BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods

Subject: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 06:26 PM

In general, processed food is awful, but I think Velveeta, Cheese Whiz and the canned spray cheese are some of the most gross.

On another forum, I seem to be the only one who was not delighted by a recipe for fudge that is based on Velveeta. Yuk. Not that fudge is health food, but to add high sodium processed cheese to the recipe completely grosses me out. One person on the forum called it "healthy" and that made me respond with the amount of sodium in Velveeta (I didn't go into all the other chemicals in it, too). So now I'm considered the killjoy who doesn't like the Velveeta fudge recipe.

Am I alone?

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 06:30 PM

We use fat free cream cheese it is great! once you add some salt.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 06:39 PM

You mean to make fudge, Jack? Real cream cheese in a fudge recipe sounds yummy. Velveeta.... yucky.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 09:15 PM

Mayonaise. Pumpkin pie filling. Cat food in cans. mg

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 09:37 PM

C-rations, especial the ham & lima beans and the scrambled eggs.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 10:38 PM

Someone once explained to me—I think he was a "food science" major from the "ag campus" of the University of Minnesota—that Velveeta is to cheese as margarine is to butter—that is, it is made by a similar process, but based on vegetable fat instead of animal fat.

Now, I think that's an oversimplification, because Velveeta does contain some animal fat, but I think it's close enough to the truth. Anyway, I never heard anyone complain that margarine is "gross."

Here are some things I eat that my wife thinks are gross: Sardines. Pork rinds. Canned chili. Canned corned-beef hash.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 10:41 PM

I think margarine is gross, for the same reason velveeta is gross. It has that shiny, oiliness that doesn't look, feel, or taste natural.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 10:48 PM

Canned cat food? So what? My cats could all care less and the Siamese would kill for it!   I just asked her about it and she says it all seems pretty damn good to her. As a matter of fact I just fed them all a special canned food treat and she ate all of hers then ran off the other four before they finished.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 12:54 AM

Margarine! Gross to the max. Then there's Kraft processed cheese slices in the plastic wrappers...ARGH!

And poached Weimaraner is pretty repulsive too, but they're not that bad roasted or barbecued.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: frogprince
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 01:17 AM

Then there's Spam. I can actually eat a little, preferrably fried, sometimes, but then I sorta wonder how or why I did that. When I was in grade school our class toured the Hormel plant and we saw the stuff heaped, uncompressed, in big tubs; if you think it's gross as canned, you should see that.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Crowhugger
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 02:35 AM

Alice you are definintely not alone! But for me it's the wax & chemicals that gross me out in processed cheese "food". It seems to me that most aged cheese is way salty, otherwise it tastes remarkably bland. I just under-salt foods to which I'll add cheese, or eat it with foods can take a lot of salty accompaniment like cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, avocados, spinach, potatoes, rice...

On a related note, I remember some years ago thinking Subway Sandwich stores were thoughtless and disgusting for automatically using processed cheese on most of their sandwiches. To be fair, they did have real cheese for the vegetarian subs, and would substitute it for the waxy stuff in other sandwiches upon request. But one did have to ask, which struck me as completely wrong for a store that bills itself as being a fresh and healthy option. I'm happy to say that in the last few months I've eaten at 2 or 3 different Subway locations and they all offered ONLY real cheese in two types (cheddar and Swiss or similar), and there was no processed cheese offered at all. Way to go, Subway!

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:06 AM

Just after the war we used to get Spam a lot, and I personally loved it! (But not fried in batter, as in school dinners) Kraft Dairylea 'Cheese'...YUK!

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: ranger1
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 07:34 AM

Twinkies, margarine, and Spam are three that really gross me out. I don't mind velveeta, though, but I would never consider it real cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 08:18 AM

Twinkies are utterly devoid of value. Ever since the day I noted the rainbow like oil inside the package resembled a road oil slick in the sun, I shudder at the mere mention of the name. And since Hostess makes them I swore off all other Hostess products.

Sadly the American diet is overloaded with processed food.

