Another depressing thread

Maybee I’m hoovering my sofas on an almost daily basis now😂
Luckily my sitting room isn’t damp and I’ll reduce the chance of my developing cancer at the expense of being burnt to death!
As we don’t smoke, hate candles and don’t have an open fire, or indeed any fire at all, the risk of death by burning sofa is quite remote.

"There was one of those house building programmes which featured a couple whose children had multiple allergies and all of the furniture they bought was old ( not sure if it was pre safety standards or if the chemicals wear off after time). Some house plants absorb chemicals etc. I get mould in my living room and bought an ivy to keep on the piano. Unfortunately it can defeat some things but not my lack of green fingers because I forgot to water it and it died. I’ve nurtured the other plants I bought but, knowing how hardy ivy is, I completely forgot about the poor thing."

Not just fire retardant chemicals, all the clothes we wear contain chemicals the migrate into our bodies, cosmetics. cleaning products, they are all complex chemical mixes these days.

If you made a list of all the ingredients in every item you wore or ate or breathed in or applied to yourself every day it would be really scary.

Tesco and Waitrose sell organic carrots, Maybee

Has anyone listened to Toxic on radio 4? Extremely informative and interesting.
Warning: don’t watch if you are of a nervous disposition Re your health 😉https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002rqpk

Just by coincidence, I came across an article about a study which shows that children living near green spaces have stronger bones.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/13/children-living-near-green-spaces-tronger-bones-study

The theory is that some children have more access to green spaces (which includes parks or the countryside) and run around more. It's know that exercise is critical for strong bones. Our bone strength is actually set during childhood and declines after 50. It's important to have strong bones before the decline starts. I would imagine children with large gardens also run around more.

You only have to look at Gransnet threads to know that weak bones causes osteoporosis, which affects healthy life expectancy for some.

petra

All these opinions on why the more affluent are so healthy.
So why is it that, the middle classes are the highest number of users of cocaine
Perhaps that is because it’s not so obvious unless you happen to be at a party where the white stuff is freely available.
You won’t see see them scoring on the street or in a vape, Turkish barber shop. That’s because it’s delivered to your door.

The proportion of middle income people using cocaine is very small and more pervasive in some middle income sub-cultures than others.

I have never been in a situation where cocaine has been available or used. My DC work in banking (technical side) and academia, they say they have rarely come across it, just the occasional addict.

Middle income people may be the main users of cocain, but they are still a tiny proportion of the third of all households in the middle income group.

TheSunRisesInTheEast I totally disagree with you. All the dishes you mention can be made uickly and easily at home. I have always cooked from scratch, even when my children were young and I worked full time. We have always eaten a wide variety of dishes from many cuisines. All you need to do is take your intelligence to recipes and simplify them. Change some of the ingredients and some of the cooking methods.

Over the last fortnight I have made a variety of pasta dishes, curries, casseroles and stews from 6 different cuisines, all adapted from the original so that they were uick and easy to prepare.

TheSunRisesInTheEast

If you're happy with meat and two veg every day, it's easy to cook it from scratch, but if you want more variety without the prep, ready meals are delicious, quick and affordable. This week I've had cod with a cheesy crust, tuna pasta bake, chicken arrabiata, mushroom stroganoff, king prawn linguine all with a side of salad or veg, I would never cook such things from scratch, it's too time consuming and I can't see the point of all the effort when the experts do it for me.

IMO you're wrong. The "experts" are cooking with chemical additives in many ready meals. Look to the ingredients listed.

Norah

TheSunRisesInTheEast

If you're happy with meat and two veg every day, it's easy to cook it from scratch, but if you want more variety without the prep, ready meals are delicious, quick and affordable. This week I've had cod with a cheesy crust, tuna pasta bake, chicken arrabiata, mushroom stroganoff, king prawn linguine all with a side of salad or veg, I would never cook such things from scratch, it's too time consuming and I can't see the point of all the effort when the experts do it for me.

IMO you're wrong. The "experts" are cooking with chemical additives in many ready meals. Look to the ingredients listed.

It depends! I have a friend who is paranoid about additives, who was going on about even tinned chick peas having ascorbic acid. Horrors! (Anybody with a basic understanding of chemistry knows that ascorbic acid is another name for Vitamin C .)

Many ready meals contain harmless preservatives, many of which have been used for centuries. Personally, I'd far rather have food which isn't "off".

