Author Topic: A random thread for food things that don't really warrant a thread of their own (Read 514118 times)

ian · « **Reply #2700 on:** 12 November, 2018, 12:43:28 pm »

Beans contain phytohaemagglutinins (a type of carbohydrate-binding proteins called lectins – the most famous of which is ricin, from castor beans). Red kidney beans have high levels of two, PHA-E and -L. They break down with vigorous boiling hence the need to do this with most beans before simmering. I presume the story related to under-preparation of the beans. PHA-E and PHA-L, the two found in red kidney beans, aren't fortunately as fatal as ricin, but will cause several hours of unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms and a ensure a long, unpleasant series of visits to the toilet.

Beans are generally pretty nasty – much of the preparation of soya, for instance, into tofu and various fermented derivates were from the need to make it less poisonous and more palatable. Modern varieties have bred out the worse of the nasties. People generally don't realise how much effort has gone into modern fruit and vegetables. Of course, don't eat raw soy either, it's still very toxic. I read a story a while back about a bunch of raw vegan foodies...

citoyen · « **Reply #2701 on:** 12 November, 2018, 12:53:49 pm »

Quote from: ian on 12 November, 2018, 12:43:28 pm

Red kidney beans have high levels of two, PHA-E and -L. They break down with vigorous boiling hence the need to do this with most beans before simmering. I presume the story related to under-preparation of the beans.

Yep, that's pretty much how I remember it, though it was a long time ago and I was very young at the time, and I probably lost interest because the story wasn't about a dog saying sausages or a carrot that looked like a willy.

T42 · « **Reply #2702 on:** 12 November, 2018, 01:08:29 pm »

That explains why MrsT developed a "soy sensitivity" about 10 years ago that ended her vegan phase.

ian · « **Reply #2703 on:** 12 November, 2018, 01:36:36 pm »

Beans are just full of things to discourage the eating thereof (obviously the plant isn't keen that all its seeds get munched). As plants can't run away from things intent on eating them, evolution has ensured that they are unpalatable to creatures that haven't co-evolved to eat them. Even cooked, beans are difficult to digest without the help of your gut microbiota, hence their anal tunefulness.

I could find the hapless raw-food vegan story, which is a shame because it's up there with the sugar-free Haribo level of hilarious (to everyone else) intestinal distress.

(From a quick google, it seems that the organic gluten-free health-faddistas know that all soy is a big conspiracy by big agriculture, of course.)

hellymedic · « **Reply #2704 on:** 12 November, 2018, 09:26:11 pm »

My hard and fast rule is that all dried beans must be boiled hard and fast for ten minutes.

hellymedic · « **Reply #2705 on:** 13 November, 2018, 01:50:41 am »

I had never heard of a freakshake...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46179175

I'd heard of a McFlurry.

I am old...

ian · « **Reply #2706 on:** 13 November, 2018, 08:13:33 am »

Do people generally not think that a pint of milkshake with a cake and couple of cookies on top doesn't have a lot of sugar in it?

And really, are people knocking that back on a daily basis, or as the occasional dessert. I think the latter.

There may be a point in disparaging supermarket milk 'shakes' which are just heavily sweetened milk products of little other value than pointless calories. That said, rather than yelling BAN IT at everything, perhaps we really need to teach people about (and stop weirding) food so they can make reasonable decisions.

ETA a quote from the article:

Quote

Registered nutritionist Kawther Hashem, a researcher at Action on Sugar based at Queen Mary, said it was "shocking this information is hidden from the consumer, who would struggle to find it".

Then look at the pictures.

(I'm not sure what a registered nutritionist is, I don't think it's a protected title in the UK.)

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #2707 on:** 15 November, 2018, 09:47:29 am »

I discovered that Bulgarian has a slang word for hot dog, rokoko. It's a portmanteau of the words for horns, skin, bones...

hellymedic · « **Reply #2708 on:** 15 November, 2018, 11:33:45 am »

Quote from: ian on 13 November, 2018, 08:13:33 am

There may be a point in disparaging supermarket milk 'shakes' which are just heavily sweetened milk products of little other value than pointless calories. That said, rather than yelling BAN IT at everything, perhaps we really need to teach people about (and stop weirding) food so they can make reasonable decisions.

BUT BUT BUT Frijj is just right for some weary Audaxers!
Mars milk shakes were a good way for me to recover weight and strength after pneumonia.

