Eat like a Brasilian!!!!

[Finnster]

On an aside, ever notice how Wendy's and white castle advertise thier burgers as 100% beef, but McD, BK and Taco Bell never do? Its because they are not and have tons of other additives in there.

A friend of mine had a GF who worked as an analyst/researcher for a mutual fund in NYC. He claimed she would read detailed reports from companies like McDs on their operations, and claimed worm meal is a large protein additive in a lot of FF places.
I have no idea if its true, I could see it either way, but regardless it makes me ill to just wonder whats in that crap. In a certain respect, I think the worm meal may be actually cleaner than the beef they use, so I guess there is a small comfort in that.

[George16]

In some countries, they use ground earthworms (cultured night crawlers) in addition to lips and assholes for hotdogs.

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by George16

In some countries, they use ground earthworms (cultured night crawlers) in addition to lips and assholes for hotdogs.

I love a cheap hot dog. Which brings me to my point: Often times fast food is not just more convenient, but can be a lot cheaper. I've been trying to eat healthier but it is expensive. Worm meal is cheap, lips qnd assholes are cheap, grade "e" meat is cheap. I have a $70 a month food allowance. 25 cent pot pies are my friend. (yes I could cut back on r/c, and eat better, r/c keeps my mind occupied and thats much needed in my life right now)

I'm going to re-read this thread in hopes of learning some cheap healthy alternatives. In the mean time, what are some cheap healthy alternatives?

[George16]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

In the mean time, what are some cheap alternatives?

Stockpile and eat more ramen noodles .

Seriously though, the Japanese don't seem to have a lot of health problems and their diet consists mainly of fish, rice, and vegetables. I do some of my grocery shopping in Japanese supermarkets and this is what I noticed.

[PBO]

Harold, I'm not sure how the food industry is structured in minnesnowta but in Sydney you have supermarkets (obviously), fruit & veg shops, butchers, fish mongers etc. Then you have "wholesalers" (a lose term for suppliers who don't have a retail presence)...if you can locate "wholesalers" (I'm sure you would have them) these are your friend, they're often very keen to please because they don't have the passing trade walking past their door

Supermarket bought fruit & veg lasts between 12-24hrs in my experience. Wholesale markets about 2 weeks at 50% the cost

Supermarket bought meat is full of who knows what & unless immediately frozen lasts 24-48hrs. Wholesale you can (in Sydney anyway) order the grade, cut, weight etc at 50-60% the cost

Supermarket bought fish...don't know, never been brave enough! Fish mongers is ocean fresh (I should ad, Sydney has good seafood) & premium quality at 50-70% the cost



The old pyramid is a good guide but I think most nutritionists are recommending less grain based foods these days. But the maxim "everything in moderation" is king...this accommodates the pointy end of the pyramid

Ditch processed foods in favour of whole foods. The more times food has been handled generally the worse it is for you...white sugar for example is highly refined, if you need to consume sugar it should be raw sugar...don't buy crushed garlic in a jar buy a head and crush cloves...buy rolled oats not "minute oats" - that's the idea. Most restaurants will include "healthy" options on their menu, they are usually heavily seasoned & fat laden to give them taste & appearance - eat in! much cheaper & better for you, generally speaking

Good fats...avacado, oily fish, olives etc. Bad fats...butter, palm oil, hard cheese etc. Salt is a killer, tasty but a killer...use pepper (or fresh chillies) instead

We often buy in bulk & pre-prepare meals which are then stored frozen until required. Some tinned foods are excellent also, many are available in organic varieties...for example you can buy a tin of chick peas, ad a dash of tahini, fresh lemon juice, garlic & splash of olive oil & smash it in the blender/processor & you've got the best homous you've ever eaten...perfect as a butter substitute or on toast for breakfast

On & on it goes but that's some of the ideas we use at home to eat well & economically

[_paralyzed_]

Thank you. I love fish, but as land locked as I am there are no mongers. I'll occasionly get fresh game fish from friends, but not often enough. I end up buying "talapia" from the supermarket. Yes the same talapia that eat the poo in water treatment facilities end up in supermarkets. I love me some salmon, but that's a spendy fish.

Wholesalers are seasonal, as in only during the summer.

My main habit is sugar. Sweet cereal in the morning and soda to drink. I'm slowly cutting that out.

There is a good butcher in my hometown that has excellent meat. Every time I go there I leave with a pound of bacon. It is soooo delicious. I need to cut back on that too. I've got all kinds of things to work on for the new year

[pinkpanda3310]

Just had a thought about the warnings on foods, you get them on high caffiene drinks but you rarely see 'not suitable for children or lactating women' on a food product.

