Food and everyday choices

I've got masses of food intollerances which makes shopping a pain in the bum, although not as much now as it used too, I cook pretty much everything from scratch, I batch cook too and freeze a couple of portions, once I've done that two or three times, I've got a revolving menu of home made frozen food and I only have to do a big cook once or twice a week.

I use a bread machine to make my own bread, it's really simple and you can pretty much get a loaf going in the time it takes to make a cup of tea and as it does all the mixing proving and baking it's as easy and mess free as using a washing machine.

There may well be one or two common ingredients that disagree with you, you may need to keep a food diary to see what exactly is causing problems.

MatteoFerraro said:

I’m still trying to understand how much attention I should give to this, so I was wondering how others here approach food choices. Do you focus on ingredients, processing, or just personal experience?

This process is surprisngly complex as you are finding out, largely because manufacturers will use the ingredients labels to make their product look the best they can get away with (ie sometimes they name bad things in a way that isn't easily understandable), they won't follow the same standards as others or they change the recipies without much fanfare (such as is happening with many chocolate biscuits now).

Your safest approach is trial and error - once you find something that works then study the ingredients label and compare it to anything else you are considering - which can be a pain in the bum. Once you find something that works you can try their other products as well and expand your selection this way.

Alternatively start cooking more things from scratch if you have the facilities. Bread is a great one and surprisingly easy once you know how, fresh fruit and veg can be surprisingly affordable if you have a market nearby and it is easy to freeze once cooked. For meat it costs more to go to a local butcher who does locally sourced meat but it is normally free from all the addatives that supermarkets use to bulk it (saline solution), the drugs the big "rancher" growers use and you are supporting a local supplier too.

Doing it all from scratch is a lot more work but is very satisfying, often much more affordable and of course, healthier. I find it quite theraputic too as it keeps my hands busy while my mind only needs to give passing input and can work away on the things I am focussing on that day.