Regular readers will know that I enjoy watching programmes such as Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Many years ago I flirted with human psychology and people studying has always fascinated me.
In both programmes, the participation of tasks are food related and it becomes apparent, very quickly, how affected people are psychologically by their diet. In the recent Big Brother house, contestants have become irascible when deprived of a luxury diet, not so much because they are going hungry, the ration diet is substantial enough, but because they are craving the sugar and fat content that they have become overly dependant on.
When the contestants are rewarded with McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, they stuff their faces as if they were ravenous. This is because fast food can be as addictive as heroin according to scientific research, and the contestants are getting their much needed 'fix'.
I have noticed that whenever the contestants have a luxury shopping budget, pot noodles appear on the store room shelves. This brand of instant noodle snack food, consisting of a dehydrated mixture of dried vegetables, noodles and ingredients such as potassium chloride, disodium inosinate and sodium carbonate to name but a few, was launched in 1977 (we were niave and impressionable back then with all the new food fads) but unbelievably it is still going strong with 175 million pots being produced each year.
As with all over processed food, pot noodle has no nutritional value, it will cause your blood sugar to peak and then plunge, creating a desire for another snack, hence why people who don't necessarily eat vast quantities of food, yet eat the wrong types of food, continuously battle with their weight. These nutrition free foods are full of empty calories and given that it takes 122 minutes of walking to burn off around 400 calories (a McDonald's sausage and egg McMuffin contains 440 calories) it's easy to see why we have a obesity epidemic.
Experiments have found that rats fed on a diet containing 25 per cent of sugar are thrown into a state of anxiety when the sugar is removed, in some experiments rats chose sugar over cocaine even when they were addicted to cocaine.
There seems to be a correlation between this relatively new phenomena of child behavioural problems and our diet. Foods high in sugar are claimed to exacerbate hyperactivity and increase anxiety and aggressive behaviour. We have come to expect as the norm, children having meltdowns, tantrums and sleeping disorders, something that was a rarity thirty years ago. Porridge for breakfast has been replaced with sugary cereals and I have seen children's packed lunches containing 2 yoghurts, dried fruit snacks, crisps and soft drinks, the sugar in these foodstuffs is quickly digested into glucose, which can then make the neurons in the brain go haywire and cause children to manifest disruptive behaviour.
And so, I come back to the dreaded pot noodle. Seriously, it's not that hard to put a few vegetables and a pack of noodles in a wok, you can make a large vat of them and keep them for 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge and eat them at your leisure.
Simple pot noodle
Recipe
2 sachets microwavable frozen vegetables
1 packet ready cooked noodles
A splash of soy sauce
Simply microwave vegetable sachets according to packet instructions
Add oil to a wok and heat, add noodles and vegetables with a splash of soy sauce, stir well and cook for 2 minutes
For a more adventurous dish, fry leeks or shallots, beansprouts and spring onions, add noodles and soy sauce, add chilli for spice or chopped herbs such as coriander. I like to sprinkle crushed peanuts on top and sometimes add cooked prawns or chicken, the possibilities are endless
'While it is true that many people simply can't afford to pay more for food, either in money or time or both, many of us can. After all, just in the last decade or two we've somehow found the time to spend several hours a day on the Internet and the money in the budget to pay for broadband service. For the majority of us, spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority.'
- Michael Pollan.
Love Donna xxxxxxxxx
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