Ready meals ‘better for you than TV chef’s recipe’

darrensurrey

Ready meals ‘better for you than TV chef’s recipe’: Dishes created by star cooks contain more calories than TV dinners

Health warnings should be on cooking programmes, say researchers
Study compared nutritional content of chefs' recipes and ready meals
No meal met all of WHO’s recommendations for a balanced healthy meal

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2249703/Ready-meals-better-TV-chef-s-recipe--Dishes-created-star-cooks-Jamie-Oliver-Nigella-Lawson-contain-calories-TV-dinners.html

But it's home-made so MUST be good for you. :bigsmile:

PrinnyBomb

At least you get to control what you put in home cooked meals. Home cooking over ready meals any day of the week

Princess_Sameen

I saw that this morning! but you can modify the recipes to make them healthy if you choose to. Recipes in my house are more like guidelines than anything else if they use cream I use natural yoghurt. But rather a recipe with fresh food than a meal with unknown items in it eeeewww

stevewynjones

Jamie Oliver is enough to make you sick...Nigella...thats a different matter..

darrensurrey

Sure - but then you're not following their recipes. This is about their recipes vs ready meals NOT home-cooked food vs ready meals. The point is that they specify amounts to use so presumably, you're supposed to follow the proportions or it ceases to be their recipe.

girlinahat

interestingly the figures are 'per serving' rather than a direct weight comparison.

for me, I'd go home-cooked anyday. tastes better.

PrinnyBomb

I'd still rather copy their recipe exactly than eat a ready meal.

TavistockToad

noone has ever pretended that nigella made healthy low cal food!

darrensurrey

noone has ever pretended that nigella made healthy low cal food!

Remember Jamie Oliver going on about school food being bad for you?

geebusuk

I often moan about the concept of 'healthy'.
Not only does it mean different things for different people, but it SHOULD be relative to the situation.

Have I eaten a lot that day and done little exercise? Well, a light meal is probably 'healthy'.
Have I had a 'fasted' morning, but cycled for a couple of hours and done some rock climbing? Probably 'healthy' for me to have a takeaway pizza or similar.

I use ready meals a fair bit because it helps me with portion control; and if chosen correctly can have a low calorie density.
And, of course, I can control what's in them by choosing which ones I buy based on the ingredients list.

As for the article - well, yes, food designed to be 'nice food' is going to be worse calorie wise. But I never presumed that these programs were doing food for sedentary people to eat daily. Same with a meal out at a restaurant - fine on the occasion or after a hard day's physical work, but not going to be right for me on a daily basis.

Illona88

If you've ever seen Nigella's programs, you already knew this.
Jamie doesn't really go light on butter and sugar either.

I say use the recipes as inspiration and then make a healthier version of it.


Also there is a huge difference between "healthy" and "low calorie". Something can be low calorie, but if it's got next to zero nutrients in them (like many ready meals), it's still not going to be healthy. At least the tv-chefs are actually using vegetables and fresh food.
Clearly the geniuses at Daily mail can't figure out this difference.

Oishii

'On average, the celebrity recipes contained 2,530 calories per portion, compared with 2,067 in the ready meals.'

Wow! I have never seen a ready meal with that high a calorie count per portion, but then again, I don't eat meat. I wonder what they found to get that kind of average.

Illona88

'On average, the celebrity recipes contained 2,530 calories per portion, compared with 2,067 in the ready meals.'

Wow! I have never seen a ready meal with that high a calorie count per portion, but then again, I don't eat meat. I wonder what they found to get that kind of average.

I think they meant kiloJoule.

It's the daily mail. They mess up a lot.

wifealiciousness

This really bothered me this morning.... ready meals have so many nasty preservatives and chemicals in, not to mention high salt and sugar content.......

geebusuk

Also there is a huge difference between "healthy" and "low calorie". Something can be low calorie, but if it's got next to zero nutrients in them (like many ready meals), it's still not going to be healthy. At least the tv-chefs are actually using vegetables and fresh food.
Clearly the geniuses at Daily mail can't figure out this difference.