I think dieticians are a recognised profession.

The most extreme freakshake is nutritionally similar to a whole two litre tub of Sainsbury's vanilla Soft Scoop 'ice cream.

It's amazing how the food industry can both concentrate and spread out its products...

ian · « **Reply #2709 on:** 15 November, 2018, 11:46:59 am »

Yeah, but those shakes aren't available in the local supermarket, they're restaurant food and obviously intended as a treat (for probably several kids) rather than regular eating. I'm certainly not dissolute enough to eat in Harvester every day. Not even every other day.

It's a stupid, cynical story. Organization gets cheap 'OMG!' press-release that appeals to the news outlets that republish OMG! press-releases (basically everyone these days) since they can publish pretty much as is with a few stock photos from the restaurants' website for extra OMG! And all it does is advertise the shakes in question. I wanted one.

The sad thing is that its further food weirding and as such counterproductive. Eating that is a sin! Gluttons!

I don't want to have to live in a world were every menu has bloody calorie counts on it and every meal is a constant battle between virtue and wickedness.

(Dietician is indeed a professional title, but nutritionist is stuff you can make up.)

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2710 on:** 15 November, 2018, 01:27:03 pm »

Dietician: professional
Nutrionist: Gillian McKeith (or, to give her her full medical title, Gillian McKeith)

hellymedic · « **Reply #2711 on:** 15 November, 2018, 02:03:21 pm »

On the other hand I like to make informed menu choices.

I think the information can be presented unobtrusively.

Such is useful for many folk.

ian · « **Reply #2712 on:** 16 November, 2018, 09:56:01 am »

It's more food weirding, sadly. We need a relationship with what we eat that doesn't involve numbers, doesn't involve sin and damnation and the calculus of virtue.

Everyone knows that drinking a pint of milkshake with a cakeberg floating through a blizzard of chocolate sprinkles on top is nearly has healthy as picking a fight with a polar bear over whose pork chop it is. Everyone also knows what healthy food is. There's lot of reasons, of course, why don't take healthy decisions and that's why it's complicated, but it's not because they don't know what those decisions are.

Good through life counting calories, disavowing carbs, or living off cabbage soups and colonics (I'm not sure which end is for the cabbage soup, tbh) is a bit sad and I'm not having it. None of us should have it. Diets don't work anyway. If I'm in a restaurant, I care the food is good because that's why I'm there, not about how many calories it has.

When we start worrying about such stuff, we kill food. I watched someone attempting to make sofrito for a risotto the other week. She puts in a tiny splash of olive oil like she's scared of it. I had to take the bottle of her and pour in the rest. It's about the taste and the not the numbers. No one gets fat because their risotto has a few extra spoons of olive oil in it.

hulver · « **Reply #2713 on:** 16 November, 2018, 03:03:12 pm »

Somebody brought some Mince Pies into work today.

On the one hand, come off it, it's not even December yet!

On the other hand, Mince pies.

ElyDave · « **Reply #2714 on:** 16 November, 2018, 03:28:39 pm »

Ian,

sadly I'd dispute your remark "everyone knows what healthy food is"

Evidence of employing YOOFs as carers would suggest otherwise at quite a high rate. And I'm not disparaging YOOFs alone, they're just direct experience, I see plenty of other age groups with appalling nutritional awareness.

ian · « **Reply #2715 on:** 16 November, 2018, 04:32:30 pm »

Oh, I think people do. They may choose not to eat it, but I'm sure people don't think fried chicken and fries twice a day is healthy either or believe in the miraculous healing powers of Ginsters pasties (actually that's true, they do cure cancer, but don't let Paltrow liquidise them and shoot them up your arse, well not unless that's a particular fantasy you have).

Dietary advice is simple. Taking it less so, which I understand. So people reach for and accept complexity. Which is a shame, because healthy food tastes a lot better than the alternatives. I, for instance, am going to make pizza using the remains of yesterday's slow-cooked bolognese, with some broccoli and cheese on top. Not a single unnatural ingredient will be harmed in this process and I guarantee it'll taste approximately 242.45632 times better than the average fast food junk pizza. Which means I can wash it down with the boozy contents of my fridge.

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #2716 on:** 16 November, 2018, 07:35:12 pm »

Quote from: ian on 16 November, 2018, 09:56:01 am

It's more food weirding, sadly. We need a relationship with what we eat that doesn't involve numbers, doesn't involve sin and damnation and the calculus of virtue.

