Six products you absolutely can't save on, and here's why
'27.08.2022'
Source: Life hacker
You will pay more for quality and safety - and it is better for your health not to skimp on these products. We explain why.
1. Desserts and Baking
If you have ever tried to make a cake yourself, then you know that it is not cheap at all, writes Life hacker. Flour and sugar are quite affordable products, but butter, cream, berries, mascarpone are expensive.
When dessert is cheap, it's alarming. It is possible that natural cream was replaced by vegetable, and butter by margarine. All this affects the taste and quality of the product.
The oil contains 72,5 – 82,5% fat. Fat content in margarine is from 20%. The less fat, the less crumbly baking is obtained, which is critical, for example, for puff and shortbread dough.
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If the manufacturer uses fat margarine, there will be almost no difference. But the benefits of this no: a quality product will cost only slightly cheaper than butter.
Differences will be in the manufacture of cream. For example, natural whipping cream has a fat content of 33%. They contain about 1,9 g of protein per 100 g, 2,8 g of carbohydrates, and in addition to the main product, there is only a stabilizer. Vegetable whipping cream has a fat content of less than 30%, 2 times less protein and 4 times more carbohydrates. Accordingly, the properties and taste will vary. Cream from natural cream more dense and better impregnates cakes.
2. Chocolate
Bitter chocolate is useful: it stimulates the production of endorphins and improves mood, has a positive effect on the health of the skin, prevents cardiovascular diseases, helps in the fight against diabetes, strengthens the immune system. But this is true only for a quality product with a high content of cocoa beans.
Cheap tiles from an incomprehensible brown mass are best left on the shelf in the store. When it is produced, cocoa butter is replaced with vegetable fats, and cocoa powder with cocoa powder is replaced with oilcake, which remains after pressing the oil from cocoa beans. This deprives the product of almost any benefit. Yes, and the taste becomes an amateur. In addition, the tile will have to chew longer, since it has a higher melting point.
3. Semi-finished products
It would be wrong to consider all semifinished products to be harmful, because no one puts the label “dangerous” on homemade dumplings lying in the freezer. But the low price should be alerted.
For example, if a chicken breast cutlet costs less than chicken breasts, it means that the manufacturer has added additional ingredients to them. And in the pursuit of cheapening of the composition can turn from decent to monstrous. For example, in the composition of good cutlets from the factory there is nothing that you yourself would not put in this dish.
But as part of cheap cutlets popular brand you will find a lot of foreign products.
True, expensive semi-finished products are also not insured from additional ingredients in the composition. Therefore, we must look not only at the price, but also on the label.
4. Off-season fruits and vegetables
Low price does not necessarily mean poor quality product. Maybe the supermarket in the warehouse ran out of space, so it frees up the shelves. Or the store is trying to sell the perishable product faster.
But cheapness should make you think about whether the purchase would be dangerous. For example, in St. Petersburg in April, everywhere they started selling fragrant strawberries at a very low price. And after that, there was news of poisoning by chemicals contained in berries. Therefore, do not turn off critical thinking when you see an attractive price tag, and think about how the seller managed to lower the price in this way.
5. Curd
It is a useful high protein product. However, manufacturers in attempts to give it a more attractive texture or reduce the cost of production can use extraneous additives. For example, the starch in the composition of the curd increases the content of carbohydrates in it, the number of which worries a significant part of the consumers of this product - visitors to gyms. Palm oil may also be in the jar.
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These supplements are also in expensive cottage cheese, but the chances of finding them in a cheap product are much higher. Again, all attention should be directed to the label and composition.
6. Cheese
A kilogram of cheese requires an average of 10 liters of milk. Also, the manufacturer will need rennet, starter, salt. Therefore, good cheese at a low price can not buy.
Cheap analogues contain vegetable oils and starch. And it turns the cheese into a cheese product, which a conscientious manufacturer must report on the label. It is produced using the same technology as cheese, only a significant part of dairy products is replaced with vegetable products.
And if the cheese contains a lot of easily digestible protein, phosphorus and calcium, then there will not be any of them in its cheap analogue. Starch will change the balance of macronutrients in the product in the direction of increasing carbohydrates. Harm cheese product, if herbal ingredients were high quality, will not bring, but also good.
What products never save you? Share in the comments.
