Stupid "food" products? Highly unhealthy ones? Need your help, please.

[xfundy]

Last edited Wed Feb 1, 2012, 08:24 PM - Edit history (1)

1) Know anything others would benefit from knowing, such as potentially dangerous stuff in packaged or restaurant food? (Fast food with pink slime, for example.)

2) What's the DUMBEST packaged food product you've seen in the stores?

Some of my "faves" I've watched people buy include a single potato wrapped in plastic wrap with the "Microwave Ready!" sticker on it. They cost much more than the SAME potatoes, either singly or bagged, if you judge by weight. Reasons why I find this absurd:

• Do consumers not have plastic wrap at home?
• Do they consider the potato cleaner than they could get it themselves?
• Are people really willing to pay a LOT more for this "convenience" that would take them maybe a couple minutes at home? (YES.)

My latest find is Frozen Rice. Convenient? Sure, but. Saves maybe 10 minutes off cooking real rice with plain old water on the stove--time people could spend watching tee vee or anything else. I don't think this is a product for the rich, so why do they spend much more than a single bag of rice to buy it?

I'm trying to put together a book on the wasteful, deceptive, possibly even dangerous ways marketers will trick consumers into spending way too much money and getting less, even while getting toxic chemicals, etc.

I'm working on a book on this subject, not really a serious coffee table book, more of a quick reader. Some folks in another group know I'm writing a book on another topic. I'm actually working on three at once, a little every day.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

(edited to break into categories)

[Warpy]

1. Rice terrifies a lot of people

because they have this absurd notion of how it should look every time it's cooked. That's not why you eat it, people. A little practice will get the proportions right and a timer makes sure you won't incinerate it. But still, they're scared someone will criticize them if it's over or under cooked or it's sticky or there's a tan layer on the bottom of the pot. While I find it an incredibly stupid thing to buy, I understand why so many people find it attractive.

The potato is something else. I even find frozen mashed potato silly as hell.

I also remember canned whole chickens. It was essentially a pressure cooked broiler, salted to death but with little other seasoning, five times as expensive as a chicken out of a case and I suppose convenient if one wanted cooked chicken in an instant for something else. But silly. You still had to take the chicken off the bone and it was tasteless as is.

Canned cooked carrots always bothered me because fresh carrots were available year round (they're good keepers) and the can turned them into tasteless mush. Fresh carrots are cheap, easy to grow and easy to harvest.

The potato, however, is probably the brainchild of someone who spent time in Japan, where perfect fruits are sorted out and elaborately gift wrapped to give as expensive gifts in a country where people don't generally have enough space to keep a lot of stuff. It shows the respect conferred by the expensive gift while not cluttering a tiny space with knickknacks. It's just a bad translation turning something already convenient into official convenience food.

[xfundy]

4. Excellent examples!

I haven't even noticed frozen mashed potatoes. YUK. As a kid I used to have nightmares about someone making me eat those nasty dehydrated "mashed potatoes.' The only thing they're good for is making fake ice cream for photo shoots, and that's outlawed because if it's a product shot it has to be real product. Of course the lights melt it really fast, so you have to have lots of it on hand, and the food stylist really has their work cut out for them.

I rarely go into the frozen section unless it's for plain old veggies or a pie crust (my crusts suck). Must make a trip back soon.

Canned carrots are very nasty!

Didn't consider the Japanese aspect! Japan is well known in product-design circles for making some of the best packaging. Thanks!

[Denninmi]

2. I nominate "Fruit by the Foot"

Which is actually up to 48% pure refined sugar by weight (depends on the flavor, but all are very high).

Bears about as much resemblance to real fruit as Sarah Palin does to a real human being.

[xfundy]

5. Good one!

I guess at least it's not HFCS. Yet.

Bears about as much resemblance to real fruit as Sarah Palin does to a real human being.

Or Sarah Lee, for that matter.

[Suich]

3. Frozen toast!

I think one is called Texas Toast, which is thick-cut bread.

I've seen those potatoes and had the same thoughts you did!

[xfundy]

6. Yes!

Many frozen breads are surely dumb, but I've bought them in the past, even TX Toast, for my dad, and he loves frozen biscuits, so I get those too, but just for him. He's in his late 80s and his arteries are 90% blocked with bacon, sausage, gravy, etc., so I figure he can eat whatever he likes, but I cook him lunch and dinner from scratch, never adding salt or too much fat, at least six days a week.

