Battered fish, seafood, beef and chicken- why you are better without batter
When we batter our food we essentially add pancake mix (eggs, refined and processed white flour, salt and milk) deep-fried in vegetable oils (ultra-processed and full of saturated and often trans fats) and artificial flavourings and salt to our pure protein. We take our protein and add simple carbohydrates and fat to it. People often have these blood sugar spiking batter carbohydrates with things like chips or rice or noodles, adding carbohydrates to your carbohydrates. Yet this means as a world we are carbohydrate and fat-crazy. Like adding simple sugars and fructose (which we cannot use for energy but just store as fat), these ingredients do not add any nutritional value to a meal- they just make us mentally foggy, stressed, tired, hungry and fat, and it is possible to get great tasting food without them. We can use inflammation-reducing monounsaturated fat-rich olive and avocado oils (which boost heart, brain and metabolic health- improving blood sugar response “insulin sensitivity”) and herbs and spices like rosemary, sage and thyme (which add anti-inflammatory antioxidant-rich polyphenols too which help your brain and body) instead.
Why go oily, not greasy?
When I think of oils and fats I like to think that there are two types- the greasy ones that leave your skin, hands, hairand face feeling dirty and dry like you can’t wash it away, and oily ones that add tasty flavour and moisture. When you eat an unprocessed restaurant or home made pizza it is drier, and you can add oils to it with chilli and olive oil dressings and condiments. When you eat a processed pizza such as dominoes or ultra-processed supermarket pizzas, it leaves your hands, skin and face greasy. When you eat a sustainably farmed roast chicken it has natural chicken oils and fats in it, and these add collagen to your bones, skin and hair and taste delicious. These oils add health value to your body. They help us not harm us. When you eat Californian deep-fried battered chicken, loaded with hormones and artificial ingredients, added sugars and salts, you cannot get the grease off your hands and face and it makes you feel sweaty and your hair feels greasy and dirty. You harm your body. Adding saturated fats and salts is bad for your heart. Adding sugar is bad for your blood sugar insulin sensitivity and metabolism and causes inflammation through advanced glycation endproducts. We should add health to our body, and help it, not harm it.
Carbs with your carbs? That's not a balanced diet?
Why add grease to your life? Fish and chips are so much better without the batter. Cod is a delicious fish and is lovely lean with baked or mashed potatoes and veg. Why have battered soggy fish and dry chips? There is no culinary comparison. Why have a burger battered? The beef is delicious by itself and you can have it with a lovely wholemeal burger bun that won’t be ultra-processed and cause huge spikes in your blood sugar, which makes you tired, hungry and mentally foggy. I know sometimes you fancy a greasy burger, but you can get the same delicious umami flavour sensation to curb your craving with a lean 5% mince burger cooked in brain power, heart-helping (monosaturated and polyunsaturated rich) olive oil, as you can get from a deep-fried and battered one. You are allowed treats and so can get your carbohydrates from the ultra-processed white bun if you want, but battering the burger too is protein in the burger with carbs on the meat with carbs in the bun with carbs in chips and carbs in condiments. It’s carbohydrate overdosing.
If you have a battered vegan or vegetarian burger in a bun with chips, which has a burger made of mainly lentil, chickpea or bean plants (containing mostly carbs as there is 45g carbs and 15g protein in 100g chickpeas etc) then you are having carbs with carbs with carbs with carbs sending your blood sugar mad. If this comes with seasoned chutneys or ketchups or sweetened gerkins and sweet cabbage or kimchi or red peppers (with added sugars and artifical sweeteners) you’ve added more simple carbohydrates. This will send your blood sugar and energy skyrocket and have you crashing down quickly after. It will cause inflammation. The salt will raise your blood pressure, the simple sugars will raise your blood sugar and make insulin (the thing that regulates our blood sugar) less sensitive to sugar and less able to regulate it well, making us more at risk of insulin resistance and diabetes and metabolic syndrome. This food is directly harming your health. When we eat this food we are self-harming. There is no other way of putting it. It is self-harm. When you eat unprocessed, natural, health adding food. This is self-love.
Be better than this- skip the batter for your blood sugar, heart and health.
Copyright Laurentia Campbell