Some useful info from Puristat Digestive Wellness Center

Processed, Junk, and Fake Foods
Processed food is made from real food that has been put through devitalizing chemical processes and is infused with chemicals and preservatives. Beef jerky, canned tea, jam, hot dogs, and low-fat yogurt with sugar or aspartame are a few examples of processed food.

Junk foods contain very little real food. They're made of devitalized processed food, hydrogenated fats, chemicals, and preservatives, and include anything made with refined white flour. Canned breakfast drinks, cold/sugary cereals, doughnuts, drive-through foods, and soda are examples of junk foods.

Fake foods are made primarily of chemicals, and often contain gums and sugar fillers. Examples include bacon bits, bottled salad dressing, dehydrated soups, and instant coffee.

Energy Output > Exceeds Nutritional Input

These non-foods have one thing in common; it costs your body a great deal more to digest, absorb, and eliminate them than they offer your body in nutritional value – an extremely poor return on your investment that leaves your body sluggish and depleted.


Toxins, Poisons, Processed Food, And The Body
Our ancestors preserved foods naturally, using salt, fermentation, and sun drying. Food processing has evolved away from these simple practices into more complicated and dubious methods. Today, nearly six thousand additives and chemicals are used by food companies to process our food. Many of them can have a devastating effect on our health.

It is important to note the fact that additives and preservatives cannot always be painted with a negative brush. The addition of vitamins to bread and milk has helped to stamp out diseases such as pellagra and rickets.

Unfortunately, the good intentions that characterized the processed food industry during the early days have now de-evolved to finding ways to cheaply process food and manipulate buyers, regardless of the detrimental affects on the health of Americans.

Today, many additives and preservatives are harmful toxic chemicals as problematic as the decay they are used to prevent.


Preservatives
Preservatives are a type of additive used to help stop food from spoiling.

Nitrates and nitrites are used to preserve meats such as ham and bacon, but are known to cause asthma, nausea, vomiting, and headaches in some people. In addition to allergic reactions, the same is true for sulfites (sulfur dioxide, metabisulfites, and others), which are commonly used to prevent fungal spoilage, as well as the browning of peeled fruits and vegetables.

Sodium nitrite in some foods is capable of being converted to nitrous acid when ingested by humans. While animal testing showed that nitrous acid caused high rates of cancer, it is still in use.

Benzoic acid aka sodium benzoate is added to margarine, fruit juices, and carbonated beverages. It can produce severe allergic reaction and even death in some people.

Sulfur dioxide is a toxin used in dried fruits and molasses as well as to prevent brown spots on peeled fresh foods such as potatoes and apples. Sulfur dioxide bleaches out rot, hiding inferior fruits and vegetables. In the process, it destroys the vitamin B contained in produce.


Antioxidants
While antioxidants such as alpha-carotene are recommended by health specialists to prevent premature aging, some of the antioxidants used as food preservatives may be unhealthy. Contained in nearly every processed food on the market, antioxidants prevent fatty foods from spoiling when exposed to oxygen.

BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) are two of the most widely used, yet controversial of all antioxidants. So alarming were the results of BHT and BHA in animal testing, that a number of countries have severely restricted their use.

Some people have difficulty metabolizing these chemicals, which is thought to result in health and behavioral problems, and hyperactivity. They cause allergic reactions, may also contribute to the development of tumors and cancer, as well as be toxic to the nervous system and liver.

In spite of these findings, the use of BHT and BHA has increased, rather than decreased, in the U.S.A.


Coloring
Each year, the American food industry uses three thousand tons of food color. Many coloring agents are derived from coal tar, and nearly all coloring is synthetic. Norway has a total ban on all products containing coal tar.

Though some artificial food dyes have been banned because they are believed to cause cancer, most dyes used today are of the artificial variety. They are also linked to allergies, asthmas, and hyperactivity.

The long list of foods and beverages in which color is altered includes butter, margarine, the skins of oranges and potatoes, popcorn, maraschino cherries, hot dogs, jellies, jellybeans, carbonated beverages, and canned strawberries and peas.

