Fat in Foods

[AliFlump]

I bought Walls lean meat sausages the other day they have 0.8 grams of saturated fat compared to 8.8g in the original ones. Why,if the food makers can make a low fat version of the original food, dont they produce these as standard? You would think with the growing problem of obestity and children becoming more overweight that this would be a good idea.

[ineedahobby]

Its a great idea but probably just cheaper for the manufactures to make fatter ones the more fat they pack a sausage out with the less real ingredients there are in it.  All boils down to money as usual.

[AliFlump]

Thats true but the low fat saus were 10p cheaper than the fatty ones. Might call Jamie Oliver and see what he can do!!

[ineedahobby]

oooooooh well that puts the mockers on my argument then..lol!

[nicola_red]

I suspect that they would use the argument that many people prefer the fattier version and they would get loads of customer complaints if they changed them now.  Obviously people would probably eventually adjust to the change but they want to keep making money so they'd rather not risk losing their business to another manufacturer!

[AliFlump]

I know what you mean tho they do only care about making money but you would think that the people who regulate food and that kind of thing would have noticed. Its cos ive just gone on weight watchers and im watching my points its making me look at the fat in things, it certainly opens you eyes!

[hannahjo]

In quite a lot of cases, there are two things that make foods taste good - fat & sugar. (I�m talking man made / processed foods here not natural stuff!) Both are bad for you, and if one of these is decreased in the product, then generally the other is increased. So what with manufacturers being a sneaky bunch they produce a �low fat� product but fail to make it blatantly clear that there is an increased amount of sugar. Same goes for �low sugar� products being high in fat. Next time your at the shops have a look at the nutritional info on the back of the sausages and check the amount of carbs. If this isn�t the case with your bangers, then I�m stumped!

 If you want to loose weight then I suggest you stick to fresh fruits, veg, white meat, fish and whole grains as much as possible. Then when you want a treat splash out on some organic sausages which will hopefully be so fantastic that they�ll curb your craving for a while!

[LordyGeordie]

it's also because the fat in sausages, as in most meats, helps provide a lot of the flavour. in it's simplest form, the sausage is pork belly with a little bit of salt inside the skin, which is made from the intestine i think.

100 per cent natural and yes, rather fatty, but eaten in moderation will do no harm. what concerns me about people saying make low fat sausages as standard is (apart from the fact they're disgusting - yes i have tried them) what is replacing the animal fat which as well as providing a lot of the taste helps keep the sausage moist. i imagine some rather worrying man-made substance which we'll probably find does us terrible damage in years to come.

also, who's going to ensure such sausages are made as standard. is there going to be a governemnt edict banning fatty sausages with banger police checking out butchers for under the counter sales of blackmarket cumberland, and where would that leave black pudding. if fat sausages are banned that stuff mightas well be upgraded to a class a substance.

sorry, while i strongly believe in the benfits of a balanced diet and eating healthily. i don't believe that changing the way in which sausages have been made for centuries is the way to do decrease childhood obesity. have better sports facilites. and on school sports days when the fat kid who comes last in the sack race 10 minutes after everyone else, instead of telling him he was a victim of deferred success explain to him that if he'd been playing footie with all the other lads instead at lunchtimes instead of scoffing mars bars from the tuck shop he might have done a bit better.

rant over.phew

[Gef]

Well said lordy! Eating fat in itself does not make you fat. Consuming too many calories makes you fat. A healthy, balanced diet should contain fat as a source of fat-souble vitamins. I always buy good quality sausages with a high meat content and cook them in the oven so that a lot of the fat escapes.

[AliFlump]

I understand what Lord Geordie and Gef are getting at, eating a balanced diet and being active is the best way to stay fit and healthy and i didnt just mean sausages should be made less fatty i was just using them as an example ( i cant tell the difference bewtween low fat and normal to be honest)

anyway what i mean is that companies can make their food less fatty and sugary eg Coke and diet coke, walkers and potato heads, sugar free jelly, low fat chips, pizza's, yoghurts, no added sugar juice,  i even bought light sugar the other day!! If they can do this why cant they lower the fat content in products (even just a lil bit to keep the above happy) and noone would even notice.

I understand that it is a persons choice to eat whichever variety they want but what about children who were brought up eating nothing but chips burgers, sausages etc for tea and refuse to eat anything else surely this would help them. Given the choice is schools between a healthy option like salad or pizza and chips for school dinner they will always choose the non healthy option, by reducing the fat and sugar intake suerly this would do them some good no?  

[LordyGeordie]

You use the example of coke and diet coke and ask why does coca cola not make all its drinks with less sugar.

as hannahjo alluded to before, you still need something to make the drink sweet. personally i would rather have something which is made with sugar, a completely natural substance (albeit calorific) which has been made for centuries, if not millennia from sugar cane/ beet. the alternative is saccarine/ artifical sweetener, something where the chemical symbol is proabably longer than this post, is man-made and in some cases has been shown to be carcinogenic.

admittedly coke is not the best example, as the rest of its ingredients are slightly dubious. but i can hope you can see where i'm driving at. that's why i would never use 'low-calorie' sugar in cooking. if you want to use sugar, use it, but just make sure you walk to work or whatever that day.

[AliFlump]

For your information Geordie i do not drive and walk the 15 minute walk to work everyday, i walk to friends houses, to do the shopping or to visit relatives and swim twice a week. I understand that they may be using artificial sweeteners in things with less sugar but you fail to see the big picture that i am driving too. Food companies have already been critised for the amount of salt that can be found in foods and the government took action on this. If less fat etc can be put into foods then why cant it happen?

I admit that i do not have immense knowledge on how food is produced and accept that changing some foods may not be possible. When organic foods came out it took people a while to get used to them but now they are wildly accepted. Yes i do get that organice foods are foods that have had no chemicals put into them and that if less fat is put into a food it may have more artificial products put into it.

All i am trying to say is that in a world where overweight people are on the increase ( yes they do have a choice to eat healthy food but some dont) then surely just trying to make everyday foods healthier would be an intelligent thing to look at.