Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2: Take them when ms start.
Speaker 3: No, Yes, welcome back to the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 4: I'm Tim Beveraging Texture Feedback anytime on nine two, nine two,
Speaker 4: and but of course we want your calls this hour
Speaker 4: on our one hundred and eighty ten eighty because this
Speaker 4: is the Health Hub. And we're got a little bit
Speaker 4: of a chat about a couple of things, and I
Speaker 4: think they sort of dovetail into each other. Oh, I've
Speaker 4: got to stop using that word dovetail. But anyway, but
Speaker 4: there's this endless choice of processed foods, and you know
Speaker 4: that process foods question. When I think of process foods,
Speaker 4: I think of the confirmation of RFK over in America.
Speaker 4: But let's not talk about that. That's me distracting myself.
Speaker 4: But he's against the processed foods. And we hear a
Speaker 4: lot how bad processed foods are. And I guess it's
Speaker 4: also harder if you don't realize, you know, how those
Speaker 4: foods are processed. There might be a big difference between
Speaker 4: certain meals that you can buy where that things are
Speaker 4: highly processed and buying maybe I don't know of can
Speaker 4: of Italian sort of pasta source which may be not
Speaker 4: as bad, but I don't know. But of course one
Speaker 4: of the things that's worth getting to know is what's
Speaker 4: on those labels, the ingredient list, the back and the
Speaker 4: the preseratives that, oh, I can't even is that the
Speaker 4: preservatives that they use when it see as we use
Speaker 4: this preservative numbers such and such.
Speaker 5: And various fillers.
Speaker 4: So is there a way of understanding the ingredients which
Speaker 4: can help you make better choices? And along those lines
Speaker 4: as well, we're also going to have a chat about
Speaker 4: just making good meals from canned foods, which should almost
Speaker 4: give you a clue as to who our guest is
Speaker 4: going to be. But the clue, of course, was given
Speaker 4: when I started the show at three o'clock and I
Speaker 4: said it would be the co host of Eat Well
Speaker 4: for Less, And it's ganesh Rash and he's with me now.
Speaker 4: Good afternoon, Good afternoon, sir. How are you today?
Speaker 5: Excellent?
Speaker 4: Have you had some sort of break over the summer
Speaker 4: or you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, I am very good with my breaks.
Speaker 4: Excellent. You've actually you're just in the middle of doing
Speaker 4: another filming another season I beat wellfull ys?
Speaker 6: An't you absolutely? So we filmed a little bit of
Speaker 6: it before before the New Year, before the Christmas break. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and then we're filming another set now. And everything you're
Speaker 6: saying is so spot on with what I'm experiencing right
Speaker 6: this second.
Speaker 4: What a relief because what you did there was you paused,
Speaker 4: you said. Everything you're saying is just I'm.
Speaker 6: Like, oh, but it isn't it's time, but it is.
Speaker 4: But it is one of those I do read ingredient lists,
Speaker 4: but usually it's on a one example, Okay, I can
Speaker 4: of tomatoes, just to see where they've stuck, whether they're
Speaker 4: Sultan or something, or maybe a can of spaghetti or
Speaker 4: some sort of sauce or.
Speaker 6: What are you looking for when you look at the back.
Speaker 4: Usually I'm just curious to know how many basic ingredients
Speaker 4: I recognize, and if most of the ingredients, if not
Speaker 4: all of them, are simply look, it's just tomatoes. It's
Speaker 4: a bit of chipotle sauce, it's a bit of this
Speaker 4: than that, and sodium. But usually i'm sometimes oh, okay,
Speaker 4: the last time I did it was on stock and
Speaker 4: my wife buys was.
Speaker 6: This vacuum pack stock or the mass It's actually not
Speaker 6: checker boxes.
Speaker 5: It's little cubes of stock.
Speaker 6: Oh understood.
Speaker 4: And I was thinking how much salt is in the
Speaker 4: low assault version versus the salted version, Because I'll be
Speaker 4: honest with you, I go, well, actually, the lower salted
Speaker 4: Version'm probably going to have to add a little sprinkle
Speaker 4: of salt just for my taste. And so I look
Speaker 4: at it and go how much different is it? And
Speaker 4: then I have a chat with my wife and say,
Speaker 4: maybe just buy the normal version, but it's usually it's
Speaker 4: still a cup. What the salt and sugar content is?
Speaker 6: I mean, the fact that you're actually doing that alone
Speaker 6: sets you apart from a lot of people, because you
Speaker 6: know basic, You're looking for basic things you can identify with,
Speaker 6: and since preservatives.
Speaker 4: Four five seven six five three four five nine, I'm like,
Speaker 4: you're suspicious, don't like it? That's right, that's right.
Speaker 6: And I think that's a good instinct for everyone to
Speaker 6: carry into their supermarket shop, that type of suspicion, especially
Speaker 6: with anything that comes in cans, such as tomato sauces,
Speaker 6: such as pasta sauces. None of those things, a lot
Speaker 6: of those things have over a quarter of sugar twenty
Speaker 6: five grams per hundred grams.
Speaker 4: Actually narrows it down really mostly I'm looking for sugar
Speaker 4: and salt immediately.
Speaker 6: Those are alarms.
Speaker 4: Cereals is another one. Yes, I did it the other
Speaker 4: day because I make my own granola sometimes and I
Speaker 4: know how much sugar it is on because I make it,
Speaker 4: and there's you know, it's tasty, it's sweet, it's lovely.
Speaker 6: But you did it to yourself.
Speaker 4: Yes, for instance, neutral rain, historically I don't have. They've
Speaker 4: changed it, but we're on holiday and my wife just said, oh, look,
Speaker 4: let's just get you neutral grain because we normally they're
Speaker 4: generally pretty healthy. And I thought, how much sugar does
Speaker 4: that still have?
Speaker 6: And You're like, it's a lot, isn't it, isn't it?
Speaker 6: And I'm so glad you brought this up so I
Speaker 6: don't have to be that guy all the time.
Speaker 4: Oh but it'll be the devil.
