@ViciDraco I don't understand not liking something without ever having tried it, either. I don't expect anyone to like every food, but it doesn't make sense to decide you don't like it if you haven't tried it. I even re-try foods I haven't had in several years since tastes can change with age, and I've found that certain things I didn't like as a kid, I do like now, and vice versa.

I also find that many people think they don't like a certain food even as an ingredient because they don't like it by itself, or don't like it prepared a certain way. I mean, I wouldn't eat a raw onion like an apple, but it's an essential ingredient for flavor in many dishes. Same with vegetables; I'm not a fan of them boiled with no seasoning, but roasting or grilling and adding seasoning/herbs/lemon juice/etc. makes a huge difference!

@JimboSaturn It is really sad because they are missing out on all the wonderful tastes of good foor for junk oil and grease.

@WillaKissing Totally! why waste your life eating the same thing all the time. Their world and experiences just get smaller and less rich. It goes for other things as well, all thanks to the internet.

@JimboSaturn Internet, I phones, and video games that they park on for endless hours at a time.

@ArishMell
I think it is so fun to cook a nutritious meal. And to search out great ingredients at the market or a farmers' market.

Like you said, it only takes half hour or so to cook most meals. But nuts, bananas, berries, yogurt, avocadoes, etc. are fast easy alternatives for those who don't have time to cook.

I cook my dinner around 1 pm. It's the funniest part of the day. I work late and don't want a big meal late in the day. when my kids were small I made the dinner at 6 am so we had it ready to heat when we got home. It is doable!

Make sure you feed yourself some nutritious foods today even if it's only you 😊

@Carazaa Thankyou for the encouragement!

I do prefer my main meal around mid-day. It's not really very good to eat a large meal in the evening but apart from the rare special occasions it can be necessary do that to fit around things like work.

It was admittedly a made-up, shop-bought fish-cake today, but I ate it with a boiled potato and a good helping of salad, after a Kiwi-fruit starter.

I've some recipe books that do give very simple, quick and nutritious dishes, and one is even written with people living alone in mind.

@ArishMell Potatoes, salad and fish cakes yum! 🙂

@meggie How odd!

@meggie Some rich ppl in the US get big expensive kitchens for show / looks...never understood it.

@meggie That is so sad. Did she realise how she had spoiled the evening?

Or realised she had wasted her money by buying a costly kitchen but refusing to use it properly?

@WillaKissing I did not try to accuse your shops of being that sparse - sorry, I should have been clearer.

What I stated is certainly not Third World but is trued of many of supermarkets in Britain.

The more expensive ones are better but many offer a wide ranges of produce types with very limited choices in each produce. You might find two strains each of apples and lettuces, say, or three of potatoes.

There are farmers here struggling to sell other, rarer strains and some do via their own shops but it is not cheap, and the supermarkets here are not interested in anything not fitting their databases. Even the franchise chains of "convenience shops", which could be more flexible and allow their individual managers more initiative, do not like variety, either.

I am not a farmer so have to rely on buying all my own food- but that goes for many people anywhere..

@ArishMell Okay, The UK compared to the US stores, shops, and supermarkets in all of our towns and cities sounds third world to us the American people because we do not have those issues like you do in the UK.

I love the UK and the people, but the country seems very tax heavy and run ass backwards from what you wrote compared the United States.

No offense meant or taken my friend.

@WillaKissing Funnily enough I was having conversation about supermarkets only today, with a group of friends from different places.

It transpired the more expensive supermarkets in the Uk do sell better ranges of foods. They all said the best they had encountered though, were in France. We do also have many "farmers' markets", farm-shops and independent food-producers but their produce tends to be more expensive than in the supermarkets.


I have no idea what you mean by "run arse-backwards", but we are tax-heavy, yes. Unfortunately that is the cost of having comprehensive public health, welfare and education systems among other things - though I do say we also waste a lot of money on poor decisions or missed opportunities.

The classic examples of the former are the pointless (!) "High-Speed Two" Railway project and the vast swathes of trades and industries allowed to become foreign-owned. Although they - or most - of those do pay taxes in the UK, the profits vanish abroad; some to ftiendly countries, some to regimes who frankly should have none of them.

That of the missed opportunities, came up in that same conversation: contrasting the UK with Norway over the respective nations' use of their North Sea oil and gas fields. Norway made hers State-owned and is reaping the benefits by huge investments in public services, transport, etc. - though tax rates generally throughout Scandinavia are still at least as high as Britain's, pro-rata. The UK allowed their oil and gas to be commercially owned by "international" companies so losing the country a huge amount of money.

@jehova Over-production in monocultures of anyhting is a serious problem in many parts of the world. Palm-opil plantations are another problem.

I don't know the chemistry but insulin does not "digest" any sugar. It regulates the level in the blood, but to do that must mean it can increase its release as well as reduce it, from the liver.

