WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[Tripps]

The spin doctors are hard at work - why no mention of horses? I ask myself.
Then I find in the press, - "Asda withdrew the product on March 8 after it was found to contain more than 1% horse DNA. "
Does "more than 1%" mean 1.5% or perhaps 50% ? it could really be either.

[Stanley]

David, the last thing we should expect is total transparency from the food industry about anything. As I said a while ago, the 'horseburger' scare was probably only the tip of the iceberg. See this LINK for the latest news of the tests by the Dutch in their investigation into two firms owned by one man who has long been suspected of re-labelling meat.
On a more positive note, have a look at this LINK and note the date, 1994. This was one of the fundamental studies that blew apart many accepted ideas about the dangers of saturated fats, a view espoused by the food industry because it bolstered their efforts to substitute cheaper fats and oils with longer shelf-life. There is a very clear linkage between this shift away from saturated fats and the increase in obesity and the Western Diseases.
I've been re-reading my lipid research and thanks to Susan Allport I have found both this article and a book written by another major scientist in the field of lipid research Artemis Simopoulos called 'The Omega Diet' published in 1998 under the title 'The Omega Plan'. I have got a copy and started reading it and I'd recommend it to anyone who cares about their nutrition and takes note of good research and reporting from impeccable sources. Allport's 'Queen of fats' is excellent but dense, Simopoulos renders the subject in a very accessible way and I am reading it avidly. My diet was good before but it's going to get better now! Oh, and by the way, for those who disbelieve everything that those dreadful scientists say, the evidence that underpins the whole field goes back over 5,000 years as the original trigger was the fact that the Cretan diet, though higher in fat consumption, gave the lowest incidence of the Western Diseases than any other in the world apart from some ancient aborigine tribes still subsisting on hunter/gatherer diets.
Please give it some thought, this is fundamental stuff!

[Tizer]

Another report of the dangers of importing foodstuffs from abroad without sufficient monitoring for contaminants...

NEW ORLEANS, USA, April 8, 2013 — Rice imported from certain countries contains high levels of lead that could pose health risks, particularly for infants and children, who are especially sensitive to lead’s effects, and adults of Asian heritage who consume large amounts of rice, according to scientists at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Tsanangurayi Tongesayi, who headed the analysis of rice imported from Asia, Europe and South America, pointed out that imports account for only 7 percent of the rice consumed in the United States. With vast rice fields in Louisiana, California, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, the U.S. is a major producer and exporter of the grain. However, imports of rice and rice flour are increasing ― by more than 200 percent since 1999 ― and rice is the staple food for 3 billion people worldwide, he added. “Such findings present a situation that is particularly worrisome given that infants and children are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning,” Tongesayi said. “For infants and children, the daily exposure levels from eating the rice products analyzed in this study would be 30-60 times higher than the FDA’s provisional total tolerable intake (PTTI) levels. Asians consume more rice, and for these infants and children, exposures would be 60-120 times higher. For adults, the daily exposure levels were 20-40 times higher than the PTTI levels.”

Tongesayi’s team, which is with Monmouth University in N.J., found that levels of lead in rice imported into the United States ranged from 6 to 12 milligrams/kilogram. From those numbers, they calculated the daily exposure levels for various populations and then made comparisons with the FDA’s PTTI levels for lead. They detected the highest amounts of lead in rice from Taiwan and China. Samples from the Czech Republic, Bhutan, Italy, India and Thailand had significantly high levels of lead as well. Analysis of rice samples from Pakistan, Brazil and other countries were still underway. Because of the increase in rice imports into the United States, Tongesayi said that rice from other nations has made its way into a wide variety of grocery stores, large supermarket chains and restaurants, as well as ethnic specialty markets and restaurants.
http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/c ... a5b6b0752b

[Stanley]

A timely warning Tiz. I only use Lubna Basmati Rice (Chowdrey's on the Square sell it), this is one of the rices genetically tested and proved to be actually grown in the foothills of the Himalayas and I think it may be fairly safe. One thing that occurs to me is the number of used lead-acid batteries sent out to under-developed countries to be recycled because they have far more relaxed environmental controls. Could it be our own lead coming back to bite us?
This goes to prove what I keep banging on about, we must be alert and well-informed so that we can make our own decisions about the food that we eat. Anyone who leaves this to the food industry and never questions them deserves all they get. It's your metabolism, do the best you can for it!

