Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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

By JENNY HOPE - Mail Online
|

If you feel guilty about eating a ready meal while watching TV chefs making something from scratch, don’t worry – your food’s probably healthier than theirs.
Researchers say programmes from the likes of Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson should carry health warnings or even be shown after the watershed, because the recipes contain hundreds more calories than TV dinners.
The claim comes after NHS Tees and Newcastle University examined the top five books by TV chefs on Amazon in December 2010: River Cottage Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Kitchen by Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver’s Ministry Of Food and 30-Minute Meals and Baking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale.

Researchers have studied the nutritional content of books by chefs including Nigella Lawson
Researchers have compared the nutritional content of books by chefs including Lorraine Pascal to supermarket ready meals
Good for you: The nutritional value of meals from books by celebrity chefs including Nigella Lawson, left, and Lorraine Pascal, right, were compared to supermarket ready meals

Nutrition: Offerings by chefs including Jamie Oliver were said to be 'less healthy' than the supermarket ready meals
Nutrition: Offerings by chefs including Jamie Oliver were said to be 'less healthy' than the supermarket ready meals

After selecting 100 random recipes from them, they then compared the nutritional content with 100 own-brand ready meals from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.
The chefs’ offerings were ‘less healthy’ than ready meals and contained ‘significantly more’ fat, saturated fat and protein and less fibre per portion, the study found.
On average, the celebrity recipes contained 2,530 calories per portion, compared with 2,067 in the ready meals.

Read more: 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#ixzz2FQPlGJzU 

1 comment:

maggie@at-the-bay.com said...

What nonsense - nothing beats home prepared food (the love quota) not to mention the 'fresh' ingredients and to hang with the calories as you burn them off while doing the cooking and because it's so tasty, you eat less and feel sated and less likely to eat treats afterwards... why do calories get so much attention when nutrition, taste, and flavour are just as important surely.