Less sugar for cereals?
Article Type: Food facts From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 41, Issue 1
As Kellogg’s announces the launch of a new low-salt, low-sugar Coco Pops cereal, which? Chief Executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, says: “It’s also encouraging that Kellogg’s is lowering the sugar in the Coco Pops range,although they remain high-sugar products. We hope Kellogg’s will now follow this with further efforts to reduce sugar and salt in their products,particularly those aimed at children.”
Egg dilemma
Leading clean label ingredients manufacturer Ulrick & Short Ltd has launched a unique wheat-based flour for replacing egg in sponges, muffins and cupcakes.
The introduction of this supreme egg replacement, Ovaparox, has been timed perfectly as it can help bakers overcome the mounting issues of fluctuating egg prices whilst achieving cost savings of up to 30 percent.
Parents urged to consider school meals
Parents could spend almost eight days a year making packed lunches for their children if they want them to meet the same healthy standards as school meals. Figures from the School Food Trust – the organisation responsible for the transformation of school food and food skills – estimate parents who want to make packed lunches which meet the same nutritional standards as healthy school meals could put in between 50 and 190 hours of total preparation time across the school year.
Since the introduction of standards in schools the average meal is designed to provide children with the energy and nutrients they need – about a third of their daily intake. The national, mandatory standards for school food include making sure that a portion of fruit and a portion of vegetables or salad is available for every pupil eating school meals every day. Foods such as meat products and starchy foods cooked in fat or oil are restricted, and foods such as crisps, confectionary and sweetened drinks are no longer provided.
Zero tillage
In agriculture, sometimes less is more, especially when it comes to soil quality. Monoculture crops – such as corn and soybeans – rely heavily on tractors for tilling the soil. And while these practices have raised yields over the last 60 years, they have also done a lot of damage to soils. Over turning dirt can lead to dryness and erosion, expediting the loss of nutrients in the soil that crops need to thrive.
Zero tillage, on the other hand, helps retain moisture, prevent erosion and conserve nutrients. The soil is covered with plant remains from the previous season’s crops or any additional organic matter such as animal dung. And seeds are planted in untilled soil in drilled holes or narrow ditches.
For more information, please visit the web site: www.nourishingtheplanet.org
The Good Food Guide 2011
It is the 60th anniversary edition of the UK’s best-selling restaurant guide.
It features reviews of the very best restaurants, pubs and cafés in the UK. All entries are based on reader feedback and inspections are carried out anonymously. Unlike other guides, we do not accept sponsorship, advertising or freebies, making the guide completely independent and impartial.
Least weight conscious in the UK
Women from the Isle of Man are the least weight conscious in the UK, while London holds the male crown. The trigger weight at which women in the Isle of Man decide it is time to diet is 15 stones 1 lb that is more than one stone heavier than the UK average of 13 stones 12 lbs. The area with the lightest ladies trigger weight was 12 stones 13 lbs in East Suffolk, according to research.
Weight loss companies
Weight loss companies are more effective and cost less than NHS help for obese individuals, says Dr Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council. The statement comes after a yearlong survey conducted by the council in which half were provided with GP-led care and the other half were put on commercial weight-loss programmes. The results were an all-out success for the commercial schemes: this group lost twice as much (15 lbs on average) as those in the GP group (only 6 lbs).
Currently, the National Obesity Forum is advising the NHS to buy in services from professional weight loss programme consultants, to benefit the patients.
Lycopene
The health giving properties of tomatoes have been known for long time, but now new findings announced at a recent conference in Israel, suggest that lycopene is even better than was previously thought. Scientists presented research demonstrating that tomatoes not only help to prevent and fight prostate cancer, but may also help to combat hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic inflammation in the body and ageing.
Hydration for children
Recent research showed that schoolchildren who drank extra water performed better in visual attention tasks compared to a control group who followed their normal drinking habits. Add these findings to the results of a review of 30 different studies which concluded that consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks appeared to be associated with greater weight gain and obesity,particularly among adolescents and you will see how important it is to encourage children and their parents to choose water over the sugar-sweetened calorie-containing alternatives, especially during their early years when lifelong habits are being formed.
For more information, please visit the web site: www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk/Article/Display/77
Access to water
In sub-Saharan Africa, improved access to water means more than simply basic survival for families dependent on agriculture for both food and income. It means the difference between barely scraping by and eating balanced meals,affording education and owning a home.
In Zambia, the majority of children drop out of school by the seventh grade because their families can no longer afford it. In Nepal, IDE found that installing Multiple Use Water Systems reduced the labor needed for water collection, improved sanitation and empowered women.
Health technology
Patients with long-term conditions who use an innovative healthcare machine in their homes have had fewer hospital admissions and enjoyed better health since using the service, according to a recent survey. The results of a patient satisfaction survey revealed that since using the assistive technology machines,63 percent of patients have had fewer unplanned admissions to hospital and 67 percent felt that their general health was more stable. In addition, 74 percent said that they felt less anxious about their health and 54 percent felt they had been able to do more with their friends and family. And 90 percent of patients said they would recommend the service to their family and friends.
To find out about Birmingham OwnHealth or how Assistive Technology can help go to the web site: www.birminghamownhealth.co.uk
Weight loss surgery
The British Medical Journal has reported that the number of people undergoing weight loss surgery has risen from 480 in 2003/2004 to 4,246 in 2008/2009, which is costing the NHS £29 million a year.
It is fine to lose fat fast
New research indicates that people trying to lose weight should follow a diet programme that slices a large proportion of their unwanted poundage straight off.
The traditional approach to weight loss has been that slow gradual weight loss is more effective in the long term than fast weight loss but research presented to the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm has kicked that idea into touch.