Speaker 6: I mean, it's not even it's the fact that it's
Speaker 6: happening around us. So obviously. Another one is you raised
Speaker 6: it just now and we just had this revelation for
Speaker 6: a family just a few weeks ago. They bought these
Speaker 6: fourteen dollars for four hundred and fifty grams of pre
Speaker 6: made organic fried chicken tenders in a box.
Speaker 4: Right, hang on, hold it, hold it described.
Speaker 6: By thirteen ninety nine for four hundred grams of organic
Speaker 6: convenience for chicken tenders, call it convenience chicken tenders organic.
Speaker 5: What's the chicken tender?
Speaker 6: It's those long strips that come off, you know that
Speaker 6: they cut the crumb and the very popular with kids,
Speaker 6: very popular with And it was with deep regret that
Speaker 6: I had to tell her that it was only fifty
Speaker 6: nine percent chicken. And it's said it was the first
Speaker 6: item on the back of the box. I wasn't making
Speaker 6: it up. She just people don't was that.
Speaker 4: Of course that have been because the way they crumbed it,
Speaker 4: they crumbed.
Speaker 6: It's just things that sit in a box in a
Speaker 6: freezer of proteins attached to them are going to have
Speaker 6: fillers and preservatives. That's just the game it's in. It's
Speaker 6: not a fault. It's that mechanism.
Speaker 4: But so, so, just to clarify, yes, sir, so it's
Speaker 4: not that they have with the so I'm kissing that
Speaker 4: where they crumbed or something. Yes, okay, So it's not
Speaker 4: a case of that they've added stuff to all the crumbs.
Speaker 4: They've actually they've shoved stuff to the chicken as well,
Speaker 4: like this when you when you're eating the chicken.
Speaker 6: The meat itself would have been a combination of chicken
Speaker 6: meat and soy filler, then blended together along with various flavorings, preservatives,
Speaker 6: and texture supplements so that all the sponginess is what
Speaker 6: you love. I mean, food science is a huge thing.
Speaker 4: And I guess the thing is, but I just want
Speaker 4: to finish ount go go.
Speaker 6: Just to make it worse, four hundred grams four hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty grams was about fourteen dollars. Now we know
Speaker 6: that only sixty percent of that was actually chicken, So
Speaker 6: now we're really paying for the fourteen dollars. I don't
Speaker 6: know what the math is, but two hundred and two
Speaker 6: hundred grams t fifty grams? Serdadly, get a cooked chick
Speaker 6: now in a supermarket is fourteen dollars?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: A COOKEOK? Ready to go without nonsense?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 4: Yeah. Look, well we're about to continue this conversation and
Speaker 4: a lot more detail, but we want to hear your
Speaker 4: calls as well on this. I eight one hundred eighty
Speaker 4: ten eighty do you actually read the labels?
Speaker 5: Be something? First? And what are you looking for when
Speaker 5: you read the labels, do you.
Speaker 4: Know what it is? Because the other side of that
Speaker 4: would the question I was dying to jump in with
Speaker 4: you there, Ganesh was. With all the amazing food technology
Speaker 4: that there is, there will be options which may look well,
Speaker 4: you might consider be unhealthy. But are there healthy ways
Speaker 4: of things that they're doing with food to make food
Speaker 4: go further?
Speaker 6: Yes, frozen frozen has been one of the greatest revelations
Speaker 6: of our time. Snap freezing something means that. But people
Speaker 6: can know buy vegetables perfectly snap frozen and use only
Speaker 6: what you need and put the rest back into the freezer.
Speaker 6: Waste will come down a ton frozen spinach, frozen bags. Also,
Speaker 6: they're tremendous time savers because all the prep's been done
Speaker 6: for you. So I promote frozen in a big way,
Speaker 6: and that technology of snap freezing and making it safe
Speaker 6: has provided all of us with.
Speaker 4: Oh, I was meaning something a little different. I was thinking,
Speaker 4: for instance, you can go to the supermarket and buy
Speaker 4: dairy free ice cream because they have or there are
Speaker 4: there's technology around manipulating fermentine proteins to make dairy products. So,
Speaker 4: for instance, is there a version where they might do
Speaker 4: that with chicken where they might have some of it. Okay,
Speaker 4: some of it's real chicken, and the other is something
Speaker 4: we have cleverly managed through science to create which is
Speaker 4: not bad for you, absolutely, And how would you know, Well,
Speaker 4: it'd be on the back, it would seem How would
Speaker 4: you know if it was good for you or not?
Speaker 6: You would have to check it out yourself. And this
Speaker 6: is how this whole game is played essentially. I think
Speaker 6: if I was them, I would be striving for something
Speaker 6: that tasted like chicken but didn't cost me a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 6: because I'm giving you fifty nine percent chicken. Please enjoy that.
Speaker 5: Did you taste those things? By the way, I have.
Speaker 6: Tasted them before, and I do need to taste them again. Okay,
Speaker 6: I'm good, I'm good. I just encourage people not to
Speaker 6: give it to their kids, yeah, or their families.
Speaker 4: What is actually what is the thing with soy?
Speaker 6: What do you mean?
Speaker 5: What's the you said it was a soy?
Speaker 6: What don't confuse soy filler and tofu and all of that.
Speaker 5: Okay, what a soy filler?
Speaker 6: Soy filler is essentially using so soy is a compound? Yeah, right,
Speaker 6: tofu is a manifestation of soy, And there's so many
Speaker 6: types of tofia of how you set this soy protein
Speaker 6: compound and in its raw form, you know, it can
Speaker 6: be a powder. It can they can add chemicals to
Speaker 6: it to bulk it up, and that's what they use
Speaker 6: it for. They use it as a bulking agent. A
Speaker 6: lot of people do that. It's a it's a food
Speaker 6: scientist dream.
Speaker 4: And when you are looking at a packet, does it
Speaker 4: say is the clove fifty nine percent chicken? Because some
Speaker 4: might say, well, the risk must be crumbs, The risk
Speaker 4: must be crumbs and flour, or is the cloth another
Speaker 4: ingredient they've named in there?
Speaker 5: It doesn't actually say soy filler.
