Are hot meals necessary..?

Heth_2

I like hot meals as well when it is colder outside. In the winter I take soup/baked potato into work for lunch as well, it warms me up (my office is pretty chilly) and makes me feel happy and full. We also have a cooked meal in the evenings, although if it is hot outside then I am quite happy with a cold meal. I could never eat a totally raw diet.

Penny-Pincher!!

I prefer hot meals even on the hot days:D I will have salads etc, but normally have a baked spud with it.

PP
xx

Queenie

bud-miser wrote:

This still doesn't stack up against the 'piping hot' requirement many people have for their food. Body heat in most animals is only around the 35-40C level and disappears rapidly after death. I'm sure that most of your 'hunter-gatherers' will have had an ambient temperature diet ... .

yes, most likely, but they solved that by learning how to make fire :whistle:

annie-c

Sorry, can I ask you to clarify the question again, please?

You seem to be asking 2 (possibly related things?)

(1) Is there a medical/scientific reason people need hot meals?

and

(2) If not, wouldn't it be cheaper to eat cold meals?


I don't know about the answer to (1) - I think that there is a scientific need for people to be warm, and eating a hot meal is probably one of the ways in which we can become warm when external conditions are cold. Obviously we could of course just wear warm clothes if physical need were the only consideration (and not sensory pleasure, etc etc)

In any case though, I'm not sure I'm convinced that (2) is correct. Is it always cheaper to eat cold meals? Assuming that you don't need cash so badly that you have to sell the cooker or cut off the gas, then loads of the hot meals I cook are really cheap to make.... veg soup, casseroles made with dried pulses, etc.

And so, given that I'm not convinced that cold meals are cheaper, I don't see the point in worrying over whether my desire for hot meals is really a need or simply a want.

mhoc

If there is just me, and I suppose when my offspring have flown the next there will be quite a few just me evenings I would just live on bags of salad leaves from the supermarket and grated cheese with just the odd pizza or garlic bread. I could live without cooking or hot food.

Mary

Queenie

mhoc wrote:

If there is just me, and I suppose when my offspring have flown the next there will be quite a few just me evenings I would just live on bags of salad leaves from the supermarket and grated cheese with just the odd pizza or garlic bread. I could live without cooking or hot food.

Mary

Aww, no need to have *odd* pizza's Mary, check out The Old Style Indexed Collection there are some scrummy pizza recipes in there

bud-miser

annie-c wrote:

I think that there is a scientific need for people to be warm, and eating a hot meal is probably one of the ways in which we can become warm when external conditions are cold. Obviously we could of course just wear warm clothes if physical need were the only consideration (and not sensory pleasure, etc etc)


And so, given that I'm not convinced that cold meals are cheaper, I don't see the point in worrying over whether my desire for hot meals is really a need or simply a want.

I believe that core body temperature is relatively unaffected by food intake whether hot or cold.

My fascination is with this subjective need for food to be hot - yes, I feel it too.

On the subject of whether cold meals are cheaper - obviously you must cook by the campfire method, complete with kindling and flints. Very hunter-gatherer! I'm afraid the utilities charge me for what I use, sadly...

annie-c

bud-miser wrote:

I believe that core body temperature is relatively unaffected by food intake whether hot or cold.

My fascination is with this subjective need for food to be hot - yes, I feel it too.

I would call a 'subjective need' a 'want' not a need....

bud-miser wrote:

On the subject of whether cold meals are cheaper - obviously you must cook by the campfire method, complete with kindling and flints. Very hunter-gatherer! I'm afraid the utilities charge me for what I use, sadly...

Some very inexpensive foods need to be cooked in order to be digestible and safe, eg dried pulses, rice, pasta. They have high nutritional value and last almost indefinitely unlike many more perishable items that can be eaten uncooked. But, even with cooking costs factored in, many cooked meals can be cheaper than cold ones of an equivalent nutritional value.

Unfortunately it is illegal to light campires in the public areas around my home. The police 'charge' individuals for their use of kindling and flints, sadly.

bud-miser

annie-c wrote:

I would call a 'subjective need' a 'want' not a need....



...even with cooking costs factored in, many cooked meals can be cheaper than cold ones of an equivalent nutritional value.

Unfortunately it is illegal to light campires in the public areas around my home. The police 'charge' individuals for their use of kindling and flints, sadly.

Yes, I too would not call it a need. That's why I was interested in the issue...

... and the fact that 'many' are cheaper (which I readily acknowledge) does not refute the fact that the vast majority are more expensive for having been heated.

Who said you had to light the campfire outside your house...?!

bm

tawnyowls

I'm sure for a lot of people it's as kscour said - it's a childhood comfort thing. Even today, when most of us are cossetted in centrally heated offices and heated cars, there's just nothing like sitting down to a bowl of hot homemade soup and freshly baked bread when it's blowing a gale and chucking it down outside. It just brings together lots of feelings about getting your basic needs met.