Even the chicken feed on large-scale egg farms is colored so that chickens will lay golden-yolked eggs similar to those laid by free-range chickens. Talk about the goose that laid the golden egg!


Sweeteners
Most processed foods contain sweeteners, many of which are artificial sugar substitutes containing no natural sugars, such as saccharine and aspartame.

Artificial sweeteners are linked to behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and allergies. Because saccharin was shown to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in animal testing, all foods containing this sugar substitute are required to carry a warning label.


Emulsifiers, Stabilizers, and Thickeners
These additives alter the texture of foods. Emulsifiers, for example, prevent ingredients from separating into unappealing globs in food such as mayonnaise and ice cream.

A first cousin to anti-freeze, propylene glycol is a synthetic solvent used as an emulsifier in foods. Although it is recognized as toxic to the skin and other senses, and is considered a neurological toxicant, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed it generally recognized as safe (GRAS).


Flavorings
The most common food additive, flavorings – of which there are over 2000 in use – may be natural or artificial, and are usually comprised of a large number of chemicals. Peruse the ingredient list for the strawberry flavoring in one popular fast food outlet's strawberry milk shake.

Artificial flavors are linked to allergic and behavioral reactions, yet these ingredients are not required to be listed in detail as they're generally recognized as safe.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is another popular flavor enhancer. Found to cause damage in laboratory mice, it has been banned from use in baby foods, but is still used in numerous others. It causes common allergic and behavioral reactions including headaches, dizziness, chest pains, depression, and mood swings, and is also a possible neurotoxin.


Refining
Refined flour has had the brown husk of the grain stripped away, leaving the white, refined starch found in white bread, white rice, pasta, cookies, and numerous other junk foods.

Without the fibrous husk, refined starches are broken down quickly into sugar and absorbed immediately into the bloodstream causing glucose levels to rise, and increasing the risk of obesity.

In contrast, whole grains – such as whole grain bread and cereals, brown rice, and barley – retain the bran surrounding the starch, so they're absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream than refined starches. This slows sugar absorption from the intestine, and reduces the risk of obesity.


Refining Destroys and Devitalizes Most of Foods' Goodness:
Healthy unsaturated fatty acids – high in food value – are lost during the milling process. Half the vitamin E is destroyed when the wheat germ and bran are removed. Refining wheat into white flour removes between 50 and 93 percent of wheat's magnesium, zinc, chromium, manganese, and cobalt.2

Additionally, approximately 50 percent of calcium, 70 percent of phosphorus, 80 percent iron, 50 percent potassium, 65 percent of copper, 80 percent thiamin, 60 percent of riboflavin, 75 percent of niacin, 50 percent of pantothenic acid, and about 50 percent of pyridoxine is lost.3

Refining sugar cane into white sugar depletes it of 99 percent of its magnesium and 93 percent of its chromium. Polishing rice removes 75 percent of its zinc and chromium.4 Refined table salt has had most of the trace minerals removed during processing. It contains no sodium chloride, sugar as filler, and may even contain aluminum.5


Bleaching
Part of the process wheat undergoes to become the white flour in popular baked goods involves bleaching. Various chemical bleaching agents are used including oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with a variety of chemical salts.

Chloride oxide – which catalyzes a chemical reaction that destroys beta cells in the pancreas – is now being linked to diabetes.6 This toxic effect is common scientific knowledge in the research community. In spite of this, the FDA still allows companies to use chloride oxide in processed food.

For more about processed foods, read on.


A Healthier Lifestyle
Eradicating every guilty pleasure in life is not the end goal here, nor is it a particularly realistic approach to making changes...we all enjoy the occasional cheeseburger, order of fries, or bag of chips.

But if we understand the consequences of making what ought to be an occasional treat into the mainstay of our diet, we can begin to make wise choices about how many of these things we are willing to eat.

When it comes to avoiding many of the questionable – and possibly deadly – additives contained in processed foods, we're only human after all, so taking baby steps toward change is usually the best approach.

If you can accomplish just one of these 10 steps, you're moving in the right direction. Try implementing one change a month...

