Ready-To-Heat Meals For A Month! What It Did To My Health | Talking Point

[Music]

Okay, guys, come on in.

>> I've invited some friends for a meal.

>> We've got some renang, some spicy

chicken, sod, curry chicken, even mac

and cheese, meatballs, pasta, and smoked

duck. And this is just a seafood roll.

>> Oh,

>> duck in. Let's go. Let's go.

>> Go for it.

>> I love the renaman.

>> I love the taste.

>> What do you think of the chicken?

>> It's moist enough. It's not overcooked.

>> What if I told you that it took me less

than 10 minutes to prepare each dish?

>> Oh,

s

>> 10 minutes is crazy, dude.

>> Okay.

All is revealed.

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>> Essentially, these are all what we call

ready to heat meals.

>> It came in a box. I simply had to

microwave it.

>> Wow.

>> Wow.

>> None of my guests could tell that this

feast that looks freshly cooked came

from these boxes.

Ready to heat meals designed to mimic a

home-cooked meal. They are catching on

fast. You'll find them everywhere now

from soumarkets to vending machines.

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So, in this episode, I find out more

about these meals. They're a convenient

choice, but are they a tasty and healthy

one?

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The plan is this. I'm going on a diet of

ready to heat meals. Going to have them

for lunch and dinner 5 days a week for

one whole month.

Before I start on the experiment, it's

time for a health check.

>> Does look such a big difference in the

small.

>> Hello.

>> Meet John, our executive producer. He's

going through the same health check

because he's also going to be on the

same diet as I will be.

>> It's always good to have more data,

right? Okay. We'll check your

cholesterols. We'll check your sugars

and then we will take some high weight

measurements. We also check your liver

function, your kidney function just to

get a kind of a general idea of your

nutrition at the start.

>> And then at the end of one month, we

repeat all these measurements and let's

see if there's any differences.

Besides the usual cholesterol and blood

sugar levels, our hydration and sodium

levels will also be monitored through

our liver and kidney functions.

Then it's off to stock up on some ready

to heat meals.

Okay. Ooh, there's quite a variety here.

Got Asian, Western, Korean, even. What's

this? Stir fried chicken and basil with

rice. $5.50. Some of that. Oh, local

favorites. Ayam baka blue pea rice, clay

pot chicken rice, and these are only

$3.85 each. Wow, these are cheaper than

you would get even at a hawker center.

I think I've got all that my freezer can

fit for now. This should last me about 2

weeks.

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And the total price is $92.54.

Let's find out what that means for each

meal. Oh, it's only $4.60 per meal,

which sounds like a pretty good deal.

So, the question is now I wonder if they

taste as good as they look. Let's go

find out.

That first bite was quite tasty. It's

still really hot. But the main thing is

I realized

this portion is really small. There are

four pieces of chicken meat in there.

Some vegetables and sauce.

The aroma is not bad. There's no way

this is healthy.

No vegetables. Not even any onions. It's

basically just bread and cheese pretty

much with a bit of truffle flavor. Maybe

I'll actually lose some weight from this

experiment.

pasta with chicken sauce. Uh quite a lot

of pasta

sauce. And again, nothing much in it. I

got to admit, eating all this frozen

food, it's very unsatisfying.

>> So far, I've not found the meals

particularly tasty, but maybe it's just

me. Maybe others won't find it so bad.

I guess it's time for a taste test. Come

on in, guys. Come. I've brought seven

talking point viewers and John.

I'll be serving four dishes. The ready

to heat version

versus a freshly cooked hawker version.

I want you to rate each dish that you

get. So, based on a score of 0 to 10.

Zero being it's horrible, nasty. 10

being really yummy and delicious. Now,

here's the only catch.

You're going to do it blindfolded.

Uhhuh.

Okay. Let's bring on the first dish,

which is spaghetti with chicken sauce.

The left side we see

57. Okay, now we go for the right side.

There you go. So, the left plate is the

winner for everyone except Heidi.

Why did you like the right one more?

>> More flavor. I could taste like there's

spice in there. Yeah, like herbs.

>> The first dish tasted you could taste

the tomatoes. You could taste the sauce.

>> The second one was it was not salty. It

was a bit sweet. Was a bit weird.

>> We're bringing on the second dish is

butter chicken biryani.

>> No, man.

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>> Dish number three, beef renang.

So, how many of you like the one on the

left more?

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All right, guys. We're down to the last

dish. Seafood han.