[PanBiker]

When we don't bake we buy some of our bread from Liddell's bakery on the town square. They bake a number of different artisan products and have introduced a few that are Chia seed based. They currently offer a cob loaf, cut or uncut, a tea cake and a plain scone all baked with Chia

I am getting quite a taste for what I have tried so far. The Chia seed is a member of the Mint family and is lauded in some quarters as a miracle food. It is a native of South America and Mexico and was used by the Aztecs and Mayan civilisations as a staple of their diets. The seeds are high in Omega 3, Fibre, Carbohydrates and Protein. They can be added as an ingredient to all manner of foods and drinks. I fancy getting some of the seeds and having a go with them in my own baking efforts. Might try them in drinks as well, the seeds turn to gel when soaked in water and can then be added to smoothies or the liquid used as stock or in anything else that needs a liquid component.

There was an article last year in the BBC News magazine:

BBC News Magazine - The Chia Craze

[hartley353]

May I add my endorsement to Panbikers posting on Chia seeds, we originally purchased the seeds as part of a recommendation from a friend. One of our terriers had developed a dry skin and accompanying scratching, she said that adding this seed plus a teaspoon of flax seed oil to his diet would help. Well it seems to have done the trick. We got the seeds from a local health food shop, and they came with a leaflet explaining the benefits. We have now added the seeds to our home mixed muesli, and both my partner and I believe we have felt a benefit.

[Stanley]

Read Allport's 'Queen of Fats' for an explanation of why certain seeds are essential to skin condition.

[Tizer]

Not everyone agrees about the benefits of chia seed and there are reports of it causing inflammation and other undesirable conditions. Although it's claimed to have a very high content of omega-3 fatty acids you can get about the same amount from eating flaxseed...and it isn't the more desirable long-chain omega-3 like that found in fish oil. If you want omega-3 then eat oily fish and/or take fish oil capsules or go `Stanley style' and take cod liver oil. The omega-3 in chia and flax (and other plants) has to be converted by the body to the long-chain variety which means it's less effective and won't do you much good if your body tissues have a lowered ability to carry out the conversion. A different view on chia is shown on this web site:
http://thepaleodiet.com/seed-fatty-acid-composition/

I'm wary of products like chia that get boosted by the Internet rather than genuine nutritional studies and many of them, particularly in America, have their own trade association doing the lobbying and advertising. A good example is the cranberry which has web sites like that of theWisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
http://www.wiscran.org/health_benefits_0003/
I'll bet our British elderberry has just as much if not more nutritional goodies in it...but it doesn't have the trade association and hasn't got `the image'.

[Tripps]

Well said. I looked into the cranberry /UTI connection a few years ago, and reached the same conclusion.

Any way please slow down with new grains - I haven't even got round to trying Quinoa yet, and now there's Chia to add to the list.

[Stanley]

The advertisers know we are all suckers for a quick fix. They exploit this and also fear of harrm when they plug the latest 'miracle food'. The efficacy of any Long Chain Omega3 fat depends on the balance with Omega6 and scientists increasingly suspect with levels of micro-nutrients also. The latter have been reducing in crops grown intensively and we know very little about their properties once they are in our bodies. The nearer a food source is to being wild and uncultivated the better it is for us. This goes for the game that lives on such food as well. Lots to be said for hunter-gathering! Problem is of course that you can't patent or sell that!

[Stanley]

I'm listening to a lady scientist from Minnesota arguing that theories that the diet we are best suited for is basically unchanged since the early days of evolution are fantasies. If she is right, the whole thrust of recent lipid research is at fault and I can't believe that. I wonder who's financing her research?

[Tizer]

Evidence for how fast food retailers, and especially McDonalds, are brainwashing kids in the US is given in this press release...

