NPR, National Public Radio, USA. Wednesday 14th April, 2010.
General Information Sources.
The Food Standards Agency is to expand its eatwell website. Food safety and healthy eating with particular focus on the environment and sustainability.
This Food Reference web site lists all of the "Food Weeks" across the United States, and some UK Food Festivals too. Food Reference Information and Book Reviews; History, Trivia, Festivals, Cookery Schools and Recipes included.
The Celiac Disease and Gluten Free resources website was founded in 1995. Also see "Agar" in the "Recommended for Tinnitus" sufferers section (below).
EU factsheet on the effects/build-up of dioxins in foods and foodstuffs. A diabetic told us that they had helped a leg ulcer to heal by removing tea bags for their diet. Loose tea was okay. Dioxins are often used in the making of teabags. Healing took 2 to 3 months, but an improvement was noticeable after 10 days.
Wonderful "Pick Your Own" Information web site covering the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. Information on Unusual (US) Fruits included.
(UK)Survey Reveals Lack of Salt Source Knowledge. More than three quarters of 2,000 people (77%) were NOT aware that bread and breakfast cereals are among the daily foods that contribute most salt to our diet. Part of the government's effort to reduce people's salt intake.
To use the Search Facilities on AlterNet click the Search Link and add the date, or approximate date and then "+ the subject enquired about".
There are approximately 4 million vegetarians and 0.3 million vegans in the UK, but there was often confusion on food labels, so many found it hard to decide what to buy. The (UK) Foods Standards Agency has a department working on Vegetarian and Vegan Labelling, as well as one on Allergy Labelling Advice. The above direct link contains a direct link courtesy of the Libraries Trust. This gives residents of the US and Canada access to information through their local library.
An excellent source of information about vegetables: How to use and store them; nutritional information, and a range of recipes.
The British Nutrition Foundation: a charity that works with academic and research institutes, the food industry, educators and the government to give impartial, scientifically based advice.
Nutrition Breakdown Feature. Enter a food, food combination or drink into the "Search a Term" box. Use the singular of the word - e.g. USE buffaloberry NOT "buffaloberries". Click "Nutrition Value" and the breakdown is displayed just as it would be on a product label.
The George Mateljan Foundation is a non-profit organization without commercial influences. Find FREE, unbiased scientific information on nutrient-rich foods.
Maya Driscoll is a Cordon Bleu cookery consultant, personal caterer, and author of Come Share a Meal with Me, an informative book for those intending to entertain at home. Maya Driscoll volunteers for Home Start, a self-help group that provides support for families, especially those with children under five.
Free health and exercise advice from a Guiness Book of Records featured endurance swimmer. Dan "Earthquake" is a volunteer DJ on Walsall Hospital Radio in the Midlands of the UK. Dan believes that no-one is too old, too fat, too thin or too broke to benefit from regular exercise. Dan has colloborated with Dave Gauder who is not a "big" man physically, but is regarded by many as the strongest man who has ever lived!
In 1987 Dave Gauder pulled Concorde 40 feet along the runway at Heathrow Airport, and he has set 24 Guinness World Records, 17 of which have not been contested. By January 2005 Dave Gauder had performed 588 bus pulls, as part of his anti-bullying campaign, He had presented this to over 450,000 children. Dave's philosophy is Never Say Can't.
Want to volunteer for a nutrition study? In the UK Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge (the MRC-HNR) is funded by the Medical Research Council, and the trials are NOT for testing medication. You eat a specific food at home.
Have you already volunteered? Do you want to write about it?
www.batikcards.net
"Slow Food" is an international organisation
that originated in Italy to protect food heritage and culture, and to encourage an appreciation of enjoying real foods!
Slow Food ist eine internationale Organisation, die urspruenglich aus Italien stammt. Sie widmet sich sowohl der Bewahrung von echten, natuerlich hergestellten Nahrungsmitteln als auch dem Schutz der Essenskultur - einfach zur Foerderung und Schaetzung, richtiges Essen zu geniessen.
Just before Christmas 2007, outside the Royal Festival Hall, on the South Bank in London, UK, we came across a truly wonderful Slow Food Christmas Market.
Wednesday 29th July, 2009: Organic food is (apparently!!) no healthier than conventionally produced food a large independent review concluded. This study cost £12m, paid for by the EU and food companies over 4 years. Yet, Professor Leifert of Newcastle-upon-Tyne University in the UK is an expert in organic food, and he felt eating "organic" was equivalent to eating an extra portion of fruit and vegetables every day.
Organic tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, onions and wheat have 20 to 40% more antioxidants than conventional fruit and vegetables. Organic spinach and cabbage have more minerals.
Organic Milk had 60 to 80% more nutrients than conventional milk in the summer, and 50 to 60% more in the winter. Organic milk has more vitamin E.
Organic cheese can have up to twice as many nutrients as conventional varieties. Calon Wen is a dairy Co-op owned by over 20 farming families from across Wales. It was the first dairy in the UK to achieve the Soil Association Ethical Trade Symbol. Calon Wen is a member of the Wales Co-operative Centre.
The Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, IGER, had 1,050-acre world famous Research Centre at Trawsgoed that has been closed due to funding cutbacks. This research unit was the UK's pioneering organic dairy farming operation, and Ty Gwyn was the 235-acre, self-contained, fully-organic farm situated within the Trawsgoed Research Centre , near Aberystwyth, West Wales.
