In
the 21st-century we are time poor and to make our lives easier we
are surrounded by convenience foods, take away foods, and junk foods sometimes
masquerading as health foods. Let’s take a look at some of these foods.
The
most time poor and convenience meal that we eat each day is breakfast. We
quickly grab a breakfast cereal, pour some milk over it and wolf it down in
less than three minutes flat. Unfortunately though, breakfast cereals are junk
food. Just read the label. They are full
of processed grains, sugar and salt. To make our lives even easier food
manufacturers have invented the breakfast biscuit, it can be eaten on the move.
The food manufacturers extol the virtues of this healthy biscuit. But it is no
better than breakfast cereals.
Most
people go from breakfast to lunch without eating any snacks. Those that do
snack would grab a muffin or a chocolate bar to fill them up. When they do get
to lunch they go out to the local convenience store and buy sandwiches, wraps
and other convenience packaged lunch items. Although I believe these meals are
healthier than breakfast they still leave a lot to be desired.
Evening
meals may consist of ready meals, microwave meals or other convenience foods.
These meals tend to be cheap so they have minimal amounts of healthy protein
and vegetables and tend to be heavy on potato and grains. They also tend to
have more saturated fat, salt and sugar. Yes SUGAR – just read the labels!
We
also seem to have lost the art of preparing healthy foods. Just go back two
generations and people would have at least grown their own vegetables, might
have had an apple tree in the garden and may have even kept a pig, chickens for
eggs and meat and maybe even a cow for milk.
People
would have made their own milk, yogurt and whey. They would have used the whey
to pickle foods for the winter such as gherkins, sauerkraut, onions and
beetroot. They probably would have had fresh vegetables from the garden on a
daily basis. If they slaughtered an animal such as a chicken they would have
eaten the meat and made stock from the bones.
If
they had slaughtered a pig they would have eaten the whole animal not just the
choice cuts. They would have eaten the liver, heart and kidneys; made sausages
from the intestine, eaten the brain and trotters. Most of us would turn our
nose up at these parts of the animal these days.
Perhaps
we should take a step back in time for a healthier lifestyle and cut out the
convenience foods.