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We got to do a total score. Overall, 196

points for the dishes on the left and

180 for the dishes on the right.

Okay. The one on the left are what we

call ready to heat meals.

Right. Right.

>> Yeah. This guy on the right, we actually

got them fresh.

>> Huh.

>> From different hawkers, different

places. But basically, they were not

frozen. They were cooked fresh.

>> Oh, really?

>> Ah. So, so it's surprising that the

fresh stuff didn't do as well.

>> Maybe it's the preservatives that they

put in the ready to heat that makes the

flavor more

>> Oh, more enticing.

So, based on these results, what I want

to do is visit a food manufacturer who

makes these ready to eat meals to find

out what it is they're doing, how

they're cooking it, and why it could end

up being so tasty.

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Just another typical day out filming and

I'm finding that, you know, I'm feeling

really sluggish and tired. The food I've

been eating doesn't give me much energy

and it doesn't last long. So, I find

like it's, you know, 4:00 and I'm hungry

already.

Ooh, this is one of those cases where

the picture actually looks pretty much

like the dish, except feel like I see

big prawns on the picture, but I don't

see any prawns in the noodle. So, but

still, this one's got lots of greenery.

So, that actually is making me happy,

even though I'm not really a vegetable

lover.

Not too bad.

The frozen meals didn't fill me up much,

but the taste test I did showed they

outperformed the fresh versions. So, I'm

taking the results to a food

manufacturer who specializes in this.

They produce over half a million ready

to heat meals for different brands each

year.

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So, Alex, I want to show you this chart.

On the left is the column for ready to

heat meals. On the right was the freshly

cooked version. So, does it surprise you

that in some cases people found the

ready to heat meals more tasty than the

freshly cooked version? Actually, it

doesn't surprise me because I think for

ready to eat meals right when it's

produced centrally in the kitchen, you

do have professional and R&D chef to

really work on the recipe to tweak to

the taste that mass consumer actually

enjoy.

>> So, so how do you ensure that the ready

to heat meals you know the frozen

version end up tasting just as good as

the fresh stuff.

>> We will look at the ingredients itself

and we will see what are the ingredients

that are suitable for freezing. So, for

example, like your greens after freezing

it will turn darker. Texture wise is

usually not as ideal.

>> Okay. So some things freeze better than

others and Okay.

>> Exactly. Yeah. So today actually we are

baking our naslamat bento.

>> Time to find out for myself what will

freeze better and go into ready to heat

meals.

>> All right.

>> Okay. So our chicken is taught in this

very big cold room.

>> Yeah. Nice

>> overnight. Okay. So one strip we cut

into three.

Yeah. fun to shine.

>> Are some meats easier to cook than

others?

>> Uh, chicken freeze well, but the way you

prepare is very important. So, next time

we are doing a cooking, try to thaw your

frozen chicken in the chiller. It

actually tastes as good as a fresh

chicken.

I'm going to introduce you to my head

chef James.

>> Okay. Now over here we are doing uh the

honey fried chicken already been

marinated and we push this in.

>> Let's go into the oven.

And once this is cooked, does this then

get packed away? Do you add any other

preservatives or additives to it?

>> If the customer needed it to extend the

shelf life, then we do.

>> So here we are looking at both uh

natural and e label preservatives.

>> So what are these types of additives?

>> Yeah. So natural preservative came from

natural ingredients like sugar, sugar

cane. So we have two different uh

preservative here. One is the vinegar

based. The other preservative is a sugar

based product like sweet sauces. By

adding this we can extend the shelf life

from 3 months to 6 months, 6 months to 1

year.

>> Oh okay. Okay.

>> And the natural preservative cost more

expensive than the e- label

preservatives.

>> I see. Okay. And what are the e- label

preservatives?

>> E- label preservative basically as you

can see is sodium benzoit. It also

increase the shelf life.

>> At which stage is this normally added?

>> Uh during the final stage of the

cooking. So some recipe like 200 kilos

300 kilos of sauces that you are making

it only require 01 g.

>> Oh so little for so much sauce.

>> Yes. This about this much.

>> Wow. And that will help increase the

shelf life.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay. Now we seated it up. Boom.

>> There you go.

Ching.

>> Oo. Okay.

Ah, there you go. Wow, that was quick

and nicely sealed.

>> Yep. So, after this, we send it into a

glass freezer.

>> Okay. So, this is the freezer, right?

>> Yep.

>> All right. Let's put this.