Dr Jeroen Barte, a Researcher at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in The Netherlands explained to the congress that they had analysed data from 12 different weight-loss studies with 1,000 overweight participants. The programmes lasted between ten weeks and one-and-a-half years and all the participants were weighed again at least a year after the programme ended to ascertain how successfully they had kept the weight off. The dieters who had initially lost the most weight also ended up with the best long-term results.
Eco-balance for plastics
Europe’s market leader in household disposables, CeDo, reports significant progress and European market penetration for calcium carbonate(chalk) as an effective displacer for virgin polymer in plastics processing. CeDo uses chalk materials at up to 30 percent in its prize-winning range of EcoMin recycled packaging films. This material combination offers significantly improved environmental and carbon footprint performance and has been winning plaudits and recognition.
Digital technology
At the Rural Development Foundation’s primary school in Kalleda, a small village in the Warangal District of Andhra Pradesh, India, students carry gardening tools, along with their notebooks and pencils. All of the students work in the school’s garden, cultivating and harvesting rice, lentils, corn and cotton that is used to make the daily meals or sold to the village and to other schools. Students also take turns tending a field of marigolds and selling them in Kalleda. All of the profit goes back to the school. And the students carry another important tool – a camera. Cameras were provided by Bridges to Understanding (Bridges), a Seattle-based non-profit that uses digital technology to empower and connect children around the world.
FSA
The agency has published a revised version of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey’s year 1 report (www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2010/aug/ndnscorrection).
Testing for marine toxins (www.food.gov.uk/consultations/consulteng/2010/testingmethodsmarinebiotoxinseng).
Food and feed hygiene and standards (www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2010/sep/assurancescheme).
Northern obesity
There has been no improvement in the north-south obesity divide according to new figures from the Office of National Statistics. Northern counties still have higher obesity rates and lower life expectancies than their southern counterparts.
Boston in Lincolnshire has the highest obesity rate of any town in the UK.
According to the National Diet & Nutrition Survey (Strategic Health Authorities) the proportion of adults meeting government recommendations of five portions of fruit or vegetables per day was lowest in the Northeast (20 percent of men and 23 percent of women) and Northwest (20 percent of men and 25 percent of women).
Organic foods
Research shows that organic as a food product claim is “looked for”by only 9 percent of consumers which ranks it 27th on a list of 34 of the most sought out product claims by UK shoppers. As producers fight back after the recession-influenced fall in sales of organic products, organic food manufacturers are advised to look beyond a simple organic message and exploit other product claims which are proven to resonate much more strongly with the British public.
The most motivating product claims found by the survey were “healthy”and “low fat” with 43 percent of consumers stating they actively seek out those claims when shopping for food. This is followed by “low in sugar”(36 percent), “low in salt” (34 percent) and “low in calorie”(31 percent) claims. Interestingly, 25 percent of consumers look for “locally produced” products (it was the 11th most appealing product claim) and 19 percent – more than double the positive response to organic – cited“fair trade” as a looked for claim. Other “losers” in the list include “antioxidants” (9 percent) and “pro-biotic”and “pre-biotic” claims (8 and 5 percent, respectively).
This research is compiled by the MMR Pulse programme.
Locally produced crops
In Zambia, sorghum – a drought resistant cereal that thrives in the country – was considered a “poor man’s crop” in the past,often shunned by small-scale farmers for the more commercially viable maize. But an article in the June issue of Farming Matters explains how a Zambian brewery with a new brand of beer is changing the way small-scale farmers think about sorghum. While most clear beers such as lagers and pilsners are made with expensive, imported malts, the Zambian Breweries’ Eagle Lager is made from sorghum. A subsidiary of the South African-based SABMiller, Zambian Breweries purchases sorghum from local farmers, increasing farmers’ income and providing local grocery stores with an affordable lager.
Heart disease prevention guidance
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance calls for action to make it easier for people to make healthy choices when buying food to help reduce the incidence of heart disease.
Body’s immune system
Nobelprize.org, the official web site of the Nobel Prize, announces the launch of immune responses, a new educational multimedia production for high school students and educators. With the aim to explain how the body’s immune system functions.
Cairngorms National Park
The food and drink sector in the Cairngorms National Park has received a boost with the launch of the “Food for Life” Plan for the Park and the “Cairngorms Producers Directory” by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment. The aim of the “Food for Life”initiative is to build a sustainable food economy across the Cairngorms. The Plan will do this in practice through encouraging an increase in food production and processing across the Park and increased consumption of Cairngorms produced food and drink. It will reduce food miles, boost the tourism and retail sectors and encourage people to consider a healthier diet.
For more information, please visit the web site: www.tasteofthecairngorms.com
OmegaFlex
The therapeutic benefits of glucosamine supplementation are generally well known, ranging from general joint support for the avid sports enthusiast to a reliable treatment for conditions such as osteoarthritis. However, it seems that combining glucosamine with omega-3 fish oils and the anti-inflammatory omega-6 GLA may be of more benefit for a myriad of health areas than simply supplementing with glucosamine alone. Glucosamine is made naturally in the body,and is involved in the production cartilage and other related structures like discs, tendons and ligaments which are continuously being remodelled, being worn away during activity and then reformed again afterwards. As we age we are unable to produce enough glucosamine to meet the body’s needs. Also, if demands are increased by activity (such as with active individuals or athletes) and glucosamine needs not met, then damage may occur. With this damage comes both pain and inflammation, often the first signs that there may be a problem and one to which glucosamine replenishment with the added benefits of omega-3 in the form of OmegaFlex can be of help.