Fructose, sucrose, maltose, lactose and glucose are all "sugar" - but different types of sugar. It is though glucose than our cells feed on (plus needing water, oxygen and any specific chemicals) - and our bodies convert the other sugars to glucose for them.

Wht annoyed me about that lecture as you describe it, was how it went on about mercury. That is irrelevant unless any particular brand of corn-syrup is found to contain mercuric compounds from industrial pollution - and that would indeed be a very serious matter.

Corn-syrup as such is not wrong, but how it is produced and used may be.

One point about honey is that it should not be fed to babies. I am not quite sure why - I did know, from friends who have hives and from whom I have bought honey.

This is quoted from the National Health Service's web-site section on sugar in the diet. Note it includes honey and corn-syrup; but not lactose (milk sugar - to which some people are intolerant):


It then continues to advice on diet. I still have a sweet tooth but have cut down a bit on sugar, and tend to buy own-brand rather then "big-name" sauces and cereals for their usually-lower additions of sugar and salt.

@ArishMell corn syrup is not the primary culprit high fructose corn syrup which is proccessed is the guilty party. Again moderation is key. Hfcs is in so many foods sold in the usa. 30g a day. . . Fat chance (pardon the pun). One 12 oz coke has 26grams.i prefer apple juice but only non corn syrup brands are any good for you and they are way more expensive.
Thats the dilemma price vs quality. So no soda no brand name cereal (maybe plain cheerios). No baked goodz. Only cardboard.

@jehova Whichever way you look at it the point is excessive sugar.

I was talking about health and diet with a group of friends today, sparked by one telling us of his possible cancer worries - though not diet-related. This led more generally to my learning that intestinal cancer rates in Britain at least are increasing in relatively young people; the culprit being very poor diets of mainly very over-processed and "fast" foods. A lack of physical exercise may be contributing to some.

Unfortunately microwaveable ready-meals and poor-quality take-away foods are made to be very attractive, not least by the spurious convenience for the former, and supposed fashion-element for certain brands of the latter.

I confess I do use ready-meals, but limit their frequency.


You have just sent me on a quick tour of my kitchen, picking out the non-canned, "convenience" foods. Admittedly I do not have much food in the house, but I was hunting for Corn Syrup and found none!

A Tesco (supermarkets) own-brand Sweet & Sour Chicken has no Corn Syrup but contains Rapeseed, Palm and Sesame Seed Oils; and Salt. Similarly with the same brand Apple Turnovers.

A Bird's-Eye Chicken Curry has only the Rapeseed Oil.

Aldi and rivals Lidl both sell own-badged packs of microwave-in the-bag flavoured rices. Aldi's holds Maltodextrose (presumably maltose + dextrose but still sugar); its rival just has "sugar" (probably just sugar-cane or sugar-beet sucrose). Both use Sunflower Oil; the Lidl one says "Sunflower and/or Rapeseed Oil".

I would not expect oils in cereal but the Harvest Morn conflakes do admit to sugar (probably "ordinary" sucrose) and salt.

The two most common cooking oils in the shops I have seen are of Olive and Sunflower; yet none of the above use Olive Oil; perhaps by relaltive commercial availability.


I am rather partial to the Reina "Jellicious" dessert-jellies sold in packs of single-portion tubs. No oils but the two sugars are "sugar" and dextrose. I think the base "jelly" ingredient is the blend of carrageenan and locust-bean gum; suggesting unlike gelatine-based jelly these would be acceptable to vegetarians, although this is not stated. Carrageen is an edible seaweed.

You can, or could, buy dextrose sweets intended as fast energy-boosters in situations like outdoor-pursuits, although the problem with sugar-tablets or sugar-packed confections like Mars Bars is the short-lived benefit can be followed by a low-energy dip.


All other ingredients in all of these, apart from the chicken, water and salt, and some Calcium Chloride as a stabiliser in the jelly, are straightforwards vegetable materials; and none hide behind the notorious "E-Numbers" that gave processed-foods a bad name but did include innocent ingredients as well as ones we might question. Also, the packets all give nutritional information.

The E-number scheme is a well-meaning EU system that cuts across language-barriers and is more compact than long words, but of course only frightens people, because the definitions take a bit of finding.

All this information on the packets is there by law, though usually in tiny font and whether you bother to read it is your own choice. At least I seem safe from the dreaded Corn Syrup!

@peterlee We do and we are, but is it also important to be obtain dietary advice from credible sources, not "celebrity" health-fads created to sell books.

@ArishMell Well , I’m diabetic two. I have a low gi diet and a low cholesterol one too. Paying back the sins of my youth. I don’t take tablets. Yet , it’s wake-up call when you see that most of the food which people consume will simply kill you.

@peterlee They could if part of a poor diet overall diet or if hazardous due to an existing illness. I know diabetes can be very dangerous if not controlled properly.