Episode 4 The Carbs: Bread and Spuds
Manna, a staple food, humans started making bread 30,000 years ago yet although 71% of us eat sliced pan weekly, 58% have tried cutting down their intake. Philip Boucher-Hayes compares the industrial pan with homemade and sourdough rivals and investigates why so many people claim they’re gluten intolerant. And when it comes to the humble carb that’s most associated with Ireland, the spud, it turns out that sales to the under-45s are dropping steeply. Philip examines the rise of the small potato, is surprised by the sweet treats which contain spud and finds out how genetic modification may be the only way to stamp out blight.
Series Overview
Up until the 1950s food was a relatively simple matter: you bought meat from the butcher, bread from the baker, vegetables and fruit from the greengrocer. Most shopping was done daily – usually by housewives – and the choice was narrow. Back then expenditure on food was a relatively large part of the weekly household income and keeping food fresh was a constant battle.
Fast forward to the present day: mass production, intensive farming, refrigeration, freezing, and food technology have given us more choice and lower prices than our grandmothers could have imagined. But in order to titillate our palates with all this choice, the food manufacturers have had to find ways of keeping food fresh for longer whilst maintaining competitive price points.
This means that a sizable proportion of all food stocked by your local supermarket has been processed and processed doesn’t just mean cut and packaged, it means flavoured, irradiated, stabilised, enhanced and coloured, and it affects everything from your bagged salad leaves to your fruit to your 6-pack of chicken fillets. It begs the question: do you know what you’re eating?