WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[Tizer]

At last, some sense being spoken about dairy foods...

`Eating cheese does not raise risk of heart attack or stroke, study finds' LINK
"Consumption of even full-fat dairy products does not increase risk, international team of experts says. Consuming cheese, milk and yoghurt – even full-fat versions – does not increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to research that challenges the widely held belief that dairy products can damage health. The findings, from an international team of experts, contradict the view that dairy products can be harmful because of their high saturated fat content. The experts dismiss that fear as “a misconception [and] mistaken belief”. The results come from a new meta-analysis of 29 previous studies of whether dairy products increase the risk of death from any cause and from either serious heart problems or cardiovascular disease. The study concluded that such foodstuffs did not raise the risk of any of those events and had a “neutral” impact on human health.

[Tripps]

" The research was part-funded by the three pro-dairy groups – Global Dairy Platform, Dairy Research Institute and Dairy Australia – but they had no influence over it, the paper said. "

[Stanley]

Good news Tiz. I have of course got a soft spot for dairy, I've worked in the industry from the cattle right up to the finished product on the doorstep (Metaphorically of course!) That forgotten corner that Cathy posted of the third pint bottles of school milk says it all really. Until Thatcher we were all reminded at an early age of the benefits of drinking milk. Funny thing is of course that in many cultures, Japanese for instance, the ability to digest milk fades very early in a child's life and I can remember how surprised I was to be appraised of this fact by a Japanese friend in the US. Any dairy product made him ill. I think the theory is that in Northern Europe the need for high calorie nutrition due to the lower temperatures was one factor in retaining the enzymes necessary for digestion of milk fat. The Inuit have a similar digestive trait in that they can deal with quite enormous volumes of fat, they need it for survival.
Funnily enough, it was research into Inuit diet after it was realised they had one of the lowest incidences of heart disease globally was the trigger for serious lipid research in the West. See 'Queen of Fats'.....

[Tizer]

This article raises concerns about a shortage of butter but also notes that one of the reasons is that more people are now eating butter. Later in the article we read: "Since butter featured on the front cover of Time Magazine in 2014, its popularity has soared and demand for it is strong. In America, McDonalds has recently switched from margarine to butter. And others are following suit. We're drinking less skimmed milk which means there is less cream which was taken from it."
`Butter could cost more by Christmas, Arla boss warns' LINK

[Stanley]

Entirely predictable Tiz. If you make milk-producing uneconomical by allowing market forces to set the price this is inevitable. Another consequence of government distancing itself from real life and responsibility. The old Milk Marketing Board had its faults but on the whole did a wonderful job of making sure we had plenty of dairy products and a healthy industry. The commanding heights again. Some things have to be managed in the interests of society, not the wallets of the fat cats.

[Tizer]

Some things have to be managed in the interests of society, not the wallets of the fat cats.

As I think you usually say, `From your mouth to God's ear'! We can include housebuilding in the same category too. I'll go further and say that I think all land should be the property of the nation, not individuals.

[Stanley]

Some truths are eternal Tiz. 'Commanding heights of the economy' covers it all. Personally I'd make control of available diet a priority. If someone did a proper cost-benefit analysis they would find that the biggest killer and economic drag on the NHS has been the food processors modification and manipulation of what the vast majority eat in their search for growth and profit. The current threat is the decline of cooking and reliance on fast food delivered to the door.

[chinatyke]

Some things have to be managed in the interests of society, not the wallets of the fat cats.

I'll go further and say that I think all land should be the property of the nation, not individuals.

Just like China, comrade. Would you like a copy of Mao's Little Red Book? It doesn't take 10 years of debating when you want land to build a new railway line or 3rd runway!

[Stanley]

I have a copy China.......

[Tizer]

It doesn't take 10 years of debating when you want land to build a new railway line or 3rd runway!

Or even more importantly, when you want to build infrastructure for renewable energy projects or lay power lines to bring in electricity from hydro plants and offshore wind farms etc. But most significant of all, it would help solve our housing crisis. The extraordinary increase in value of our houses in recent decades is mostly due to the increased value of the land - we can build more houses but we don't make more land. The housebuilding companies, and now many individuals (often foreign and based overseas), accumulate land simply as an investment. We need to put an end to it...but can you imagine the reaction from the vested interests?

[Stanley]

Ah, but such enlightened policies are referred to in pejorative terms as 'Soviet Style Command and Control policies' by those vested interests Tiz. In terms of what we eat, look back to the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture and the local 'War Ag Committees' during WW2. They specified cropping and were an integral part of one of the most enlightened and successful food and nutrition initiatives we have ever experienced. For a modern example, see the way the 'Market' has buggered up to dairy industry leading to shortages and higher prices..... Cunning stuff! The Market works all right but not for us!