Speaker 6: Well, let me ask you this. It's a piece of chicken.
Speaker 6: Let's pretend we take off the crumbs underneath it is
Speaker 6: this beige yellow.
Speaker 4: I've gotcha now, I just wanted to do they say soyfeller.
Speaker 6: No, they don't. So the first item on the back
Speaker 6: is always chicken in brackets fifty nine to sixty whatever,
Speaker 6: So they're upfront in terms of the first number. Then
Speaker 6: there's about twenty four ingredients after that which I cannot
Speaker 6: recognize and numbers. So I'm going to assume that you are,
Speaker 6: you know, and so ifil I've seen on other other
Speaker 6: companies have been more upfront about the word soyfiller. So
Speaker 6: I have seen that with other brands. So this is
Speaker 6: the thing, you know, just telling people to be aware
Speaker 6: of that is the best we can do. And then
Speaker 6: you make decisions. But I always point back to the
Speaker 6: whole chicken that I just said, a fourteen dollars cook
Speaker 6: choke in a SuperM Well that's all day. Just by
Speaker 6: just by cook chook for fourteen you've spent the same
Speaker 6: So anyway, you know, I'm just promoting people in that direction.
Speaker 4: Well, the other thing is if you're looking for, for instance,
Speaker 4: you're looking for chicken tinder crumbed, I don't want to
Speaker 4: be because you know, sometimes it's a dangerous these things
Speaker 4: that sounds like not you but that people lecture people
Speaker 4: about felt how easy it is to prepare things from scratch.
Speaker 4: But seriously, crumbed chicken tenders are pretty easy to do.
Speaker 5: What do you do?
Speaker 4: Probably crack a bit of egg and a bowl, mix
Speaker 4: it up and roll it, roll the chicken and that
Speaker 4: and then and the bread crumbs and bengo, you're done.
Speaker 6: But you've gone too far. Now you've done the thing
Speaker 6: that you said you wouldn't do. You've added an extra step.
Speaker 6: Just no, let's not talk about crumb chicken. Let's just
Speaker 6: go don't worry about it and just buy the chicken. Yeah,
Speaker 6: like you went for convenience. Like convenience is the word
Speaker 6: I've heard so much in the last two weeks from
Speaker 6: very busy parents who've given up hope, unfortunately, and are
Speaker 6: trying to bring it back by learning how to cook.
Speaker 6: But you know that idea of convenience is still fulfilled
Speaker 6: by buying a cooked chalk except it to real chicken
Speaker 6: and all of it's there, and mix sandwiches and options
Speaker 6: options go.
Speaker 4: What are the other What are some other food traps
Speaker 4: where people think, oh, look, I'm just going to get
Speaker 4: this tonight and it's it says it's this, and I'll
Speaker 4: just bang up the frying panel.
Speaker 5: It'll be all done.
Speaker 4: One are the others? So we've got the fifty nine
Speaker 4: percent chicken one. Have you got any other examples that
Speaker 4: spring to mind? On on if he sort.
Speaker 6: Of if he's sort of well misconceptions definitely, like can goods,
Speaker 6: for example, Yeah, can goods you've got to You've got
Speaker 6: to separate it because there's things like tuna and chicken
Speaker 6: in a can, which is no problem at all. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, tuna and water. Now you know there's really
Speaker 6: healthy versions of all of that stuff. Salmon, chicken, those
Speaker 6: are fine. Fruit is the one that you've got to
Speaker 6: watch out for. I always look for clear juice, never
Speaker 6: in syrup.
Speaker 4: But if you are syrup, know that you're buying it
Speaker 4: in syrup at least at least it's labeled as opposed
Speaker 4: to it used to the good old days was just
Speaker 4: like canned peatures.
Speaker 6: I hear you, I hear you, and and you know,
Speaker 6: no one said the syrup wasn't delicious.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think that's the thing. Look, if you
Speaker 4: are hardly ever eating that stuff, yeah, it's a true,
Speaker 4: it's a true and it's a tree that Yeah.
Speaker 6: I completely buy that. It's when it becomes like a
Speaker 6: habit and part of like an afternoon tea that two
Speaker 6: children are having every day, or you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: There's habits that parents fall into, because what I find
Speaker 6: is when parents find things that work for them, they
Speaker 6: just rinse and repeat because you know, life is stressful enough.
Speaker 4: You did it yesterday and your brain's a bit short
Speaker 4: because you've been worrying about X, Y and Z and
Speaker 4: you just think, oh, I just bug eyves in the panic.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know. And the market loves it, the word
Speaker 6: convenience food and the way they're you know, the these
Speaker 6: boxes of mac and cheese that are frozen that when
Speaker 6: you open it up deeply so specious of those, Yes,
Speaker 6: but I know people that have bought, you know, packets
Speaker 6: of them to last all five days of the week
Speaker 6: as lunches and because it's convenient. It's so the word
Speaker 6: convenience has just clouded what is kind of good for
Speaker 6: you it's convenient, versus what is not good for you
Speaker 6: that's convenient, you know what I mean, Like the good
Speaker 6: for your stuff becomes like you said, preachy, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well it does. And yet the shame is is that
Speaker 4: when people actually do make the effort to follow up
Speaker 4: on that advice, it does open up a whole new
Speaker 4: world of just well, the process of cooking, for one,
Speaker 4: I find and I think most I think most people,
Speaker 4: if they get into the process of cooking, enjoy it.
Speaker 4: It's quite fulfilling. It's almost like a meditation. And it
Speaker 4: doesn't need to be something that's going to take five hours.
Speaker 4: It can be something pretty simple, and I think that's
Speaker 4: trying to get people from that habit of I mean,
Speaker 4: the habit of just grabbing that thing off the shelf,
Speaker 4: slapping on the pan and then adding, you know whatever
Speaker 4: the rice or is that you go with it, to
Speaker 4: actually doing something that just takes maybe a bit more thought.
Speaker 4: But you know that's the thing. You don't want it
Speaker 4: to be a whole lot more thought. Do you want
Speaker 4: it to be fairly straightforward?
