thu 28/03/2024

E Numbers: an Edible Adventure, BBC Two | reviews, news & interviews

E Numbers: an Edible Adventure, BBC Two

E Numbers: an Edible Adventure, BBC Two

Are food additives to be feared?

Red or white? Or blue, green or purple? Stefan Gates parties with the E numbers

Food writer Stefan Gates seems to have spent his whole life in wilder regions, whether clambering naked up a rain-swept Giant’s Causeway (yes, that‘s the six-year-old Stefan, with his sister Samantha, on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1973 album Houses of the Holy), or eating sheep's testicles in Afghanistan, or whatever, in BBC Two's Cooking in the Danger Zone. His latest venture would seem to be his riskiest yet – for Gates immerses himself into the world of the widely feared E-numbered food additives (the E stands for Europe, as in EC-approved, in case, like me, you hadn’t clocked that). It’s a hugely fruitful subject, and hopefully one not with added E120 – the food dye that puts pink into strawberry yoghurt.

Food writer Stefan Gates seems to have spent his whole life in wilder regions, whether clambering naked up a rain-swept Giant’s Causeway (yes, that‘s the six-year-old Stefan, with his sister Samantha, on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s 1973 album Houses of the Holy), or eating sheep's testicles in Afghanistan, or whatever, in BBC Two's Cooking in the Danger Zone. His latest venture would seem to be his riskiest yet – for Gates immerses himself into the world of the widely feared E-numbered food additives (the E stands for Europe, as in EC-approved, in case, like me, you hadn’t clocked that). It’s a hugely fruitful subject, and hopefully one not with added E120 – the food dye that puts pink into strawberry yoghurt.

At least two of the children said they actually quite liked the blackcurrant-tasting sprouts

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yeh i kind of felt the same way. it was 'informative' to an extent but hugely stacked in the favour of the mentioned additives and the industry that flogs them, almost as if they are better than nature. i too felt that there was far too much emphasis on masking and hiding and trickery. if a child likes or dislikes a flavour then so be it. i dont want to trick my child into eating anything with enhancers or colours, that with a little extra research enlightens you further to other symptoms and risks involved in consuming these additives. Stefan failed to mention that msg is a neurotoxin. it 'excites' brain cells so violently that they become over exerted too quickly and perish. he never mentioned the research and reports that have been done that proves this and subsequently puts msg in a, rightly so, more questionable light. if natural glutamates produce symptoms of obesity, flatulence and headaches etc then we certainlt dont need any extra added to our foods whether they make a perfectly nice buttersquash soup taste a wee bit better or not. its still a kind of trickery. tricking your brain into believing whatever bland and over-processed food you have been flogged is tasty and nutritous. this is where the true issue lies. if the food industry has to add artificial flavours or colours or nutrients to our food because the of the way it has been stripped of its natural taste or nutrition from cheap, over-processing methods, then this is a more fundamental problem. given that the placebo effect is astonishingly powerful and we are easily duped by adding a smell or colour to food it is not hard to see how big companies can profit from peddling poor quality goods. this programme felt like an advertisement to me. it is completely out of touch with the current interest and demand for wholesome natural/organic goods that better informed people are seeking more and more. it was trying to entice us back to these over-processed and additive laden foods that id hoped we were leaving behind us. it seems that certain parts of the industry still have a little fight in them yet and have found a nice promoter in the bbc. shame on the bbc. again. if the next episode tries to promote aspartame as a super sweet step up from nature or some such nonsense i might just get so cross that ill write a letter of complaint to the bbc, and the producers and Stefen himself.

Yeah, i like how he goes to great lengths explaining how natural some additives are and then comes to aspartame and gives about 3 seconds explaining what it is. The free glutamate in vegetables is different to the harmful bound glutamate MSG.

I am going to complain to the producers as the 92 symptoms of aspartame were not mentioned or that it was at all dangerous or that it made basically a toxic poison.

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