[Stanley]

I've been watching the egg problem in Europe where pesticide contamination has been found in eggs suspected to be from Holland. I thought of Wendy when I heard that morning that the most likely source of the contamination is the use of banned insecticides to combat Red Mite. (LINK)

[Wendyf]

Fipronil is used in the flea treatments we use on our cats and dogs so it doesn't surprise me that it's used to control lice on poultry that aren't destined for human consumption. There surely can't be much that gets into the eggs, though it may get onto the shells. I use diatomaceous earth powder in my battle with the dreaded red mite.

[Wendyf]

The low carb support group in Skipton now have a website:
http://www.lowcarbskipton.co.uk

[Stanley]

The food standards people said yesterday that now they suspect that 700,000 0f the suspect eggs came to the UK but for the industrial baking market and that levels were so low there was no cause for concern. I remember them saying that about DDT and Radiation, they talked about 'safe levels'.
I remember in the old days implanting hundreds of cockerels with a hormone slug in the neck which caponised them. I often wondered how many got through to the cooking process! I think they are banned now.

[Bruff]

A consistent problem when communicating risk. ‘Safe’ is very often interpreted as meaning zero risk as the ordinary dictionary definition would suggest that. But zero risk does not exist and arguably shouldn’t exist as the acceptance of risk is a trade-off against benefit that is, one accepts risk(s) for the benefit(s) that accrue. So mention of ‘safe’ by regulators generally means something like ‘safe enough’ or ‘safe with respect to legal requirements’. The destroying of 000s of eggs and removal of products from shelves is really is one of maintaining trust in institutions and regulations, rather than a response to a level of risk. Same with horsemeat in beef products – nothing wrong with horsemeat at all, all things being equal, but it should not be in beef products and we need to be reassured this is the case.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Dead right Richard. One of the banes of our modern age is that people don't understand managing risk, an essential life-skill I reckon!

[Stanley]

I have mentioned it before but Richard reminded me again with his comment about horse-meat. During the war horse-meat was never rationed and it was a valuable source of protein for anyone who could overcome their inhibitions. Just off Prince's Street in the centre of Stockport there was a licensed horse-meat butcher, Bert Slack. My mother used to buy meat there and perhaps the best steak I ever had was horse meat but my dad couldn't stomach it, having been reared with horses in Australia. He had no objections to mother buying it or us kids eating it but he wouldn't touch it. I have little doubt that horse meat was used in meat pies and steak puddings but nobody ever mentioned it.
It always strikes me as strange that many people still regard horse meat as bad meat even though they have no experience of working with them. Perhaps it's the Black Beauty syndrome.
Another old memory comes back. I can remember a post war expose in the Manchester Guardian about a scandal that had come to light whereby young horses were being bled to death with a pump and the meat sold as veal..... I wonder if that still goes on.....

[Wendyf]

It could be said that there is a link between religion and official dietary guidelines. This link is to a talk by Gary Fettke, an Australian orthopaedic surgeon who was recently banned from giving nutritional advice because he inappropriately reversed a patient's diabetes through diet.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=you ... tkvriSwX8I

[Stanley]

Good link Wendy and I approve of everything he says. I have often said that if proper analysis was done, the manipulation of our food for profit and ideological reasons without proper scrutiny is one of the biggest killers in the world. In the end, change will only come about by people like us spreading the word. (And don't forget, we might be ideological and wrong also, but we have our own examples as evidence)

[Stanley]

It must be the silly season..... One of the main pieces of 'news' this morning is that a slow steady diet change to reduce weight is more likely to succeed than a crash diet. The 'Tortoise and Hare' principle. I think this comes under the 'bleeding obvious' category......

[Wendyf]

Interesting blog here from the Xpert Health researchers about metabolism and how the body reacts to dieting.
https://www.xperthealth.org.uk/Home/New ... eight-loss

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

I had a good example of the validity of the title of this topic last night and this morning. Due to the fact I was picnicking on the canal with my friends and it was a Jacob's Join my diet yesterday included stuff I would not normally touch with a barge pole. In addition, because the boat's gas bottle wasn't connected properly we couldn't brew up! This meant that my fluid levels were low. During the night I was woken with agonising cramp in my right leg, most unusual and I put it down to the departure from my normal regime.
My response will be to get back on my usual regime as fast as possible. I got some steak and kidney and started a pan full of steak and kidney with onions in a tomato sauce cooking on the hob. I already had a big bunch of veggies in the slow cooker in the gravy from the mutton I cooked last Sunday so a combination of the meat and these veggies will be my diet today. I'll bet I don't get cramp tonight!

[Big Kev]

Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2, discussing type 2 diabetes and LCHF diet.