As to the people who routinely buy the TX Toast and other wastes, even if they had an automatic machine that coated thick slices of white bread into a vat of butter, chemical goo, fat, butter and lard, I bet they'd still buy it. YUK.

Another stupid thing I used to buy before I got less dumb was frozen french fries. I mean, damn.

[GoCubsGo]

9. Those are the worst.

They don't even look good.

[xfundy]

10. That's modern branding at work.

Kids see that garbage on tv in dayparts kids are most likely to see. Along with McDonald's garbage, cereals, shoes, toys (especially beginning in late Fall). Lunchables are nasty, nasty packages of way-overpriced, overpackaged crap that's FULL of preservatives, which benefit only the manufacturer in every case, regardless of the food. Having no kids, I haven't looked at whether any of them can or should be microwaved--I doubt it, and hope not.

Thanks for the help!

x

[noamnety]

8. those potatoes have been a pet peeve of mine

along with: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=9418759&mesg_id=9419189

[xfundy]

11. GAHHH! I forgot about those!

Little packages of potato chips, 100 calorie packs of snacks, little bitty bags of candy--now available all year long! ALL of this crap costs so much more than buying a big bag and simply putting a little into separate bags to pack a kid's lunch. And marketers know that—that's why they do it!

Another thing that gets me is individual apple slices, dipped in chemicals then wrapped up in a plastic bag. YICK. You can cut an apple with a plastic knife if you dislike biting directly into it. But no, we're just too lazy!

Thanks for the link--that's a great thread, I'll have to go through it. And thanks for your help!

x

[Cairycat]

12. Many of these "foods" are things I see

Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2012, 11:44 AM - Edit history (2)

in the kids' lunches in my school every day. You forgot the sickly-sweet yogurt in tubes that kids can't open by themselves. I'm just a lunch lady, so therefore am stupid in the eyes of many DUers, but I don't quite see how a lunch consisting of a Lunchable, or a bologna sandwich, packet of fruit snacks (which are really candy made with fruit juice), one of the above-mentioned yogurt tubes, and an individual pack of Pringles - is a healthier lunch than what I'll be serving today: whole-grain breadsticks with mozzerella inside, marinara sauce, a tossed salad, box of raisins, and a small (4 oz) cup of orange sherbet. Is it perfect? No. But I don't see how you can say a bunch of processed crap is soooo much better than the lunch that has to meet guidelines for nutrients. Are some kids' lunches more nutritious than what I serve? Yes, a few, but they are in the minority, even in my middle class district.

[xfundy]

19. Yay for lunch ladies!

Yogurt tubes! GROSS! Hadn't thought of those--thanks. And the "Fruit snacks?" "Made with REAL Fruit," they surely say in big letters on the package--even though fruit juice is probably the last thing on the label, which probably leads with HFCS.

You've got grains, tomatoes, salad, fruit. Sounds quite reasonable. The orange sherbet is something that can't be brought from home, I don't think.

Do school lunch kitchens actually do any cooking anymore, or, as I suspect, is it mainly warming up pre-packaged products from the lowest bidder? (Out of your control, of course, and dictated by politics.)

Did someone here really call you stupid? Jeez, everyone's gotta have a JOB. I sure wish i had one, as do a lot of others. Making sure kids eat is a very important function, but, like teachers and social workers and public employees, they're under attack by fools that measure "good" with the wrong yardstick.

Thanks for the help!

x

[Cairycat]

24. Thanks!

I love my job - love seeing the kids happy and excited, hearing what they have to say. And no one has called me stupid - just the remarks to the effect that lunch ladies prefer serving processed, pre-packaged food because we don't know any better. Not true - the labor costs involved would increase prices a lot. Districts would love to do more in-house prep, but can't raise their prices accordingly.

My district has 18 school days in February. The entree is something prepackaged on 13 of those days. We have dessert about 3 times a week, about half the time it is prepackaged cookies (whole grain, though!) or frozen yogurt/sherbet. We have fresh fruit once or twice a week, fresh veggies once or twice also. Next week the kids will get fresh jicama and yam sticks for the first time, should be interesting!

School food can be less than stellar because of the use of the pre-processed, packaged stuff, because the food is often transported and held, because menus are dumbed down to an extent - but I think that school lunches, at least in my district, are healthier than what most people eat at home.

[xfundy]

29. How silly! Employees have no say in any decisions

Oh, lazy lunch ladies, my ass! I know one and she really works--stocking the freezer, mopping the floors, disinfecting everything, cleaning the dumpster, etc.

