Is healthy living being stuffed down our throats? What's happened to proper bacon?

Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 09:07 AM

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We recently received this letter from Robert Sullivan in Cork and thought we'd share his views on what's happening to his diet and choice of food because of the modern obsession with healthy eating.

Do you agree?-

I picked up a packet of cream crackers in the shop and it said "now with 40% less fat".

Now,how the hell can such an itty bitty little biscuity wafer contain even 1% fat, not to mind 40% of 100%?The mind boggles.

It's everywhere now, this obsession with not eating anything with a bit of juicy fat in it. And I don't like it.

"It'll go straight to your heart, "my butcher admonished, after I'd winced when he neatly trimmed off a delicious strip of fat from the sirloin he was preparing for my basket. How often does one have to tell people that I like fat on my meat, and to let me worry, or not, about the "damage" my food is doing to me as it goes down a treat?

I love fatty bacon, for example, yet there is this crusade going on which seeks to deprive me of carrying off a chunk of it from the supermarket, because all the sealed wrappings announce triumphantly that the fat is reduced, curtailed or eliminated entirely.

War on fat. That's not what I need. I want full fat meat - butter - milk - yogurt - cheese - bread - and the rest.
It's all that bloody green-living caper, isn't it - with guff about meat not being good for you if an animal is not fed organically but should instead look like a size zero model, and stuff in the ground is only grown properly if it's treated with full fat excrement.

This is the way of the world now and it's a pain in the neck. Just let me buy the grub I've always loved before the food fascists got their way. Don't tell me what to eat, and I won't tell you to mind your own damn business. Oh, for the hairy eggs and bacon of old.

And I want sugar to be hard core, and not some wishy-washy imposter posing as the real thing.

Is this too much to ask, for feck's sake?

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abhainn | Oct 10, 2011, 07:56 PM EDT

suzandpej, I think if you investigate you will find that Mexican food is in fact "old fashioned food". And it is delicious. I often cook Mexican.

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abhainn | Oct 10, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT

The picture above is mistaken. The full Irish breakfast does not contain baked beans: they are only served with the full English breakfast. The obligatory ingredients of the full Irish breakfast are rashers, sausages, black pudding, and fried egg. One may include white pudding and fried tomatoes. It is accompanied by buttered slices of home made brown bread and cups of tea.

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Aleeyne | May 21, 2011, 03:22 PM EDT

I just love Irish Breakfast and could eat it every day

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suzandpej | May 13, 2011, 10:57 AM EDT

And all the cooking magazines in America are dedicated (strongly) to Mexican food, which I don't even like the smell of. Give me old fashioned food!

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suzandpej | May 13, 2011, 10:56 AM EDT

Oh Yes!!!

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derrymarch | Apr 23, 2011, 08:39 AM EDT

Way to go, Roberrt! Derry

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abhainn | Apr 22, 2011, 10:07 AM EDT

Eggs have never been hairy, not even when I collected them with my own hand, warm from under Granny's hens. When I cook meat or rashers, I trim the fat from them first. To the extent that fat marbling gives flavour to a steak, that is fat within the meat itself; the fat on the edge contributes no flavour and is just something you have to trim off to eat after cooking, if you neglected to do so beforehand. I buy full fat yoghurt — no-one is stopping you.

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Towngate | Apr 15, 2011, 07:14 PM EDT

I hope you have pre-paid for your Funeral?

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Robinwhelan | Apr 14, 2011, 11:43 AM EDT

If it tastes good, it is not good for you. If it is bland, dry and totally without flavor, it is good for you.

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