USA LEARNING WHAT'S WHAT WITH THEIR FOOD - from us both

We subscribe to 'The Ecologist' online - and very good it is too. Here is the link to a recent article - 'Big Food will do everything to stop you talking about this'.

Hooray for the brave Michael Kenner for making his documentary 'Food Inc'. We need people like him with the courage to penetrate the industrial food giants who are hell bent on hiding the truth about their horrendous production methods from the public. I mentioned Michael Pollan's exceptional and life-changing book 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' in my June 22 post; it seems this book did much to persuade Michael Kenner to make his documentaries. I am hugely heartened to hear that he says of his film '...It became one of the most successful documentaries of all time. The amount of press we got was really incredible. For a while we were the number one selling DVD on Amazon ahead of all the Hollywood movies.'

You can scroll down the Ecologist article to find links to other important food items.

ORGANIC VERSUS NON-ORGANIC from Sue

Organic food is/isn't healthier. The debate will probably rattle on forever, depending on which side the so-called 'experts' are on and who's funding them. In other words who has which vested interests in declaring themselves to be pro or anti. Britain's FSA (Foods Standards Association) may conclude that organic is no more nutritious than conventionally-produced food but, as pointed out by the Soil Association and a whole host of organic farmers and eco-orgs, two facts are inescapable:
1) Organic doesn't use chemical pesticides and fertilizers - only the most ignorant would say plants doused in toxins are okay to eat. Some of these products are so toxic those who spray them have to wear protective clothing. Wow!
2) Plants don't just pop up happily any old where, they rely on a complex eco-system. Keen gardeners will tell us that a plant is only as good as the soil it grows in (with the odd exception, of course). So, if the insects, funghi, worms, microbes, bacteria, minerals etc have been driven out of the soil by pesticides, then the plant is going to be nutritionally depleted. Stands to reason.

For anyone interested in the processes our food goes through before it reaches our table, I recommend Michael Pollan's highly readable and fascinating book 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'. Here's the link. It is about the American food industry but a good deal of it is reflected by what's going on in Europe, which, in the case of industrial food, is graphically portrayed in Nicholas Geyrhalter's disturbing film 'Notre Pain Quotidien'.

SPOTTED MOGGIES

Delicious with a cuppa!

350g/12oz self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
a handful of currants
75g/3oz butter (chopped into small pieces)
3 soupspoons sunflower oil
125g/4oz sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup, slightly warmed
90ml/3fl oz milk (approx)

Pre-heat oven to 170˚C/325˚F.
Sieve flour, salt and baking powder into large mixing bowl. Add butter and oil and combine using fingers until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the currants, then sugar and syrup and mix in well. Gradually stir in the milk to make a stiff, smooth dough.
Roll out on a floured board to around 1/2''/1·5 cm thick and lay on a well-greased baking tray. Mark out squares on the surface but do not cut. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Leave to cool on the tray and cut into squares when firm and only slightly warm.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, cinnamon or chocolate powder.

OH GAWD! from Sue

When I buy vegetables I put them loose into my basket but have to have a plastic bag for spinach and paper bags for mushrooms, potatoes etc. I re-use them until they shred then the paper goes in the compost and the plastic in the non-recyclable bin. Every time I throw a plastic bag away I think of how long it's going to take to decompose and the damage it's going to do in the process.
But the paper bag ain't so good either - they may rot down quickly but they take a helluva lot more energy to manufacture - four times as much, and create 70% more air pollutants and 50% more water pollutants! We eco-freaks are scuppered whichever way we turn.
I don't know the figures for bio-degradable plastic bags, but presumably they should be the least damaging. Anyone know?

PEANUT AND ORANGE COOKIES

These are quick, easy to make, absolutely scrumptious and a great way of using up slightly stale peanuts left over from a drinks party.

All you need to make a couple dozen:

50g/2 oz each of softened butter, soft brown sugar and finely chopped salted peanuts
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
75g/3 oz plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

Mix butter and sugar together then add the rest of the ingredients. Combine well to form a dough. Divide into twelve and roll each piece into a ball. Place on a greased baking tray with plenty of space between each one then slightly flatten the balls with a fork.
Bake in pre-heated oven 180˚C/350˚F for approx 10 minutes. Leave to cool on the tray before transferring to a wire rack.