Speaker 6: And the convenience market knows every button to push, for example,
Speaker 6: my weave little perfect contenas of race.
Speaker 4: I'm very I can't stand that. Come on, just stick
Speaker 4: some rice and lemon pie.
Speaker 6: I always say when someone when her phone Uncle when
Speaker 6: her phone Uncle Ben's in somebody's shopping trolley. You know
Speaker 6: what I do.
Speaker 4: Now, we're just turning around to look at my producer
Speaker 4: because you up at the keyboard when I mentioned microwave packets,
Speaker 4: and I thought, don't tell me you're guilty.
Speaker 5: But she's not.
Speaker 4: No, she's not very healthy.
Speaker 6: Yeap, definitely. Anyway, hey, look anyway, so anyway, just to finish,
Speaker 6: but yeah, I always say Uncle Ben's has the largest
Speaker 6: largest villa in the Bahamas thanks to you. Yes, well,
Speaker 6: because he saw so much of that.
Speaker 4: Actually, what is.
Speaker 5: Uncle Ben's rice?
Speaker 6: What is it?
Speaker 4: What makes it?
Speaker 6: Something that's I'm going to get into, but I'm just
Speaker 6: going to say, like you said, just cook some rice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we love your calls on this though, the first
Speaker 4: question is do you understand have you made an effort
Speaker 4: to understand labels on food?
Speaker 5: If not, why not?
Speaker 4: I could say, which sounds like I'm sitting you down
Speaker 4: for talking to But do you understand them? Because and
Speaker 4: how much effort do you take to read the labels
Speaker 4: of things? And if you are taking the effort to
Speaker 4: read it, what are you actually looking for when it
Speaker 4: comes to making your decisions? Because not everything that comes
Speaker 4: in a packet or a can is bad news. Everything's
Speaker 4: packaged to get our attention, whether it be the most
Speaker 4: wholesome food. Okay, the fruit and vegas out on display anyway,
Speaker 4: But not all food that is packaged for our attention
Speaker 4: is necessarily bad. So what do you look for? Do
Speaker 4: you know the difference between this is great and not
Speaker 4: so good? Fifty nine percent chicken? That's the cats phrase.
Speaker 4: It always sounds like a slogan, isn't it. Hey with
Speaker 4: our product. We're fifty nine percent real chicken. What about
Speaker 4: the rest? I eight hundred eight ten eight. I love
Speaker 4: your calls on that. I eight hundred eight ten eight.
Speaker 4: In My guest is Ganess Raj, who is in the
Speaker 4: middle of filming eat Well for Less volume series five.
Speaker 4: This is News Talks. He be twenty four past four.
Speaker 4: A's welcome back to the health Harbor on the weekend
Speaker 4: collective onton beverage. You'd love your calls one hundred and
Speaker 4: eighty ten eighty Do you know how to read labels?
Speaker 4: But also if you don't know how to read a label,
Speaker 4: My guest is Ganesh Raj from eat Well for Less,
Speaker 4: and you want to pick a pick brains on something
Speaker 4: you've got in your cupboard right now that you thought
Speaker 4: I thought this was good. I just need to run
Speaker 4: this past Ganesh. We might be able to give you
Speaker 4: a bit of her heads up on that. I do
Speaker 4: have to correct the record with She hasn't asked for
Speaker 4: an apology because she's got a sense of humor. My
Speaker 4: producer and I jokingly said that the ganessh and I
Speaker 4: looked at Tyra to see when we talked about microwave
Speaker 4: rice whether that was one of her evil confessions she
Speaker 4: needed to make. And I realized how wrong it was
Speaker 4: to throw any aspersions around raw and wild foods at Tyra,
Speaker 4: because this is a young woman who even kills her
Speaker 4: own chickens. Ah And I think, as she had a
Speaker 4: story about having to kill a particularly bothersome rooster at
Speaker 4: one stage, and so she literally has her food pretty
Speaker 4: and it's in its sort of natural state, would be
Speaker 4: the default suggestion, I think, Ganesh, you don't know if
Speaker 4: meet many people who say, do I slaughter my own chickens?
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't believe a word of it. Personally,
Speaker 6: everything about her says, oh my nay, just kidding, just kidding,
Speaker 6: just winder, come on, okay, I got some homeworking leader.
Speaker 6: I respect and appreciate.
Speaker 5: Her right now.
Speaker 4: On the rice thing, we were talking just in the
Speaker 4: break about how many many ways to make rice there
Speaker 4: is in my journey.
Speaker 5: It wasn't it journey.
Speaker 4: I was never really into using the Uncle Ben's the
Speaker 4: sachets and the packets and ready mix. But to me,
Speaker 4: it's the one thing. It's got to be the most
Speaker 4: easy thing in the world to do. Some people might go,
Speaker 4: I don't know what to do do I do the
Speaker 4: rapid boiler method, Do I do the absorption method?
Speaker 5: Do I do the rice cooker method?
Speaker 6: In the twenty six dollars rice cooker method is the
Speaker 6: perfect method twenty six dollars for a rice cooker from
Speaker 6: your favorite large scale department store.
Speaker 5: The reason I don't.
Speaker 6: Gives five cups which will make about ten portions. It
Speaker 6: will last you for two days for a family of four.
Speaker 4: The reason I don't use a rice cooker is that
Speaker 4: we've got on our bench. We have a coffee machine
Speaker 4: and grinder, and we've got a one of those. It's
Speaker 4: the mixing bowl thing, you know, with the whisk and
Speaker 4: all that sort of thing.
Speaker 5: It sits on the.
Speaker 4: Bench as well, and we just don't have a room
Speaker 4: for a white rice cooker. So all I do is
Speaker 4: I have a pot, I rinse the rice, put the
Speaker 4: right amount of water, and bring it to a simmer
Speaker 4: stick the lid on, set the timer, and forget about it.
Speaker 4: And it's absorption method. Boom far done.
Speaker 6: Well, you know absolutely, that's you know, people have done
Speaker 6: that for millennia.
Speaker 5: It's funny.
