JUNK FOOD – TAX IT? BAN IT? WHAT SHALL WE DO?
Back in May 2023 Keir Starmer renewed his pledge to ban advertising of ‘junk’ food to children on both TV and social media but ruled out imposing a salt and sugar tax while the cost of living crisis persists.
A month later, the government announced it would delay its planned ban on two-for-one ‘junk’ food deals for another 2 years due to the cost of living crisis.
What I find interesting about the stance of these two political parties is that their announcements make it clear that people struggling financially have to keep on eating food that isn’t good for them. Because – you know – the cost of living crisis.
Please Sir? Can I Have Some More?
“Because we know that you are poor, we are going to let you keep eating this toxic food for a bit longer even though we know that it is damaging your health. So we’ll keep it cheap, keep advertising it to you and keep selling it to you until you’ve got a bit more money and can buy something that’s better for you. Then we’ll tax you”.
Is that what you heard? Its definitely what I heard.
The obesity campaigners are all up in arms about this as they have this misguided notion that making ‘junk’ food more expensive will stop people eating it and everything will get better. In their North London enclave, where they all sit around congratulating each other on being masters of the universe, they believe that if you make burgers and chips more expensive, the ‘poor’ will eat better and get healthier.
The tax will encourage people to make better choices in the supermarket and select the skimmed milk, the low fat yoghurt, the breaded chicken instead of the battered, the granary bread instead of the white or, in an ideal world, go completely plant-based.
Of course, obesity campaigners are also in the business of keeping you fat and sick. They don’t want you to get thin and healthy – what would they do all day? You could say they’re on the gravy train – toot toot! – is it too obvious?
What I find twice as interesting is that none of these policies or complaints or outraged comments are directed at the food manufacturers. You know, the ones that make the ‘junk food’ – and the ones that are busy turning ALL our food into ‘junk’.
Don’t Worry, Here Come The Government
No. Keir Starmer will hold off till you’ve got a bit more money and he can make YOU pay more for the same stuff and Rishi wants to make YOU buy two instead of getting one free. So, they give you no option – and then make it more expensive. But its all for your own good.
What’s that saying? Ah yes, Ronald Reagan said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.
The key point is that ALL the food you are being offered is junk and the political parties, the obesity campaigners and the food manufacturers all have a vested interest in keeping you fat and sick. They may tax you out of Dominos but they are taxing you straight back into the supermarket where things are only going to get worse for you.
Remember, its about profits, its not about your health.
But Don’t Just Take My Word For It. Let Me Talk You Through It…
Firstly, what do they, the politicians, mean by ‘junk’ food?
Wikipedia defines it as “A term used to describe food that is high in calories from sugar and/or fat and possibly sodium. Making it hyperpalatable but with little dietary fibre, protein, minerals or other forms of nutritional value“.
The key is in the word hyperpalatable. If you think adding 2p to the price of a bag of Maltesers is going to stop people eating them then you are wrong. They have been designed to make you want to keep eating.
And if the definition is correct, that the food that needs to be taxed and banned is that high in sugar and fat, then I have bad news.
Its ALL junk!
Even the fruit and vegetables are junk. Yes, really! More on this later….
What you need to know – the only thing you need to know really – is that all the food you can buy on the high street or in the supermarket has one purpose. To make profit for the food producing companies. That’s it. Your health and nutrition? That’s not their concern.
Let Me Explain It Using the Medium of Meat
Consider, if you will, the humble burger. A staple food in the western world. Burgers can be awful or wonderful depending on the ingredients and the preparation method. But if you were asked to come up with a ‘junk’ food, I’m pretty sure burgers would get a mention.
So, Let’s Look At 3 Types of Burger
The Good Burger
I buy mine direct from an organic farm supplier. The burgers contain 100% organic grass fed beef and nothing else apart from a bit of seasoning. They are moist, dense, nutritious, flavourful and satisfying. Sounds good? They are, and at £1.90 for one, each one provides 11.2 g of fat and 13.9g protein.