1. As a general rule, if you don't recognize – or can't pronounce – the words on a label, don't buy it, or eat it. Opt instead for the real thing!
2. Avoid products containing
Nitrates and nitrites (including sodium nitrite)
Sulfites (including metabisulfites)
Sulfur dioxide
Benzoic acid (aka sodium benzoate)
BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene)
BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
Coloring
Coal tar
Propylene glycol
MSG (monosodium glutamate)
Refined or bleached flour (i.e. whitened using chloride oxide)
3. Don't eat partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated trans fats
4. Don't eat products containing sugar substitutes such as saccharine and aspartame.
5. Avoid products with a long shelf life – the better they do on the shelf, the worse they are for your body.
6. Avoid products that have been enriched. They have been completely devitalized during processing.
7. Avoid food that has been genetically modified or engineered. Nearly all processed food contains GMOs.
8. Avoid products made with ingredients euphemistically described as "natural flavoring" or "natural coloring."
9. Avoid products with added sugar – watch for words with "-ose" endings such as glucose.
10. Incorporate a multi-vitamin into your health regimen.

If you've had a history of eating products high in sugar and are concerned about diabetes, incorporate disease-fighting products such as garlic, vitamin E, and aloe vera into your diet. Vitamin E supplements can also protect your body from the harmful effects of eating refined products that have been bleached with chloride oxide.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:51 AM

Potted meat. Just as gross as canned cat food but actually intended for human consumption.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: saulgoldie
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 10:02 AM

Spam, Spam, eggs and Spam. I'll have his Spam. I love Spam. etc...
(Monty Python, anyone??)

I heard report not so long ago where they found a Twinkie that had been around for like 50 years, or something. They unwrapped it, and it was still, um "fresh."

Some health-oriented food critic was deconstructing Twinkies once on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on NPR. Paula Poundstone said, "You may know a lot about Twinkies, buddy. But you don't know nothing about living!"

I'm just saying...

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 10:21 AM

I see baked beans "without added sugar" for sale in my local supermarket that are more expensive than ordinary baked beans , which presumably do have added sugar . I can understand the economics of scale involved -less people want this healthy sugarless option - but it strikes me as being immoral all the same. It's a bit like going into a restaurant and having to pay more for food that doesn't contain mouse droppings

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:00 PM

Did anyone follow through on that "Never Eat Bananas" adv. that shows up on Mudcat?
What is their rationale?

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:07 PM

Vienna Sausages in the little glass jar. A co-worker used to eat them daily. Just the thought of the smell makes me gag.

A new horror has been introduced by Ragu - a cheesy sauce for making baked macaroni and cheese. It was a two for so I bought one and took a red sauce free. The "cheese" sauce was gross - salty, gummy, sticky and at best nasty. The red sauce can be doctored to cover pasta.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 06:42 PM

Danish cheeses are full of the same stuff as Kraft slices.

What is in Kraft singles? Per slice-
Canadian nutritional data
60 calories
4.5 g fat, 7 percent of recommended daily intake
(fat-free version has 45 calories, 20 from fat.
15 mg cholesterol
250 mg sodium
1 g sugar
3 g protein
1 g carbohydrate
Good source of protein, riboflavin, zinc; good source vitamin A, Calcium, phosphorous.
Other 'goodies'-
emulsifiers, colors, sorbic acid, several items reconstituted.

The Mayo Clinic health diet includes processed cheese spreads as permissible. Feta, mozzarella, reduced-fat cheeses OK.
In other words, avoid quality cheeses, esp. aged. None of the good stuff allowed.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:06 PM

I find that eating much cheese of any kind is not too good for my digestive system. It tastes great, mind you...but if I eat very much of it, I might as well have swallowed some slow setting cement. Thus, I have learned to eat only small amounts of cheese on occasion and very little dairy products (milk, cheese, etc).

Asians have difficulty digesting dairy products. It might be that I have a system similar to the average Asian. It's not an allergy, I just don't digest the stuff well, that's all.