Jicama and yam sticks together? Is the yam raw, and is there a dip? Sounds nice and crunchy. Gotta try that.

Thanks.

x

[Cairycat]

13. Oh, and the already-made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches

Peanut butter isn't allowed in our school any more, but when it was it always astonished me to see how many parents couldn't be bothered to spread some peanut butter on some bread, but would throw these pre-packaged "Uncrustables" in their kid's lunch.

[pipoman]

14. Peanut butter isn't allowed?

[Cairycat]

15. No. There is a student who has a very severe allergy.

Severe enough that the student's life would be put at risk coming into contact with peanut particles on someone's breath, or traces left on doors, etc. That student has the right to a public education. The other children may have as much peanut butter as they want, just not in school.

[xfundy]

20. I know!

It's an incredible waste of money, and none of us is privileged enough to know what else is in there. Nasty stuff!

Thanks!

x

[HopeHoops]

16. Rice is simple to cook. Dumbest? Wow, now THERE's a challenge. So many choices.

[xfundy]

23. I know.

It's kind of like repigs--just when I figure they can't go any lower, they always do.

[hedgehog]

17. I know I really shouldn't buy it, but I find that the pre-washed

tossed salad greens get eaten, while a head of lettuce tends to go bad.

[xfundy]

21. I hear ya--

but I read sometime back that lots of the "pre-washed" stuff still needs to be washed thoroughly. Potentially all kinds of stuff is on that lettuce, and who knows what kind of water it was washed in.

Check out a garage sale or local junk store for a salad spinner. Easy, and MUCH cheaper.

Thanks!

x

[GoCubsGo]

27. It' hard to find some of those greens any other way.

I'm thinking of "Spring mix", in particular. That's my favorite, and bagged is the only way one can find them around here. I also prefer spinach this way. If I buy it fresh, no matter how much I wash it, I can never get rid of all the dirt.

[xfundy]

30. Gotta soak spinach and most greens

I usually put a strainer in a big bowl, run cold water in, then pick up and drop the strainer to rinse. Dump out the water, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat.

[GoCubsGo]

34. Yep. And, I still can't get out all the dirt.

I'd just as soon let the packers do that for me.

[eridani]

40. Especially true when one is cooking for only 1 or 2 people

Romaine is a pretty good keeper, and I can generally use most of a head, but it gets pretty boring if it's the only lettuce you usually have. So I succumb to the mixes every now and then, but wash them anyway.

[surrealAmerican]

18. Microwave popcorn:

It really isn't that hard to make popcorn without the toxic packaging and "artificial butter flavor". It's a whole lot cheaper to pop it on the stove in a pot.

[xfundy]

22. Damn, you caught me.

I confess, I've eaten it, usually due to laziness. And half the bag doesn't pop anyway.

You're absolutely right, and the real stuff doesn't stink up the kitchen or break room, and the microwave doesn't stink for several days afterward!

When I'm in the mood for popcorn, though, i'm like Homer Simpson at Moe's Family Feed Bag:

Moe: "I got this from Army surplus. It can flash-fry a buffalo in 30 seconds."

Home: "Thirty seconds?? But I want it NOW!"

Thanks for your help.

x

ETA quote

[surrealAmerican]

25. I used to, at least occasionally, myself ...

Last edited Thu Feb 2, 2012, 09:14 PM - Edit history (1)

... but it does introduce toxic chemicals into what would otherwise be a relatively healthy snack (and that's not taking into account the price differential - which is considerable).

It's really the same issue as the other foods people are mentioning on this thread: convenience as opposed to cost and nutrition. People like fast food, but what are they sacrificing for it?

[xfundy]

31. True, very true.

We've really been conditioned to buy so much GARBAGE, trusting the brands that whispered, "trust me" hypnotically over so many years.

Will have to buy a bag of popcorn on the next store trip. Of course, it will probably be GM, dammit.

Thanks!

z

[GoCubsGo]

26. I use a microwave popper.

It's almost the same as doing on the stove in a pot, only you don't need oil. It's similar to air-popped.

[CottonBear]

47. I have an early 1990s Black and Decker Handy Pop 'N Serve air popper that works just great!

I grew up popping corn in a big heavy pot on the stove top. I like to pop it that way. However, it is really fast and easy (and healthy) to pop up some in my air popper.

It is harder and harder to find bags of popcorn (i.e. not the microwave type.)

