This will really make you think regarding what you eat, put so simply too. Is this where we are going wrong:
Sanjay Gupta talk re food: This will... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Sanjay Gupta talk re food
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jeanjeannie50
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He’s right, of course. Our food industry is driven by profit, shelf life and appearance. Taste, nutrition and health are merely inconvenient distractions from the real business of money-making - I’m a cynic I’m afraid.
He didn’t mention fast food at all which surprised me - greasy food, deep fried in stale, stinking oil must be a major heart killer.
Thank you for posting this, Jean.
You're so right about the fast food Finvola, but his recording has really made me think.
I don't know if it's me in old age, but a lot of things like carrots don't appear to have a lot of taste these days and along with other vegetables they come scrubbed to death. I sometimes wonder whether if veg was sold still with soil on, like it used to be, and washed off before cooking would they taste better?
Jean
I agree about the lack of taste in foods - I blame ageing to a certain extent only. When I come across tomatoes with skin so thick and hard as to making biting them rather like a horse eating a turnip, I know they have been grown to supermarket specifications.
Just below us is an area of land which was reclaimed from the sea in the 19th century and the sandy soil is perfect for growing carrots - or it was in the past. Nowadays the fields are covered in poly-tunnels for intensive growing and the carrots taste of very little. And the ground is probably exhausted.
Trusted farmer's markets are sometimes good but the farmers are up against the trends being pushed by the supermarkets. Back garden is the answer but the work would be beyond me sadly.
Agree but not only that - it would have more bacterial bio-diversity on the skins - which is known to be extremely beneficial to our guts and digestion - as long as it is locally grown.
Try adding a little sugar when cooking your carrots.
He is absolutely correct, makes perfect sense. Where do we source our food it's a mine filed. Is organic the answer or is that not all we hope it to be. Would love to grow my own.
You know, I too wonder just how healthy organic food is. I was looking at my back garden earlier and wondering whether to turn part of it back into a veg patch again (did it a few years ago when I retired and had one when the girls were young). That's what back gardens were for at one time. Then I thought about the slug pellets I've used on it! I really don't want more areas in my garden to take care of either. Oh what to do, I really don't know.
Jean
Read about modern 'no-dig' methods of gardening, also have a wild area (preferably the rest of the garden!) with berries etc to attract wild life.
My garden has an area with plants that attract butterflies and bees. Has four types of berries, a tree full of ivy which the birds love and nest in and an area of piles of wood and a dustbin lid for the animals who would like to live under that.
Your mentioning of no dig gardening has made me think I could plant some seeds in the general borders if there's room. Trouble with me is I plant seeds and then when I go to water them again next day I've forgotten where I sowed them. Sadly my memory is not what it used to be, but it has it's benefits as I can't dwell on petty things anymore (can't remember them). Lol.
😁
My family have been specialist potato growers for generations. Latterly we have wondered why supermarket pre-packed spuds look better than ours.
My brother's friend did a short stint working in a factory where packaging was done. He was horrified to discover that the potatoes were fed through baths of bleach.
And do you remember the recent fuss about American chicken breasts which are bleached?
Goodness, it's horrifying isn't it! I wonder how many other things we're all totally unaware of regards the way our food is processed? I bet carrots and other veg are washed with water and bleach too. Scary stuff.
Oh yuk - we boil our spuds and always eat the skins, thinking they were healthy! Grow bags will be looked at pdq. Yuk!!!
Finvola, you've made me laugh!
Hi Finvola, empty the grow bags into deep tubs. Plant and grow. When ready for picking, water them then ease out of the tub. Pick off what you want then replace in the tub for further growth of tiddly tubers.
Hi jeanjeannie
Of course he is right! I have been having thoughts along these lines for a while now. Not just because a lot of veg "lack taste"....I don't think this is due to us getting older....ie bitter cherry tomatoes from Morocco/Spain, carrots with no flavour (if you ate them blind folded, I wonder if you could identify what it is?!!)., but also the fact that we can only buy what is available/produced the way they do it, and it doesn't always taste good! We don't have any say on what they do to our food etc.,I can't explain this very well......