Can we add Instagram to that list

ian · « **Reply #2717 on:** 16 November, 2018, 08:25:52 pm »

If it's any consolation a while back I saw someone attempting to acquire a photograph of something undoubtedly one part avocadoish and one part despair and in their enthusiasm dropping their phone in their soup. There's probably not a more satisfying splosh to be heard within the borders of E5.

ElyDave · « **Reply #2718 on:** 16 November, 2018, 08:34:09 pm »

I think you have just made my point very well Ian, your pizza as an example, likely to hit most of the nutritional tick boxes (a bit high on the carbs for me, but that's another discussion). So many people would simply not even think of that, adn would be happy to eat a sugar and salt laden, poor quality but more expensive supermarket job and think it's OK.

We've educated several of the carers on both economy and nutrition of making your own lunch whether salad or sandwhich vs buying from the likes of M&S or tesco's etc.

Most day, my lunch if I'm at home is whatever veg are in the fridge with some kind of protein, cooked in a plant oil with herbs and spices. The sandwich eating carers seem to marvel at my culinary prowess, which is nothing more than 30 years of trial and error, but always starting from real food.

Rant over.

ian · « **Reply #2719 on:** 16 November, 2018, 09:34:49 pm »

Possibly. I'm quite often wrong.

We did grab a takeaway pizza from Pizza Hut a while back (I feel sure I documented it here because I'm that interesting) and I would say the experience was like eating a slice of sofa. OK, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume the cheese had somehow vulcanized on the walk down the hill. Assuming it was ever cheese which seemed doubtful. It seemed more a substance that you'd use to make bulletproof sex toys. I can't do supermarket pizza these days, they're dispiritingly sweet, like the base has a bloody smear of ketchup, some saccharine culinary crime scene. I can understand why they'd make an Italian angry. OK, angrier. The pizza was better in the US, but it was really a competition (as is every meal in the US) to get as much food into it as possible. No concept of less-is-more. They'd use the LHC to hammer more lard quarks into the spaces between existing subatomic food particles until they have some kind of superdense cheesetonium. Then add bacon. That's the terminal line in every American recipe. Add bacon. And probably a significant proportion of American lifespans. The pigs always get their revenge in the end.

I suppose the sad thing is that it's easy and quick and cheaper to make good food. Pizza dough – flour, water, salt, oil, yeast. Five minutes. While it's resting, chop some onion, celery, carrot, and garlic. Add a generous amount of olive oil to a pan, heat and then cook the veg with a good sprinkle of oregano and a pinch of rosemary and thyme). Add a decent pinch of salt. Don't fry, cook low and slow. After about twenty minutes or so, throw in a four or five chopped tomatoes (I never deskin them, needless palaver). Cook it down until, well, it looks like tomato sauce. Roll out the dough, rest it a few minutes, add the tomato sauce, cheese and any other topping and throw it in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the base has crisped. You won't buy a ready-made or takeaway pizza that good. And you can drink and listen to good tunes while you do it.

Ok, it's not as awesome as an Italian fried pizza but it is better than a Scottish one.

ElyDave · « **Reply #2720 on:** 17 November, 2018, 07:30:31 am »

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/17/bug-grub-sainsburys-to-stock-edible-insects-on-shelves-in-a-uk-first

Anyone for cricket?

Danu · « **Reply #2721 on:** 17 November, 2018, 08:00:10 am »

I think a few retailer's have been offering this service for years, and somewhat fresher

ElyDave · « **Reply #2722 on:** 17 November, 2018, 08:34:16 am »

Those were just a loyalty bonus

T42 · « **Reply #2723 on:** 17 November, 2018, 10:08:07 am »

Just eaten a 25-cm (10") croissant from the local baker.

barakta · « **Reply #2724 on:** 17 November, 2018, 11:30:49 am »

I think many people don't realise /how/ many calories are in a pastie or sandwich vs some alternatives which are less portable and quick to buy.

Many of my (well educated) friends who have done 'careful calorie counting' as a way of losing weight have realised how calorific some things are vs others and made changes to their eating habits so something quite overly-calorific is either reduced in portion or frequency of eating...

Cooking decent food from scratch is harder if you are poor, don't have access to good shops, low on time, low on energy etc. Home Economics (or we could call it food prep like it should be) at school could be SO much better at teaching people basic useful skills rather than wanky nonsense which doesn't apply to the real world.