We made the most of the lovely hot weather on Saturday and took the dogs to Williamson Park in Lancaster, it's only 15 minutes up the road from us, just long enough to enjoy the cool of the air conditioning in the car as we travelled the A6.
Once there we admired the Ashton Memorial, I hadn't seen it close up for years although it's a feature you can see from the motorway very clearly. It's a remarkable building and I love architectural gems. Then we shade hopped around the it and the pavilion where the café, shop and butterfly house are. We shared a bowl of chips ... me Alan and the dogs ... and then shade hopped for a while more before returning for another cup of coffee for me and a cold drink for Alan and the dogs.
Then we worked our way back to the car stopping at every bench that was in the shade for Suky to get cool and me to rest my back.
The dogs snoozed the rest of the day away ... and Alan might have joined them. 😄
I nipped out to Booths for this weeks fresh vegetables, washing them in lovely cold water when I got them home.
I'm finding it's better to wash everything ready for use before I put it into the fridge these days, I used to wash things as I needed them. But this way am more inclined to use what I have instead of grabbing a snack or something less healthy.
I'm still reading my book and now I find that I am reading the label of everything that I eat. I thought these wholemeal bread rolls were healthy ...
... until I looked closely at the ingredients, now I think slightly differently!!
I guessed that there would be about 7 ingredients, Alan guessed at 4, we were both shocked to find out that's it's actually over THIRTY!!
I understand now why Chris van Tulleken tells you to carry on eating what you would usually eat while you read his book and not to make any drastic changes straight away. As well as learning while you go, imagine cutting that many additives out of your diet straight away from all the foods you eat, what a huge shock to the system it would be.
I doubt very much I'll be cutting everything that is ultra processed out of my life but I will be very carefully choosing the things that will be remaining.
Sue xx
Good book and good for you for reading labels. I hope whatever changes you do decide on stick. It astounds me when I look up what is in commonly eaten foods these days.
ReplyDeleteIt's proving to be a REALLY good book. I honestly thought I did read labels before, but I've obviously not been reading them and understanding them as well as I should have been. I used to try and go by the principle of 'if my granny wouldn't recognise it in the shops, it's not real food' ... that has slipped for sure!!
DeleteGood Grief - who would have thought those wholesome looking rolls would have so many ingredients. Wonder why there are two different bread improvers and what on earth is bread fat?
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for a bread machine - I keep making the spiced loaf now as well as ordinary bread and pizza bases and plan to try some other things too
I know ... just simple wholewheat rolls!! I honestly thought that I was safe with those. I was in Aldi earlier getting some milk for Alan and I thought I would buy a bag of brown strong flour to make some bread myself but they only seem to do white. I will be having a look around in other shops for sure, I need to get back to bread making ... and mine won't contain any 'bread fat'.
DeleteGoodness that list of ingredients is a bit scary!
ReplyDeleteGood tip about the veg washing, probably saves a bit on water too.
Alison in Wales x
It's a ridiculous concoction isn't it. Yes, another good reason to wash it all in one go. :-)
DeleteThanks for the info on this book. It is being released in the US in two weeks! I already knew some of this stuff but will be interested in reading more. So much of our "food" really isn't and the grocery store ads have more non-food than food. We no longer have Home Economics so kids aren't being prepared to cook from scratch or even understand nutrition.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how well the book does in the US, our two countries are terrible for additives and 'non-food foods' aren't they ... seemingly we top the charts. Children really do need to be taught to cook from scratch and to recognise real foods, that would be a brilliant first step to a healthier world.
DeleteThe lack of nutrition awareness in the population is staggering, but I find my generation (I’m 65) are some of the worse culprits. It seems almost something to boast about when they say that they “can’t” cook. Regards, June
ReplyDeleteI think we are of the generation (I'm 63) that used to cook from scratch and yet have embraced easily made 'non-foods' out of wonder at the novelty of it and sometimes just sheer laziness. And once you start it's hard to rein it back in. Microwave meals came along just as we had finished raising our kids and the thought of putting a whole meal in the microwave and having it ready in 5 minutes seemed too good to be true. We fell hook, line and sinker.
