WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[Stanley]

Never heard of it P but it sounds nasty! I looked at the report on CNN and all I can say is thank God for EU regulation!
I note that the US is among the biggest users so you could be right about trade deals.

[Stanley]

I know that some will look askance at my limited use of mashed potatoes in my Colcannan but all I can say is that it seems to be suiting me. Rules have to be varied slightly at times to allow for individual metabolisms. If you find a diet that agrees with you, stick to it!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on news once more that sugary drinks are bad for you. This one concentrates on what could be a link to cancer but the researchers admit this could be due to the risk of obesity. Whatever, the message is clear, drink water!

[Stanley]

A light healthy breakfast, beef pie, plum tomatoes and a pint of good organic coffee.

[Stanley]

I can't find the report on the web but depressing news for me this morning that the use of take way food and the Just eat/Deliveroo services is rising fast. It will end in tears.....

[Stanley]

Have a look at Read Any Good Books Lately....

[Stanley]

For many years the credible voices in nutrition have been telling us that taking multivitamins is almost certainly a waste of time if you eat a balanced diet of well prepared natural food. I have always believed them. However, re-reading Drummond and Fergusson has reminded me that things may have changed.
I have been banging on for a time about the possible depletion of micro-nutrients in our food due to modern farming methods of monoculture as opposed to old fashioned mixed farming. I have also noted that the levels of some vitamins in vegetables has fallen under the same system and other intensive growing methods.
On what sounds like a separate matter, but I believe it is significant, over the last few months I have noted a significant drop in energy levels but put it down as one of the known side-effects of the immunotherapy treatment I have been having for cancer. It was re-reading Drummond that started me wondering whether there might be another explanation. I have plenty of senior multivitamins and decided to take one every day for a trial period and see whether I could notice any effect.
Before anyone starts to pick holes, I know this isn't 'scientific'. It's all very subjective and might not apply to others. However, I have to report that after ten days I am certain that I am feeling much more energetic and as I haven't changed anything else, it could well be a result of the vitamins. One swallow doesn't make a summer but I can't ignore how I feel. I shall persist as long as it seems to be effective.
This doesn't mean that I reject Drummond, he was writing in the late 1930s. From 1950 onwards the emphasis of the government was to increase production so as to end rationing. We often forget that this didn't happen until 1954. What I saw at first hand was dairy farmers managing grass by using the Blue Bag, Pure nitrogenous fertilizer from ICI. This was a miracle and yields shot up. The same thing happened with different fertilizers in arable farming. I always suspected that nitrogen on grass was like a pump that extracted fertility built up over the years by old fashioned farming methods and after about 15 years I saw plenty of examples of pasture that had been ruined by Blue Bag. I suspected that the same could be true of arable.
We now see that this has been recognised and many progressive farmers are going back to mixed farming which looks after the soil. It may be that over time we regain pre-war levels of micro nutrients and vitamins. I hope so but I can't wait, I am going for the pills!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on a boy who has gone blind and his doctors have said it was essentially due to malnutrition in that he had lived all his life on junk foods leading to catastrophic vitamin deficiency. You have to take note of this indictment of failing to think and eat a balanced diet.
(Would my latest ploy of taking multivitamins have saved his sight?)
Later... I have heard clarification of this case. The lad was prescribed supplements but didn't take them.

[Tizer]

Each morning we take a multivitamin pill, a 200mg Vit C tablet and a fish oil capsule. They do no harm, don't cost much and they act as an insurance against any insufficiency in our diet. They're particularly important to me because anything that impairs absorption from the gut, such as my inflammation, can reduce absorption of vitamins and minerals.