(cow's) Milk is also lousy for those who sing, because it causes a buildup of mucus in the bronchials and the digestive system. Add to that the fact that commercially sold cow's milk is full of various added chemical and hormones from not very healthy animals (in many cases), and you've got a very good reason to avoid drinking the stuff at all.

What people primarily need to drink is pure water, and lots of it. Remember that stuff? ;-) It's transparent, it's found in Nature, and it makes up a great deal of your body weight, and you can't live without it for more than a few days. You used to be able to get it everywhere for free not too long ago historically speaking, but that appears to be changing...

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:48 PM

We don't eat no processed food but I do remember Velveeta from a former life... Didn't seem like "real" food... Like eating the dashboard of yer car...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Wesley S
Date: 01 Jan 12 - 09:59 PM

I've mentioned it before but any kind of boiled peanuts. And canned boiled peanuts are even worse. I wouldn't feed them to a dog. And recently I saw canned eggnog at the store.

Speaking of dogs someone is actually marketing "Old Yeller" dog food. I guess they never saw the movie.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 07:19 AM

I hate crisps of any kind. Covered in artificial flavour-powders. In Spain they used to sell crisps called BUM! (It means 'boom!', but an unfortunate choice of name for export, I feel.) Pringles are just as dire, and those cheesy puff things. LH we are opposites, as I adore anything dairy, in sp[ite of the Health Warnings. Perhaps I was a cow in a previous life.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 08:40 AM

Processed food is an oxymoron.

I like butter but my Doctor doesn't want me to est it. Triglycerides you know. I use Olivio margarine, made with olive oil. Not bad, but not butter.

There is an artificial sweetener called Truvia that seems to work for me.
Corned beef from Brazil tastes like carrion.

Jacqui and I eat very little processed food. I was a bit concerned when we married that she is English, and they are not known for their skills in the galley, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she is a very good cook.

My main problem with processed foods is that they are loaded with salt. Just can't swallow them.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:30 AM

Just out of curiosity I googled the recipe and http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-cheese-fudge-recipe/index.html . The reviews are mixed, some say it's the best fudge they've ever tasted, others say a rank processed cheese taste comes through and not even the cocoa and two boxes of confectioner's sugar can disguise it. I note another comment "because of the amount of butter in this recipe pat the top of the candy to remove some of the oil..."

The very idea is nauseating and I can't imagine who came up with this recipe - how does it occur to somebody to combine Velveeta with chocolate???

Some of the reviews went on about how easy it is to make, but there are plenty of easy recipes for fudge, especially those that use sweetened condensed milk, like this one .

Mind you after all the eating I did over the holidays I won't be making any fudge whatsoever for a while - off to the gym!

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:32 AM

The first link didn't work - should be Paula Dean Chocolate Cheese Fudge

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:44 AM

The very idea is nauseating and I can't imagine who came up with this recipe - how does it occur to somebody to combine Velveeta with chocolate???

That's easy: Somebody working in Velveeta's product-promotion department went down a list of ingredients and/or recipes.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:52 AM

You're right, Dave. That's probably how Ritz Cracker Mock Apple Pie and Campbell's Tomato Soup Cake came about too.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 09:59 AM

Pringles are just as dire, and those cheesy puff things

My son picked up a can of Pringles, with Roast Turkey flavour (for christmas, I think). I tried one. I did taste like slightly burned turkey.

Not great.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:17 AM

Yes, I'm sure it is a recipe that Velveeta's marketing dept created.

UPDATE
I suggested to the Velveeta fudge maker on the other forum to use cream cheese instead, and the responses were very stubborn. Huff, WELL, the idea of using something so expensive when you could use cheaper Velveeta!!! Aha! It's cheap!

I've been unemployed for two years, some months I get a box of food from the local food bank to get by, but I still don't think of quantity over quality when it comes to what I put in my mouth! No matter how cheap something is, if it is yucky, I'm not going to buy it.

