CHEMICALS IN FOOD

adrian1963

adrian1963

Well-Known Member
Do we all agree that there should be chemicals in todays food.
I for one think the food of today tastes absoulutly aurfull.
This coinsides with the adding of chemicals to most foods and the lack of farmers growing organically produced food.
surely this will affect us in the future or is it already affecting us today as we have millions of people through out the world who are obese, could this be a reaction from the body to the chemicals in the food chain.

If it affects humans then surely it will affect the animal species sooner or later and to what devasting results.

Why does it cost more in supermarkets to buy organic foods then it does other foods as it is cheaper to grow organic food then to produce forced foods.

My point is with so much anger being aimed at smokers then surely some anger should be aimed at people who produce these chemical forced or produced foods
 
I assume you mean artificial chemicals? Remember that glucose, vitamin C, and all proteins, fats and carbohydrates are also chemicals. ;)


(Sorry for the pedantry, but it's a pet hate of mine!)

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More seriously, the reason organic costs more is that there is (or is perceived to be) a lower yield from organic methods (for a given area of farmland) than using artificial insecticides, fertilisers etc - so the cost per unit has to go up to compensate.

Plus they are still seen and marketed by supermarkets as luxury items, while the non-organic equivalents are the 'basic' model.

I don't think non-organic food can be linked directly to obesity.
 
I agree, it doesn't make you obese. I have (approx) pizzas, burgers, bacon, chicken and steak for teas (amongst a few similar things). Plus, nearly every Saturday I have a bacon toasty for breakfast, a large McDonald's meal for lunch and a bag of chips from the chippy for tea.

I weigh about 9 stone. Hardly obese for a 19 year old :p

(P.S. I agree that, just because I'm not obese, I am not healthy. But hey, I'd rather eat what I like eating. Smoking is different, because as stated in the other topic eating only affects you, whereas if you smoke others are breathing it in).
 
adrian1963 said:
Do we all agree that there should be chemicals in todays food.
I for one think the food of today tastes absoulutly aurfull.
This coinsides with the adding of chemicals to most foods and the lack of farmers growing organically produced food.
surely this will affect us in the future or is it already affecting us today as we have millions of people through out the world who are obese, could this be a reaction from the body to the chemicals in the food chain.

If it affects humans then surely it will affect the animal species sooner or later and to what devasting results.

Why does it cost more in supermarkets to buy organic foods then it does other foods as it is cheaper to grow organic food then to produce forced foods.

My point is with so much anger being aimed at smokers then surely some anger should be aimed at people who produce these chemical forced or produced foods
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I was going to pick this post apart sentence by sentence, but I thought that might be petty, especially if adrian1963 is genuinely concerned about the issue, so I'll say this:

Obesity is generally caused by people eating too much of the wrong types of foods, not by chemical additives. (Note I said 'generally', as there are other causes of obesity). The animal species of the world should not be affected by being fed non-organic produce.

I wonder, is adrian1963 a smoker?

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
Obesity is generally caused by people eating too much of the wrong types of foods, not by chemical additives.
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Obesity is also caused by eating too much of the right types of foods too.

If energy intake (food) > energy expended, then you will gain weight. If you are overweight then eat less or exercise more. It's as simple as that. Unfortunately millions of people seem to think there is a hidden secret to weight loss.
 
Javan Rhino said:
I agree, it doesn't make you obese. I have (approx) pizzas, burgers, bacon, chicken and steak for teas (amongst a few similar things). Plus, nearly every Saturday I have a bacon toasty for breakfast, a large McDonald's meal for lunch and a bag of chips from the chippy for tea.

I weigh about 9 stone. Hardly obese for a 19 year old :p

(P.S. I agree that, just because I'm not obese, I am not healthy. But hey, I'd rather eat what I like eating. Smoking is different, because as stated in the other topic eating only affects you, whereas if you smoke others are breathing it in).
Click to expand...

When I was 19 I ate just like that and like you I was not obese ......you might change your eating habits when your metabolism slows and your gut starts to grow though :p. I still eat what i want to (try to stick with healthier foods nowadays) just a little less than i used to and make sure i excercise.
 
Drew said:
When I was 19 I ate just like that and like you I was not obese ......you might change your eating habits when your metabolism slows and your gut starts to grow though :p. I still eat what i want to (try to stick with healthier foods nowadays) just a little less than i used to and make sure i excercise.
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I make sure I get plenty of exercise, since I live in the middle of the countryside and can't drive, so I walk to alot of places :). As for food, whenever I have bread I'll choose brown over white if I get the option, but I don't like the taste of any fruits or vegetables (other than apples and bananas).
 
I am not a smoker and all I was trying to say was should we have to accept chemicals in our food.
Why doesn't todays food taste like it use to
 
Just recieved a p/m of a member and they asked this question can anyone help with an answer

question - why did they have to mess with the food in the first place

my reply was - to increase the amount grown in the quicker time

there reply was - or was it for profit.

unfortunatly I had no reply to that.
 
They've been using chemicals on foods for decades, but I'm curious how you know what food tasted like in the 50's?
 
There's a whole series about E numbers in food on the BBC at the moment:

BBC iPlayer - E Numbers: an Edible Adventure: Colours (first episode).

From personal experience, if you try to eat healthily you do indeed notice how revoltingly over-flavoured most processed food is. After a while your natural palette comes back if you stay off the junk food (for one thing I have to because of a sensitive mouth). I can't eat flavoured supermarket yoghurts (for example), they're just too sweet, so I only eat plain.
 
I have listened to people who lived in the 50's and they all say the same thing that food today does not taste anything like it used to taste
I can remember the late 60's myself and can tell you myself the food does taste different today and in comparism it's now were as good as it used to be.
 
adrian1963 said:
Just recieved a p/m of a member and they asked this question can anyone help with an answer

question - why did they have to mess with the food in the first place

my reply was - to increase the amount grown in the quicker time

there reply was - or was it for profit.

unfortunatly I had no reply to that.
Click to expand...

To start with I don't know how you think food is messed with. Many foods are processed for ease of cooking as people don't want to prepare their own meals and wait for their food to cook anymore, like the did in the past. They want to put the packet in the microwave and have a fully prepared meal in 2 minutes.

Other than that many fruits such as Tomatoes are now grown to look good, not for taste. Many old good tasting varieties did not look good enough, and have been replaced by varieties which look good, but are tasteless.

The change in varieties of plants grown for food has also been led by efficiency and markets wanting to get more for less. Food produced organically is much less efficient with yields more than halved. I grow mostly Rice and Wheat and require chemicals for weed control. Without weed control I think I would be lucky to get 30% of my wheat yield and even lower rice yields. The world wheat price has not changed in 20 years and in real terms has fallen dramatically. We were getting $180/t for wheat over 20 years ago and the only reason the price has jumped to $260 this year is the drought in Russia, otherwise we would probably be getting $170/t. Chemicals used in Australia have strict withholding periods and I presume Europe is the same. China and other less developed countries do not have the same standards and export a lot of food.

Complete world organic food production would mean farmers would make a lot more money, as I doubt that we could feed one third of the worlds current population, meaning food would be extremely expensive as only those with the money would survive. It would be like before modern agriculture, when over 70% of peoples income was spent on food. Currently I think in most western countries we spend around 10% of our incomes on food. You get what you pay for.
 
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