>>In my young and crazy years I did drink too much (the quip about washing away brain cells definately was true back then) and in the young and stupid years I was a smoker - there might have been some overlap ;-)

Latest evidence I saw was that 5 years after stopping smoking, the risks are similar to those of somebody who never smoked. The trick is to quit 5 years before you get the cancer: around 86% of lung cancers are smoking-related.

I agree with buying basic produce and preparing it yourself. Looking at ingredients, I'm struck by the preservatives and real sugar or artificial sweeteners in a lot of prepared food items. And just as a warning: there's a bustling trade in packaged raw vegetables from China. Basically Asian restaurants can maximize profits by using imported sliced and prepared vegetables that often are packaged in meal sizes. I used to be fond of Thai food as you could see the chefs in the kitchen cutting up the raw ingredients- but these days kitchens more often are closed and the veg is poured into the wok from a plastic package grown and prepared who knows how. The sign I've learned to watch for is carrots cross-sliced into a wavy pattern like a crinkle-cut crisp: that seems to be a common theme in this imported frozen stuff.

>>When I do not want to cook myself I go or ride to a restaurant esp. in the few cases I want something like pizza, as I know a few small places here where they make everything themsselves (as it is their main biz) not buying frozen pizza and staying away from big food chains like pizza hut except for anchoring lower end of my taste scale once or twice in a decade.

Agreed. Kids over here like Hell Pizza ( www.hellpizza.com ) but that's because of imaginative names and ingredients. They use free range ingredients but it's still a low value franchise item. FWIW you can make pizza dough in 45 minutes in a bread maker and make your own pizza fairly easily. IME the secret ingredient to make it taste better than a salt-laden commercial variety is: chutney mixed with avocado oil, crushed garlic and water and drizzled over the pizza immediately before cooking. ;-)

Update: Hell Pizza delights in provocative advertisements.

http://www.campaignbrief.com/nz/2011/06/barnes-catmur-friends-win-may.html
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2007/hell-too-good-for-some-evil-bastards/

(That second one was found to be offensive by the authorities, fwiw)