Herbs, in particular the sun-dried organic Turmeric from the KASAM, (Kandhamal Apex Spices Association for Marketing) Tuesday 19 September 2006:, in Bandhgarh, Orissa, India. The "Organic" status of KASAM products are certified by SKAL, a not-for-profit Foundation that oversees the organic status of products sold in the Netherlands and based on EU-Regulation (EEC) nr.2092/91. SKAL, founded in 1985, is overseen by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
In 2003, 2,000 bee-keepers, who worked in the tropical miombo forests in N.W. Zambia, joined together to form a Tuesday 19 September 2006:. Membership is now around 9,000 bee-keepers, and it is planned that others from neighbouring countries in Africa should soon join. This forest honey from N.W. Zambia, was the first certified organic honey in the world, and is now marketed in the UK, and within the EU, through David Wainwright, an experienced bee-keeper based in Aberyswyth, Wales. In 1983 David had volunteered to go to Zambia to help bee-keepers increase their production.
16th February 2010: Sainsburys claim it is now the world's largest retailer of Fairtrade products. In the UK almost one in every four pounds spent on Fairtrade is spent at Sainsburys.
November 2009: Charging points for electric cars piloted at Sainsburys in Chiswick, West London.
Some foods we recommend to Tinnitus sufferers.
Agar Agar is a gum extracted from a sea-weed, often used in bacteriological investigations, and found in school laboratories as a culturing agent. It is suitable for Vegans to eat, and is one of the cheaper vegetarian gelling agents, used an alternative to animal derived gellatine. Agar Agar is used as a quick-setting base for many sweets and desserts in Asia, in jam making. Agar Agar has an "E number" = E406!
In the Washington Post article (link above) recipes 2 and 4 are excellent for those who suffer from tinnitus.
Alfalfa is suitable for Celiacs. Alfalfa leaves and sprouting seeds have been used for thousands of years as a nutritious tonic. They were originally native to Asia, but have now the become the 3rd largest cash crop in the US, behind maize and soy beans. Jacyntha was stunned to learn this: she had no idea alfalfa how widely cultivated it was, nor that is was a major source of animal (and ostrich!) feed!
Broccoli: we recomment the large-headed broccoli, in preference to the more expensive (Purple) Sprouting Broccoli. Broccoli Soup is excellent for tinnitus sufferers. Experts also tell us that eating broccoli and cauliflower at least once a week reduces the risk of prostate cancer.
Savoy Cabbage and Cauliflower: Roasted Cauliflower and Tofu Curry is an excellent recipe for those who suffer from tinnitus. Similarly (Curly) Kale.
Cos Lettuce; Oak Lettuce (red, oak-shaped leaves); Rocket Salad Leaves.
(Stinging) Nettles should be prepared like, and taste like, spinach. If you are gathering them wild please make sure you wash them thoroughly! Nettles are best eaten before the end of June. After 28th June each year the chemical composition of nettles begins to "age", and the nettles grow increasingly bitter. Also see "raw food" link above.
Potatoes, BAKED, NOT MICROWAVED!, in their jackets (skins). When you remove the skins from potatoes, you lose much of the Vitamin C content. The Vitamin C in potatoes is found in the peel.
Japanese Kubocha Pumpkin Soup: we believe that this recipe will work equally well for tinnitus sufferers using most pumkins.
COOKED Tomatoes, particularly the "PLUM" variety. TINNED, Italian plum tomatoes are better than fresh ones for tinnitus sufferers. EVERYONE SHOULD REMEMBER NOT TO LEAVE ANY FOOD ITEM IN THE TIN once the tin has been opened. If you forget to transfer foods any acidity in the product will react with the tin, or the coating inside the "tin" container. Don't eat food contaminated in this way. Cooked tomato products include reasonably high quality tomato soup, preferably with added basil. Read the packet label to check the sugar content is not too large! Some soups contain more added sugars than they do tomatoes! Have you also noticed the high sugar content of many "ketchups"?
In nature calcium is found in edible form combined with magnesium. If you take a calcium supplement you must take extra magnesium, or eat more magnesium in your diet. Foods high in magnesium include leafy green vegetables, whole grains, bananas, apricots, meat, beans and nuts. Magnesium and phosphorus help with the absorbtion of calcium. Sunflower seeds and sesame seeds contain all these three active ingredients, as do figs which are also high in protein and iron, and contain a number of vitamins. A word of warning! 1.5 ounces/ around 45 grams, or approximately 4 figs contain about 23 net grams of carbohydrates, and a lot of soluble fibre, which might have a laxative effect!
A deficiency in calcium can cause symptoms such as stress, nervousness and insomnia, the inability to have undisturbed sleep. To get more calcium increase your vegetable consumption, or eat sunflower seeds and/or sesame seeds. For many people calcium can be difficult to absorb. To counteract this take cod liver oil, which is high in vitamin D, within the same 24 hours as you take the calcium, ideally before taking the calcium.
Calcium helps in weight loss. US researchers found that a diet high in calcium increases whole-body fat oxidation.
"Fat Oxidation and its Relation to Serum Parathyroid Hormone in Young Women Enrolled in a 1-y Dairy Calcium Intervention", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 6, December 2005.
6th July: UK Food Standards Agency seeks your views on regulations for the food industry.