>> And that's it. So, in 4 hours, this will

be frozen.

>> It'll be rock hard. Preservatives

are one type of food additive. There are

other types of food additives that can

be used for enhancing flavors, colors,

or textures.

Simple Foods tells me they don't add

much additives, but many other

manufacturers rely on them to make

frozen meals look and taste better and

last longer.

So, I'm halfway through the experiment,

back to stock up for the last two weeks,

but I've noticed that the portion sizes

can be quite small. So this time we've

decided to expand the range.

Wholesome and nutritious quick meals.

This is interesting. They've got water

crest soup, ABC soup, lotus root soup,

one soup, and one fish.

And it all adds up to $129

if I divide that by 20.

$645 per meal. Okay, so a bit more

expensive than the previous time, but

that's because I've also intentionally

chosen meals which are, I guess, more

nutritious, have less preservatives,

less additives. So, I'm into my final

week of eating ready to heat meals.

Today, I'm having a chasu fried rice and

a one tan soup. I still find them all

salty. They're all just really salty in

general, but I also noticed that you can

find a wide variety of food out there.

It all depends on what you pick to eat.

Well, folks, I'm down to my last frozen

meal for the experiment. Uh, I'm so done

with eating ready to heat meals. Now,

the question is, what has it done to my

body? So, tomorrow I'm going to see the

doctor to get a blood test. And then

we'll find out.

>> It's been a month. I'm back at Dr.

Lynn's clinic. If you remember, John,

our executive producer, was also on the

same diet. We're both here to receive

our test results.

>> Morning, doctor.

>> We are here. Welcome back.

>> Let me just give you a results first.

Okay. This is for you and this is for

you. Thank you.

>> Okay. We've seen a quite a big increase

in your uh saturated uh fats, your your

bad cholesterols, what we call the LDLs.

Um for both of you, there's been about

10 to 20% increase uh in your

cholesterols, which is uh quite

significant. you know um LDLs as you u

may have heard it they're the

cholesterols that are responsible for

causing uh coronary uh artery blockages.

We check your kidney function and your

liver function.

>> Um for John there was a very very slight

uh increase in your liver um enzymes

basically which shows a bit of

inflammation in the liver which could be

tied to the increase in the LDLs as

well. And are we able to sort of blame

it on those meals on that diet?

>> Well, I mean, most likely from uh I mean

that's the only thing that changed,

right? You know, last one month.

>> We don't usually eat ready to heat meals

every day, but for this experiment, we

did it twice a day, 5 days a week for 30

days straight. We wanted to see what

happens when convenience becomes a

lifestyle.

So, now that I know what it's done to my

body, I want to know why. What is it

about the food that has caused this? And

I'm wondering, how many can I actually

safely eat in a week?

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I received my results and it showed that

both John and my bad cholesterol levels

have gone up while the rest of the

health markers remain consistent. But

remember, we were eating ready to heat

meals for a whole month. I'm bringing

the result to Carolyn. She'll be able to

tell me what caused this increase.

>> Hey Caroline.

>> Hi Steve. So these are the blood test

results for John and I. And basically

the doctor said our bad cholesterol went

up by about 10 to 20%. Do you think it's

because of what we were eating and

because we're eating it for so long like

30 days?

>> Well, it is possible. Uh why don't we

take a look at a few examples of what

you eat?

>> Sure.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay. These look familiar.

>> Yes. These are some examples of food you

actually ate during the last one month.

>> Let's look at the first example. Right.

So when you look at a product food

product, you look at the nutrition

information panel and here you can see

that the calorie content is 676.

>> Okay,

>> you look at protein, you look at total

fat as well as carbohydrate as these

gives you energy. So zooming into the

total fat, you can see that it's pretty

high

>> and a lot of that fat is actually coming

from saturated fat because too much of

saturated fat is linked to bad

cholesterol in the blood.

>> Oh, and that's not good, right?

>> That's right. Yeah. So another thing

that I want to bring your attention to

is the sodium.

>> Per day a person is supposed to take not

more than 2,000 mg of sodium.

>> But here is already over 1,000.

>> This is very close to 2,000 mg.

>> Okay.

>> Right. So in one meal you're get almost

getting what you're supposed to take in

a day.

>> And why is too much salt bad for us?

>> In the long run you can increase your

risk of hypertension,

>> uh blood pressure and of course

increases your risk of heart disease.

Okay.

>> Right. Let's look at this meal here.

