What are they doing to our Food?

Our food manufacturers seem to be giving into government "suggestions" that they reduce the amount of fat, salt and sugar in our manufactured foods with the result that they are becoming quite tasteless.
First it was salt. Manufacturers were pressurised to reduce the amount of salt in food on the basis that it helps prevent heart problems. What they don't mention is that for older people like myself, lack of salt gives you joint pains which can make life quite uncomfortable. Is it better that I should eat some salt and still be able to walk a few miles, or give it up and be confine to the house by knee pains?

Then it was fat. Too many people in the country are obese, so we must all suffer. The net result seems to be that our ordinary loaves and biscuits have become crumbly. Hobnobs, which used to be one of my favourites, have become so crumbly that there's almost as much in crumbs left on the plate than I've eaten in the form of biscuit. Ginger Nuts have lost their crunch and aren't what they used to be. The latest company to announce a change is Nestle who are to reduce the fat in their Kit Kats, no doubt cutting costs at the same time.

Now today it is sugar, again presumably because of obesity, The government is to lower the minimum amount of sugar that must be used when making jam, and no doubt manufacturers will make full use of this reduction and substitute some cheaper alternative.  Fortunately, it seems that jam will be available from other sources; I alread buy marmalade from a lady who makes and sells it in aid of her church funds; it is far superior than any that I can get in the supermarket and is no more expensive. It doesn't come with a warning that it must be refrigerated after opening as it contains sufficient sugar to allow it to be kept in the sideboard, just as my mother did. Jams are also available from various other organisations raising funds, and already the demand tends to outstrip supply as people seek "the real thing" without added chemicals. Incidentally, when I last looked, a bag of muesli with "no added sugar" cost more at Tesco than one with added sugar!

Its time we were told to look after our own health and the government stopped interfering. If people want to get obese, that's their problem, and although it may cost the NHS money in the short term, they are unlikely to live long lives and will cost the state less in the longer term.

So, I'm going to follow in the footsteps of my parents and grandmother, eating what I fancy in moderation. My one regret is that I can't have decent dripping toast, as I had when I was a child, the modern beef has insufficient fat to produce any worthwhile dripping, although I've now been told that one can buy tubs of it at a local farm shop

My parents ate good food, with plenty of salt, fats and sugar, and both lived well into their nineties,  and my grandmother lived to 102. I'm hoping to follow in their footsteps, but some how I suspect that all the "E numbers" in my food are doing me more harm than the good old fasioned salt, fat and sugar.

What are they doing to our food?

 Mrs EP normally buys our bread from Sainsbury's, but the recent store made loaves have been very crumbly and virtually impossible to cut into thin slices for sandwiches, or to spread the slices with butter without them breaking up. Similarly, biscuits (of all makes) seem to now be quite crumbly and break up very easily.  Even Ginger Nuts, which used to be quite hard to break, are now little harder that any other biscuits and I no longer need to dip them into my coffee before taking a bite.. Biscuits also seem to have become rather tasteless unless they are chocolate coated or jam filled.
I've also noticed that the diameter of some biscuits has become slightly less, so that one gets less biscuit for one's money. I'm sure that the stated weight on the packet has been adjusted accordingly, but as few people read the weight and just take a packet off the supermarket shelf, this is irrelevant, I still feel that customers are being "taken for a ride"!

What is happening? I suspect that the crumbliness of bread and biscuits is possibly due to the manufacturers reducing the amount of fat in their products, probably under indirect pressure from the Health Lobby and in order not to get red "traffic lights" on their packets when the new labelling comes into force. The exceptions appear to be foreign produce. Mrs EP has discovered some very nice French made biscuits in Sainsbury's, they may be more expensive and as much as we try to avoid French produce, at least they have taste and don't break into bits at the slightest touch.
I'm waiting for the new food labelling to come in, I will then know that the best tasting products are probably those with all red "traffic lights" on the packets.

Ban the Bans

For the last year or so I have been constantly saying to Mrs EP that everyday I open the newspaper or listen to the news there is some person or some organisation wanting something to be banned. Now I was brought up in a country where, even during the war, there were very few bans. Effectively you could generally do as you like (particularly in your own home) provided that by doing so, you didn't interfere with the rights of others. These days one gets the reverse impression, that the authorities, including various self-appointed do-good organisations, would like to ban us from doing anything without their express permission.
So this week, I intend to try to find out if my belief of finding one proposed ban a day is true, or just my imagination. My first problem is that I have found three proposed bans today without looking any further than the Daily Telegraph; do I count them all today, or can I claim two of them for Tuesday and Wednesday?

1. Ban on the wearing of the burka in public.
This has been suggested by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, the leader of UKIP, and could possibly become party policy. HERE

2. Frail elderly drivers 'should be banned from motorways'.
This by Neil Greig, The Institute for Advanced Motorists' director of policy.
"For their own good"
Its nice to know he's thinking of others! HERE

3. Ban butter to save our hearts.
From Dr Shyam Kolvekar at University College London Hospital. Supported by Dr Sarah Jarvis. What about banning cheese and full milk as well whilst they are at it! I await the comments of the dairy industry! HERE

So there's three for today and I'm off to a good start; if I happen to have missed any new ones proposed today, I'd be happy to receive a comment.