I do actually usually eat whole foods, but I also have a couple of ready meals in my freezer for the times when I'm too tired or hungry to cook. Quite frankly, unless I'm having guests, I really can't be bothered spending more than a few minutes preparing food, which is why I eat so much salad and can make an omelette at the same time as making a cup of coffee and a yoghurt dessert with fruit and nuts. I scrutinise the ingredient/nutrition information on the back of packets and know what I'm putting inside my body. Ready meals can sometimes be a real treat.

I would be interested to see research on what's actually worse for people - ready meals or eating too much. I realise that they can go hand in hand, but I'm one of the (approximately) third of over 60 year olds with an ideal BMI, so I'm really not beating myself about the odd ready meal.

MOnica, I have no idea what percentage of middle income people use cocaine, but I had my eyes opened. About 15 years ago, I was invited to a party with many people from the London banking/stock broker sector. It wasn't my normal circle and I was quite shocked how many illegal drugs (including cocaine) was circulating. I think people thought I was a real prude because I wasn't invited again. I told my daughter, who was at the time still in the sixth form, so knew many older teenagers and often went to their houses. She just laughed and told me that I was out of touch. She knew how many of her friends' parents took drugs because their children gossiped about it. These were all perfectly "respectable" people who had enough money to buy their drugs without needing to mug strangers for a quick fix.

twaddle all I can say is that your experience is limited to the banking sector, where there is known to be a problem, although even in the banking sector it is in a sub sector. DD works in London in the banking sector, but not as banker and neither she nor her work colleagues use cocaine.

As I have said my own children say they come across cocaine use rarely at work or in their social lives.

But recreational use of cocaine goes back to at least the mid-19th century and was the main drug abused in the early 20th century. It still doesn't mean that a significant number of people used it.

The problem with many additives is that behind uite benign ingredients, lie processing methods used to make them is anything but benign.

If we buy a bottle of rape or olive oil it will be cold pressed or produced by pressure methods, but much of the oil used in food manufacturing has been subject to chemical processes that leave damaging elements in the final product.

One of the van Tulleken brothers (I can never remember which is which) has written a book on UPFs. It is a polemical book, but this does not mean that much of its contents are not factual. Most of the damaging additives are basic food stuffs, like flour, but they have been subject to processing to divide them up to constituent parts, which makes them act in a very different way to the whole product.

In other cases ingredient names are deceptive. You often see maize starch listed in ingredients. Maize starch is often made into corn syrup and other sugars. So the ingredient 'maize starch' actually means 'added sugar'. The book is worth reading

I drink mainly decaffeinated coffee so buy Nescafé Gold Blend because I once read that it is naturally decaffeinated. Not sure if that’s correct but I’m still sticking with it just in case.

MOnica and Norah, I applaud you for only cooking from scratch instead of ready meals, but I have neither the interest or time to spend in the kitchen making something inferior to what I can get ready made.

I was brought up on meals cooked from scratch, cooked for my family from scratch - roasts, curries, spag bol, stews, but now it's just me and my husband, I enjoy ready meals, not all the time, but several nights a week. We also eat out a lot.

Health is a lottery.

I've never smoked (not even a puff), rarely drink alcohol (I'm happy to be the designated driver.) I do a moderate amount of exercise, all the housework, gardening, and helping out with the grandchildren, including walking to school and back.

I've had fibromyalgia for at least 20 years, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, bursitis in my hips, Morton's Neuroma in my feet, gall bladder removed, cysts aspirated from breasts, arthritic rotator cuff.

Annoyingly, but not grudgingly (😉) I know people who smoke, drink, are obese, and never ail at all.

I keep positive about life, I'm thankful and count my blessings, and have a happy disposition.

No one wants to hear about people's health woes, so that's it from me, just wanted to say that living a healthy lifestyle doesn't always mean a healthy life. Genes play a big part.

TheSunRisesInTheEast

I agree with your post.

If we abuse our bodies then, yes, poor health may be a result (but not always) but there are other factors which are beyond our control which play a large part too.

How could we explain to a young child who has a serious illness that ill health is their own fault?

It is a case of genes and of luck too, and often on environmental issues as well.

Absolutely, Allira, my cousin's 2 year old son passed away with a stomach tumour. It was devastating for them and other parents they met at Gt. Ormond St. Hospital who lost their children. So much heartbreak 💔.

TheSunRisesInTheEast

MOnica and Norah, I applaud you for only cooking from scratch instead of ready meals, but I have neither the interest or time to spend in the kitchen making something inferior to what I can get ready made.