This is one of the reasons poor people have such bad diets. Processed and fast food can be cheap. But in the long run, is it, really, when it ruins your health? It fills you up when you're hungry, if that's all you can buy. I understand that situation. But if you are going to make a big batch of fudge for the holidays.... would you use the Velveeta recipe?

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:44 AM

I don't gross out about foods, but if you are one that does, by all means avoid Asian Markets--My local one features such delicacies as Pig'd fallopian tubes, boneless chicken feet, lambs' tescticles and
fermented fish sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 11:48 AM

I have to watch my pennies too but there's no way I'd make that Velveeta recipe. Is it that much cheaper? I understand that processed food seems less expensive, but in part it's because I think many people have forgotten how to cook. Back in the day people made big pots of stew, soup, etc that could be stretched to feed a hungry family and was still nutritious. I don't think families tend to eat like that much anymore. There are lots of ways to eat healthy and not break the bank.

I'm with you, Alice. Cheap food isn't cheap in the long run.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Manuel
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:06 PM

Dear Eliza, this not like you. Start the New Year right by counting your blessings. Far better to have been a cow in a previous life than in this one!That said, best wishes for 2012 my friend.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:06 PM

That Velveeta Fudge Brownie recipe brings back fond memories of Kraft Theater on TV in the 50s. Every 15 minutes, the ad break included a recipe made with Kraft products that usually reduced us to fake gags and fits of giggling. Most of it looked as if someone had eaten it once before.Someone got paid to dream up that crap and every once in a while one caught on - hence Ritz Mock Apple Pie ( a WW2 invention, no?) and green beans with mushrooms and fried onions casserole.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:09 PM

Dear Manuel, how lovely to read your greetings! I wish you too a very Happy and Healthy New Year! You're quite right, it's better NOT to be a cow just now, although I do like cows, there's something very calming about them.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:17 PM

If it is all someone can get to eat, I understand. To choose to use Velveeta in fudge just because it's a cheap way to make a big batch... well, I guess you have to like the taste of Velveeta to do that.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:17 PM

I am reminded of a documentary I once saw about women's prisons. Apparently some of the women have a strong desire to cook—one could almost call it a need or a compulsion—even when they don't have access to a stove or to normal ingredients. They will find a way to cook something even when they are limited to a microwave oven and stuff they can buy out of vending machines. One of the women had invented a recipe that consisted mainly of—if I remember correctly—crushed cheese puffs and milk (and maybe some other ingredients I have forgotten) cooked in a microwave. The women prisoners all tasted it and pronounced it good—but I can only attribute this to their desperate desire to do something creative with food.

Maybe an impulse like that lies behind the creation of some of the recipes mentioned in this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bert
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:23 PM

The worst has got to be Sea Salt, when you see how it is made.

They have acres of salt pans and flood them with sea water. Immediately thousands of sea birds swarm down and feast on the fish trapped in the shallow water. Most of them leave behind a nice little present of trace minerals.

This process is repeated until the salt is thick enough to harvest.

Think about that when you are sprinkling a thin layer of bird droppings on your dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:33 PM

Jim, this is very interesting. In some of the prisons I visited, the (male) inmates clamoured for cooking facilities, and on some 'landings' a cooker was installed, with saucepans etc. They actually did cook some nice things, and the various ethnic groups shared their recipes from home. 'My' inmate (a white Brit) at one prison learned from a Jamaican to cook with coconut milk, carrot juice and many different spices. None of this was junk food at all. They said they preferred to cook real stuff; the institutional food was well-balanced but too bland and plain. The ingredients were ordered in for them. But of course, the security risks were great, boiling water/hot fat, knives, bits and pieces to hide drugs in etc. It was a nightmare for the officers, and most of these innovative schemes had to be stopped. I think personally the inmates wanted more spicy flavour and variety. Prisoners are only allowed just over £2 per day for the Prison Chef to make meals for them, so they're pretty monotonous.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:34 PM

Campbell's Tomato Soup Cake???? Oh, that's just wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:41 PM

I remember back in my high school days (1930s) we would stop in the soda fountain (and primitive fast food source) in the drugstore and fill the booths. A toasted cheese sandwich and a malted milk shake (double coke if our pocketbooks thin) and lots of gossip before we headed home.

