Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Addatives and chemical content of (mainly processed) foods.

  • 18-06-2008 11:17pm
    #1
    Kovik
    Closed Accounts Posts: 218 ✭✭


    I'm currently trying to get rid of my typical student diet and start cooking for myself. Today, however, I got back to my apartment after an especially long day at work and simply heated up some of that dolmio microwaveable sauce crap and cooked some pasta in a hurry.

    Mostly out of morbid curiosity, I flipped the packet over and had a look at some of the ingredients (or, more specifically, the chemical ingredients comprising most of the main ingredients). I was actually kind of struck by words like mono-diclyceride, orthophosphate, modified starch, xanthan gum and other stuff like that.

    To put it simply... is any of this stuff "bad" for you? Growing up, whenever my Mum was working late, this is the kind of stuff we'd eat and I'd imagine a whole lot of student cuisine is packed with similar crap. While I'm making a concerted effort to eat mostly my own home cooked food, should I avoid these quicker meals like the plague or am I overreacting?


Comments

  • #2
    How Strange
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,339 ✭✭✭How Strange


    Kovik wrote: »
    I was actually kind of struck by words like mono-diclyceride, orthophosphate, modified starch, xanthan gum and other stuff like that. To put it simply... is any of this stuff "bad" for you?
    I don't know if it's bad for you per se but it certainly isn't as good for you as eating food made from scratch.
    I'm a bit of a food nazi so I'd regard most things that come out of packets and boxes as bad. I try to cook lots of food all at once and freeze it.


  • #3
    EileenG
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,775 ✭✭✭EileenG


    Well, it's been tested for general safety, so it shouldn't kill you, but it's not as good as fresh whole food.

    Buy some thin cut steak, or slice a chicken breast lengthways, so they will cook quickly straight out of the freezer. Prawns are another great standby that will cook from frozen in minutes. Keep a few tins of tuna and salmon and sardines in your press. Most vegetebles will cook in minutes if you chop it small. Eggs are the ultimate fast food. You can scramble a couple of eggs faster than you can make coffee.


Advertisement