WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[Stanley]

Couldn't agree more David. We still have a few 'traditional' shops but as you say, many have bitten the dust. My pet hate is fast food shops.....
I remember the furore about unregulated food. Given a choice between the risks of eating WI cakes and jam and Deliveroo or Just Eat guess which I would go for? (Incidentally they have some of the dirtiest kitchens in the UK)

[Tizer]

The local WI branches share a shop here in the centre of Taunton and it's very popular. Sadly, the branches are finding it difficult to attract young members. I guess they feel they can learn everything on YouTube these days and they socialise online rather than in clubs or societies. When I was working I was a professional and active attending member of several societies for chemistry, food science, brewing but they were all seeing a declining membership.

[Stanley]

A touch of the herd mentality in many cases I reckon Tiz.
I have this perhaps deluded faith in the value of cooking fresh food at home as an aid to having a good immune system. I have no evidence but it would be interesting to see a study on the correlation between processed foods and home cooked when it comes to immune systems, allergies etc.

[Tizer]

`MPs urge UK ban on chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef' LINK

It's essential that we ban chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef now that we won't have the EU protection from these US products. As well as any concerns about harmful residues, both practices are bad for animal welfare and/or food hygiene. US farmers raise chickens under much worse conditions than do European farmers because they know the chlorination will kill off any bacterial infections. European farmers have to avoid these infections by ensuring good welfare conditions on their farms. Growth hormones used with cattle can remain as chemical residues in meat and they are only used to boost profits by making cattle grow faster than normal. They're not essential.

[Stanley]

Very true Tiz. Even my mate who is a GP in Minnesota got caught out. He developed a sore nipple and it was Mastitis. Turned out that his wife didn't realise she should avoid the milk that contained hormones. He educated her, she changed her shopping habits and the mastitis receded.
The point about lower rearing standards is well made. The last thing we need is the equivalent of the feed lots they operate over there or any of the products which emerge from them.

[Tizer]

You mentioned vitamin D the other day. I hope you heard yesterday's More or Less programme where they looked at whether it might help protect against covid-19? There are some claims that it can but they could easily be explained by other factors because people with low vitamin D levels probably have other things wrong with them. They concluded that it doesn't warrant advising people to take supplements but there is no harm done if you do take them. LINK

[Stanley]

I heard the programme and agreed with their verdict Tiz. It got me through the war and it's natural so I'll trust my Cod Liver Oil.

[Stanley]

THIS Caught my attention this morning after I heard a piece on World Service.
"Having studied appetite in animals over two decades, and transforming the science of nutrition with their findings, Professors David Raubenheimer and Stephen Simpson from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences are leaders in the field of nutritional ecology and obesity.
Their new book Eat Like The Animals reveals the reasons a baboon, a cat and a locust instinctively know exactly what to eat for balanced nutrition, and yet we humans can’t seem to figure it out.
This of course reinforces my own beliefs about diet and nutrition, and in particular micro-nutrients and trace elements. These are all degraded by processing and so the sensible thing is to stay as close to natural foods as possible particularly raw 'wild' foods like nuts and fruit.
I may have to buy this book!

[Stanley]

Later on a related subject. 'The Food Programme' concentrates on eating wild meat, the association with zoonotic disease (LINK) and also the same phenomenon in domestic animals. (I didn't know that measles originated in cattle).
In passing they touch on how smallpox and measles helped Europeans to colonise the Americas. (Influenza also in other cultures) A very interesting programme.
It struck me while listening to it that sea-caught fish are wild meat.

[Whyperion]

`MPs urge UK ban on chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef' LINK

It's essential that we ban chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef now that we won't have the EU protection from these US products. As well as any concerns about harmful residues, both practices are bad for animal welfare and/or food hygiene. US farmers raise chickens under much worse conditions than do European farmers because they know the chlorination will kill off any bacterial infections. European farmers have to avoid these infections by ensuring good welfare conditions on their farms. Growth hormones used with cattle can remain as chemical residues in meat and they are only used to boost profits by making cattle grow faster than normal. They're not essential.

Was not one of the countryfile/farming programmes recently on telly mentioned an animal growth hormone as part of feeding(in the UK) and just took t as normal and unquestioned or did I mis-hear

[Tizer]

The use of hormonal growth promoters for livestock is banned in the UK....but ...
`Agriculture bill: Bid to protect post-Brexit food standards rejected' LINK

[Stanley]

Used on milk cattle as well. My friend Ken who was a GP with the Mayo Clinic got mastitis and found his wife wasn't aware of the difference and had been buying milk from cattle treated with the hormone. He educated her, they changed brands and his mastitis went away. Include me out! I'll stick to local beef from a butcher I trust thank you.
On a broader point, I have little doubt there will be a stitch-up in any trade negotiations with the US. Their big target is the NHS and the drug market.

[Whyperion]

Said elsewhere about lack of the tasty marmalade in the Co-op
http://www.mackays.com/our-range/marmal ... marmalade/

Booths at Barrowford might have some varieties

available on line. Is the Saturday market in town running still ?

[PanBiker]

Is the Saturday market in town running still ?

We don't have access to the Town Square at the moment. It is being re-flagged.

[Whyperion]

Is the Saturday market in town running still ?

We don't have access to the Town Square at the moment. It is being re-flagged.

There used to be something in the car park of the Rainhall Centre once a month, did that fade when the farmers market propritors came into town? - that was mainly home made local stuff.

[Stanley]

News that Coca Cola sales have fallen and the company will have to make job cuts. I feel sorry for people affected but am glad to hear that less of the crimson fluid is being consumed.

[Tripps]

I feel sorry for people affected but am glad to hear that less of the crimson fluid is being consumed.

Now there's another spooky happening.
I keep a case of a dozen Coca Colas for an occasional visitor who is not likely to be seen for a long time and yesterday I came across it, and drank a can. Not from the can - I put it in a lead crystal glass of course - standards must be maintained. Far from crimson though I'd say - I recall comparing the appearance to Dandelion and Burdock. Definitely a 'drink of colour'.

[Cathy]

Here in Adelaide, our Coca-Cola Amatil factory closed this year. Around 180 workers lost their jobs, many had been there for 30yrs.
The factory had been here for 66yrs. They have gone to Queensland, and I think WA.
I remember doing a tour of the factory in my first year of high school.

[Tizer]

Sales of coca cola may have fallen due to the current restrictions on eating and drinking out but I think the main reason will be that young people are now more health conscious and will be less attracted to the drink.

[Stanley]

I always remember Janet telling me about hiking up the Khyber Pass and she saw a speck in the distance. When she got to it it was a shack selling Coca Cola. She said it was so incongruous.....

[Tizer]

I'm waiting for the day that our new Extremely Large Telescope* detects a coke can on Mars!
[It does exist, the telescope that is.. ELT ]

[plaques]

Being an infra-red detector it would only 'see' a coke can if coke was chemically still eating its way through the can or burning its way into the Martian soil.

[Tizer]

That's true - I was being a bit flippant and forgot it's an IR telescope!

[Wendyf]

I do enjoy a whisky and coke now and then.....

[Whyperion]

Here in Adelaide, our Coca-Cola Amatil factory closed this year. Around 180 workers lost their jobs, many had been there for 30yrs.
The factory had been here for 66yrs. They have gone to Queensland, and I think WA.
I remember doing a tour of the factory in my first year of high school.

There is some report that the making of a litre of Coke requires a stupid amount of (fresh) water. As to if that includes the water the employees drink I dont know)