Speaker 4: That's the one thing I've always thought. You don't want
Speaker 4: to generalize, but I'm still head anyway. Oh no, but
Speaker 4: it's the one appliants that I'm often surprised to see
Speaker 4: behind the scenes at sushi and other Asian restaurants, because
Speaker 4: I'm thinking, I'm thinking it because it looks like an appliance,
Speaker 4: looks like a sort of an appliance which was is
Speaker 4: not necessary.
Speaker 6: You know, everyone uses it. Oh my goodness, what are
Speaker 6: you saying?
Speaker 4: I just assume because everything else seems to be made
Speaker 4: so organically that a rice cooker just seems like one
Speaker 4: of those unnecessary appliances.
Speaker 5: That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 6: It was literally invented by Asian people because it cooks
Speaker 6: perfect race. You don't understand. Oh, maybe you're caught up
Speaker 6: in the romance of cooking the race. We're far more focused.
Speaker 6: We're far more focused on consistent daily end results.
Speaker 4: I'm going to try that line with my wife. When
Speaker 4: she gets home, she'll say, what's for dinner.
Speaker 5: I'll go, I'm cooking rice.
Speaker 6: Romantic romantic, romantic race.
Speaker 4: So how how can a rice cooker be on the
Speaker 4: seventeen bucks or twenty twenty six bucks.
Speaker 6: It's this little it's this little.
Speaker 5: Ones, and how much what's the proportion of water to rice?
Speaker 5: Just use the cup really does.
Speaker 6: Three cups of rice gives me approximately five and a
Speaker 6: half cups of cooked to rice. Three cups of rice,
Speaker 6: and then you just put the water at three. It's
Speaker 6: so simple. And then I just hit the button and
Speaker 6: then they off. I go and cook something else and
Speaker 6: then the race just heats and you fluff it once
Speaker 6: it's done, so that.
Speaker 4: Oh you always got to fluff it.
Speaker 6: You gotta fluff it.
Speaker 5: Everyone's probably with the absorption method.
Speaker 4: That's the one time when sometimes I'm like, oh, it's
Speaker 4: a little bit heavy maybe, and I imagine a rice
Speaker 4: cooker would have done it better.
Speaker 6: Anyway. I mean, look, I didn't say it, you said it, okay, Actually.
Speaker 4: Just not that this is the topic of conversation, but
Speaker 4: it almost ties into water. Is the cooking appliance that
Speaker 4: you bought. That's just the no brainer. And most people
Speaker 4: do say it's rice cocker, don't they?
Speaker 6: Good? Good? It saves you so much hassle and also
Speaker 6: like time saving wise, always think about the mother or
Speaker 6: the father or the older child that comes home and
Speaker 6: is to put the race on as part one of
Speaker 6: the chores. You know, it's like pop, you're done.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've got some texts coming on that. Although we've
Speaker 4: got lots of texts, we'd love your cause. By the way,
Speaker 4: you welcome to join the conversation if you've got anything
Speaker 4: you'd like to ask in Schrazer as well about healthy
Speaker 4: eating and reading the labels and the ingredients on the back.
Speaker 4: But I'd just love to know if you read the labels.
Speaker 4: What proportion of people do you think read the labels?
Speaker 4: Kinesh Do we know anything about that?
Speaker 6: Well, I can tell you based on my experience, I'd
Speaker 6: say ninety five percent do not.
Speaker 4: That does surprise me. I would have thought there'd be
Speaker 4: something where you'd bound to be you'd have to be curious.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're buying cereal, for instance, surely you want
Speaker 4: to know how much sugar.
Speaker 6: For example, to the level that you may you describe
Speaker 6: that you do it. Yeah, where you're looking for sugars
Speaker 6: and you're looking for sodium. But here's the thing, not
Speaker 6: to disrespect you, almost to give you a benchmark. How
Speaker 6: much sugar for you is too much sugar?
Speaker 5: And what what substance?
Speaker 6: Any substance. So when you're reading the label, it always
Speaker 6: tells you how many grams per hundred g, how much
Speaker 6: sugar is too much for you for one hundred grams.
Speaker 4: Umm. Oh, that is a difficult one because, for instance,
Speaker 4: if I look at hot chocolate, I just want the
Speaker 4: hot chocolate and I don't care about the sugar.
Speaker 6: Yes, so I just that's just one product.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, so many look I think if it was
Speaker 4: per serving, if I saw more than say, ten grams,
Speaker 4: I would start to go, are we getting up there
Speaker 4: a bit?
Speaker 5: And then you look at what is.
Speaker 4: The one I looked at recently, and it was it
Speaker 4: was a maybe it was some seemingly innocent drink and
Speaker 4: it was something like twelve or fifteen teaspoons of sugar.
Speaker 4: It's probably a can of coke, wasn't it. Let's be honest.
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, can of coke is pretty much like
Speaker 6: a you know, one fifth to forty percent. Yeah, but
Speaker 6: the idea is that anything once upon a time fifteen
Speaker 6: percent was good. But because of how much sugar there
Speaker 6: is now and so many different things, including sometimes you know,
Speaker 6: dairy products and regular things that people eat, I say
Speaker 6: twenty percent. If if it's less than twenty percent, go
Speaker 6: ahead and purchase it. If it's more than twenty percent,
Speaker 6: think twice, okay. And that's like a nice general twice.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Rule of thumb for everybody out there to take into
Speaker 6: their mind when they go shopping tomorrow is to make
Speaker 6: a decision on sugar. Just don't try and be too good.
Speaker 6: Don't try to like fives and tens. If you can
Speaker 6: get it under twenty, high five yourself and move on.
Speaker 5: Well, mind you as a percentage depending if you're having
Speaker 5: a couple of hundred grams and it's twenty percent, that
Speaker 5: is a truck lad of sugar.
Speaker 6: Also a decision. But I'm trying to make life easier
Speaker 6: for you so you can be it's a mindset you
Speaker 6: have to be in the mindset of going, I'm going
Speaker 6: to try and live a low sugar lifestyle. How the
Speaker 6: how is having a line that you don't cross? Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's the only how that you know. All of this
Speaker 6: stuff is just a line that you don't cross.