[GoCubsGo]

28. Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper

There are so many decent, relatively healthy, Italian-style, Asian-style, and enchilada sauces on the market now, that there is no real reason to eat that salt-laden crap.

[xfundy]

32. YES.

Not only salt, but MSG, "natural" and artificial flavors, delicious chemicals, etc. That stuff's been around for years and years.

ETA: Just remembered something else: Shake & Bake! EWWWW.

Thanks!

x

[Retrograde]

33. My mother depended on it

My father - and my grandfather - worked for General Mills, so growing up we ate a lot of their products, since employees got damaged packages at a discount. My mother thought Hamburger Helper was the cat's meow. The first time my parents visited after I moved to California they were so appalled at the lack of packaged foods in my house that they sent us a care package filled with Hamburger Helper, cake mixes and other products.

My nominees for useless products: most seasoning packets, bottled simple syrup.

[xfundy]

58. It's kinda sad, kinda funny.

Having thought a great deal about packaged food, and seeing recipes in modern cookbooks calling for them–cake mix, soup mix, etc., I looked through some older recipe books and found lots of examples. Of course many of the cookbooks were used as advertising premiums by packaged-food manufacturers, but back then, most of the grown ingredients were necessarily organic. Today, of course, we have to pay more to get less–less chemicals, pesticides, etc., but enforcement became so lax during the Bush Error that we really don't have any idea what's really in any food we buy today.

On seasoning packets, etc: never saw one where salt wasn't the first ingredient.

I cook, from scratch, for my dad (89) seven days a week, and so have paid special attention to fats and sodium. Have been paying attention and am amazed at the vast amounts of salt in everything, especially canned food. He asks for some kinds of canned soup, canned tomatoes, etc, but I can't give him that much sodium and sure as hell don't want to eat it myself. Even things like beef broth have salt listed in the first two ingredients, unless you pay a LOT more.

He also refuses to eat my homemade spaghetti sauce, preferring the canned/jarred junk, which is loaded with salt and sugar and costs many times what I make costs.

[Whisp]

38. that salt is just atrocious

blech. horrible horrible food.

[beac]

35. Easy Cheese, Cheez Whiz and other like products invented to free us from the

apparent burden of "difficult" cheese.

[blaze]

36. LOL a "difficult" cheese! nt

[xfundy]

53. And...

As I understand it, Cheez-Whiz contains Trisodium Phosphate. YUM.

[noamnety]

37. K-cups

I can't believe I forgot to mention the environmental disaster that is the disposable k-cup. What a brilliant way to get consumers to pay $30/lb for coffee.

[The empressof all]

41. oy i have a keurig

I love the concept hate the waste. I use those hand I dandy refillabl thingies from amazon but frankly filling them is a pain in the ass. I know I will be buying another grind and brew again in the near future.

[Arkansas Granny]

44. I found one of these coffee makers. Makes a good cup of coffee and you can use

any coffee you like. It has a permanent filter, but I use the paper filters as they seem to work better.

[noamnety]

45. That's what I use at work.

I swapped out the mug for a thrift shop one that cost 30 cents, mine came with the beige plastic mug that was just so hideously ugly I didn't think I could wander around with it as an art teacher.

[Whisp]

39. pop tarts and those pizza pockets.

yuk!
I don't mind taking a dive into useless food once in a while but at least they should taste good for that moment or two.
Twinkies do that for me, once every few months. But that belongs on the list too.

[xfundy]

54. twinkies will exist forever.

Even though the company went bankrupt. But those that remain will never decompose.

[Phentex]

42. I have never seen frozen rice!...

Wow. Learn something new every day.

I would go with the microwave popcorn as well. That stuff is nasty. I mean, it tastes fine, but the smell is awful and it cannot be healthy.

Convenience foods don't bother me much. At least the potato IS a potato.

It's the things that are supposed to be time saving but aren't really foods that seem so odd to me.

My neighbor gave me a bag of soup mix. Dehydrated carrots and potatoes with a seasoning packet. Aside from being extremely salty, the texture was weird with the dehydrated stuff. I attempted to doctor it up but nothing helped so I threw most of it out. (Nobody wanted seconds.)

I also think Lunchables should be banned.

[xfundy]

56. I could see it if you're out camping...

... or were starving.

It's the things that are supposed to be time saving but aren't really foods that seem so odd to me.

Me too! Why is cellulose (wood) in so much of our food?

Lunchables should be fed only to republicans.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

43. Kool Aid, Velveeta, Cool Whip, soft serve ice cream.

Gag.