What if I've already had all the micro-nutrients my body needs from these vegetables and have already had a lot of calories that day?
Does your definition of 'healthy' have to include 'nutrients'? Does this mean water isn't "healthy"?

wifealiciousn:
My usual link; heard ready meals even have DHMO in! http://www.dhmo.org/

MrsSWW

I read it in the Metro this morning with some scepticism as the comparisons were 'per portion' rather than a defined weight. I'll stick with my home cooked meals and keep the high calorie ones for special occasions, use the low calorie ones for everyday eating.

It's very rare that you see studies in the papers that have blindingly obvious results, so I tend to take them with a pinch of salt... though perhaps not as much as in a ready meal...

Rachlmale

Hold on... Nigella makes food? I thought she was just for watching...

darrensurrey

I often moan about the concept of 'healthy'.
Not only does it mean different things for different people, but it SHOULD be relative to the situation.

Have I eaten a lot that day and done little exercise? Well, a light meal is probably 'healthy'.
Have I had a 'fasted' morning, but cycled for a couple of hours and done some rock climbing? Probably 'healthy' for me to have a takeaway pizza or similar.

I use ready meals a fair bit because it helps me with portion control; and if chosen correctly can have a low calorie density.
And, of course, I can control what's in them by choosing which ones I buy based on the ingredients list.

As for the article - well, yes, food designed to be 'nice food' is going to be worse calorie wise. But I never presumed that these programs were doing food for sedentary people to eat daily. Same with a meal out at a restaurant - fine on the occasion or after a hard day's physical work, but not going to be right for me on a daily basis.

Pretty much my thinking!

People still think home-made = lose weight. (Slightly off-topic.)

Dare you go on a ready meal diet for a whole month to see the end result weight-wise? I say dare - undoubtedly, it's unhealthy but fit vs healthy vs lean. 3 separate concepts.

darrensurrey

Hold on... Nigella makes food? I thought she was just for watching...

There's a great video on YT that'll probably get me banned for posting. Search for "Nigella".

geebusuk

Dare you go on a ready meal diet for a whole month to see the end result weight-wise? I say dare - undoubtedly, it's unhealthy but fit vs healthy vs lean. 3 separate concepts.

Happily do so and haven't been too far off it in the past - infact when I started my weight loss this year I dropped a fair bit while on circa 1300 calories, most of that from ready meals. At the time, was doing a lot of heavy manual work and my body certainly looked/looks the better for it. Also hasn't stopped me doing running and cycling events as well as rock climbing. Pretty sure if you 'compared' me to a lot of the "fresh home cooked" people, I'd come out as generally healthier.
To be fair, I do sometimes add salad and extra meat to my ready meals - though more to pad it out to get me fuller without many more calories.

I generally go for pretty cheap ones - Kershaws are my favourite at the moment as the lower calorie ones are 240-400 calories for a 400g meal and £1.25 each or so. Done in the oven the potatoes come out pretty nicely.
There are plenty of 'premium' ready meals with fairly fresh vegetables in - though maybe not quite so fresh (was down to 29p as date due), I had a 'premium' Singapore noodles yesterday and the veg in it certainly still seemed fresher than some I've seen in market stalls etc!

Oishii

http://metro.co.uk/2012/12/18/tv-chefs-meals-less-healthy-than-ready-meals-3320479/

More detailed write up with visuals of the calorie comparisons of different foods. With my TDEE over 2000kcal normally, I'd happily have either :laugh:

XXXMinnieXXX

Try the hairy dieters, nice and healthy! X

darrensurrey

Dare you go on a ready meal diet for a whole month to see the end result weight-wise? I say dare - undoubtedly, it's unhealthy but fit vs healthy vs lean. 3 separate concepts.