Speaker 4: What about Actually, just the other thing I wanted to
Speaker 4: touch on was brown rice. I reckon a lot of
Speaker 4: people look at brown rice and go, oh, I know
Speaker 4: it sounds healthy and tasteless. But we're having a i'll
Speaker 4: coompan Withether's what my wife calls the dishbat. We're having
Speaker 4: a salad, which will be the base of which will
Speaker 4: be a you know, with some brown rice.
Speaker 5: And brown rice is actually quite delicious.
Speaker 6: Brown rice by itself, it does absorb flavor really well,
Speaker 6: you know, simple thing like the way Japanese use it
Speaker 6: with like rice wine vinegar, a little bit of mirror.
Speaker 6: But if you didn't have that, you can do lemon juice.
Speaker 6: You can put a little bit of white wine vinegar
Speaker 6: from the shop, you know, the simple ways. Or you
Speaker 6: can make something that's really quite juicy or curry ish,
Speaker 6: something that will the rice will absorb. Because brown rice
Speaker 6: is actually phenomenally good for you.
Speaker 4: Isn't much better for you than white rice.
Speaker 6: It is. It's got a very steady glyceeming index. You know,
Speaker 6: it doesn't spike, but it's a hard cell. I've always
Speaker 6: found it difficult to convince people to have it at
Speaker 6: least once a week. Even has been a challenge, even
Speaker 6: though that would be perfect once a week, if you
Speaker 6: could have brown rice, Yeah, it would change your diet.
Speaker 4: Somebody's just about just quickly. This is just cooking instruction.
Speaker 4: Is the same quantity of brown and white rice. I
Speaker 4: think that must mean in terms of to make.
Speaker 6: I don't cook brown rise in the rice cooker. I
Speaker 6: cook it in the pot and I overfill it. I
Speaker 6: overfill it with water and I just let it cook
Speaker 6: and then I use the finger pressing of the rice
Speaker 6: method to figure out if it's cooked. And once it's done,
Speaker 6: I literally streen it.
Speaker 5: What's finger pressing method?
Speaker 6: That means it's al dante for me. It's how I
Speaker 6: like to eat it, Okay, and then I streen it
Speaker 6: through a colander, get rid of the excess water, and
Speaker 6: my rice is ready to go.
Speaker 5: It'll be hot, though when you're squeezing fingers.
Speaker 4: Okay, look a few ticks here actually once how let
Speaker 4: me just scroll down for that. Our Food Additive Code
Speaker 4: Book item nine twenty is an amino acid made from
Speaker 4: animal here, chicken feathers and china. It's also made from
Speaker 4: human here, used in flour additive and making breads is null.
Speaker 4: I just have to take noles.
Speaker 5: We're on that. That sounds disgusting.
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't think we I think we should
Speaker 6: check that. But in my suspicious mind, it feels like
Speaker 6: somebody has figured out a where to use some of
Speaker 6: those almost waste materials and turn them into a product.
Speaker 6: Is possible? Possible that possible in this.
Speaker 4: World, especially if you're into recycling.
Speaker 6: This mindset possible in this world.
Speaker 5: Of our there the would be a limit to that.
Speaker 4: Actually, I wanted to ask what is the difference what
Speaker 4: defines a processed food versus what defines canned I mean,
Speaker 4: because canned food in a thing that's been altered from
Speaker 4: its natural state. So can of can tomatoes, that's a
Speaker 4: processed food. But that's not we're not really thinking of
Speaker 4: processed foods in terms of we.
Speaker 6: Do we No, we don't, because canned tomatoes, canned beans,
Speaker 6: canned corn, asparagus, canned fish, canned coconut and milk. Asparagus
Speaker 6: is a choice, but soft it's a different, different vegetable
Speaker 6: in the can it is, Isn't it compared to itself much?
Speaker 6: I'm just saying, yeah, you're right. It's a very different beast.
Speaker 6: Whereas corn, you know, corn and its own juices goes
Speaker 6: a long way. You can make excelsa with it in
Speaker 6: the winter, you know, And it's affordable. Tomatoes are affordable,
Speaker 6: A lot of beans are affordable. So that side of
Speaker 6: it we've got to maintain.
Speaker 4: I've got a quick question here on vacuum packed food. Yes,
Speaker 4: so he says, if I vacuum pack, mate, how long
Speaker 4: can I keep it on the normal fridge and not
Speaker 4: the freezer?
Speaker 6: For four days is what I would say, in the fridge,
Speaker 6: and then I'd be that's that's on the kind of
Speaker 6: conservative side. Cook it on the fourth.
Speaker 4: Day, yeah mate, red mat and chicken, of course.
Speaker 6: But they just stick a going to the freezer. You can,
Speaker 6: I mean, that's not even let me put it this way.
Speaker 6: You're not asking if you if you're backpacking something, you've
Speaker 6: got plans for it, and those plans exist only in
Speaker 6: two spaces. One is in the next two to three days.
Speaker 6: I'm going to use it. I'm going to freeze it
Speaker 6: for the future. Yeah, so that's it. That's all you
Speaker 6: got to do. Don't have to worry about it that way.
Speaker 5: What's the difference rules for chicken and red mate.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure, just chick.
Speaker 4: I would say, chicken. You want to use it within
Speaker 4: a couple of days in the fridge.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, the chicken, what do you mean raw chicken?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 5: Cook Yeah, no, raw chicken, but it hasn't been cooked yet.
Speaker 6: Raw chicken. You know. There's always the dates on top
Speaker 6: of the packaging. That's pretty clear. Your best buys and
Speaker 6: your used buys are pretty obvious. People can make good
Speaker 6: decisions just off that ye used by, used by and
Speaker 6: best buy. So best buy is in my opinion, based
Speaker 6: on best practice, based on the rules from Switzerland from
Speaker 6: nineteen eighty six to the agreement we all signed.
Speaker 4: That's usually about stuff that's not going to kill you
Speaker 4: as well. It might be like, look, if you eat this,
Speaker 4: it'll have gone off. It'll taste a bit crappy, like you, well,
Speaker 4: cereals or flour or something will have it best buy,
Speaker 4: and then it will you know.
