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How we're scammed into eating phony food

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Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#241

Post by chadcmulligan »

derefr wrote: post #48
Jerry2 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another scam is extra virgin olive oil. Almost all of the ev-olive oils that you buy at supermarkets in the US are fake [0]. It's basically lower-grade olive or vegetable oil with some added green chlorophyl for color. UK supermarkets aren't faring much better [1]. It's all due to mafia control of the oil markets in Italy. 60 Minutes did a report on it recently and they even tested oils for fakes [2]. It's extremely…

What's the cheapest way to get guaranteed-real EV olive oil? Are there known-good brands (perhaps ones produced entirely outside of Italy?) Or, if you cared about "authentic Italian" olive oil, perhaps for personal or restaurant use (i.e. not for resale): how much would it cost (in the US) to just buy bulk Italian olives , and then press them yourself?

Try Australian olive oil. There was a tax scam some years ago here which resulted in stacks of olive oil plantations, so now australian olive oil should be a good price over there I'd imagine.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#242

Post by CalRobert »

orf wrote: post #211
coldtea wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. Well, apart from whisky, nobody ever considered Ireland a place for good food. For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine.

> For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine. As someone from the UK I take offense at that, sure we might not be on the same level as Italy or France (but really, who is?) but we have some great traditional food. Pies of all kinds, fish 'n' chips, traditional sausages, good old roast dinners, chicken tikka masala and of course the healthiest breakfast in the world. Tasty s…

I remember ordering garlic chips for the first time after moving from CA.

I had been foolishly looking forward to a meal of fried potatoes, olive oil, Parmesan, salt, and lightly seared diced garlic, with perhaps a bit of parsley (or, dare I dream, cilantro/coriander). I thought it might bring back memories of nights spent at Giants games

What I got was chips with a gigantic blob of sightly garlic-scented mayonnaise plopped on top of it. Disappointing, to say the least.

To be fair, there is some fantastic food, but you have to look for it. Dublin has some surprisingly good burritos, for instance. I think the issue comes from the fact that inexpensive street food in places like Italy is phenomenal, but in Ireland and the UK tends to be mediocre.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#243

Post by chadcmulligan »

collyw wrote: post #232
kevindeasis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to Italy once and it opened my eyes on how I should have higher standards on what I eat, when I come back home Edit: english

Eating out in the UK is all about the location. if a restaurant is trendy people will go. In Spain people go for the food. There are often queues outside restaurants in which the surrounding look terrible (chairs that look like they are taken from a school 40 years ago). Spanish people understand food in a way that most Brits don't.

yes I always look for restaurants that look a bit crappy but full of people. You know the food must be worth it.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#244

Post by pbhjpbhj »

wildmusings wrote: post #184
pizza234 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public is not made only/mainly of science-challenged people as you're subtly implying. There are other reasonable motivations for labeling GMO, ie. political and environmental (not all environmental reasons are "GMO is frankenstein food"). Moreover, the GMO scaremongering will last, as any other fad, for a limited amount of time. The part of public who rejects GMO for shallow (no) reasons, will quickly forget and…

I'm not so sure. People are still sure that MSG will slowly kill them, when it's actually been proven to be 100% harmless as far as we know. You still see "No MSG" labels on tons of food. Mandatory labeling gives the impression that it's relevant information. Whether your food is GMO is totally without consequence. I don't see why the government should burden and mislead the rest of us so you can more easily wage you…

The scientific literature doesn't show MSG to be completely harmless. Some people definitely have negative reactions it and other sources of free glutamates.

Eg http://www.livescience.com/47931-msg-not-safe-for-everyone.h...

Copying from Wikipedia:

>"Excitotoxicity is the pathological process by which nerve cells are damaged or killed by excessive stimulation by neurotransmitters such as glutamate and similar substances." //

Is excitotoxicity of glutamates a myth, it must be if the claim that 'MSG is completely harmless' is true.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#245

Post by thedlade »

polskibus wrote: post #38

That's why EU people are protesting against TTIP. We're worried that the lower standards that are common in USA, will prevail, and any resistance will be trampled in private arbitrage courts.

This is one of my biggest worries,bathe EU has been great so far with food regulations, no high fructose, gmo's or any nonsense. Hopefully they can keep it up for a while.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#246

Post by chadcmulligan »

marak830 wrote: post #57
lucaspiller wrote: post #9

Not quite the same, but earlier this year I was working in Italy for a few months. I went back to the UK last week and it really surprised me how poor the quality of food is there. I don't mean in restaurants, but the actual ingredients you get in supermarkets. In Italy you can go into even the cheapest supermarkets and get tomatoes that smell like actual tomatoes, where as in the UK they just have no smell. Even tom…

I had the same effect, moving to japan. It's insane how much better the food is here, compared to Australia.

what food is better in Japan (part form sushi)? curious ozzy.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#247

Post by CalRobert »

coldtea wrote: post #192
CalRobert wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)

> However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. Well, apart from whisky, nobody ever considered Ireland a place for good food. For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine.

In addition to great whiskey (whisky is Scottish), Ireland has a lot of really great microbreweries. There's some fantastic beer here.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#248

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

jokoon wrote: post #156
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a huge worry for me. The quality of food in the US is atrocious. When I was there, almost nothing tasted as it should, everything tasted bland and mildly sweet. The only way I found to get decent meat was to buy ultra-posh organic stuff at ridiculous prices, and then it would be no more than on par with the cheapest meat I could buy in Spain. Even chocolate is affected! TTIP is one of the worst things th…

Unrelated, but I was just debating GMO labels on "change my view" on reddit. I admit I was trolling that if GMO are healthy, then ultimately there is no harm in a neutral label. My comments got downvoted very hard. It boiled down that those labels would essentially be a form of misinformation, or that the uneducated public would make uninformed decisions. I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but the post got 400 comme…

The point of the label is to harm the viability of harmless GMOs in the market. It's not a neutral thing, it's a politically charged movement by the misinformed who have an ax to grind against science.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#249

Post by CalRobert »

sampo wrote: post #209
wildmusings wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. People are still sure that MSG will slowly kill them, when it's actually been proven to be 100% harmless as far as we know. You still see "No MSG" labels on tons of food. Mandatory labeling gives the impression that it's relevant information. Whether your food is GMO is totally without consequence. I don't see why the government should burden and mislead the rest of us so you can more easily wage you…

If anything, GMO products should be be much safer than non-GMO, because they have gone through a much stricter approval process.

Surely the thousands of years of human civilizations consuming non-GMO products should count as a fairly strict approval process?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#250

Post by ptaipale »

CalRobert wrote: post #129
ptaipale wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine (I say as European). Requiring GMO labeling is is about as sensible as requiring DHMO labeling - it's scaremongering not based on science.

Perhaps I choose not to buy GMO's because I find the notion of patenting the mechanics of life philosophically troubling. We're not all a bunch of anti-science luddites, you know.

Patenting mechanics of life and GMO are two separate issues not really connected to each other. There's plenty of plant development, for instance, that is covered by patents or patent-like protections, even if it's not GMO in the sense you talk about.

(It's often GMO in the sense "let's take a bunch of seeds, expose them to radiation and carcinogens, and experiment with whatever comes out.)

In some countries (e.g. mine), these rights are not called "patent" but are not substantially different from what they are where the name is patent.

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