well, actually you're very wrong. I would've put myself against you when I was your age and I would've wiped the floor with you, trust me. Unless you can bench 300lbs free bar *and* run 20km five times a week, as part of training 3 hours every single day.

Oh and by the way, the old adage "you are what you eat" somewhat pre-dates Gillian McKeith... there was life before reality/trash television you know.

Our personal lofty standards is that we hardly ever, with very, very few exceptions, fed our kids factory shit, despite being far from well off - but that's just us, I guess. I'm proud of it, too.

Come on most of it is loaded with excess sugar or salt and or preservatives.
It’s not a good think to be eating 7 days a week that said the odd one is not going to kill you.

The thing that makes me laugh is that with these meals more expensive doesn’t mean better, some M&S meals have been shown to have more salt or sugar in them then a Tesco horse Beef lasagne.

I have a few in the freezer from the Cook range, bloody expensive but sometime my wife can’t be arsed with a complex dinner as she is pushing 6 months pregnant now. Even if I cook everything she has work to do cleaning up all the mess I make! So these are a good thing to have, bang in the over for an hour from frozen and done.

http://www.cookfood.net/menu/cook-menu/cook-classics

We've just had sausage and ketchup pancakes for dinner. In your face, this thread.

Oh fucking Hell, it's p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pancake day.

Oh fucking Hell, it's Lent.

Meh! Actually, that sounds quite appetising.

This thread has left a very bitter taste in my mouth, though, if you'll pardon the pun. I dunno; I really do get sick to my back teeth of the "snooty" insinuations and snide remarks - and as for the culmination of having a go at some old geezer about fitness or whatever? I wouldn't dream of doing that, then or now, especially if they were still having a go at it. That's an entirely unexpected, and low blow. Anyone who knows me (and I'm looking at you, AE) *knows* that I'm not even remotely "snooty", so it's all cheap shots as far as I'm concerned. I'll argue the toss with anyone about stuff like this, but just lately it all feels like trying to push shit up hill, for me at least. I just don't fit in and that's all there is to it.

It's all a bit shit, really.

Hey buddy, i do not think the insinuations about poor people not eating right were made at your posts. I also doubt there will be a beex superstars given i destroyed all comers on kinect track and field at the cottage. All good, buddy. All good.

Meh, that's why I like having you here, Lord Raiden. It'd be boring if we all agreed on stuff, and we need old bastards people who can make sensible points and arguments here, even if I don't always agree with them.

Oh come on Cavey it has ever been thus, (and I mean right back to the FF days), you wear your heart on your sleeve and you tell it straight up as to how you feel about stuff (and quite frankly I wouldn't have you any other way and it's why I think you're such a cool dude to have around), and yes I was deliberately prodding your buttons a few posts ago which is rude of me, and for which I must apologise, but there was no malice intended.

All I can perhaps say is that your approach is so bulldozer-in-the-face direct that I think some folks kind of over-react a little back as a result, (myself included sometimes!), but I don't see any real nastiness or malice, sometimes a comment steps over the line perhaps, but we've certainly both been guilty of that over the years

Just carry on being you, basically. One of the things I've always respected about you most (and how long have we been doing this now, 10 or 11 years?), is that there is absolutely no duplicity about you. I may have vehemently disagreed with you on some things, and indeed continue to do so, but I know that I'm always dealing with an honest and decent bloke who tells it as he sees it, and that's worth an awful lot.

I find the whole "I am dead fitterer than you and I eat PIES" thing awesomely great.

I mean all them premier league footballers and atheletes that eat chicken and pasta all day should be eating Aldi Mac & Cheese as diet makes no difference at all.

Silly cunts eh?

On mountain days, Pantani would eat spaghetti covered in honey topped with parmesam cheese. On days nobody was about to make him food, he just would not bother. If there is a lesson here it is do not have a girlfriend that your mother does not like.

Man the fuck up, Cavey.

Causation is not clear. Its highly likely that the fact theyre atheletes causes them to eat as they do because theyre told they need to, rather than them eating like that improves them.

We seem to be confusing two slightly different issues here as well. You could buy organic foodstuffs from a farm next door to your house and still cook a load of unhealthy shite with it.

Someone tell that to Ricky Hatton between fights!

I thought we were being amused at the cooking ability of the proles and their rejection of self betterment?

Causation is more than clear.

http://www.drjamesinfo.com/documents/co ... l_perf.pdf

http://www.fao.org/docrep/W8079E/w8079e0n.htm

(both those cite actual studies in their references)

I'm sure there's exceptions to the rule as there always is but in the main it's not like homeopathy or the like, there's a wealth of cold hard science backing up that diet is a significant factor in an athlete's performance.

If Throughsilver ate less kebabs for instance I reckon he could take every single one of us in a fight at the same time rather than just 75% of us. Deffo.

I'm not denying if you burn the calories you consume, even if they are all fat, you won't be overweight but it will take you a lot longer to burn those calories than if you ate less pies.

Health and performance aren't necessarily the same thing, of course. And if you're going to eat a pie, does it matter greatly from a health perspective whether it's a cheap ass reheated pie from the chippy or a £20 Fortnums pie? I'd be doubtful of that.

I'm willing to find out.

Taking longer to burn them, means you have worked harder to burn the same amount, which might actually make you fitter than someone who has eaten healthier?

Malc

LAWYERED

was?

Malc

Agree.

Although the cheap ass reheated pie will probably have loads of bacteria in that your immune system will fight and therefore make you stronger. Therefore that one is best.

It's fun to see your office on the news every morning. Some bigwigs are scurrying about the place today, a few ministers about.

This is why I store all my food at exactly 37.2°c for three days before consuming it.

Even the beer.

Amazing.




Donkey-meat next I reckon. Then dog, then human, that's how I see this story unfolding.

The Horse carcasses from Aintree were only used in 'The Finest' range.