E Numbers: A Edible Adventure (BBC2 3 part series)

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Did anyone watch the 3 part 'E Numbers: A Edible Adventure' that concluded tonight?

I thought it was quite interesting series, but was a little frustrated that it came across as a little 'pro' additives, justifying almost everyone for one reason or another.

Of course not all E numbers are bad (after all E numbers are just numbers assigned to additives/ingredients by the EU/EC) but It seems to justify even some of the more controversial ones like MSG and articial sweetners. Tonight for example, there was absolutely no discussion about the concerns of artificial sweetners, particualar aspartame which many consider to be controversial.

It would have been good IMHO to have looked at the arguments against them and not just justify them all on the grounds that they help us keep food fresh, more attractive (colours), less calories, etc.
 
Yes I thought it was a little too 'Pro' too.

Some of the more natural additives you could understand but like you say there was nothing about Aspartame or the more artificial additives.
 
I thought the series was very good: informative, interesting and explained things very well. The whole point the guy was making was that E numbers are hugely beneficial and that a lot of the scare stories about them (exemplified in the first programme) are based on ignorance and a sort of unfocused anxiety about things they don't understand and the trendy media demonises.
It was definitely PRO additives, as the programme kept saying: they are essential if we want cheap and healthy food, that doesn't go off after a couple of days. it's like accusing food programmes of being PRO cooking.
 
exactly and last week for example, when they talked about recommened upper limits for many, you do have to question what the cumalative effects of ALL these different additives have together in the body. We consume so much of this crap without even knowing it. Aspartame for example is in some mouth washes, toothpaste, coating on ibprofen.
 
I agree that some are beneficial (in terms of food production, etc) and it was very interesting to see the origins of some of these things (like the cochineal, guar gum), but I guess I was just hoping they would have highlighted some of the concerns and try to defend them, but instead they just ignored the many concerns (with aspartame for example) and just put a positive spin on the rest.

Perhaps one of the questions they should have asked the viewer (or left the viewer questioning) is if this is what it takes (i.e using posions, chemicals that alter brain chemistry) to make these products and have no calories, or shelf lives for 2-3 months or years, then should we be producing and eating these things in the first place?
 
But all the stuff about Aspartame and Tartrazine and all the other bad additives has been beaten to death many times over. Everyone has already made up their minds about those, I can't see there's any mileage in wasting valuable programme time rasing issues that are already well known. ISTM the programme was trying to balance a lot of the hysteria about "all additves are bad" and educate those who think that way.


At some level everything's a poison. Salt will kill you if you ingest too much of it, as will vitamin A. There are loads of things that alter brain chemistry: alcohol, nicotine, any "comfort" food. The guy said in the very first programme that the additives which are assigned E numbers only have those designations because they've been tested and demonstrated to be safe in the quantities used. It's the other ones (like herbal remedies) that haven't been proved safe or useful, that we should be more concerned about.
 
I have not seen part 3 yet but thought the first 2 parts were great, very informative and done in such a way that most could understand. SOmetimes with these shows they have a bit too much of the sciency stuff but i thought that they got the levels just right.

It was great to see those wine experts fail to spot the white wine with the colouring in, just about prooves that people who claim to be wine expetrs are talking a load of tosh.
 
Completely agree. It was stated by Gates often and even in the soundbites at the beginning of the show about how people view these nasty E numbers so the show was to point out how essential they are for modern food production.

And it was basically wrapped up in the last sentences about how we as consumers want food that tastes good, looks good, is low fat, low calory, uniform and has a shelf life.
 
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