Shoddy advertising - how do they get away with it?

That sounds like you have borrowed the names from your aunties. We did, and it gave hilarious conversations.

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My ducks are named Gwendoline and Archibald. Wishing you a lovely afternoon :relaxed:

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Halal meat i think is dubious too, since the ritual (apparently) often causes unnecessary suffering to the animal…

In general. i prefer to not financially support any groups that suppress women’s or LGBTQ (or other minorities’) rights. The more ‘god fearing’ a group is the more persecutorial and suppressive their mindset generally is. If i have the choice, i prefer to get my free range chicken from elsewhere.

Yes i believe so! Very misleading as well, same for “0 calories”!

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I just find it odd that there has generally been little transparency about things like Halal meat in supermarkets, in the UK if not worldwide, there just seems to have been an assumption that those who do not require if for reasons of faith would not be concerned about its provenance.

In so many areas of food production there just seems to be a paternalistic ‘the industry knows best’ attitude, but we probably have more choice now than ever.

When debating whether to have dessert or not in our local restaurant, the owner always says that it has zero calories if we share one.

Mrs R usually agrees to that!

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The problem with the traffic light system for me is largely that people equate sugars with carbohydrates, so they might think 4.9g of carbs when actually it’s 67.5g, the latter being the figure I’m interested in and to find it you generally have to flip a pack over and the complete nutritional info is in a small hard to read font:

There’s also the issue of expressing content/100g when products arer rarely simple multiples thereof. If you have a content/pack as above that’s good but when they describe ‘per portion’ it makes in harder in general without mental gymnastic especially when many ‘feeds 2’ labels are probably way off the mark.

Personally I’m not sold on the traffic light system, but they wanted something for people who don’t understand of don’t have time in a shop to go through the nutritional info. I think the focus on sugars is because that is what is deemed significant health-wise rather than total carbs, latter not generally being of anywhere near as much concern medically in current diets.

With the traffic lights, you also need to look at what quantity it is referencing.
Not all go the 100g way.
What could seem vaguely benign at 30g - which some do. Would be totally worrying at 100g.
Of course relative to an appropriate serving.

Sugars does not really distinguish between natural sugars say in fruit in a dish or ‘added sucrose/other sugars’.

Ultimately once ingested the carbohydrate content will rapidly be converted to simpler sugars, so I think I’d rather know total natural carbs and total added sugars separately.

None of it is perfect I agree, and you’re generally not on the best route when eating pre-prepared food vs cooking all from raw foodstuffs.

Then you have those items sold as being healthy due to low fat content.
But, with a shed load of sugar.

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The fuller nutritional info (also list of ingredients) is there precisely for someone like you! The traffic light system is deliberately simplified and focussed on things of greatest concern in the diet as determined by Department of Health.

I mostly buy meat, fish. veg, rice, fruit etc and prepare food that way, with mostly low proportions of other things in my diet so never look at the nutritional info or traffic lights when buying food…

That’s the problem!

Well then, you’d best stop buying anything that’s made in the UK, or Canada, or US etc. … it’s along list gender and equal-rights suppressors. and nufink to do with Religion. But this has to end here as it’s a banned topic, thank God. I would hope that both our posts will be deleted.

Not a problem, because it is what it was designed to be! The nutritional info is still there for anyone wanting info for other considerations, like nutrition consideration, nutrient-based diets etc - they felt they needed a very simple system to help guide basic health considerations, especially among people less able to think or work through things for themselves.

I should have put a smiley at the end :smiley:

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I don’t often eat ready meals/processed food but occasionally do and then it’s a case of turning various options on the shelves upside down and reading the small print to check overall carb content (generally) - it’s often pretty obvious from what it is (eg pasta/rice is going to be high) but some things are deceptively high when you think they won’t be due to other ingredients that are not quite so obvious.

The problem is that despite a well-intentioned traffic light system we’re getting bigger as a society generally so something’s not right - do people just ignore the ‘red lights’ or is something fundamentally missing from the information?

Naturally it’s multifactorial - many more sedentary jobs, people go for cheap processed calorie dense food either because it’s simply cheap or they’re busy working and haven’t always the time (even if they have the knowledge) to cook with fresh ingredients for themselves or family/children. Add in all the ‘deals’/offersto encourage you to buy more than you need…

It’s also incredible in this day and age that so many people need food banks.

I once read in the Best jokes thread that before the age of 52 one could be considered to have an angry disposition but after the age of 52 one could be considered to be a grumpy old git :relaxed:

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Heck, I almost have a foot in both camps!

Maintaining a dichotomy and seeing the brighter side of life with the understanding that it is replete with continued learning/education: a chalice that will never be filled :relaxed:

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That is potentially too deep for me at this time of night, but I would truly love to feel enlightened and at peace with the world. Mindfulness doesn’t quite work for me.