Happily do so and haven't been too far off it in the past - infact when I started my weight loss this year I dropped a fair bit while on circa 1300 calories, most of that from ready meals. At the time, was doing a lot of heavy manual work and my body certainly looked/looks the better for it. Also hasn't stopped me doing running and cycling events as well as rock climbing. Pretty sure if you 'compared' me to a lot of the "fresh home cooked" people, I'd come out as generally healthier.
To be fair, I do sometimes add salad and extra meat to my ready meals - though more to pad it out to get me fuller without many more calories.

I generally go for pretty cheap ones - Kershaws are my favourite at the moment as the lower calorie ones are 240-400 calories for a 400g meal and £1.25 each or so. Done in the oven the potatoes come out pretty nicely.
There are plenty of 'premium' ready meals with fairly fresh vegetables in - though maybe not quite so fresh (was down to 29p as date due), I had a 'premium' Singapore noodles yesterday and the veg in it certainly still seemed fresher than some I've seen in market stalls etc!

Ace!

Rachlmale

Hold on... Nigella makes food? I thought she was just for watching...

There's a great video on YT that'll probably get me banned for posting. Search for "Nigella".

I'll have to watch that later ;-) cheers!

jessilee119

I read it in the Metro this morning with some scepticism as the comparisons were 'per portion' rather than a defined weight.

I was going to ask that-are they going by what the recipe says is a portion? I didn't have time to read the article, but when I made recipes from Food Network and then plugged it in MFP, it wasn't too bad (of course I'm not expecting MFP to be 100% accurate-or myself for that matter since I eyeball ingredients in recipes sometimes).

If they're going by what the recipe says is a serving, then yes the calories are going to be high because, if you watch and pay attention, these chef's cook 1 pound of pasta, put all kinds of ingredients in the pot to feed an army, and then say it'll feed 4-6 people (that's a lot of food for ONE person). I printed a recipe from Food Network that says it makes 6 servings and I was able to get 10 from it. (I'm not saying that recipes are healthier in all cases-just so we're clear-but I wouldn't switch to all frozen food just because this article is out there)

geebusuk

While I did one of Niegela's recipes which I think was 'feed 4'. House mate had a quarter, I had the other three quarters - why I avoid making larger portions of tasty food . (And I made it a bit lower calorie too.)

chivalryder

So, TV dinners are better for you, simply because of the lower caloies count?

If that's the only thing you're concerned about, you may want to rethink your ideals and goals.

Why not drink diet Coke all day!? That'll keep your calories down.

jeanine89

I LOVE my ready-meals. Lean cuisines baby they are great the less time I spend in the kitchen preparing a meal the less time I am likely to start snacking. They are around 200-350 calories each pair with a salad and you have a truly filling lunch or dinner. No preservatives!!! and portion control!!

jimmmer

From the "article":

The chefs’ offerings were ‘less healthy’ than ready meals and contained ‘significantly more’ fat, saturated fat and protein

What wrong with fat? Or Protein? It's not the old chestnut that eating fat makes you fat...... thought that bullsh!t had been left in the 80's where it belonged!

Also from the "article":

On average, the celebrity recipes contained 2,530 calories per portion, compared with 2,067 in the ready meals.

I take it this is for 4 people? That means the calorie difference is (2530-2067)/4 = 115 cals per person more. To put that in perspective that's just a banana.

Worse case scenario and it's a meal for 2 and that's the same as a banana, 3 cups of coffee and a few cups of tea. Big effing deal......

Get back to me when the Daily Mail produces a story that has a basis in fact. Oh wait......

geebusuk

Why not drink diet Coke all day!? That'll keep your calories down.

I do - helped me lose 65lb May to November . Ok, it was Coke Zero and was generally around 4 cans a day.

Rachlmale

Why not drink diet Coke all day!? That'll keep your calories down.

I do - helped me lose 65lb May to November . Ok, it was Coke Zero and was generally around 4 cans a day.

Ditto... generally Pepsi diet though 42lbs July - December. I'll keep my pop sir, thank you