McDonalds, Burger King stray from advertising guidelines for kids
Fast food television commercials aimed at children ages 2–11 did not comply with self-imposed guidelines organized through the Better Business Bureau (BBB) during a one-year study period, according to a study published in the journal `PLOS ONE'.

The researchers examined TV ads appearing on U.S. cable and network television for the top 25 fast food restaurants from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. Over the one-year period, two global giants placed 99% of the ads: McDonalds (44,062 ads) and Burger King (37,210 ads.) McDonald’s targeted 40% of its advertisements at young children, compared with 21% for Burger King. As a result, McDonalds placed more than two-thirds of all ads for children’s fast food. Seventy-nine percent of ads appeared on four cable networks—Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and Nicktoons.

When compared to ads targeting adults, the children’s ads featured more cartoon characters, toys, and movie references. Children’s ads also included more visual cues than the adult ads to reinforce a child’s ability to recognize a restaurant’s corporate logo, symbols, packaging, and even the exterior storefront.

“Branding tactics are widely used in fast food advertising aimed at children,” said Jim Sargent, Co-director Cancer Control Program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center. “Advertisers use images of toy premiums, music, and movie characters to associate their product with excitement, energy, and fun. They emphasize recognition of the brand, the packaging, and the restaurant, with little emphasis on the food products sold there. This heavy dose of branding serves to help a child recognize the storefront of a fast food chain from the backseat and pester their parents to stop for a meal that features the latest superhero.”

While the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission play important regulatory roles in food labeling and marketing, the Better Business Bureau operates a self-regulatory system. Two different programs offer guidelines to keep children’s advertising focused on the food, not toys, and, more specifically, on foods with nutritional value.

Given the percentage of toy premiums and movie tie-ins in the visual and audio elements of the ads, the research team concluded that the companies studied did not follow through with their self-regulatory promises during the study period.
Full article `How Television Fast Food Marketing Aimed at Children Compares with Adult Advertisements here:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0072479

[Stanley]

Quite right Tiz. There is a sub-culture inside these organisations that works constantly to influence the young and at the same time deny that they are doing it. I remember my friend Peter Protoolis who worked for a firm making the burger buns for MacDonald's in Australia saying that one of the ways they influenced kids was to put more sugar in the buns. Something as simple as that was a powerful marketing tool. I know I am hopelessly old-fashioned but I can't help contrasting the food culture of today with what I experienced when I was growing up. The bottom line is that despite war and rationing we were not deprived and came out of the war as what some commentators have said was "the last healthy generation". On every measure we were better nourished than at any time in modern history. Look at the catalogue of Western Diseases and reflect that it has all been downhill since 1950. The marketing methods of the large food chains and processors cannot be absolved from blame and the more often we draw attention to this the more chance there is of someone listening and taking individual action. I am certain that this is the only way we will see a move away from bad practices and it should start with the education of children in their early years. It was pester power that was harnessed by the advertisers and it worked. Time to reverse the process!

[Stanley]

Tiz has sent me another book on nutrition to try to advance my education.....

[Tizer]

I was gobsmacked recently when I listened to a Radio 4 programme on palm oil. I've had close connections with people involved in palm oil, both in Western countries and in Malaysia where the oil's modern food applications where developed. The programme was interesting but failed to mention some important points and I was shocked to learn that France is about to repeat the American mistake of 30 years ago.

The oil palm is a perennial tree that produces fruit having oil in the kernel and in the fruit body around the kernel. It was originally an African tree grown for food and frying by the indigenous Africans and was exported to Europe and America from the 1800s to make soap (Palmolive etc). Then the palm was taken to Malaysia to replace rubber palms when synthetic rubber became available. The oil palm plantations thrived there and a Malaysian research centre was set up in the 1960s to develop the food and non-food applications (it was set up and run for the Malaysians by a British scientist, Kurt Berger, who had been chief chemist at Lyons in London). Palm oil (from the fruit) and palm kernel oil are now exported worldwide from Malaysia and also later began to be produced and exported from Indonesia too.

