Organic food in supermarkets

Edwardia

vincenta wrote: »

Hi Everyone! maybe some of you will have more knowledge about palm oil.Is it bad or what? I'm quite confused.
http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/palm-oil.php
I understand that sustainable Palm oil is better then other type of palm oil.But how about health,is it safe to use???
I noticed that in Sainsburys organic digestive biscuits there is used sustainable palm oil,the same story is with Abel and Cole organic bread.
why palm oil is used in organic products???

I did some digging and in the Victorian era, archaeologists found palm oil in a tomb going back to 3000 BC. It was one of the original ingredients of Palmolive soap, too.

Palm oil is cheap and manufacturers use it to replace hydrogenated vegetable oils. It's GM free, cholesterol free and lower in saturated fat than coconut oil. It has been used as a cooking oil in the Far East for many many years.

Rapeseed oil aka canola oil was too toxic for human use uuntil a new hybrid was developed in Canada in the 1950s. I lived in a village surrounded by the yellow stuff and not only does it stink like cabbages, people develop allergies to it. So I would suggest palm oil might be healthier than rapeseed oil.

The dichotomy is that it's all very well for us in the West to say not going to buy palm oil because of the orangutans, but in boycotting a natural product, would we be condemning business ventures to fail, people to become unemployed and be pushing them into poverty.

Personally instead of condemning, I think the charities should work with villagers and companies to make the operations greener and ensure there is some land for the animals.

vincenta

Thank's Edwardia! You always are so helpful!

Edwardia

I try to be !

Little Me Organics sensitive body cream, 3.57, ASDA.

Bought this last week to try. Light, non-greasy, sinks in well, convenient squeezy tube. For something so cheap and light it's really doing a good job applied morning and evening.

smallblueplanet

Edwardia wrote: »

... but in boycotting a natural product, would we be condemning business ventures to fail, people to become unemployed and be pushing them into poverty..

It's going to be somewhat more complicated than that. Encouraging countries to convert their 'land' to growing cash crops instead of subsistence agriculture isn't always as straightforward or successful as 'we buy, they get jobs'.

I'm amazed at the now ubiquitous nature of palm oil - it seems to be in nearly everything and I'm sure it never used to be...

"Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world... U.S. consumption of palm oil has tripled from 324,000 tons in 2005 to 1 million tons today. By one estimate, one in 10 products in a U.S. grocery store contain palm oil."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-brune/the-problem-with-palm-oil_b_149163.html

Best we can do at present is buy organic or sustainable IMO.

Edwardia

Firstly, though I'm sure most people would prefer to buy ethically and do no harm, that's not always feasible.

If you buy a product that contains vegetable oil in preference to one that contains palm oil, you may still be ingesting palm oil. There's nothing illegal about labelling it so. The company being honest about the ingredients in the product gets penalised, the company hiding palm oil behind vegetable oil doesn't.

If you boycott a product because it contains one ingredient, what about the livelihoods of the people farming and producing the other ingredients ?

Subsistence farming vs cash crops. Should we in the West, be dictating to people in the developing countries and keeping them in poverty ? If they want to grow cash crops to export and improve the quality of their lives - send their kids to school, for example, that's their business. It's not our country.

IMO What we should do, is share our expertise and technology and commit to Fairtrade across all these crops.

Personally, I low carb to stabilise my diabetes. That means I'm not eating bread, pizza, ready meals etc. Probability is that I'm not eating palm oil. I use organic Extra Virgin olive oil, organic ghee, organic butter and additive free Aberdeen Angus beef dripping to cook with, as well.

Edwardia

One of my favourite quotes, from 26th US President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, written in 1884

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are ".

I think that's realistically all we can do - some can do more, some less. If it's the best we can do in any situation, then that's fine.

System

I ordered this last Monday and it arrived this Monday, so 7 days in total and its made in Germany. They seem to be quite a big company in Germany. Alara cereals UK also offer the option to create your own muesli online (organic too) in the UK, however I felt there prices and "mix fees" were more expensive and the mymuesli website much easier to use.

There are 80 ingredients, all organic and preservative free. No added sugar except from the options like chocolate raisins. You select a "base", and then add as many of the raisins, fruits, nuts etc as you like. The website also provides nutritional info for your created muesli at the checkout.

It cost £18 for 3 575g tubes + £6 delivery (flat fee). So it works out around double the price of muesli in the supermarkets (non organic).

The muesli arrived in a well made branded box. Inside were 3 natural made cylinders with the ingredients of each muesli I created and the name I chose for it on a label on each cylinder.

The expiry date of each tube was around 5 months away which is good. I have tried each muesli and they all taste so good. Wheat sometimes give me gas but in this occassion it didn't. So if you're a cereal/muesli fan I would recommend ordering. I couldn't find any discount codes and also emailed their customer service about the codes and delivery, and they replied very quickly and called me "muesli friend" :cool:

Edwardia

berbastrike sounds like one for muesli fans

veg boxes in Scotland.. remembered one

http://www.growwild.co.uk/

Grow Wild is in West Lothian and so is The Whole Shebag which I found online

http://www.thewholeshebag.com/

Pillars of Hercules (used to go to a pub called that in Soho) http://www.pillars.co.uk/ Edinburgh area

http://www.grassrootsorganic.co.uk/
Glasgow

rufydoofyM

Abel and Cole have an offer on a joint of pork down from £12.66 to £8.09 (also on Ocado for £7.99). It was delivered on tuesday and I cooked it last night as a friend came to dinner. Well we all agreed it was the nicest pork ever. Gave up on pork joints years back after too many disappointments but it's back on the menu again and I've added a couple to my next order to pop in the freezer whilst they are on offer.
I cooked the gammon also from them (recieved last week) on monday and made pea and ham soup and had some in rolls and with salad. Although it cost £11 odd it provided us with 6 meals (for 2) so I reckon we did well. Although it was delicious I still prefer the taste of smoked gammon but would still recommend both.

Edwardia

Well done rufydoofyM you got some bargains there.

Did a one-day cookery course yesterday and one of the dishes was a Persian dish called borani esfanaj. Opened the bag of Sainsbury's SO organic spinach to use it and no wildlife but it was mud splattered. So I'll be examining bagged stuff more carefully in future !