Speaker 6: And then the used by is the used by, use it,
Speaker 6: and then you know there's a large there's a substantial,
Speaker 6: substantial quantity of the planet that has continued to eat
Speaker 6: the food two to three days after it's button is
Speaker 6: still around.
Speaker 4: Indeed, we'll be back in just a moment. This is
Speaker 4: News Talks that be. This is the Health AUB with
Speaker 4: Ganess Raj. We're going to talk about a few good
Speaker 4: ideas for cooking meals from canned foods as well for
Speaker 4: those who are looking for some simple solutions to healthy eating.
Speaker 4: It's eighteen and a half minutes to five is welcome
Speaker 4: back to the Health hub on the Weekend Collector. My
Speaker 4: guest is eat well for less. It's a it's ganess Raj. Actually,
Speaker 4: a couple of texts before we go to our caller,
Speaker 4: somebody said, I've just been listening to your discussion about
Speaker 4: chicken and fillers and that you may not realize that
Speaker 4: you're buying. And I've just checked some hokey philets, so
Speaker 4: they've been in the freezer and only fifty percent fish.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Janine. I didn't mention the brand there.
Speaker 6: Welcome Janine.
Speaker 5: I didn't mention the brand, Janine.
Speaker 4: But the reason is because I can't verify all these things.
Speaker 4: But we wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 6: But there's no need to have mentioned the brand. Yeah,
Speaker 6: because what you're asking people to do is just look
Speaker 6: in the back of the box, regardless of the brand.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 6: Make you know it doesn't matter what the brand is.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: Let's take some calls. Richard.
Speaker 8: Hello, Oh, goody guys. Richard a first time caller. I've
Speaker 8: often want to see it. Now I'm doing it.
Speaker 4: So well done.
Speaker 6: Congrass Well.
Speaker 8: Very interesting topic and I think we all are pretty
Speaker 8: naive about these ingredient labels that we often look at
Speaker 8: and think now what am I supposed to be looking at?
Speaker 8: And my sister many years ago or recently said, Richard,
Speaker 8: if you find just look at the sugar label, and
Speaker 8: if you can find an ingredient that they'll the produce
Speaker 8: that's less than ten percent per one hundred grands, that
Speaker 8: that's a good one to go for us.
Speaker 7: Generally. That's all I know what to look for.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's fantastic. That's fantastic, Richard. Ten percent is great,
Speaker 6: great about you know, if you can stick to that,
Speaker 6: that's wonderful.
Speaker 8: Well, even twenty percent I is considered to be quite high,
Speaker 8: so that's yes, it is high level. The other thing
Speaker 8: that I've often thought about the ingredients label list is
Speaker 8: that generic is that everything, every can, or package or
Speaker 8: everything has to have an answer for.
Speaker 6: All those That's correct, that's correct. That's the law in
Speaker 6: New Zealand, where on the back of the container you've
Speaker 6: got to have an ingredients list with everything.
Speaker 8: They don't leave things off that I don't add other.
Speaker 6: Well, let's put it this way. Now you're asking is
Speaker 6: everybody compliant? That's another question altogether, and I can't tell you, but.
Speaker 7: Well, we'd expect that.
Speaker 6: We would expect it to. But you know what human
Speaker 6: nature is like, mate.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well we're all.
Speaker 6: We're all we've got to keep our eyes open. We've
Speaker 6: got to keep our eyes open. That's the only thing
Speaker 6: we can do.
Speaker 8: So if you went through a list, we let's talk
Speaker 8: about this list of ingredients, which is generic to every product.
Speaker 8: This list is the same and all the ingredients values
Speaker 8: have to be correct. It's went through them all. I'm
Speaker 8: not so how many out there on the how many
Speaker 8: numbers of items on there?
Speaker 7: Twelve?
Speaker 6: There isn't a limit. I have seen some. It's just
Speaker 6: I've seen all sorts of amounts of ingredients, so I
Speaker 6: wouldn't know. Sometimes if it's you know, tomatoes ninety nine
Speaker 6: point nine percent one percent water, that's all there is
Speaker 6: in the can. Two things on the back. If it's complex,
Speaker 6: if there's fourteen things or eleven things, then you are
Speaker 6: dealing with what is considered a processed food item, something
Speaker 6: that you should be careful of.
Speaker 8: So it's not generic's generous, that's correct.
Speaker 4: I think they do less things like sugars, don't they
Speaker 4: wa Yeah, sugar.
Speaker 6: There are generic things on the one side of it,
Speaker 6: which is basically like your sugar's your sodium, your carbohydrates,
Speaker 6: those bits and pieces of the left one hundred grands
Speaker 6: per serving. Then there's like a list of things inside it,
Speaker 6: and you'll find that it is not generic as far
Speaker 6: as the whole thing is concerned. Sorry, I now understand
Speaker 6: what you're asking.
Speaker 8: Yeah, exactly, we're looking for other things out and sugar.
Speaker 8: That's what I've been looking at. Can you give me
Speaker 8: some idea what ratio two hundred grams so I should
Speaker 8: be looking at the likes of salt.
Speaker 6: And other salt is so you are looking for, like
Speaker 6: more than more than two point five percent salt by
Speaker 6: weight is high?
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, and that's that's on the label too.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's that's what you're looking for. One hundred grams
Speaker 6: by way by way hundred yeah, roughly, you know. And
Speaker 6: so if if you know, sometimes you'll see the sodium
Speaker 6: levels are in the thousands depending on the product, you know,
Speaker 6: and so really keep an eye on that stuff.
Speaker 4: Okay, good stuff, Thanks Richard. Gosh, we've talked so much
Speaker 4: that I've promised these are some ideas for meals from cans,
Speaker 4: and we've almost kind of have to save that to
Speaker 4: the next time. But one we can throw out there
Speaker 4: in terms of some useful canned combinations of foods where
Speaker 4: you can come up with something quite easily with decent meal.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, we call it can tuna pasta with frozen vegetables.