Turned 88 in October. My wife is 89. We still eat toasted cheese sandwiches occasionally. We have replaced the malted milks with good cows' milk, the best all-round food, which we have with all meals if wine is not served. The cheese was always processed but now we use aged cheddar.
The food police can go to one of the stages of Dante's Purgatory. I will request that this soul food be served at my wake.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,999
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 02:49 PM

Not too many foods are gross where yer hungry.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 03:25 PM

Q, a good toasted cheese sandwich is pure heaven. I use real cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Jeri
Date: 02 Jan 12 - 06:22 PM

I love real cheese. I love grilled Velveeta sandwiches.
I think people can be better than to slag off others' tastes and just talk about their own... maybe?

Processed cheese food-like product... some brands are edible, but sometimes the cheap generic store brands taste like cheese-colored rubber. But there aren't many food products I wouldn't eat if I were hungry enough.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 09:00 AM

I like toasted cheese sandwiches too, but only if made with real Vermont Cheddar cheese, not that American plastic crap.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Musket
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 11:32 AM

Judge by the transfats. Then by the E numbers. Then by the disgusting taste. if it tastes OK, then ask yourself why it possibly can, being processed, tinned and / or concentrated. if it tastes OK, there's something in it to enhance the taste that will bugger up your manhood over time...

Mind you, I buy processed chicken shit pellets to manure my veg patch, so processing is a matter of relativity really.

The bloody dog digs it up to eat it, so not sure how much manures my leeks after all? The dog looks healthy though. (Mind you, have I mentioned in other threads, I think I have, how he can fart? He slinks into the room, lays down, gets up and leaves the room again. That's the cue for gas masks and ringing the vets if he doesn't desist. Jesus H Christ! Talk about butler's revenge...)

Dog fart? Processed food? I appear to be keeping on thread after all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 04:21 PM

Kendall, Vermont isn't American?
Of course, Canadian chedddar is the best of all.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bert
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM

Cheddar Cheddar is Cheddar, all the rest are imitations.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 08:14 PM

Cahill's Irish cheddar is good, but still prefer the Canadian.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:56 AM

For the uninitiated, American cheese is a type of yetch that tries to pass for the real thing. It looks and tastes like plastic.

Not to be pedantic, but why do we say "Gross" when the word, in this context,is actually "Gauche")?

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:58 AM

Yes, I know that gross has other applications, but I don't think it fits in this case.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 09:01 AM

Gauche means awkward or clumsy, eg an embarrassed young man at his first formal dinner. I don't see how this can relate to food, kendall.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 06:11 PM

I think Velveeta isn't even legally "cheese"...it's "cheese food product" which means a bunch of chemicals, artificial stuff and sodium. There may be a tiny bit of something real in there, but it's not cheese and it's not enough to make a difference.

I grew up with Miracle Whip and I LOATHE it. My mother always said it was the same as mayonnaise, and I didn't find out any better until I left home, married, set up housekeeping on my own, and bought my first jar of Hellman's to mix into various sandwich fixin's. Different universe. Now I'm a mayonnaise abuser and eat it on french fries (chips), burgers, etcet etcet. Wish I had the time to make mayo from scratch -- that's what The District served when we took Jeri there for her birthday lunch. (Home made tomato ketchup, too.)

Spam is something else I can live very easily without.

There's a bunch of "food" out there right now that scares the crap out of me: meat glue (yeah, they "glue" pieces of meat scraps together to make steaks), HFCS, artificial sweeteners...not to mention a lot of the "frankenfood" that Monsanto is foisting on us and trying to make sure it's not labeled. And everything from chicken to beef that is fed everything from chicken shit ("chicken by-products") to corn -- cows were designed to eat GRASS, not corn. Corn fattens them up fast but it's a race to get to market weight before the corn rots them from the inside. Ugh!

I hate talking about this before dinner!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jan 12 - 07:40 PM

I believe that originally gauche' meant low class. It came from the Bohemian community on the left bank of the river Seine.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:40 AM

Right?

