OneGuyFromBarlick

I always start my day with a cup of tea (I'm an English Breakfast Tea girl), coffee is too bitter for me first thing in the morning.
I can't drink coffee until 'elevensees', then I'm fine with it for the rest of the day.
I'm getting over the flu at the moment and find that when I'm sick coffee tastes very dark and heavy so I stick to drinking lots and lots of tea instead.
I read recently that Richard Branson drinks 20 cups of E B Tea every day...

My first drink of the day is a pint of tea followed by a pint of coffee. For the rest of the day I always have a pot of tea on the go and like it cold as well as hot. I drink a lot of water as well....
I've just remembered the waitress in the States who, when I asked for coffee, asked me if I wanted leaded or unleaded.

Good programme on TV the other day.Presented by Fiona Millar - partner of spinmeister Alastair Campbell, so immediately suspect. I popped in and out. They said that tea and coffee were as good at 're-hydrating' as water - but best of all for the job was milk - skimmed or full fat. They debunked other fads. No need for vitamin supplements - except to produce the world's most expensive urine. Said the body has feedback mechanisms to cope with excess and lack of various substances - thus reducing a thing causes the body to retain it and excesses are disposed of. I'll see if I can find it and watch it all.

Try Healthy eating

Should be compulsory viewing, but I doubt if the food and advertising industry would agree.

Of course they won't David. Their favourite cunning wheeze is to alarm us with some pseudo science and then present a solution in nice shiny packaging. I meet a young man regularly in Valley gardens early doors who appears to start his day with an 'energy drink'..... He'd do himself more good with a slice of toast and an apple!

This is an interesting video if you have some time to spare. It is a presentation given by Prof. Tim Noakes, a leading supporter of the low-carb, high-fat diet, at the LCHF Convention in Capetown last year.
LCHF Conference

I am conscious of the fact I have been a bit slack lately on my diet and weight. I put a pair of very snug trousers on this morning as a reminder.... 36" waist is supportable but a good reminder!

I have bad news about an escalation in the 'Just Eat' campaign which I hate. I note that Iceland have a Cunning Wheeze to wean you away from takeaway food, They are freezing identical meals and selling them online saying that they are cheaper and always there in the freezer when you want them, no more waiting for delivery. Deep Joy!

`Could artificial sweeteners make people more hungry?' LINK
"Artificial sweeteners can boost appetite by activating hunger pathways in the body, scientists have found in animals. In fruit flies and mice, the mismatch between sweet taste and fewer calories sends the body into "feed me" mode, the journal Cell Metabolism reports. But UK nutritionists say this does not mean the same is true in humans. They say low-calorie sweetened foods can help people keep weight off and are better for our teeth than sugar. The researchers, however, say more work is needed to make sure that the billions of people who regularly consume sugar substitutes don't have the same reaction as they saw in their animal tests."
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I avoid the sugar-free and low-calorie versions of soft drinks, partly because I drink relatively small amounts of them and don't like the taste of the artificial sweeteners used to replace sugar. Also I prefer not to consume artificial sweeteners if possible just in case they might have adverse health effects. The soft drink I consume most often is tonic water (without gin - I simply like the bitter taste!)You can imagine my surprise and annoyance when I found out recently that the `normal', full-sugar tonic water now contains two types of artificial sweetener. Why put artificial sweeteners in a product that is already sweet? I can only think of one reason: the manufacturers are competing in a sweetness war!

I used to like 'Tropical Lemon?' Schewpppes or similar, similar to Bitter Lemon , but cannot recall when it got discontinued = mid 80s maybe ? Quninennine and some other stuff in it.

Otherwise with the double big M ( a monthly treat ) and medium fries a diet pepsi is normally ordered ( the whole lot shared with one other person !)

You are probably right in your suspicions about adding artificial sweeteners to tonic water Tiz. One of the magic ingredients that the food processors found when they first started to attempt to persuade people to eat more of what they are making was to add sugar. My attitude towards sugar is that unless it is necessary for other reasons, avoid it and this goes for artificial sweeteners in spades. I don't drink soft drinks, water, tea and coffee or milk will do me fine! We get plenty of 'natural' sugar in other foods, particularly fruit.