The Not So Good Burger
Birds Eye beef burgers contain 76% beef, 14% onion, beef fat, wheat flour, salt, onion powder, yeast extract, spices, natural rosemary flavouring, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin and thiamine.
My first question is why do they need to add iron? Its beef. So, that makes me wonder what happened to this beef along the way? Where is the beef from?
Now, if you don’t have too many questions and you don’t mind Birds Eye deciding what vitamins and minerals you are deficient in, you can get 4 of these for £2.75 or 68p each. They are 110 cals for 7.9g of fat and about 7g of protein.
The “Blimey, What The Hell Is All This Stuff?” Burger
Oakhurst Cook from Frozen Beef Burgers make burgers for Aldi at £1.99 for 6 or 33p each. For that you get a whole lot of additional yummy free stuff. The ingredients list is as follows:
80% beef, water, onion, wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine, potato starch, salt, maltodextrin, dextrose, sugar, spices, spice extracts all for 98 cals, 6.2g fat and about 8g of protein.
Is All Junk Food Created Equal?
When looking at which one is best for eating on a budget, the first question is what fills you up and stops you getting hungry? The answer is fat and protein.
So, if you buy cheap you get less of what fills you up – a third to a half less – but you do get a few extras thrown in. You get sugar, another type of sugar and a third type of sugar. Not the best thing for keeping tummies full.
So the good burger is more expensive but it provides satiety and nutrition and none of the ‘added extras’ that like to clog up your liver.
What is your priority? Is it money? Or is it value for money?
Vegan? Its No Better In That Aisle…..
If you think going vegan is the answer, then please cast your eyes over the ingredient list for the Tesco Beyond Meat burger:
Water, Pea Protein*(16%), Rapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil, Rice Protein, Flavouring, Stabiliser (Methyl Cellulose), Potato Starch, Apple Extract, Colour (Beetroot Red), Maltodextrin, Pomegranate Extract, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Maize Vinegar, Carrot Powder, Emulsifier (Sunflower Lecithin),
Potassium chloride – also known as E508 – is used as a fertiliser, a water softener and a constituent of lethal injections!
It all sounds so healthy!
Eat Your Junk Food Vegetables
And then we come to the 5 – 10 portions of nutritious fruit and vegetables you are encouraged to eat.
They used to be nutritious. Because they were grown in soil with nutrients and trace minerals. Now the soil is devoid of all this and consequently so are the vegetables. Due to the farming methods used to sell you as much crap as possible to make as much money as possible, the soil has been completely depleted. On top of that, the vegetables are sprayed incessantly with chemicals that are not designed to be in your body and sprinkled with water that is full of sex hormones and fluoride.
And then, as if things weren’t bad enough, here comes Bill Gates!
Some Fat With Your Apple Sir?
When he’s not busy coming up with plans to block out the sun, Bill spends his time investing in Apeel. Apeel is a fat-based covering for fruit and vegetables designed to keep these items fresher for longer in countries with no refrigeration. So far, so community minded. But the last time I looked the UK had plenty of refrigeration so I’m not sure why Tesco and Asda have just been trialling it for UK use.
The fat used, they will tell you, is derived from fruit peel, pith and pulp which has been separated out into mono- and di-glycerides. You can’t have tri-glycerides obviously because they’re banned as being really dangerous for your health. What they don’t tell you is what the body does with mono- and di-glycerides when you put them into your body together. It is entirely possible that the the body will convert them back into tri-glycerides. The separated mono- and the di- are just to keep the regulators happy.
If you are a scientist – is it chemistry? – and you know whether this is true please do let me know. I have read it but who knows what is true these days.
Oh, and I should probably tell you, they’ve designed it so you can’t wash it off.
So, now your fruit and vegetables are covered in a fatty coating. Yes, you heard me right, they are covering your fruit and vegetables in fat. A fat that has been subjected to ‘processing’. With chemicals. But its okay, they say the chemicals ‘shouldn’t’ …..’probably won’t’…..’might not’ leech through the skin of the fruit. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
And of course Bill knows better than Mother Nature how long a peach should stay fresh for.