Delete(Bag End Gardener :-}, who cannot sign in . . . )
ReplyDeleteFor a mere pack of rolls, the ingredient list is horrific.
I have fond memories of living in France and walking to the boulangerie every morning to get fresh bread, which was going stale and hard by mid-afternoon. Because there were no additives, no preservatives, nothing except flour, yeast and water. You're making me want to get my bread machine out again and 'sod the carbs'.
I wash and clean up all veg the same way you do, makes supper prep so much simpler.
Blogger is being a real pain some day's isn't it. :-(
DeleteWe so nearly had a bakery in our small town and then the shop they were going to take over turned out to have many problems ... it's now an estate agents. We were so close to the French way of being able to buy fresh handmade bread and other delicacies each morning.
I make most of my bread (bread maker, sometimes to dough and then a nice crusty loaf in the oven). I occasionally buy bread rolls or filled rolls if I am away from home at lunchtime. I stopped buying the "special treat" of a Tesco bun when I did my weekly shop for exactly this reason - about 30 blooming ingredients. Since I always cook my own baked goods, to see this made it easy to resist temptation, even when hungry.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to be a lot easier to resist my 'favourite' bread rolls from now on. I think I'll be digging out 'Ken the Kenwood' and making some bread of my own this week.
DeleteGood for you at reading the labels. I use my bread maker a great deal and in the summer let it bake in the machine. So many ingredients in foods.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I'm becoming a label fanatic. It's a good job it's mostly just things from my cupboard at the moment, imagine how long it's going to take me to shop from the supermarket if I'm reading everything.
DeleteI've just received my copy of the book but have been watching various talks about this and it truly is shocking. We are vegan and eat very few upf products but even the few that we do eat will now be left on the supermarket shelves. What are we doing to ourselves and more importantly to our children and the planet through all this processing.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to listen to as many of the talks as you can before you start reading, it really does help to understand once you do start reading. Exactly what are the food companies doing to our children and our planet? As Dr Chris van Tulleken says, blame them, not yourself ... we have been mislead in the name of profit and greed for a long time.
DeleteTerrible amount of unhealthy stuff in most foods I'm afraid, including my number one hate, palm fat. Bad for us and the harvesting of it slowly destroying the planet.
ReplyDeleteThe harvesting and manufacturing of so many things, along with the sheer amount of animals being kept for food are all contributing to the demise of our wonderful planet. It's all too sad for words isn't it.
DeleteWilliamson Park looks lovely, the Ashton Memorial was stunning. Our Victorian municipal planners spared no expense back in the day, did they? Nowadays it's all breeze block and grey paint.
ReplyDeleteBeing the spoilt creature that I am, I leave Jon to do the food shopping. He always scrutinises the labels for anything containing palm oil/fat, like S&P commented above,we've been boycotting it for years.
When I trained to be a chef our lecturers told us that most professional chefs live on convenience food, slogging in the kitchen for other people meant your never had any interest for cooking it yourself at home. I can testify to that, I lived on toast and olive oil spread when I didn't eat at work! xxx
'The Ashton Memorial is a folly in Williamson Park, Lancaster, Lancashire, England built between 1907 and 1909 by the millionaire industrialist Lord Ashton in memory of his second wife, Jessy, at a cost of £87,000[1] (equivalent to £8.9 million in 2021).'
DeleteI love that it's a folly built in memory of his wife, and it and the park have always been open to the public. Me and Alan were only talking about this the other day, how back in the day the newly rich would share their wealth with their townsfolk and not just keep acquiring it as most seem to these days.
I get fed up with cooking at times and can live for days on toast or sandwiches ... which doesn't seem quite so appealing now after what I learnt is in the breads that I love the most.
How beautiufl that Lord Ashton built the folly in memory of his wife.
DeleteFunnily enough we were talking about how the rich in previous centuries used a lot of the wealth to create something that future generations would enjoy - wonderful gardens, amazing houses or collecting art and antiquities. Nowadays its all Botox, designer handbags and flashy cars! xxx