This is getting silly....

[cruiser2]

Where will the labelling be put on fresh fruit and vegatables?
What about eggs? Will the hens label them before being laid?
If you read the papers, one week it says red wine is good for you, the next week it is bad.
What happens to food which is packed abroad? Will this have to be re-labeled?

[cruiser2]

how did us silver surfers survive our childhoods with none of these "experts" to advise us and no dates on food labels???

Because there was rationing during the war when I was young. Also there was very little processed food and most vegetables were grown locally, not imported from the other side of the world.
Also there was a lot of home cooking not pizzas and other fast foods.

[Workingman]

Kaz, that magic bullet. Is it one of the people or is it an attempt at one by all these helpful people and their labelling information?

I ask, because I am sure that most people could not care less, but the health police need to be seen to be doing something to justify their existence(s).

Going food shopping would need the brain of a statistician to make sure one was not over this or under that.

As you said earlier, just eat normally, and try to keep processed foods at the lower end of what you consume.

Cruiser, good points.

[Kaz]

By magic bullet I meant pills Frank. Following on from what Di said really, about people preferring to carry on stuffing and then taking meds for their ills, or taking slimming pills hoping they will do the hard work for them

Cruiser, very true!

[Workingman]

So, two magic bullets. The "I can eat anything one and the pills will save me" one, and the "We can prevent all this with our intelli-info labels" one.

I am not sure that either will hit the target.

[Kaz]

Very doubtful

[cromwell]

We've bought a chicken for Sunday dinner. I kid you not, on the wrapping it states "cook before eating"

[TheOstrich]

We've bought a chicken for Sunday dinner. I kid you not, on the wrapping it states "cook before eating"

Our local farm shop sells free range eggs in three sizes - small, medium and large. You choose your own from the racks and they trust you to box them yourself as appropriate; the usual cartons of half-a-dozen. The small cartons show a picture of a single scrawny chicken, the medium size cartons show a happy band of normal size cluckers, and the large size cartons depict what Mrs O and I describe as a constipated hen. "Shall we get a dozen constipated hen eggs, today, m'dear?"

Like the gruesome cigarette packets, perhaps pictograms are going to be the likely food labelling of the future ....

Interesting comment, WM, about stevia and saccharin sweeteners. As a type 2, I use Splenda as a sweetener, which is marketed as suitable for diabetics.

[saundra]

I think it's all the junk food these days every were you look people carry cups of coffee and cheeseburgers and stuff 24x7
I grew up with 3meals a day no snacks
I cooked the same and we ate stuff that is now classed as not good for you
Chips cooked in lard
Suite pastry home baking
I still use lard don't like any cooking oil
You just can't win im afraid
I don't like coffee pizza or beefburger either

[Aggers]

I think the real answer to this problem is education, education, education.

No-one has to be obese - it doesn't 'run in the family, as some claim.

My wife serves up interesting and satisfying meals, with plenty of fruit and
vegetables and low fat items, where possible. Neither of us is over-weight.
The only complaint she has is that we are usually disappointed if we have
a meal out, so she doesn't get many breaks from domestic food preparation.

The suggestions made by these Government 'experts' do not make any sense
to me. Perhaps if schools taught children the way to avoid obesity, then the
knowledge might, in some cases, eventually get back to their parents, and
achieve some measure of success in the long term.

Certainly something needs to be done.