Is a healthy diet more expensive?

MattMattMattUK

YoungBlueEyes said:

That's very interesting @MattMattMattUK, I didn't know that. So is sunflower oil at the better or lower quality end of the scale?

It can be either, hydrogenated sunflower oil, or very cheap sunflower oil is lower quality, the stuff you buy in supermarkets is generally good quality. A lot of the lower quality stuff will be used in highly processed foods, cosmetics, even animal feed. 

Nelliegrace

White bread has 4.2g of fibre per 100g.
There are white breads available with added fibre.
Wholemeal has 7g of fibre per 100g.
”Brown” bread is not wholemeal bread, it is white bread with cheap colouring.

The recommended amount of fibre is 25g for women 35g for men. 

We like both wholemeal and white, or a mix of both, and make a small loaf of whichever flour wants using. They are both good. 

White bread has 9g of protein per 100g, and most UK bread has added vitamins. One cannot say it has no nutritional value, but all bread is best eaten in moderation because we are not doing the manual labour of previous generations, requiring lots of carbohydrate for energy.

People get dogmatic about food. Proven scientific facts are more useful. 
Beware of studies which are subsidised by the food industry, and news headlines about, “research,” when if you read closely the cohort of the study is about 20 people.

Longwalker

Oh I have skills and knowledge but Im no baker  Its hit and miss

I can make the most beautiful pastry - but a cake?, edible but never pretty and never award winning

I made a beautiful loaf the other day - not pretty, could have had a better rise, but I used whey for the liquid, made for a very high protein loaf and very tasty it was. Flour, yeast, olive oil,1 tsp of salt and the whey. No preservative required - didnt hang around for long enough to think about mould

Nelliegrace

Home baking doesn’t have to be posh, just tasty.
The simplest home made scone is better than anything from a factory processed-food producer. 

If if looks a bit wonky the evidence soon disappears. 

Blue_Doggy

Nelliegrace said

People get dogmatic about food. Proven scientific facts are more useful. 
Beware of studies which are subsidised by the food industry, and news headlines about, “research,” when if you read closely the cohort of the study is about 20 people.

For an examination of the “scientific” studies behind a lot of the confusing dietary recommendations, Dr Tim Spector’s book Spoon-Fed is good.

Nelliegrace

“A diet of cheap junk food has the peculiar quality that it can make you simultaneously overweight and undernourished. Children in the poorest areas of England are both fatter and significantly shorter than those in the richest areas at ages ten and 11. (The average five-year-old in the UK is shorter than their peers in nearly all other high-income countries.)”

Henry Dimbleby, The Times, 25 3 23.

I don’t know what to say. This is not just physical but mental development and mental health. 

MattMattMattUK

Longwalker said:

Oh I have skills and knowledge but Im no baker  Its hit and miss

I can make the most beautiful pastry - but a cake?, edible but never pretty and never award winning

I made a beautiful loaf the other day - not pretty, could have had a better rise, but I used whey for the liquid, made for a very high protein loaf and very tasty it was. Flour, yeast, olive oil,1 tsp of salt and the whey. No preservative required - didnt hang around for long enough to think about mould

I make bread most weeks, I rarely buy ready made bread, it only takes about 15 minutes actual work, although there is rising, resting and baking time as well. I am not particularly skilled but it is far better than most supermarket bread, anything in the <£3-4 range, although a good specialist baker will make better bread. The other plus side is that the ingredients only cost about £0.6-1.50 for a 500g depending on what kind of bread I bake and around another 40p in energy at current prices. 

I agree on not needing preservatives!

I have had better results with butter rather than oils, although olive oil can impart a nice flavour. One thing I did try which made a lovely loaf with a lighter texture and but a lovely crisp crust was kneading for 10-15 minutes (usually in a stand mixer whilst I am cooking) and then adding the butter at that stage, it noticeably changed the texture and crust.

If you want to try another interesting one rosemary and potato bread is delicious as something a little different.

When it comes to home baking I have always found the key to more complicated receipies is time. I have baked/made nearly all the technical and highest difficulty (according to their website) challenges from The Great British Bake Off and all came out very well, there is a major difference though. On the TV show they have a fixed time with only just enough time to do everything from prep to mix, bake and decorate/finish, they also have to do everything from memory. When I did them I had as long as I wanted, I could fully prep everything before I even mixed the first two ingredients together and I had an idiots guide and video I could follow at my own leisure, what took them an hour probably took me three, but it was lockdown so I was not short on time! Some of my decorating would not have won any awards, but it definitely improved over time. 

bouicca21

@MattMattMattUK I’ve only taken up serious bread making in the past year.  Recently started autopsying the flour, which gives good results.  Does the butter have to be melted if added at such a late stage, or does it just mix in?  I’ve been using olive oil or occasionally margarine.  I’m aiming to experiment with adding mashed potato since the net tells me it’s good for texture.

MattMattMattUK

bouicca21 said:

@ MattMattMattUK I’ve only taken up serious bread making in the past year.  Recently started autopsying the flour, which gives good results.  Does the butter have to be melted if added at such a late stage, or does it just mix in?  I’ve been using olive oil or occasionally margarine.  I’m aiming to experiment with adding mashed potato since the net tells me it’s good for texture.

I started during lockdown like many others did and have probably only bought four or five loaves since then, instead making my own. It does not need to be melted, but it does need to be quite soft, I find kneeding the dough somewhat flat then folding the sliced butter into the dough before kneeding again in the mixer best.

For the rosemary and potato bread I have found that mashed potato from the middle of jacket potatoes works best (it is also the best mashed potatoe in my opinion) because it has a fluffy texture with less moisture than that from boiled potatoes so it is easier to get the dough moisture right.

I have had plenty of experiments, some better than others, only one that went properly wrong when I got the salt and yeast together with the water and ended up killing most of the yeast so the bread barely rose, I used that dough to make tortillas rather than waste it.

maisie_cat

annieb64 said:

Having spent a few days away from home staying with family and eating a diet of processed food and refined carbs I know that I would hate to eat like that for any length of time.I feel tired and bloated. 

At home we cook from scratch . I am lucky to have time to shop around and batch cook.My mother and grandmother were both good cooks and made everything apart from bread at home. 

I know that feeling, we visit FIL monthly and stay overnight. He lives on ready meals and pies and his idea of veg is a toddler portion. By the time I get back home I'm craving veg.