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Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

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Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#81

Post by magic_beans »

M_Grey wrote: post #39
smanatstpete wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely that is how it is marketed. When you visit a sick relative, it often tradition to bring something to them. Often, people will show up with Horlicks or Complan bottles. It is fortified with vitamins so people conflate Horlicks with it being healthy. However, it is mostly carbs and sugar. I know a lot of Indians who insist that their children drink it as part of their breakfast.

Basically the same kind of thing gets marketed here as nutritional drinks, that basically end up being vitamin powders and glucose. While I'm not sold on the notion of something like Soylent as a dietary replacement, at least they're not just mixing sugar and chicory starch and calling it a day.

I have a few cases of Soylent that I keep around for days I have no appetite. The good thing about Soylent is that its CEO actually survives on it, and they really do care a lot about what goes into it. They're constantly improving their formula.

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#82

Post by magic_beans »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

Not the same drink at all, but : As a child i read the James Herriot memoirs (all things bright and beautiful, etc..), in which he waxes rhapsodic about the restorative powers and deliciousness of Bovril. I had no idea what it was, so I was free to invent my own idea of what it might taste like, or be, or consist of. When i discovered he was so happy about diluted beef stock, i was more than a little let down.

Home-made beef stock is actually INCREDIBLY nutritious, especially if it is made with the bones. There's a huge trend of bone broth suppliers cropping up in New York.

If it's some kind of mass produced stock though, it's probably not better than salt water.

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#83

Post by magic_beans »

smcl wrote: post #51
OJFord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turkish delight (not Cadbury's chocolate bar) is delicious. The chocolate bar is just crap mass-produced Turkish delight wrapped in chocolate. I agree it's not very pleasant, but I don't know what else one could expect.

Yep I've since had it (in Istanbul, no less) and it is very nice

It's WAYYYY too sweet.

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#84

Post by magic_beans »

idiot74 wrote: post #77
Symbiote wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is that in Harry Potter? (I'm British, so if it's something completely normal in Britain I might not have noticed. But I don't eat stale bread...)

I have a strong memory of Harry being banished to his room and he only manages to get some stale bread and cheese. I can't remember which book it was, but thinking maybe Chamber of Secrets (or at least one of the first three). I remember at the time going and getting some stale bread and cheese. (it wasn't necessarily presented as a good thing in the book, but somehow I found it appealing).

I mean, fresh bread and cheese is delicious. Stale bread, not so much. You're aware that stale just means old?

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#85

Post by M_Grey »

magic_beans wrote: post #81
M_Grey wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically the same kind of thing gets marketed here as nutritional drinks, that basically end up being vitamin powders and glucose. While I'm not sold on the notion of something like Soylent as a dietary replacement, at least they're not just mixing sugar and chicory starch and calling it a day.

I have a few cases of Soylent that I keep around for days I have no appetite. The good thing about Soylent is that its CEO actually survives on it, and they really do care a lot about what goes into it. They're constantly improving their formula.

Yeah, I do respect the product for what it is, and while it's not something I'd use 24/7/365, I'd definitely turn to it in a pinch. I also agree with you about the care and the improvements, they seem to be willing to listen to feedback too.

I have reservations about people who think they should survive on it, but if they're going down that road anyway this seems like a safe choice.

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#86

Post by iamatworknow »

galdosdi wrote: post #67
alexbanks wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. What isn't marketed that way?

Natural commodities like cabbage, potatoes, beans, peppers, etc are barely advertised. Generally, if it's something anyone can make and there's no good way to differentiate it, there's not much point doing much marketing. Can't speak for the OP but maybe this is what they meant?

I've always wondered why avocados have so much marketing behind them ("Avocados from Mexico" commercials). Seems like they would be in the same boat as other natural foods. I guess it hasn't bothered me enough to do the research, though.

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#88

Post by defen »

roystonvassey wrote: post #58
rayiner wrote: post #8

We used to drink Horlicks in Bangladesh, where it was - like in India - a breakfast drink. Of course, Horlicks has no special powers to do anything, certainly not any of the things it is marketed as doing. It's a potent example of the insidiousness of marketing: pretty much everywhere in the U.K. and the former British Empire people associate this product with qualities it simply does not possess. Not only that, they…

My not-so-perfect heuristic for eating - if it's marketed and advertised at least in 2 forms of media, I don't eat it. Malted beverages, sugary cereal, refined-flour cookies, take-away pizzas and of course, the great big marketing machine - the sodas. All of them meet this criteria and I don't consider any of these healthy.

Lately my own heuristic is that if the label has more than two ingredients (not counting salt / natural spices) I don't eat it. That means if I want something unhealthy I have to make it myself from scratch, which puts a natural limitation on a big chunk of unhealthy eating possibilities. Of course it's still possible to eat unhealthily this way (the all-steak all-the-time diet comes to mind)

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#89

Post by manarth »

smacktoward wrote: post #49
OJFord wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turkish delight (not Cadbury's chocolate bar) is delicious. The chocolate bar is just crap mass-produced Turkish delight wrapped in chocolate. I agree it's not very pleasant, but I don't know what else one could expect.

It's not that real-world Turkish delight is bad , per se, so much as that Lewis makes it sound so life-changingly incredible that the real-world version is bound to disappoint by comparison.

On the one hand, it was mind-numbingly delicious because of the White Witch's magic making it incredibly addictive, rather than simply the virtue of being Turkish delight.

But why the choice of Turkish delight? A combination of status-signalling and unavailability [1] (post-WW2 sugar-rationing was still in effect when the book was written).

[1] http://www.tor.com/2016/08/08/why-was-turkish-delight-the-ul...

Re: Horlicks, a drink Brits go to bed with and Indians wake up with

#90

Post by idiot74 »

magic_beans wrote: post #84
idiot74 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a strong memory of Harry being banished to his room and he only manages to get some stale bread and cheese. I can't remember which book it was, but thinking maybe Chamber of Secrets (or at least one of the first three). I remember at the time going and getting some stale bread and cheese. (it wasn't necessarily presented as a good thing in the book, but somehow I found it appealing).

I mean, fresh bread and cheese is delicious. Stale bread, not so much. You're aware that stale just means old?

Yes. I found it appealing because I identified with Harry and wanted to share an experience with him. Why you hate on me.
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