The kernel oil is similar in composition to coconut oil and is used in cosmetics and some food applications. The fruit oil is known as `red palm oil' because of its beautiful red colour due to the presence of beta-carotene. It has an excellent fatty acid composition for food use and is rich in some vitamins and antioxidants. In the 1980s the Malaysians began to promote the oil for export and were confronted by vigorous opposition from vested interests in the USA, in particular the trade associations representing US soybean and maize farmers. These organisations lobbied strongly and placed advertisements in national US newspapers condemning the oil, describing it as unhealthy and referring to it as `tropical grease'. It was a disgraceful campaign, very biased and based on lies, and it took a long time for Americans to begin to get better information about the oil and for it to be more widely accepted.

In addition to all this baseless criticism of palm oil's nutritive properties there began to be campaigning against it by the usual environmental groups worldwide. This was founded on the idea that to create new palm oil plantations the forests were being burnt down and species such as orangutans were endangered. Most of this has taken place in Indonesia and there is definitely a need for the Indonesian government to intervene and stop illicit burning of forests. However the plantations in Malaysia were already rubber palm plantations and the old palms were grubbed up and new oil palms grown in their place. So we shouldn't treat Malaysia and Indonesia as equals in causing environmental damage. Furthermore, the oil palm is a long-term perennial - once it grows to maturity you have many years of palm fruit production ahead.

What left me most concerned after listening to the radio programme was the extent to which France has been trying to prevent palm oil consumption. It already has a 100 euro per ton tax on the oil and wanted to add a further 300 euro tax although that was defeated. There is also a campaign of misinformation to deter companies and consumers from using the oil or eating foods containing it. There is also a move to force food companies to label products with the types of oil used, which in itself is a good idea but the impression is being given that it is aimed at making it easier for the public to avoid palm oil. All this is tragic when there is a lot of palm oil produced on sustainable plantations and the oil is an excellent alternative to hydrogenated fats which contain undesirable trans fatty acids.

[Stanley]

That's the sort of information that is the glory of this site. Thanks Tiz. Takes me back to reading the History of Unilever by Charles Wilson.

[Tripps]

Brilliant post Tizer. Good to have the inside story on a situation, and your version has the ring of truth to it. Having seen here what vested interests can do here, including simply lying about it, it makes me wonder what the inside story is on other issues. I am of course thinking of climate change. I am sure similar forces are at work there. Stanley has mentioned elsewhere the changes to life following the expansion of personal communication. In the web age - it's not so easy to get away with this sort of behaviour.

Change subject slightly - did you see the Harvest programme last night - interesting about rapeseed oil. I used to consider it the bottom of the heap in cooking oils - now it seems to have had a PR makeover, and we have the "cold pressed extra virgin" version, which seems to be close to nectar, and was eaten by dipping bread in, and with great reverence by Mr Wallace. I doubt that has ever been done in UK before, and guess Greg Wallace was doing the bidding of the rapeseed oil business.

I think they should have renamed it first - the concept of 'extra virgin rapeseed oil' is a difficult sell.

[PanBiker]

The benefits of Rapeseed oil were lauded by the new cookery program I saw the other day. First of a series I think with two cooks, one Muslim and one Hindu who are looking at using spices to enhance traditional english dishes. First episode included a Victoria Sponge and Cucumber sandwiches for the WI being given some extra "zing" to bring out the flavour. Better than Olive Oil in their opinion.

[Tripps]

One is a Sikh - Tony Singh, and the other Cyrus Todiwala, isn't likely to be Muslim judging by this recipe
The fact that they are also plugging Rapeseed Oil would confirm (to me) that there is a campaign going on here.

[PanBiker]

Got that slightly wrong Tripps. Tony is Sikh and Cyrus Hindu. The Incredible Spice Men was the show as you know. I was more taken with the recipes than their ethnicity. Anyway, good stuff.

[Tripps]

Sorry ian - I can't help it.

From BBC website. Cyrus Todiwala -
" Our own family is not Hindu (we are Zoroastrian), "

Like Freddy Mercury.