I bought a bag of salad from Aldi recently, and it was absolutely revolting.......I just threw it away.
I read a book recommended by Compassion in World Farming about how our food is processed.....Horrific.....ie. Chickens dipped in a "water bath" at slaughter.....the water filthy etc.......and they tell you NOT to wash chicken before cooking it! I just can't do that. I also wonder why my cats won't eat raw chicken if I offer them some...they clamour for it, then turn their nose up!!
PS By the way, Isle of Wight tomatoes are fab......they smell and taste like you remember from your childhood!
I believe packs of salad are washed in bleach too now. Remember the days when we knocked the caterpillars off lettuce, washed the leaves and put them in salt water to kill all the little flies etc and then ate the leaves. I can't see young people doing that today, to be honest I don't think I could eat it now either. We've all grown namby-pamby, now there are some good old fashioned words we don't hear today.
Glad to hear you have some decent tomatoes.
Jean
Hello, hope this doesn't come through twice, I lost the first attempt. My childhood memories of tomatoes come from the Clyde Valley, south of Glasgow, round Lanark way, where in the 1960s there used to be orchards and lots of glasshouses and small market gardens, where people sold apples and tomatoes from the side of the road. You plucked off the husk and the smell was the first pleasure, I have never tasted tomatoes so good since. I read recently that the small market gardens had to give up when cheap imported tomatoes from Holland and elsewhere starting flooding the market.
Hoping to visit the Isle of Wight next year sometime, I shall look out for the tomatoes!
They must be quite good as we saw them on the menu at a nice bistro in Devon recently!! Interesting they are sent there!!
I like your idea of not eating so much Baraba, it really hadn't occurred to me to do that. I've grown tomatoes in the past, but they were just something else I had to water on top of doing everything else in the garden. Neighbours always give me lots of homegrown ones now, which is nice. I'm thinking of growing some carrots in between the flower beds as I use those quite a lot.
Jean
Jean, carrot growing is a problem because of carrot root fly. You need to Google it!
I've some carrot fly resistant seeds. Ok, I may have had them for a few years, but they'll either grow or not.
I Grow as much as I can and spray free
Summer salad , tomatoes ,French beans
Bell peppers,new potatoes, pok Choy, broccolinni,we have 3 grapefruit trees in the garden,plus a manderin tree just ready now in New Zealand and lemond apples, feijoa, its worth the trouble for the pleasure of the taste
I do work from home though so have spare time to do it
Sounds idyllic and I'm envious. Will certainly be growing some of my own veg now.
What he doesn’t say but what I read from Sanjay’s post (which is not rocket science) is that profit and competition drive and determine the food choices we have not what is good for us. Unfortunately public health is driven by the big companies that have vested interests and capital informing government decisions. If you look closely you will see money and free trade is the big driver here not quality of life or the eradication of decease, poverty and malnutrition. If I was cynical I would say those same interests look to profit from our health or lack of it as they also sell the drugs and treatments to combat the food they sell us.
So true Elbows.
I don't have a garden to grow my own so I try to buy organic.
Dr Gupta talks a lot of sense . Since being diagnosed with AF I try to eat even more healthily than I already did. I rarely eat meat, maybe twice a month.
I only have a small garden but have installed raised beds that I top up with rotted horse manure and homemade compost . I also have tubs containing strawberries and a herb garden. I am only growing for myself so the quantities are not large. I grow leeks,early potatoes, runner beans, garlic, purple sprouting, raspberries and shallots .
Waitrose have some good organic vegetables, their carrots have a lot of flavour . I also go to the local organic shop which sells unwashed veg.
Many places have a Women's Institute market on a Friday or Saturday morning where home grown vegetables are sold, you need to go early they usually go within the first 10 mins.
All cooked vegetables except potatoes I steam in a metal steaming basket adding one at a time starting with the things that take longest or cook, or I cook them on trays in the oven things like peppers/aubrgine/portabello mushrooms which go well with wholemeal pasta ,herbs , and parmesan cheese. They have lots of flavour when cooked this way.
I also make my own wholemeal bread using fresh yeast which I buy on the internet, it arrives in a cold bag and keeps for a month in the freezer.
