Food Spurious Food 
Food spurious food
What are we consuming
Nutritional grub
Is what we’re assuming
Why do we eat so much stuff
That never satisfies enough
Salty and sweet is what we eat
With never a thought
As to what we have bought
And it’s effect
On our digestion!
Food counterfeit food
Dried, processed and frozen
Chemically flavoured
That’s what we have chosen
Products that have been disguised
By manufacturers empty lies
Don’t do us good,
And probably could
Be causing a lot
Of our bodies inflation!
( with acknowledgements to the musical ‘OLIVER’ )
This week I read that the ‘new’ miracle drug for weight loss, known as Semaglutide is in short supply; partly due to celebrities hailing it’s weight loss effects; although those celebrities, which include Elon Musk and Jeremy Clarkson, are not particularly proven role models for weight loss control! It has been available in the UK, under the brand name Ozempic, since 2019, as a prescription drug for the treatment of diabetes.
I am a diabetic; although I have never taken this drug, but I feel for the those that have been prescribed it; only to find that, due to the aforementioned surge in demand, they are now having difficulty getting it on regular prescription. In September 2021 the government announced a £40 million drugs pilot of Semaglutide , as part of their anti-obesity strategy; where it has been linked to a cut in the risk of heart attacks and strokes in obese patients. To my mind, another blind alley, and a gross waste of diminishing resources.
But, my main concern, apart from the media hype that seems to take precedence over common sense, is the blind acceptance of medication over proper nutritional information and practice. Little did I realize, when I had to do domestic science at school, that the knowledge of food values would mean I would know what was good to feed myself and my family; nutritionally balanced, and properly cooked.
Personally, I was helped by my Father being a chef by trade, and a brilliant cook, (slightly outweighed by his speciality in cakes and pastries) and I remember how annoyed my domestic science teacher used to get, if I preferred my Father’s method of ingredients measurement, (mainly by eye, and a practice that I still adhere to today) over the exact proportions achieved by weight, with scales.
But, I digress. To get to the point of this post, obesity is not going to be solved until the general populace are educated about nutrition; and taught how to cook properly; skills that appear to have been cast aside, and the practice of which is no longer considered as necessary. And we need to be convinced that we eat too much! To be fair this tendency is encouraged by social media; which show enormous portions of fattening food displayed in flattering settings and glowing scenarios; with rarely a mention of the nutritional values therein.
Programmes like ‘Bake Off’ encourage our tendency to scoff sugary treats. Not so long ago there were programmes, on TV and other media, based on how many burgers, or sausages, or some other processed junk, a contestant could force down their throats in a time limited period. I say, not so long ago, but I presume they are still watched; to what purpose I cannot imagine.
Some years ago I was talking to a friend’s two sons, who both studied medicine, and became GPs. They told me that they had very little education about nutritional values in their training; amounting to just a few hours, and definitely no more than a week. The mantra that ‘we are what we eat’ has never been more relevant. We have achieved, over several generations now, addiction levels for ’empty’ food, that do not satisfy appetites because they do not have the correct constituents of vitamins, minerals, protein and fibre that our tummies need for digestion. And, no amount of expensive drug based ‘cures’ for obesity are going to resolve this glaring omission. How ironic that this apparent plenty of edibles on our supermarket shelves does not meet the nutritional requirements that were present in our food not so many years ago
And last, but by no means least, the criminal waste of food globally, is grossly highlighted by the increasing malnutrition of starving populations on all the continents; mainly caused by human actions. The looming crisis of climate change is, yet again, showing us that we must change our ways. I honestly believe that the survival of the Human race depends on it!
Great post! Nutrition is such a vast subject and so integral to human health you’d think a GP’s training would be heavy on nutrition science. But no … let’s push a weight loss drug instead.
It’s more difficult to make money out of healthy people, after all.
Entertaining format. Totally agree with sentiments. Lots of research n ow confirming how evil all this processed food is but I guess it will be another 40 years before the powers that be feel they need to do anything about it.
My son in law bakes his own bread and uses 4 ingredients. He did research on the shop bought bread and it has something like 18. Obviously his bread doesn’t last as long !!!
Excellent comments with this post. Yes, it’s easier to make money from rubbish grub. Research is increasingly proving that it’s bad for you; and home made food goes off quicker!
I have always made our own bread; (check out the ‘lovely loaf’ pic on the post) which I assume has the same ingredients as your son in law Jackie J. They are flour, yeast, salt and oil; and I include water as a fifth! I use a breadmaker, which has a list of recipes in it’s booklet and all include milk powder and sugar!
Excellent post! Thankfully there’s a growing awareness of how damaging processed foods are, and a real movement towards wholefoods and home cooking. I do believe that things are changing, and that younger folks are much more aware of their health now (less smoking / alcohol, less processed and junk food). However, I may of course be existing in an echo chamber and completely out of touch with reality!
Treating obesity with medication is incredibly short-sighted, in my opinion. I understand that there are cases whereby it can be useful – ie, if someone is morbidly obese, it could potentially be a life saver in the short term. However, if that person continues living as they did before the magic weight loss pill, it won’t be long before they’re back where they were. There’s talk of people being on these drugs for life – which of course is incredibly costly, but also who knows what damage this will do physiologically? This drug effectively suppresses your appetite so that you’re eating less – but less of what? Takeaways? Cakes? McDonalds?! I don’t think it takes a genius to work out that a diet like that would cause huge health problems, even if the person doesn’t necessarily “look” fat on the outside.
Once again, we have this bizarre situation where we think the solution to everything is taking a pill. Talk about short sighted. Imagine how much more money the NHS would have available if people weren’t becoming morbidly obese in the first place (apparently obesity costs the NHS approx £6.5 BILLION per year!)
And just to clarify, I’m not blaming overweight people. Humans are hard-wired to seek out calorific food, and some people put weight on more easily than others. We’ve evolved to gain as much weight as possible when food is abundant, because for most of human existence (in relative terms) food has been scarce, or hard to obtain.
Now we have perfectly packaged cupcakes and sweet treats available 24/7, or fast food that we can obtain from a drive-through restaurant, whilst barely moving a muscle. It’s no wonder that the Western world is so overweight. Try buying lunch when you’re out and about from a typical shop – the usual option in the Western world is a “meal deal”, consisting of a processed bread sandwich containing processed ingredients, a pack of crisps and a sugar-laden drink.
That turned into quite the rant! Apologies for waffling on (mmm, waffles).
I’m not sure what the solution is other than whole-scale change in how food is processed, sold and marketed – and while money talks loudest, nothing is going to change in that regard. If idiots like Rees-Mogg get their way, we’ll have even cheaper food and garbage injected with hormones and as many additives as possible…
And just a final thought – I recognise that foods full of sugar are a big part of the problem – but I won’t have a word said against the Great British Bake Off!!
This subject could run and run; it’s so important. Again, money seems to figure large in the equation; mainly to the human detriment ‘Counterfeit’ food is cheap to produce and easy to sell. Health problems caused by bad nutrition cost the NHS billions a year; as Patch points out. I’m no maths genius but the figures don’t add up. We need to get a grip on this problem; especially when the global imbalance of feast and famine is so obviously grossly immoral.