WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

[plaques]

Quite right Tizer, education and life style is the key to it all. However, one of the unintended consequences of the governments cut backs is that councils have to make the decisions on which "non-essential" services to cut. Often its leisure services and swimming pools. An example of this was Pendle Leisure's closure of the swimming pools over Christmas and new year. Also, we see the price of these activities rising to a point where the people who need to make use of them are priced out altogether. Education needs to start at the top with the government taking the lead.

[Tizer]

The swimming pool in our local town was closed down altogether so the council could sell the land to Tesco - less exercise and more guzzling!

[Stanley]

Education is the key. It helps if you find moderation easy. God knows how you teach that in a society where status is defined by the ability to consume....

[David Whipp]

The swimming pool in our local town was closed down altogether

I'm sure all councillors will oppose options to close down our swimming pools and sports centres in Pendle. The scale of the government cuts means that such options are appearing in the budget projections for the next three years.

With around £2m a year of reductions to find each year, people in Pendle are faced with a whole series of unpalatable cuts. So far, these have been staved off by using reserves. That money is going to run out soon.

The way we're going, it won't be long before the only thing Pendle does is collect bins and provide the bare minimum of statutory services; all the discretionary stuff will have to go.

[Tizer]

The swimming pool in our local town was closed down altogether

I'm sure all councillors will oppose options to close down our swimming pools and sports centres in Pendle.

I'm glad to hear they would oppose it. What happened here is that the council promised that if it closed the pool in the town centre so that it could sell the land it would build a lovely new one on the edge of town. And that the new one would be built before the old one went out of use to ensure the town wouldn't be without a pool. It upset some people because the old pool was very well placed for everyone but at least there was going to be a new one and no lack of facilities, so most people went along with the idea...then they immediately demolished it (2009) and the new pool is only now being built and it's been 4 years without one.

[plaques]

Just drifting about the OGFB web site when I saw the "Visit Barnoldswick" at the bottom of the opening page. Not normally given to clicking onto these unknown invitations, curiosity got the better of me. There it was, an invitation to view the "Web Site Launch Event Video" Click to Play. I was doomed. The first one and half minutes were all about making and eating chocolate cake. A classic example of heart stopping brain washing. Get thee behind me Satan.
The remaining video contained a first class panoramic view over Barlick. I could almost see David hanging from his attic window. A good promotion video but some of the "goodies" need editing out.

[David Whipp]

Thanks Plaques.

The Visit Barnoldswick launch was on Valentine's Day when we had a 'Love Barnoldswick' event. Not sure which of the goodies you want editing out... (I didn't get to taste a single morsel, honest).

We do seem to have some outstanding confectioners in Barnoldswick. One of these recently won an international trade award for their cupcakes!

The filming on the site is by Bryan Fieldhouse of The Reverb Factory. Bryan has a sweet tooth...

[Tizer]

One of my former science colleagues in New Zealand pointed out the following news release about a well-respected US scientist (published about a year ago).

Lipid researcher, 98, reports on the causes of heart disease
Fred Kummerow, a 98-year-old emeritus professor of comparative biosciences at the University of Illinois, explains the primary causes of heart disease. His research contradicts commonly held notions about the role of dietary cholesterol.

CHAMPAIGN, lllinois, USA — A 98-year-old researcher argues that, contrary to decades of clinical assumptions and advice to patients, dietary cholesterol is good for your heart – unless that cholesterol is unnaturally oxidized (by frying foods in reused oil, eating lots of polyunsaturated fats or smoking). The researcher, Fred Kummerow, an emeritus professor of comparative biosciences at the University of Illinois, has spent more than six decades studying the dietary factors that contribute to heart disease. In a new paper in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Disease, he reviews the research on lipid metabolism and heart disease with a focus on the consumption of oxidized cholesterol – in his view a primary contributor to heart disease.

The full story can be read here: http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0227he ... merow.html

[Stanley]

Confirms all I have found in my reading into nutrition. Rod Bilton says much the same thing. Bad news for Flora and Benecol!

[Tizer]

...and at 98 Prof Kummerow has had plenty of time to think about it. Perhaps we need some 98-year-old politicians!

[Stanley]

We certainly need something! There are signs that the media are wakening up, see the C4 programme last night on sugar. This latest 'Just Eat, don't Cook' campaign should be banned, it gives entirely the wrong message and shows the power of the Fast Food lobby. Cheapest ingredients, lowest common denominator for taste and highest fat and sugar, all in the name of profit! No wonder we have an obesity crisis! As for the Malteaster Bunny campaign.....

[Tizer]

Once the media and the campaigners have woken up and started on food they need to give some attention to cosmetics, toiletries and other creams, lotions etc which have a ridiculous and unnecessary number of different chemicals in each product. Nobody knows what effects these chemicals have when absorbed in combination through our skin and I'm sure one day we'll be presented with `new discoveries' that these products have been causing various aliments over the years. Even the most `innocuous' ones are packed with chemicals. Take for instance the E45 cream and lotion which many medics will tell you is perfectly safe and contains nothing at all to worry about - it's recommended for all sorts of skin trouble because `it can't do you any harm, can it'. In fact I've just looked at the lotion label and counted 13 ingredients excluding `aqua' (which is marketing speak for water). If that thought doesn't worry you, then how about the mental image of 13 jars of chemicals in a row. I'm not anti-chemicals as such, I've trained as a chemist and worked with chemical products but I do believe there are far too many different chemicals put into each product. Why do the manufacturers of creams and lotions do it? I suspect it's simply because the manufacturers of chemical ingredients persuade them to do so. If company A uses a chemical then company B feels it must do the same; they don't think for themselves but rely on what others are doing.