Anyone who has to hide their desserts under Cool Whip has a problem.

[japple]

46. Water in sealed plastic bottles. It's just a marketking ploy. If you really need to have a bottle

of water with you at all times, get a filtration pitcher and carry a bottle from home. Our parents and grandparents didn't need to carry around bottles of water. This bottled water craze is just that--a craze! Water from the water fountain provides the same hydration as the water in those little plastic bottles. The reason we've seen such a proliferation of this stuff ("convenience" products) is because of marketers and advertisers. They've convinced us that we need it.

[cbayer]

51. And the plastic pollution has skyrocketed with the popularity of these products.

It's been a marketing miracle and an environmental disaster.

To say nothing of the amount of money that people are spending.

[peacefreak]

48. Pasta that cooks in 3 minutes.

I mean, really? You can't cook pasta for the full 10 minutes?

[maddezmom]

49. they seriously make it?

Never have seen it and wouldn't even think of buying it. I think I have 7 minutes to do it the old fashion way.

[peacefreak]

50. yup, saw it in the store last week.

nt

[xfundy]

55. Yes. It's more convenient, apparently.

Wonder how many chemicals help it cook so easily...

Thanks!

[xfundy]

52. More junk food claiming it's "healthy"

http://thestir.cafemom.com/food_party/108573/healthy_junk_food_are_you

Excerpt:

Remember Chef Boyardee -- that ravioli in a can? I grew up on home-cooked meals and my mother didn't consider Chef Boyardee nutritious enough to buy. So imagine my surprise when I learned that not only is the Chef back, it's also trying to brand itself as "secretly nutritious." Oh yeah, apparently it's a great way to sneak in the whole grains and veggies.

Okay, first of all, I don't have to "sneak" vegetables into my family's meals. We just eat them regular like plenty of other people on this planet. Secondly, those vegetables still come in a highly processed package. But go for it, Chef Boyardee. You reinvent yourself in our increasingly slow-food world. You're certainly not alone.

Wait till you see what Pop Tarts are up to in Times Square ...

Pop Tarts World is a new pop-up cafe where you can watch a light show, customize your own Pop Tarts, or eat Pop Tarts Sushi, three kinds of tarts chopped up and wrapped in a fruit roll-up. Buy the t-shirt before you leave! This sounds like a great place for a birthday party for parents who think Chuck E. Cheese is too quiet and wholesome.

More yukkage at link.

[xfundy]

57. Corporate heads of food companies--an idea

I've thought this for a long time.

Basically the idea is that CEOs and, heck, why not all the management of companies that produce the nation's food (and "food&quot should have to appear before tv cameras and actually EAT THEIR OWN PRODUCTS, fresh off the grocery shelves, not replaced by fakes the company chef made up out of real food.

How many would actually do so?

I suspect many would claim allergy, or lifestyle/religious excuses (pork, vegetarian, vegan, etc). I would LOVE to see the head of Oscar Mayer eat a whole pack of Lunchables without throwing up, knowing, as he should, what's in them.

This idea is already a part of my book in progress. But is there any way it could become a movement? My personal belief is that the companies that produce what the majority of the nation eats are committing a crime against humanity and surely a treasonous act against the health of the nation. I'm quite serious.

Your thoughts, everyone?

[Cairycat]

59. I wanted to tell you guys how the jicama and yam sticks went over

Actually pretty well. About 1 in 4 kids took them. We also had some teachers and parents who wanted to try them. Only about half the kids who took the veggies took ranch dip for them, which is typical at my school when we have fresh veggies. There was only one student and one mom who said they'd tried jicama before. One sixth grader asked me if I liked it. The lunch lady has to be on her toes! The yam was actually sweet potato (those terms tend to be used interchangeably here in the Midwest), which I'd never had raw before.

Districts which get federal money for their lunch programs are going to be having to offer a lot more fruits and vegetables. There's a push to have more raw produce, and more vitamin-A rich veggies.

Sorry to have strayed off the stupid food theme. School food is becoming less stupid and crappy, while the kids bringing lunch from home bring a lot of individually-wrapped, heavily-advertised food analogs.

[I am the OP]

60. I would not make it about marketers "tricking" consumers; too much victim-mentality for the reader,

IMO.

I see those things and think: how LAZY can people be?! Why would you go through life eating stuff cooked at 2000 degrees in a microwave? Trader Joe's is a place where I see all these so-called convenience foods and some of them are ridiculous.