h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well can it?

Grumpy food can.... I don't like grumpy looking fish....
More seriously, some foods can lift our mood, choc for example cause of its affects on seratonin levels in the brain
Don't know if the reverse foods exist though, but just eating nice food makes one feel nice, so I guess eating crap food can make one feel less good, and of course poor diet per sai can affect taspects of just about the whole physiology of the body

Yes. British food.

British don't do Food. they do "My stomach is grumbling: fill it quick" in my opinion.

that was a racist comment, but in general, Les Brits have taken their decent heritage food wise & boiled it to death & converted & condemned a couple of generations of kiddies into hating the good stuff & gobbling down the bad as fast as possible.

I'd say from personal experience that "not eating properly" is what makes you grumpy, but it's a vicious circle, if you feel grumpy, the last thing you want to do is cook, so you snatch a takeaway (if you can afford it); or a bag of or some etc...which stops you from actually fainting, but whaps your blood sugra sky high, then it plummets back quickly to worse than before.

Ask any diabetic. Ask anyone with that sort of metablolic "disorder" stuff. Ask any Real Nutritionist who isn't out to sell their latest book. Small, high carb,but low sugar, little bit of protein, lots of veggies = "generally the best". Eat when you're hungry, stop before you feel full...the brain takes around 5 minutes to get the message & you are allowed second helpings!

zdt

If some foods lift the spirits, I suppose it's possible that some would have the reverse effect. For me though, it's more likely to be 'association', ... Something cooked or served in a certain fashion, that brings back times and memories best left forgotten.

What particularly made me grumpy yesterday was seeing, in a supermarket, some kind of sandwich-related product called a 'Chicken Tikka Pizzaiola'. *That's* what the British do to food.

I tell a lie. It was a 'Chicken Tikka Pizzaiola with Salsa'.

I protest (too much).
I'm British and I 'do' food.
From home-grown foods of sumptiousness, from steak and kidney puf, to beef stew and dumplings, to cottage/shepards pie.
A country as diverse as the UK also means that we've fantastic foods from all around the world we've been exposed to, risotto, cock o van, home-made Rosemary and sessamy oil bread with Sage derby (one of the worlds finest cheeses), French brie, Italian pansetta, German Salami, and of course a glass of Spanish Rioja grand reserva 1997 ... or two.... or three...
Perhaps some bread N butter pudding for afters (soemthign warm is nice when its this cold), or for the warmer weather, some hand made Belgium choc organic icecream bought from teh shop over the road.
Hampshire organic applewood smoked bacon in olive ficata might work well for a quick snack though.
Failing all of which I'll have the national dish, King prawn biriani, pishwari naam, onion baji, vegetable samosa, pilo rice, bombay potato and fish N chips

The food of any nation - even East European nations - can be excellent. But it has to be honest.

Ooo now what the hell was it called.... some kinda 'peasant soup' that a veggy friend cooked from a recipie they were shown when they lived out Russia way and some of those cooked sausage/meats from poland damn I'm hungry

You haven't lived until you've eaten lunch in the Czech Republic with a pair of Italian food obsessives (ie average Italians). Everything was of enormous interest, from the butter to the bread to what exactly was the sour cream like substance (I reckon it was smetana)...and that was before we'd even looked at the menus!

Butter I'm still baffled as to how differnt butters can really* be that* differnt.... But they are* After years of researching, at quite some length I thought* I'd found the perfect butter then the new Italian shop opened opposite and I changed my mind, the butter is almost more akin to a really mild cheese, with the complexitys of flavours, but just so subtle compaired to others I've had Mind, there was somethign going for the organic goats milk (or was it sheeps milk?) butter I used to get... though it did have a most perturbing smell to it once it'd been in the fridge more than a couple of days BoB-damn it I'm going to have to go and get an early lunch

Hi, Vi,

Food can make you grumpy, hyper, depressed, disruptive etc. However, a lot of it is down to the additives, colourings, flavourings and preservatives that most so called food is subjected to these days.

I don't entirely agree with the comments about British food. It is rather the lazy way people have got into of buying a packet, either dried or frozen and 'wanging' it in the microwave. Good fresh, unadulterated food, cooked to the minimum and not boiled to death, is as good as it ever was and we are getting more adventurous.

There is quite a move back to good food too, grown and produced locally, but unfortunately it is out of the price range of many families on a tight budget.

websailor

There is, also a middle road; I've not the ability to travel about town to find small producers local ingredients; I'm lucky with the Italian shop over the road, but still rely on the supermarket for fresh and frozen meats, etc. But I think so long as your not buying the artifical coated flavoured chicken portionsetc., or those ready meal things then what your getting isn't too artifical, and the organic boon means I think that I can get every type of veg salad and fruit from teh supermakret that are all organic and then its just a case of throwing them in the pan in the right order for the desired length of time, and I never got this idea that convenience ready meal crap food was any* quicker, sure if I put on a full proper beef stew and dumplings I'll pop away for that weekend and come back to find it cooked to perfection but not ever takes the length of time that a stew may, and I rarely do anything thats more than twenty minutes cooking time and its all from pretty much raw/basic ingredients... and tonight..... I think we'll make beef stroganoff (and probably be making enoguh for the res to fthe week)

<<>>

Oh yes, oh yes. Plus if you are "less than mobile *plus "don't have a car"....your choice of foods is limited to whatever you can afford, carry or grow.

On Friday, i will be squeaking in Pubic to the nice shiny happy new green Mayor about just such stuff. Wish me luck, i will be doing it on a pretty empty stomach, but lots of guts.

Today, i've eaten a piece of wholemeal toast, with scraping of cheap margarine, Marmite & 1 cheese slice. C'est suffit to sustain me to carry on battling
for the right to eat Right.

zdt

Because I've finally woken up and snmelled the coffee, my breakfast today was raw oats and grapefruit. And very nice it was, too!

Sounds good to me, Edward. I've had peach kefir with banana slices and blueberries. No coffee yet, though.

I've never experienced food making me feel grumpy, per se- or happy or anything else, for that matter (except for the nice feeling when I've cooked a meal and someone else likes it ). But I have found that eating too much carbohydrate makes me feel like crap- especially yucky carbohydrate like enriched pasta, etc.

Have you eaten something recently and then felt grumpy afterward, Vix? Or are you feeling inordinately grumpy and at a loss as to what might be at the root of it?

Gosh! You can buy kefir round your way? My problem with commercial yoghurt drinks, though, is that I like mine unsweetened and/or salty.

mmm. Maybe I could buy some buttermilk on the way home.