I was brought up on meals cooked from scratch, cooked for my family from scratch - roasts, curries, spag bol, stews, but now it's just me and my husband, I enjoy ready meals, not all the time, but several nights a week. We also eat out a lot.

Health is a lottery.

I've never smoked (not even a puff), rarely drink alcohol (I'm happy to be the designated driver.) I do a moderate amount of exercise, all the housework, gardening, and helping out with the grandchildren, including walking to school and back.

I've had fibromyalgia for at least 20 years, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, bursitis in my hips, Morton's Neuroma in my feet, gall bladder removed, cysts aspirated from breasts, arthritic rotator cuff.

Annoyingly, but not grudgingly (😉) I know people who smoke, drink, are obese, and never ail at all.

I keep positive about life, I'm thankful and count my blessings, and have a happy disposition.

No one wants to hear about people's health woes, so that's it from me, just wanted to say that living a healthy lifestyle doesn't always mean a healthy life. Genes play a big part.

Of course genes play a part in overall health.

It's lovely you spend on ready meals and eating out - it merely doesn't suit us. We do prefer scratch made as do our AC. I want to know what we're eating.

I'm sorry to read of your health problems.

Thank you 💐

M0nica

twaddle all I can say is that your experience is limited to the banking sector, where there is known to be a problem, although even in the banking sector it is in a sub sector. DD works in London in the banking sector, but not as banker and neither she nor her work colleagues use cocaine.

As I have said my own children say they come across cocaine use rarely at work or in their social lives.

But recreational use of cocaine goes back to at least the mid-19th century and was the main drug abused in the early 20th century. It still doesn't mean that a significant number of people used it.

I haven't a clue what percentage of people use cocaine or any other drug. My experience tells me that more people use drugs than people might at first think. They're hardly likely to share their habit with people who don't approve and might report them to the police. I also know that behind the curtains of suburban windows, there is more alcoholism than people might think.

In the context of this thread (which -in case people need reminding - is about inequality of healthy life expectancy and the fact that the age is going down), it's interesting that some people in certain areas seem to be able to indulge in drugs and alcohol, but it doesn't seem to affect their healthy life expectancy, whereas drug and alcohol users in more deprived areas are affected.

TheSunRisesInTheEast I was not uerying your eating habits or commenting on them. Each to their own. I was just contradicting your statement

If you're happy with meat and two veg every day, it's easy to cook it from scratch, but if you want more variety without the prep, ready meals are delicious, quick and affordable. ......., it's too time consuming and I can't see the point of all the effort when the experts do it for me.

Cooking a wide selection of dishes is not time consuming and, most of us will have batch cooked home made dishes in our freezer, ready to be eaten at a moments notice. I am no purist, I buy food in. We have an Italian Delicatessen not 100 yards from our house who sells the most delicious shop made pizzas and an excellent fish and chip shop in walking distance.

But when my children were small I would spend 10 minutes preparing the evening meal before I went to work, shove the dish in the oven on an oven timer and I came home to supper cooked and ready to serve. the recipes I used were from a variety of cuisines. I spent no more time preparing a meal from scratch than I would dealing with preparing a ready meal. Heating through adding veg or preparing a salad and so on.

I too have batch cooked meals in my freezer at any given time - chilli, spag bol, chicken stew, chicken curry, vegetable curry, all in Chinese takeaway containers, labelled, they're a handy standby if there's not much else in the fridge. I don't have ready meals all the time, but I enjoy them when I do. I've had a particularly busy couple of weeks, so they've been a Godsend. We also have an excellent fish & chip shop, fish restaurants, Indian, Chinese, Thai & Turkish restaurants which we use. Food, glorious food 😋.

"How could we explain to a young child who has a serious illness that ill health is their own fault?"

Damaged/degraded genes of the parent or the immune system of the child was damaged or didnt develop in the first year or two

TheSunRisesInTheEast All I was doing was contradicting your statement that cooking dishes from other cuisines is time consuming. It isn't, beyond that people eat and cook as they will or will not,

I would rather eat bread and cheese than ready meals that are choc full of preservatives and over flavoured to cover cheap meat. Even C. Bigham only gets two stars from me.
My DH will eat them and just plates me some some smoked salmon or cheese with salad but then I eat very little. and have a poor appetite.
At 82 you do not need to eat lots. Just the right things and keep off booze and fags.

Sigh. Not all 'ready meals' are as you describe. Just check the contents and the fat, saturated fat, calories and fibre. Many meals 'made from scratch' can be over salted to my taste.