[Stanley]

I have long suspected 'air fresheners' and similar household chemicals used to 'make things smell nicer'.

[LizG]

What's wrong with opening the window?

[Whyperion]

What's wrong with opening the window?

Flies , Motor Vehicle exhausts.

Personally I like either extractor fans or passive brick air-vents ( they are stepped to prevent internal condensation , have external flaps to prevent rain coming in , and use just a little warm air in the house to create a low level flow of air out.

Dislike the wifes hair sprays. She says if they sell it it must be OK and safe for everyone ( conveniently ignoring my allegies ,and my point on previous years cosmetics containing Lead,Arsenic, Radium etc. ) Problem is with so many synthesised chemicals and the mixing thereof creating unknown compounds it is going to be difficult to pin health issues on specific products of individual manufactures / retailers.

Great-Grandma made it to 95 on a diet of rough bread , dripping ,suet, lard and butter, with the daily excercise regiem of dolly tub and hand mangle. Wonder what she would have got to with todays improvements. I wonder if there is any point of anti-cholestrol pills for the over 80s , I suspect they could be a factor in increasing joint pains and restricted movement , and a diet switch to the more basic products above might have some overall benifts, though Grandma suffered with rheumatism on the same diet and with few pills from her 60s onwards to her death at 85 ( though when born she was not expected to live beyond 8 )

[Tizer]

There's no point in anti-cholesterol pills for anyone but those with familial hypercholesterolaemia (inherited extreme high cholesterol level). Have a look my post about Fred Kummerow above.

[Stanley]

I've always thought it was funny that God put cholesterol in mother's milk and eggs if it was so bad for us. Turned out of course that I was right and we built the industrial revolution on cholesterol and saturated fat. As long as we allow manufacturers to flood the market with sugary drinks, salty foods and heavily modified fats we shall have problems. Add lack of physical exercise and you have a perfect storm.

[Stanley]

Little known fact that surfaced during a discussion of food miles on R4 this morning. The only UK sourced ingredient in a tin of baked beans is the water.....

[Tripps]

Curses - I was going to make that quote of the day!
Must say though, that I've heard the "home grown new variety of beans" story quite a few times over many years, without any final product ever emerging. A bit like nuclear fusion perhaps. May I recommend the Aldi version of baked beans - by a company called Corale, and quite the best on the market in my opinion - and just £1.25 for four cans. I've got a cupboard full.

[hartley353]

Curses - I was going to make that quote of the day!
Must say though, that I've heard the "home grown new variety of beans" story quite a few times over many years, without any final product ever emerging. A bit like nuclear fusion perhaps. May I recommend the Aldi version of baked beans - by a company called Corale, and quite the best on the market in my opinion - and just £1.25 for four cans. I've got a cupboard full.

Seconded. had some with my black pudding earlier in the week.

[David Whipp]

Family protested loudly when I originally bought shed loads of Branston baked beans at 4 for £1; they didn't like the taste.

After eating them for a couple of years and eventually coming to the end of the stockpile, I bought some Heinz beans on offer. "We don't like the taste," they said.

(Have bought an odd tin of cheaper offerings, slipping them in as a blind taste test from time to time, but family invariably detects the deception. My lot are as fussy as our cats.)

Have just bought some Branston beans on offer at 33p/tin...

[Tripps]

Get some from Aldi, Pans! Trust me. They're 31p a tin (if you buy a four pack), all the time, no need to wait for the sale.

I've been through all those you mention, can't stand the brand leader Heinz at all, and liked HP the best, but these are better than all of them. Must confess I haven't examined the label closely yet, so I do hope they don't have vast amounts of salt and sugar in them.

[David Whipp]

I'll give Aldi a whirl for the beans.

I generally try and buy our typical tinned purchases at the 25p a tin level.

Tinned tomatoes, chick peas and kidney beans are stacked up on our pantry shelves. When doing some of my batch cooking, and using more than one tin, I'll open different varieties to see which is the best tasting.

Yesterday was a treat, as cooking big pans of soup and chilli allowed me to open one of the large (2.5kg) tins of chopped tomatoes I got for £1. (My usual cooking for the freezer usually uses half that amount.)

Now if I could just find a cheap supply of the particular brand of cat food our cats will eat...

[Tripps]

If that's how you do your catering then take a look at this gang Approved Food

You'll need a relaxed / sensible attitude to 'sell by' dates, but there are good bargains to be had. Both SCG and I now have a lifetime supply of Lea and Perrins thanks to them.

[Stanley]

David, the lifetime supply of Lea and Perrins is down to about 2 litres in the last bottle. Must go and have a search!
I regard my daughter Janet as a world class authority on baked beans. Daniel Meadows once bought her half a case for a birthday present. Picture the scene... Vera and I bringing Janet back from Burnley hospital where an emergency operation had saved her from a burst appendix. As we were passing the Boundary in the Land Rover a small voice came from the bundle in the travelling rug on Vera's knee, "Are there any baked beans at home?" Quick stop at an Open All Hours for six tins of baked beans and all was well.....