This is mainly just starch. So there's

no meat. There's no vegetables there.

Now the one here is slightly better.

>> Okay. These are green vegetables.

>> It's got a little bit more vegetables

and it's got actually some meat in

there. So it is relatively better than

this one here.

>> Let's say I have to eat these meals cuz

I have no choice. Is there a healthier

way to do it?

>> Definitely. Just read the labels, right?

Look at the 100 g column of the products

so that you're comparing same

quantities. Now in this product you have

7.5 grams

>> of total fat

>> of total fat and 100 grams

>> versus 1.4 gram.

>> That's right.

>> Saturated fat zero versus 2.6 g.

>> Exactly. So when you are trying to cut

down on saturated fat, just look at the

100 g column and that way you can choose

foods specifically that are lower in fat

content and that's going to do good for

the cholesterol.

>> Generally is a good thing. Yeah,

>> exactly. I learned that it's best to not

have more than six to seven grams of

saturated fats per meal.

>> Another thing that we tend to neglect is

actually dietary fiber. Vegetables give

you that. Um fruits give you that,

right? And let's look at these three

meals. You can see that there are hardly

any vegetables in there

>> except a little bit of greens there

perhaps for color.

>> But what can I do about that?

>> Here you go.

>> Ah, eat this together with

>> together. That's right.

>> I see. So when you add a vegetable

portion to your meal, right, it improves

the entire nutritional profile of it.

>> Yeah. It changes it to I guess a more

balanced meal overall, right?

>> That's right. Yeah.

>> But at the end of the day, I guess it

sounds like these are meals you should

not be eating too often, right?

>> Not too often. Try to limit it to less

than four times a month.

>> Currently, most of our ready to heat

meals are blast frozen. Blast freezing

is a method used to lock in freshness.

It freezes things in a few hours, hence

preserving texture, flavor, and

nutrients. But even then, additives are

still used sometimes to protect the food

and stop bacteria growth.

In 2020, two engineers discovered a new

way to freeze food and to have it last

for 2 to 3 years with its taste and

texture maintained and all without the

use of additives.

And the next thing I knew, I was

subjected to a blind taste test.

Chicken rice. Okay, let's see. H smells

pretty fragrant.

Very good.

This one,

not as much smell,

but Oh.

also very tasty.

So, besides the uh fragrance from the

rice, I mean, I couldn't really tell the

difference. I would say this one on my

right was the uh freshly cooked version.

This one on my left

>> is the frozen version.

>> Okay. Now, I bring you to the the next

dish.

>> All right.

>> So, in front of you now, there's two

plates. Both are wagi sushi.

>> M. Yum. Tastes just like the usual

stuff.

Okay. I can't tell the difference

honestly, but if I have to make a guess,

this is the freshly cooked one and this

is the frozen version.

>> So now you can take off your blindfold.

>> Okay. Let's see what they look like.

Ooh, visually they look exactly the

same. I would not be able to tell if you

serve this to me in a a restaurant or a

cafe anywhere. I would not be able to

tell

>> the difference as to whether they were

frozen or not.

>> So what you have ate these are all

storebought frozen with a freeze and

this have kept for 6 months before

you're tasting this

>> and it still managed to retain its

fluffiness. I always thought the rice

would you know become really hard.

>> So when you freeze a product you're

actually freezing the water content

within the product. So in a typical

normal blast freezing process the ice

crystals are generally bigger with sharp

edges. What happen is that this sharp

edges ice crystals will puncture the

cell membranes of the food product. When

you bag free something, we are

controlling the formulation of the ice

crystals making them smaller and rounder

and aligning the ice crystals

accordingly. So that this minimizes the

damage to the product itself. You can

freeze things as it is without

additional chemicals additive, without

added sodium, sugar or fats. You can

just freeze it.

This technology is currently being

marketed to food manufacturers in

Singapore and the region. And if all

goes well, we'll be seeing ready to heat

meals that use this technology in the

market soon.

Oh yeah. So, if you recall during the

show, we did an experiment and found

that ready to heat meals actually taste

just as good as the freshly cooked ones.

And John and I also embarked on a

month-long experiment with those meals.

And in the end, our health test showed

that well, ready to heat meals are

something you should not be eating too

often or on a regular basis. So, I guess

today you can say I'm making up for all

that lost nutrition. I've got a whole

bunch of vegetables. We're going to make

up for all those meals that didn't have

any of these. Let's start with the veg.

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