[Stanley]

"They do no harm, don't cost much and they act as an insurance against any insufficiency in our diet."
Exactly my attitude Tiz. I have never been a pill-popper but I think we have reached a stage where the depletion of vitamins and micro-nutrients in modern diet is worth noting.
At one time eating wild food such as game or deep sea fish was a good insurance but this is no longer true. We have comprehensively polluted the whole of our environment. Look up Lindane on the web for just one example. (LINK)

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC account of a report in the British Medical Journal about a large survey of vegetarians. They conclude that whilst they may reduce the incidence of heart disease by their diet they could also be increasing the risk of a stroke.There could be an argument for an omnivorous diet in moderation and plenty of exercise!

[Tizer]

Avoid plastic tea bags. These researchers found that a single plastic teabag released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion smaller nanoplastic particles into the hot water in which it was brewed!
`Microplastics: Premium teabags leak billions of particles - study' LINK
The work was done by Canadian researchers but some tea bags in the UK use the plastics to strengthen their bags: UK bags

[Stanley]

Oh dear! Both my usual brands, Co-op and Tetley use the plastic.... I will consider going back to loose tea.

[Tizer]

Oh dear! Both my usual brands, Co-op and Tetley use the plastic.... I will consider going back to loose tea.

I would check in the shop first. It may be that only some of their tea bag types have plastic in them. And it doesn't do any harm to show that you take notice of what their products contain! (On that note, I made a complaint to the BBC yesterday that one of their news web site headlines was politically biased and they've changed it to avoid the bias. Yes, we can make a difference!)

[plaques]

I have a suspicion that Yorkshire tea are trying out some different types of paper bags. Every so often we get a box where a good number disintegrate when you stir them up. Rather than throw the 'failures' out they probably spread them out within their normal supply until they get the formulation right.

[Stanley]

I think I have made my decision. Loose tea was always good enough in the old days! I can remember taking screws of paper in my bait tin, one tea, one sugar and one salt (and my brew can). Later I graduated to an oval double ended tin for tea and sugar. I still use my brew can today for making coffee each morning. We never cleaned them but just swilled them with cold water, the next brew always tastes better!
In a pint pot at home I always put tea directly into the pot. If you let it brew properly the tea leaves stayed in the bottom. I still use pint pots so that won't be a problem.

[Tizer]

No wonder the nation has a problem with obesity....

[Stanley]

When I litter pick cans and bottles on my walks I always read the labels. I picked up a can of Pepsi and it said clearly on the label that one small can supplies 40% of the recommended daily allowance of sugar.....

[Stanley]

Just when you thought you had a handle on the dangers of eating red meat this pops up! THIS BBC account of new research that says that the risk from eating red and preserved meats is so low that it can be discounted.

[Tizer]

The BBC article does a good job of explaining how difficult it is to (a) carry out this type of research, (b) interpret the results, and (c) convey a meaningful message to the news media and the public. Keep in mind that these figures can only represent averages. For example, when the results suggest that reducing meat intake `for a lifetime, there would be seven fewer deaths from cancer' perhaps the reality is many people won't end up more likely to have cancer but the rest will be almost certain to get it. Who knows?

[Stanley]

Not a word about the good effects of a Full English! That's why I always ignore these shotgun studies and only take notice of the ones that seem to have a good scientific basis. For instance, I never bought the arguments against saturated fat and cholesterol.

[Wendyf]

It was good to hear investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman talking sense about veganism on Start the Week yesterday. So many people are jumping on the bandwagon and telling us to give up meat to save the planet that I despair.

[Big Kev]

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I think this sums it up nicely.

[Wendyf]

It appears that Harvard University, at the heart of the push (and science) to promote the vegan diet have huge land holdings of around 800,000 hectares, 300,000 of which are in Brazil where local farmers have been evicted and forests cleared to plant huge tracts of cereal crops using chemical fertilisers..... Good for the planet, I think not.

[Tizer]

Heard on the radio that in the UK 7% or the population claim to be vegetarian, 7% flexitarian (eats mostly veg but has some meat) and 2% vegan). The London-centric media and advertisers often give the impression that the proportions are much larger - rather like when they give the impression that 50% are `people of colour'.