Eat Better, Not More
So, now the beef burgers have sugar in them, the fruits and vegetables have no nutrition and are covered in chemicals and fat to keep it fresh for months longer than nature intended, the vegan food is processed in a factory and you have been sold the lie that you can’t afford good food and don’t have time to cook from scratch. Its almost like they want us to buy more of the processed rubbish isn’t it?
The point is if you choose the good quality product – think organic, locally grown – with the fewest ingredients and you cook from scratch so you know what you’re getting, you will get more nutrition, feel satisfied for longer and avoid the really bad stuff. The cheaper the product, the more you need to satisfy hunger and the more likely that your health will be adversely affected. Even swapping out some of the bad stuff for some of the good stuff some of the time so its more financially manageable will reap rewards.
Many of the farms do meat or vegetable boxes online where you can bulk buy, spreading out the costs.
So, what do you think Keir? Rishi? Ban advertising for burgers? Burgers are junk food aren’t they? But my good quality burger has fewer ingredients and more nutrition than the processed rubbish masquerading as healthy food that you allow the food manufacturers to flood the market with. Make it make sense.
Processed = ‘Junk Food’
You see, its not ‘junk’ food that is the problem. It’s the processing of all food, the additives, the chemicals, the poor nutritional value of everything, even the vegetables, that we are being offered by our high street suppliers. The cocktails of chemicals causing diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Eating a ‘junk’ food burger is fine if its made well from simple and high quality ingredients.
But what we are offered is basic food – bread, dairy products, vegetables, fruit – all full of processed sugar and oil, stewed in chemicals and wrapped in a coating of processed fat.
With all these processed chemicals, you’re really spoiling us Ambassador!
Its no wonder the country is fatter and sicker than ever.
Obesity is caused by inflammation. All the sugar that is hidden in your food increases your insulin resistance which means your body can’t regulate itself. All the chemicals hidden in your food mean your liver can’t work well or efficiently. Gradually everything will start to fail. All because you put all this crap in your body thinking you were doing the best for yourself and your family. Making healthy choices – ha! You are literally being offered a choice between crap – and other crap!
But its okay because once the cost-of-living crisis is over, and you’ve got a bit more money, Keir and Rishi and the obesity campaigners are going to relieve you of that extra money by taxing YOU for buying the obvious crap. Not the hidden crap. Just the obvious crap. You’ll still be full of chemicals and sugar and fat but you’ll be poorer and more confused.
What’s The Answer? Tax or Ban – Who Do I Vote For?
I’ll tell you who I would vote for. The person who tells the food producers to stop putting chemicals and sugar in the food we feed our children. The one who works with the farmers to improve animal welfare and the quality of the soil. The person who tells schools to stop teaching gender ideology and critical race theory and reintroduces home economics and basic cooking skills.
I’m not going tell people on a low income that they need to buy organic grass fed burgers. But I am going to say that everyone should try to prioritise quality over quantity. Think about value for money where value = satiety + the smallest amount of damage to your health. If you have no choice but to buy things in a packet, at least read the ingredients on the packet and buy the one with the fewest.
One of the good burgers at £1.60 will keep a kid satisfied for a lot longer than 4 cheap burgers at £1.20. Plus it won’t store up a load of health problems for later. Do what you can – that’s all any of us can do.
Buy Local. Buy Quality.
Visit local growers. Go to the butcher and ask where the meat comes from. Eat butter not margarine. Cook from scratch. Bulk out soups and stews with lentils and beans. Remember, quality ingredients will keep you full for longer and will do less harm. Buy the best quality you can – always. Your health depends on it.
A FINAL WORD
And a note to all the politicians. You think the answer is to stop advertising crap to children? Instead, why don’t you forget about the advertising altogether and start asking food companies why they need to put sugar in a beef burger.
I’m interested to know what you think about this topic. Let me know what you think!