I eat quite a lot of fish including oily fish twice a week, sardines and tinned salmon which is wild and preferable to the horrible farmed salmon on sale in most places these days, a lot of it contains a pesticide used to kill sea lice .
I also weigh myself daily first thing in the morning. Variations of +/- 0.5 kg or more are easily related to previous days eating and drinking (particularly alcohol), or exercise and hydration (or lack of). If I know the cause of a spike I don't worry about it as it usally returns to average in a short time. However if there is an upward trend, e.g. Christmas indulgences, I look to correct it by cutting back on certain foods and increasing exercise. After retiring from a latterly deskbound job I lost >5kg quickly due to improved lifestyle and now try to maintain a healthy BMI.
Nothing new really. Consumers are driven price unfortunately, being fooled by 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 offers. Chickens for £3 that taste like chicken (not). Eat a Brittany chicken.. That is chicken. Eat less and pay more, and avoid any diets and banish cookery programmes, especially Jamio O. Happy weekend all.
I recently started watching Dr. Gupta on YouTube and believe he has the fast track on *thinking differently now by including "lifestyle, stress and nutrition" rather than ALL meds and invasive procedures. Kinda of a different style rather than just treating symptoms.
I just recently learned that 70% of all meat is treated with AMMONIA to kill bacteria.. ugh. I actually tasted it on some pork ribs recently.
Yes, he appears to be a consultant who really wants to help his patients in a way other than with pills. He comes over as being one of the most genuinely caring people in the health profession.
Brilliant jeanjeannie!!!!! As you always are. I have shared on Facebook!
I so agree with all of these comments - a vegan friend recommended I read Joanna Blythman’s book “Swallow This” about the food industry secrets when they produce the processed foods that we buy from supermarkets. Since then I have stopped buying ready meals and I try my best to avoid highly processed foods - but it really is difficult if you are not able to grow your own veggies or have a family to feed.
Think we just have to make small changes and do our best to avoid the food nasties where we can, cooking from scratch helps too.
I was bought up on home grown veg, the washing up water was used to water the plants and help keep off the greenfly.
I think most around the 60 age group can relate to the things he says.
I regularly buy organic foods, even more so since having AF. I am convinced that it is certain additives, flovouring/colourings that triggered it off.
When shopping for vegetables I look for any with caterpillars or greenfly, if they are safe for pests they are safe for me 
One of my Dad's sayings was, "If a maggot won't eat it, then don't you".
Well, this is all fine, but what are we supposed to do about it? As my mother would have said, clean meat never fattened a pig. Should we all set up our gardens in the manner of The Good Life? And I've never put a carrot in the freezer in my life. And I do agree with what he's saying but how do you act against it?
It's not easy is it! I guess we could all start by buying organic fruit and veg when we can and preferably not from a supermarket. I live near a town which we know locally as 'the resting place of the hippies'. I'll be going to their weekly market. As well as veg they have an amazing selection of breads and along with the other wholesome ingredients only spring water is used in the making.
I know I could not grow carrots onyou alloenter because of carrot fly.I think commercial growersuse use pesticides or the carots would be full of holes. Or maybe the polutunnels keep them out, but then it would be too hot to grow them without ventilation. But I was told the carrot fly files a few inches above ground and low 'wall' of se sort,glass? Z keeps them at bay
We spend so much of our time trying to eat to avoid diabetes and cholesterol that eating is boring.Need much more guidance from the responsible charities and the authorities as to quantity, frequency and so on.Otherwise we are all destined for a medicineserrs go round as we grow older.
Not so easy, no. We have a farmers' market once a month where we can buy dirty carrots and potatoes that we know came out of the ground somewhere locally. In our small town, less than 5,000 inhabitants, we have an ASDA and a TESCO, who moved in a few years ago on the edge of town. Their carrots look beautiful and taste of nothing unless you simmer them in a stew for a couple of hours. We've lost so many old, traditional shops in the centre of town. We now grow our own tomatoes and lettuce. I was surprised how easy the latter were to grow and they are tasty and crunchy!
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