There is a small island at the southern end of Japan. This place has the longest life expectancy in the world. Of course it is due to their diet which is rice, seafood and vegies. Most people on the island grow their own vegies and of course being an island the seafood is fresh. That's not all, Japan has a very strong food culture and most are interested in eating healthy.

On the flip side Japan has a lot of processed ready to eat foods and have had for a long time, babies are being born with health problems due to mum and dad living on such items. You don't hear about it because they're a minority.

Good food is hard to source for a couple of reasons. Fresh is not mass produced and will not travel far (if it does then obviously..........). It is much more profitable to scrape up leftovers, mix it with other rubbish and pump it with chemicals to stop it rotting.

Farmers as a whole don't get paid what they are worth. I had a good family friend (who is a farmer) tell me why. Farmers the world over will get paid just enough to make a living because if they made good profits they would sell up and live good while the rest of us try to source some food.

As Lutach pointed out, the people need to take steps to force an industry to change. Sounds big but it's simple really, just eat healthy. Cheap and nasty shit will always be available and has it's place but the only way to make it less profitable for the companies is to stop buying it!

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Finnster

On an aside, ever notice how Wendy's and white castle advertise thier burgers as 100% beef, but McD, BK and Taco Bell never do? Its because they are not and have tons of other additives in there.

A friend of mine had a GF who worked as an analyst/researcher for a mutual fund in NYC. He claimed she would read detailed reports from companies like McDs on their operations, and claimed worm meal is a large protein additive in a lot of FF places.
I have no idea if its true, I could see it either way, but regardless it makes me ill to just wonder whats in that crap. In a certain respect, I think the worm meal may be actually cleaner than the beef they use, so I guess there is a small comfort in that.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/2010010...08599195179800

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Finnster

If you watch the movie Food Inc you can watch where they go into the BPI plant and show this processing. Of all the things you get to see, sadly this is not the most disgusting. Good movie, if you have netflix you can stream it online.
The owner of BPI claimed in the movie that 40% of the hamburger in the US contained his shit, and expected to reach well above that in the years to come.




Its really disturbing how dirty our food has become. Not just in the things that are in it, but how its raised and grown and how much people are conspired against to remain ignorant of what their food really is and where it comes from.

What is just shocking to me, coming from a medical products industry regulated by the FDA, is what a complete dichotomy there is when it comes to regulations and enforcement. We make things that don't even go in your body, and we are constantly and vigorously inspected and monitored by FDA agents, who are very willing to micromanage and change our processes on the most remote possibility that a defect or inconsistency may occur in the process. Mind you, not in the product even, but a defect that may occur that would cause us to scrap the product well before it even left the door (and even if it did, not likely to cause any harm.)

OTOH, food processors can get away with bloody murder putting god knows what toxic crap in the food because its so soaked in bacteria and animal shit, proper labeling of the food is forbidden, and every effort is made to protect the industry and keep their practices secret, all at the expense of our health and tax dollars. EG, remember all the fights recently whether or not meat and veggies should can even be labeled as GMO or having undergone gamma irradiation prior to packaging? (because the food is so loaded with fecal bacteria, e coli, it needs to be irradiated just to be safe. Spinach anyone?)

I stopped buying the majority of the meat I buy at grocery stores a while ago as I knew some of this, and from previous experience growing up in a big Ag state and having a cousin owning a small ranch. I worked on it one summer in HS, and even took some animals to a local sm slaughterhouse and got to see a lot of shit no one ever gets/wants to see. The prepacked little slices of meat we see in the grocery is so far removed from its source its amazing.


I'm fortunate to have a very good farm market just down the road that sells excellent meat from animals living on their 450 acre farm across the street which I can see, visit, know the farmers and know what the animals are eating and how they are raised and fed. Not only that, the meat is marginally more expensive, but much higher quality and has tastes that grocery meat from factory farms never has. My cousins meat too would be considered sustainable/organic/whatever (tho his gun-toting redneck republican ass would never admit it, lest he be a loony liberal hippie) and the lab tests he had done it showed way lower levels of fat and cholesterol, and much higher levels of iron and vitamins that store bought beef. No antibiotics, hormones, animal products or other unnatural crap in the feed either and it also always tasted amazing.

