A food columnist at The Guardian makes note of the absolutely stunning number of ingredients incorporated into modern food.
Having bought a “handmade” egg sandwich on a train, he organises its ingredients into a vertical list, as if he were about to try to shop for these scientific-sounding things. The visual effect is startling and chastening. Each column – there are two – is preposterously long, for the sandwich has no fewer than 32 ingredients, most unknown to a domestic cook. Eggs, for instance, come in at number 22, just after potassium sorbate...In Britain, he tells us, we eat an awful lot of highly seductive, hyper-palatable, ultra-processed food – it comprises 57% of our diet, a figure higher than anywhere else in Europe – and it makes us hungrier, or less satisfied, than we should be, with the result that we eat more of it, and put on more weight.
The choice is eat the highly processed handmade egg sandwich, or some other highly processed combination, or go hungry because that’s what they’re selling.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s that you say, plan ahead you say, buy the ingredients and pack a lunch you say?
Without all those chemicals you can’t pronounce you have to observe strict rules to avoid poisoning yourself.
Mayo in a sandwich you won’t eat till it sat around at ambient temperature for at least 6 hours, maybe a couple of them in a hot car.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
xoxoxoBruce
???
DeleteI made sandwiches to eat at my desk for perhaps 10-15 years. It's less expensive than a cafeteria and better food. And it saves time - it doesn't cost time.
Yes, but the sandwich you make it home is eaten immediately, mostly from ingredients that you prepare at the time. They list “potassium sorbate” as an ingredient because they would rather not list “mould.” Also commercial caterers MUST use preservatives. In large part because they are legally obliged to, and also because if they don’t they would lose a lot of product to spoilage.
ReplyDeleteI also suspect that if one were to rigorously audit the ingredients in your homemade egg sandwich, you would find a longer list than you imagine. The bread for a start. Did you use store-bought cream? What’s in that? What about the anti-caking agents in the salt?
John Carney
PS. Is there a way I can comment non-anonymously?
The easiest way is what you just did. Sign in Anon but leave a real or made up name at the end. Alternatively try the pull-down menu that comes up when you click "reply" and select name/url and skip the url if you want.
DeleteOh, and please check your privilege. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to eat at home all the time.
ReplyDeleteJohn Carney.
Who is talking about eating at home? You can either prepare your lunch before you go to work (it'll survive, if perhaps a tad soggy if one insists on egg salad) or bring your ingredients with you and prepare lunch on the spot.
DeleteIf I were to pack a lunch, or buy a pre-made sandwich, it would be anything besides egg salad. Those are only safe made fresh. Take it from someone who's survived salmonella TWICE. Make yourself a ham and cheese with mustard, or peanut butter and jelly. Much safer. It's great to have a refrigerator at work, until someone eats your lunch. Taking a tossed vegetable salad will prevent that, and give you a reason to eat a salad.
ReplyDelete