WE ALL WANT TO BE SLIM BUT ....

Dieting is big business - the majority of women will have tried it at least once, if not many times in their lives. If it worked that one time and they've remained slim ever since, brilliant, but most of us will admit that we lost weight on some diet or other but then we put it all back on again. It's a miserable business for us and a money-maker for those who invent the latest diet packages.
The best way to get on top of the weight problem is to learn about healthy eating. If your BMI (Body Mass Index) is too high (check it here) then you'll need to shift kilos and that will involve cutting down on bulk and cutting out the obvious baddies - sweets, biscuits, processed foods in general for instance. Too many animal fats are not a good idea either for health or slimming. Avoiding alcohol during the dieting process is a big help. However, the emphasis should always be on balance if you're not to put strain on your body; but what is the ideal balance?
Dr. Andrew Weil M.D., leading authority on healthy eating, natural healing and holistic as well as conventional medicine, recommends 50-60% carbohydrate, 30% fat, 10-20% protein. Click here to read about his wellness diet. The most comprehensive guide to nutrition that we've come across so far is Dr. Weil's Eating Well for Optimum Health (See here on Amazon - the reviews are worth checking out too)
A word about all-protein diets:
too much saturated fat can put excess strain on the liver and kidneys and cause problems in later life. Only the most healthy people can get away with a short period (such as a few days, max a week) on these diets but they're not a good idea.
It's worth bearing in mind that meat products can take up to 3 days to pass through the alimentary tract. In some older people the intestinal transit time can be as much as 2 weeks! Imagine the state of the meat in your fridge or larder after that length of time - doesn't bear thinking about. The meat digestion process in particular consumes pancreatic enzymes which are vital in healing and requires bile acids which are carcinogenic in the human colon. We've all heard of people dying of cancer of the colon and, in older people particularly, diverticular disease is extremely common - tiny pockets in the colon which can trap food and become infected leading to diverticulitis which has to be treated very rapidly to prevent peritonitis (a potentially fatal burst into the peritoneum).
Our colons are very delicate and we'd be wise to look after them. By the way cooked meat loses amino acid benefits and produces acidic metabolites such as uric acid which can be toxic - charcuterie is pretty dodgy too.
A further note on the all-protein diet. The human brain consumes 18% of our energy and that energy comes only from carbohydrate in the form of glucose. The older we get, the more brain cells we lose and we all know what can happen to brains in later life, so perhaps it's a good idea to make sure those little grey cells are well-fed with the correct food. Luckily the Atkins diet is fast falling out of vogue. There's no question it works, but at what cost in later life? And then there's the added problem of not putting all that weight back on afterwards.
If you have a lot of weight to lose, it's best to consult a reputable dietician - doctors aren't trained in nutrition so can only give some general advice. A good maintenance and detox routine, if you need to shift a couple of pounds following a bit of an eating/drinking binge, is to cut out alcohol, animal products and bread for a day or two.
Finally a dieting tip - chewing thoroughly reduces the amount of work required in the digestion process and eating more slowly gives the stomach time to tell the head it's had enough and to please stop.
BON CHANCE!

GREAT NEWS FROM THE GREENPEACE KIT-KAT CAMPAIGN!

Here it is in their own words:

Thank you and congratulations are in order!

Early this morning Nestlé finally announced a break for the orang-utan - as well as Indonesian rainforests and peatlands - by committing to stop using products that come from rainforest destruction.

The new policy commits Nestlé to identify and exclude companies from its supply chain that own or manage 'high risk plantations or farms linked to deforestation'. This would apply to notorious forest destroyer Sinar Mas and have implications for Cargill, one of Nestlé's palm oil suppliers which purchases from Sinar Mas.

None of this could have happened without your fanstastic efforts.

Thank you for supporting the two-month long Kit Kat campaign! Thank you for e-mailing Nestlé, calling them, tweeting, changing your Facebook profile picture and much more!

Please take a moment to toot your own horn a bit:

Share this sweet success on Facebook, on Twitter, or any of your other social profiles! Thanks again!

--The entire Kit Kat campaign crew

http://www.greenpeace.org/kitkat

HOORAY FOR PEOPLE POWER!