Speaker 5: That does sound pretty good.
Speaker 6: It's so simple. And you use mixed herbs, use onions
Speaker 6: and garlic, used can tuna, use smoke paprika. You can
Speaker 6: put some chili boter if you want to, and then
Speaker 6: you basically fry that all up, and then you throw
Speaker 6: our beautiful frozen vegetables been chopped to the perfect size
Speaker 6: for your pasta. Do you have to cook the frozen
Speaker 6: vegetables before you fry the No, No, you just take
Speaker 6: them straight out of the bag from the freezer and
Speaker 6: throw them straight into the pan and cook them. Really. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's how easy it is.
Speaker 5: I guess how long does it take before they've lost
Speaker 5: that frozen quality?
Speaker 6: You won't frozen quality. Well being frozen, it disappears, it
Speaker 6: just gets goold. Of course they're all not nice, little
Speaker 6: small chine, perfectly chopped. Everything's perfectly done for it is
Speaker 6: your maison plus been done. Yeah, it's a lifesaver.
Speaker 4: I've got a question.
Speaker 6: I'm not sure the cream at the end maybe if
Speaker 6: you wanted to gourkins, if you wanted to salt and pepper,
Speaker 6: if you wanted to at the end and and deal.
Speaker 6: If you want to finish on a seafood tip, that's
Speaker 6: just the additives.
Speaker 4: If you wanted to go that way, that does sound
Speaker 4: pretty good. I got one of just I'm not sure
Speaker 4: about the if you've defrosted a chicken. Somebody said, can
Speaker 4: you refreeze it again if you don't use it? And
Speaker 4: I think the big answer is definitely not.
Speaker 6: No, no, don't. And defrosting a chicken should happen in
Speaker 6: a fridge overnight. It should be you know, one of those.
Speaker 5: Don't defrost it on the bench.
Speaker 6: Well, well you can defrost it on the if it's
Speaker 6: in if it's in those plastic sealed packs. Yeah, but
Speaker 6: I mean, all I'm saying is, don't speed up that
Speaker 6: process by using the microwave or any other kind of
Speaker 6: you know, chicken has to defrost in its own time
Speaker 6: and then just use it. Don't worry about trying to
Speaker 6: always finish the whole chicken. You'll find ways of making
Speaker 6: that go.
Speaker 4: Okay, we're going to be back and just a tick,
Speaker 4: we'll take a break. I'm going to come back and
Speaker 4: ask if there is any excuse for using a microwave,
Speaker 4: because sometimes somehow I feel I don't know, it just
Speaker 4: feels like the cardinal's sin of cooking a microwave. But
Speaker 4: there must be good uses for it. Nine minutes to five,
Speaker 4: This news talks gotch time flies when you're chatting with genes.
Speaker 4: Do you find it's time flies for you when.
Speaker 6: You're yes, I'm having so much fun for who Hey.
Speaker 4: Before we go, though, because processed foods, one thing we
Speaker 4: do want to touch on is artificial sweetness. Are there
Speaker 4: some that are better or worse for you?
Speaker 6: Well, I'll let you decide, but anything that is sugar free,
Speaker 6: no sugar, artificial sweetness. There have been studies that say
Speaker 6: that the way that natural sugars kind of give our
Speaker 6: food reward pathways activated up here, the way that we're
Speaker 6: currently doing it with artificial sugars can still lead to
Speaker 6: increased appetite. We're not satisfying ourselves in the way that
Speaker 6: a natural sugar would tell your brain to satisfy, do
Speaker 6: you know what I mean? Or real sugar or real
Speaker 6: sugar would tell So that's one of the things. There
Speaker 6: is a study about impact on gut health, it may
Speaker 6: alter the gut microbio. So that's come out as well.
Speaker 6: And it's shown that certain artificial sweetness have led to
Speaker 6: an increase in type two heart disease and metabolics. And
Speaker 6: so when something sugar free or no sugar, I would
Speaker 6: ask you to ask the question, how badly do you
Speaker 6: want to get something else?
Speaker 4: Well, so I think the other question is I think
Speaker 4: the thing is about training yourself not to be craven
Speaker 4: that sort of sweet flavor.
Speaker 6: It's hard, though, I feel. I feel it's the way
Speaker 6: I tell people to deal with that is, listen, once
Speaker 6: upon a time, you had this drink or that drink.
Speaker 6: Now you're going to get a sparkling water bottle kind
Speaker 6: of thing in the jiggy, get sparkling water, and you're
Speaker 6: gonna do one fifth juice and four fifth sparkling water.
Speaker 6: And that's how you start to lower your cravings.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you something fun. I'm not sure this is funny,
Speaker 4: but when I went to I always noticed my mom
Speaker 4: used to have what a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar,
Speaker 4: which was very little. When you're young, when you drink tea,
Speaker 4: you have we had a teaspoon or two of sugar,
Speaker 4: and I decided that when you that sugar was not
Speaker 4: for when you were grown up. You shouldn't eat, you
Speaker 4: shouldn't consume sugar. So when I went to university, I
Speaker 4: literally just stopped having sugar in my tea because I
Speaker 4: thought that's what you did as a grown up. And
Speaker 4: it only took me about three caps of tea before
Speaker 4: I was used to it. Isn't it funny? But it
Speaker 4: was just I decided, I'm grown up now, I should
Speaker 4: not have sugar in my tea, so I stopped. Whatever
Speaker 4: it takes.
Speaker 5: I guess, well, you.
Speaker 6: Told yourself the I am growing up now story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, isn't it funny that?
Speaker 4: I mean, whatever reason it is of it, we can
Speaker 4: tell yourself.
Speaker 6: Anything is the lesson.
Speaker 4: Right pretty much? You tell yourself that's the rules, then
Speaker 4: the way you going. That's hey, good to see you, Ganesha,
Speaker 4: and good luck for filming the rest of the series.
Speaker 6: You're so much for having me.
Speaker 4: We'll afford to catch up next time. We'll be back
Speaker 4: with smart money next. Mortain Horses is with US News
Speaker 4: Talk s EDB.
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