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:31 AM

Tinned sliced tongue has to be among one of the most grossest of all foods. Despite how fancy it might be dressed up on a platter it still looks like what it is, makes me gag whenever it is served up.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 09:02 AM

Well, kendall, gauche does mean 'left' in French. But I've never heard it used to describe something low class. My enormous Oxford Dictionary gives "lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated and socially awkward", so I imagine it's generally used to describe attributes of human beings, not food. But I enjoy words and am happy to read your different usage; it's how language evolves.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 11:03 AM

I used to like the Chef Boyardee products - canned spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, beefaroni, spaghetti o's, etc. when I was a kid - but I'd have to be hard up and really hungry to eat that nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,maryrrf (lost cookie!)
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 11:08 AM

Guest above was me. I also used to like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with the powdered cheese but I don't care for it now. I'd rather just boil some macaroni,grate up some good quality cheddar and nowadays I'd probably add some broccoli or spinach.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:02 PM

Tongue makes you gag? Do you eat eggs? hehehe

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 12:52 PM

Patsy, I used to adore tongue when I was a kid. Despite the name, I just thought of it as a word and didn't realise what it was (it was always served in sliced, unrecognisable portions) until one day I saw it -- whole -- sitting out on the counter before it was cooked.

After that, it was years before I could bring myself to eat it again, even though I had loved the taste of it before. Even now, decades later, I still don't have the same enthusiasm for it that I once did.

Another gross food story:
Went out shopping with my Gramma one afternoon. In the freezer of a small butcher's shop, saw a plastic-wrapped packet labeled "calf brains" and thought "What kind of monster would eat calf brains?" -- just as my Gramma noticed what I was looking at and exclaimed, "Calf brains! Your Daddy used to love calf brains when he was a boy!"

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: frogprince
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:32 PM

Some folks like 'em

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: kendall
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 08:39 PM

How about Lamb fries? aka, Rocky Mountain oysters.

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 04:54 PM

I guess this is not a Velveeta appreciating group. If I am on death row and have a last dinner it will be macaroni and cheese made with Velveeta like my dear departed father used to make..and a real coke. Why do people put macaroni and cheese in the oven with crumbly things on it? mg

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 09:22 PM

Smoked beef tongue is exquisite. I like it in sandwiches (on rye, garlicky dill pickles on the side), but it's BEST in a boiled dinner. Problem is, you really need two in a boiled dinner because they're comparatively small. (Smaller than a corned brisket or smoked butt.) Alas, Tom won't eat the smoked butt, which I also really like. But, then again, Tom doesn't seem to want to make boiled dinner no matter what's in it. Sigh. I am really, REALLY hungry for boiled dinner!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 08:06 PM

Some votes for Canuck cheddar I see... but, beware, not all Canuck cheddars are the same. Kraft cheese is good. Indeed, consider this... Kraft havarti is to die for... Kraft "Cracker Barrel" havarti is good but not as good. Cracker Barrel old cheddar is what I use for mac and cheese and it is spot on. Decadent and seldom eaten, but, when it is eaten, it is a pig out treat.

I wish I could eat cheese. I LOVE it but I am prone to parotid gland stones and even though I have only 1/3 of one parotid left, I figure if I can get them, I can get kidney stones and gall stones, so... I am SOL on the cheese.

Gee, just talking about cheese gives me that sucking and sour feeling in the cheeks where my parotid glands used to be. I miss cheese more than the glands tho... >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Most Gross Processed Foods
From: Brian May
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 07:49 AM

I LOVE Spam - now that's PROPER canned food ;o)

Gross to me, is growing lovely green vegetables etc then murdering them all in the name of a cult called 'vegetarianism'.

Good old fatty bacon, porky scratchings, pork pie and dripping sandwiches (having delved underneath for the jelly), that's what proper food is.

You only live to 23 but what a life - simply, beyond 23 you're unable to get a wheel barrow to fit your belly . . . ask most Scotsmen or rednecks.

Have fun . . .