I hope people will have the opportunity to go to Brasil for the Olympics and taste our great food. The fruits are full of taste, the meat taste absolutely amazing. You can actually taste the freshness. Since you're in PA, could you e-mail me (brasuca2478@hotmail.com) price for different cuts of meat from your local farm Finnster. Ask them if it's possible to ship it to NJ. If possible, I don't want to be a pain. I like to keep the traditional diet in my house and I buy a lot of products from Brasil at the local Brasilian store. I prepare my rice and beans from scratch and eat a lot of the fish that I know comes from good places. The chicken I get from my uncle who buys it from a farmer he knows. The meat is the only thing I question, even though it says organic, it doesn't taste like the meats I used to eat in Brasil.

[lutach]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

I love a cheap hot dog. Which brings me to my point: Often times fast food is not just more convenient, but can be a lot cheaper. I've been trying to eat healthier but it is expensive. Worm meal is cheap, lips qnd assholes are cheap, grade "e" meat is cheap. I have a $70 a month food allowance. 25 cent pot pies are my friend. (yes I could cut back on r/c, and eat better, r/c keeps my mind occupied and thats much needed in my life right now)

I'm going to re-read this thread in hopes of learning some cheap healthy alternatives. In the mean time, what are some cheap healthy alternatives?

It's cheaper to cook. Rice is easy to make and if you have a pressure cooker, you can make your own beans in no time at all. I can e-mail you how we Brasilians prepare our typical rice and beans. Best thing is, you can make extra and have left over that last for about a week in the fridge. It even taste better. A lot of the people I know who went to Brasil couldn't understand why they saw so many fit looking people full of energy. Well, I tell them it's because of the food we eat.

[redshift]

Looked at the Food Inc. trailer Finn, and it reminded me of a few others.

The Meatrix- http://themeatrix.com, and The World According To Monsanto-



If things continue the way they're going, I figure in 10-15 years we'll be eating melamine patties (with beef additive) on 100% recycled styrofoam buns, with potato-flavored sheetrock slices (from China of course).

I may come off as some kind of health food nut... not at all the case. And for many years I pretty much lived on fast food. What I am concerned with is the fact that almost nothing is safe anymore. Even so-called organic is no guarantee (lutach can tell, but how many others would, being so used to eating fake garbage?) and it is hard to come by, and not affordable for most people.

A friend of mine has a teenage daughter. I interrupted dinner one night like I always seem to. There's his daughter, staring befuddled at a stick of butter... He tells her "it's just like margarine- you just put it on the bread".

That's right, 14 or 15 years old.. and never used butter. They had run out of margarine.
Now according to some, margarine is only "one molecule" from being plastic... it sure tastes like plastic to me, always hated the stuff. But it got me thinking- there's at least one generation already that has little or no idea where their food comes from. They probably think it comes from a factory, and not the ground. Well you can't fault them for that can you? It really is 'grown' in a factory.

This is where overpopulation is truly an issue. Because we are at the point at which human existence relies on factory farming. It's not a case of there being too many mouths to feed, it is strictly a matter of there not being enough independent sources of food anymore. Which naturally leaves the big boys in a huge monopoly. They are then free to dictate what is or is not safe. With such trustworthy agencies as the FDA and USDA more or less in bed with those companies. I just don't see a good outcome....

[pinkpanda3310]

Originally Posted by redshift

Even so-called organic is no guarantee (lutach can tell, but how many others would, being so used to eating fake garbage?) and it is hard to come by, and not affordable for most people.
Now according to some, margarine is only "one molecule" from being plastic... it sure tastes like plastic to me, always hated the stuff.

I've heard that about margarine too.

Ever hear about hunters that are mad about a particular animal because they love the 'gamey taste'? That's the difference between organic and farmed.

I've worked on a cattle station in the kimberly region of australia, the place is so isolated it's like stepping back in time. The taste difference of meat is not just a little different it's.............sorry my eyes are glazed and mouth is watering. Grain fed beef doesn't excite me either cause that too is bland in comparison.

[lutach]

The taste of freshness can't be beaten. I've missed the great taste of the food I used to eat down in Brasil. Specially coming from a small city and having many good farmers selling fresh products every day at the local market. If anyone wants to see how small my city is look it up: Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais. The flavors are just unmatched by anything you find in a super market here in the US. Strange thing I'm finding now is, many of the Brasilian products are not in stock anymore and they don't know when they'll have them.

[George16]

Here in Japan, I get fresh produce from the Japanese farmers every weekend when they are allowed inside the Navy base to sell thier farm produce. I have never eaten so many fresh fruits and vegetables since moving to the U.S. in 91'. In fact, a friend and I just came back from the Tsukiji market place where they sell live and frozen seafoods including the most expensive bluefin tuna which cost over $170,00. Unbelievable.

[pinkpanda3310]

Hey George16, have you found if there is much RC around you in Japan?