[Tizer]

I didn't see the Harvest programme but I'm familiar with the `extra virgin' cold-pressed type of rapeseed oil. It has been around a while but of course hidden from us all by the obsession with olive oil which is very expensive and has a strong industry lobby (even though a lot of olive oil is counterfeit). Rapeseed oil, whether of the refined, light coloured type or the darker coloured extra virgin, has a nutritionally good fatty acid composition, very close to that of olive oil (i.e. rich in monounsaturated fatty acids). If I was choosing a refined oil for cooking I would buy the ordinary rapeseed oil sold in the supermarket. The extra virgin type oil would be good as a salad oil or stir frying but not for deep frying; extended heating will cause some of the oil's components to degrade and affect the taste - this applies equally to extra virgin olive oil. In fact the desirable antioxidants, together with the green choropyll, in the unrefined oils are the very things that break down at high temperature and give unpleasant tastes and odours.

Rapeseed oil has had a hard life. It started out as used only for chemical manufacture, e.g lubricants, soap etc, because the oil contained a toxic component, erucic acid. Eventually scientists (those terrible people who want to kill us all!) bred rapeseed varieties free of erucic acid and suitable for edible oil manufacture. A serendipitous side effect of breeding out the erucic acid was an increased proportion of oleic acid, the main fatty acid of olive oil, so the new varieties were not only free of the toxic component but were as good as olive oil on the basis of fatty acid composition. But it was a cheap oil without the sexy image of olive oil and the companies couldn't make much money out of it except by selling it in bulk as a domestic frying oil (for which it is very good). The Germans and East Europeans have always grown a lot of rapeseed and about a decade ago their scientists started making cold pressed oil which retains the antioxidants and is nutritionally superior.

Another side to this story takes place in Canada where rapeseed is grown in massive amounts on the plains. The Canadian farmers and their trade associations reasoned that rapeseed, even after breeding out the erucic acid, was held back by the word `rape' in its name, so they christened it `canola'. This worked well in Canada but unfortunately they trade marked the name and insisted that it could only be used on certain types of rapeseed, thus ensuring a bigger market for their own seed and oil. This held back use in other countries but also caused a lot of confusion, due to people not knowing it was rapeseed oil they were using, and also by the wrong use of the names. Ask a European about canola and most won't know what you're talking about. And I notice that the oil in the Harvest programme was described as `rapeseed oil' and not `canola'.

[Stanley]

It can get complicated... My view after all my reading about lipids is that both Rape and Olive oils are fine as long as they are genuine and not extracted using solvents. For that reason the designation 'cold-pressed' usually denotes a simple pressing and can be trusted. Because the yield is lower it also more expensive. I use a cold pressed unfiltered Olive Oil from Italy called Il Casolare available at the Co-op. Expensive, dark green and has sediment but tastes lovely and I trust it. If you are looking for the very best oil in nutritional terms it is probably Linseed Oil and I did consider changing but decided I was nit-picking!

[Nolic]

Came back off "holiday" having lost 7lbs - just not bothering about food during Cath's hospitalisation. Since then I've lost another 5 lbs. Was in a children s home on Thursday that I've not been too for a couple of months and one of the teenagers volunteered " Hey Col you've lost a lot of weight" - chuffed as bits with that. Nolic

[Tizer]

Nolic, well done, you've found the secret! And, no, I'm not being sarcastic - I'm sure the best way for most people to lose weight is simply to eat less, forget fancy diets and dietary aids. We can still eat a wide range of foods, even the calorie-rich ones but just have smaller portions or, in the case of luxuries, eat them less often. But for many people it's hard to do because we've been brainwashed into eating big portions and have adapted to it, so eating less feels odd at first. The reasoning behind it all is easy - energy in versus energy out, or if you prefer, calories in versus calories out. We use only a fraction of the energy calories that our ancestors did, even our recent ancestors, but we're eating as much as or often more than they did. Not only did they do hard physical work but they didn't ride about in cars or sit still watching TV and computer screens. Even the office workers walked or cycled to work and dug their veg garden in the evenings and on weekends. Just make sure that what you do eat is good quality and well balanced and that you still have some treats now and then!

Stanley, you've done right to avoid linseed oil. It can be touted as having 60% omega-3 but it's the short-chain omega-3 and therefore not as good as the long-chain omega-3 of fish oil. It's extremely polyunsaturated and very susceptible to oxidation.