Good news for eggheads!
`Raw eggs 'safe for pregnant women' Eggs
"Pregnant women should no longer be told not to eat raw or lightly cooked eggs, a safety committee has recommended. The risk of salmonella from UK eggs produced to Lion code or equivalent standards should be considered "very low", the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food said. It said this meant eggs could be served raw or lightly cooked to "vulnerable" groups like the elderly and the young. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has begun a consultation on the issue. The committee's report said there had been a "major reduction in the microbiological risk from salmonella in UK hen shell eggs" since a report it produced in 2001. Its recommendation to classify certain eggs as "very low" risk only applies to UK hens' eggs produced under Lion code or equivalent standards. It also warns that safety guidelines including proper storage and eating eggs within best before dates must be followed."

Good! I like eggs and eat a lot of them. However, I like them properly cooked, I was never a big fan of coddled eggs. I used to use raw eggs when I made my egg nog in the old days but I think the added alcohol probably killed the bugs!

Chris Froome has just won the Tour de France on a low carb diet. Even though I know the benefits of a low carb high fat diet it's hard to get your head round the idea that you don't need carbs for energy! Link

Specialised diets like that are all well and good but in terms of long term health I would always go for balance by having as varied a diet as possible. This has served us well since time immemorial and that's good enough for me.....

Another research paper published on saturated versus unsaturated fats in the diet...
`Higher consumption of unsaturated fats linked with lower mortality' LINK

The trouble with these sorts of study are always that you don't know what other factors might be playing a role in the results observed. The people who eat more saturated fats are often the ones who have a bad diet, a poor lifestyle, little exercise and smoke cigarettes.

This confirms what many of us already knew, although the gap is bigger than previously thought...
`Britons under-report calorie intake, study suggests' LINK
"Britons are under-reporting their daily calorie consumption - potentially misleading policymakers attempting to curb obesity, research suggests. The Behavioural Insights Team points to scientific and economic data showing people eat 3,000 calories, compared to the 2,000 cited in official surveys. It says this could explain rising obesity levels, despite decades of surveys saying people are eating less. Government statisticians say the way calorie data is collated will change. Several official surveys, including the National Diet and Nutrition Survey and the Living Costs and Food Survey, suggest the amount of food people eat and buy has gone down in recent decades - while obesity rates continue to rise. But the researchers from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) say if the calorie counts in these surveys were correct, the UK population would be losing weight overall."

"Public health expert Prof Alan Maryon-Davis described the report as an "interesting and very soundly argued analysis". He added: "This will send a shudder through the junk-food industry. "Up until now they've been able to point to what was thought to be a decline in the nation's calorie intake and say there's really no need for tougher measures like a sugar tax, fat tax or calorie-labelling on alcoholic drinks. "But this latest analysis rather pulls the rug from under their feet."

They didn't ask me, I'm on 1690 calories a day and can get three perfectly good meals out of that. I exercise though. I was pleased that my recent week in Whitby had no serious knock on effect despite breaking the rules with "seaside food" offerings from time to time. Were were walking on average 3 hours a day though.

Had a small sausage butty on Burgen plus a boiled egg for dinner. Mashed veggies and a steak pudding for tea.....
It'll take more than one adverse report to knock fast food off its pedestal. For 'fast' read easy or lazy..... If you live off takeaway you deserve everything you get!

There is an event in Skipton on Saturday September 12th called Diet & Diabetes.Various speakers...we shall be going.
LINK

My son in law Mick will be interested in this so I have alerted him. Sounds like good stuff!

See THIS for news of what looks like a missed opportunity. The measures proposed fall far short of what many experts were recommended. One is forced to wonder what part the lobbying power of the food industry had in the process.

The FT won't let me into that page so here's an alternative report: LINK
I still think that a `levy' on sugary food products won't affect obesity levels. The higher price of the products will just become the new normal. People have become addicted to high sugar levels and addicts always prioritise their spending to get their fix first and foremost.

Been doing a lot of walking, often past gardens or common land with Blackberries, there is quite a variation in size and taste depending on location, and direction to main sunlight times, there could be some variations in seed types too , some have been small and tart, others nicely large and juicy. An American Student queried why I should be picking and eating some that were growing by a riverbank footpath ' you should only buy them from the supermarket !' . Of course the low hanging ones, about below 8" from ground level should be washed first.

I noticed yesterday that there is a good crop of berries in Butts.

There's a good crop of apples here and they are well ahead, ripening weeks faster than last year, but the question is whether they will still be on the trees to finish ripening after tomorrow's forecast strong winds.

The Soft Drinks Association has claimed that the sugar levy will cost 4000 job losses but this analysis finds otherwise....LINK