Basketcase on trial - what I really feed my family

This piece appeared in The Irish Independent last week. The editor and I felt it was important in the wake of the horsemeat crisis to talk about the ins and outs of buying meat products and a quick guide from the horses mouth so to speak (bahahaha) on what's healthy and risky in terms of processed food is what consumers want right now. 

I feel that telling people only to buy organic or local food is not where its at, or something that most peoples income allows for. My grocery shop for my family of four is a mixture of the two - buying both local and supermarket products, and cooking really simple dishes that don't break the bank. All of us have been rattled by the horsemeat story and are shopping more carefully. A Which? survey in the UK shows substantial loss of confidence in the safety of processed meats. While 9 out of 10 customers felt supermarket food was very safe to eat before the crisis, the number has now dropped to 7 out of 10.Have a look and let me know if your food strategy has changed in the wake of the horsemeat crisis.    

Irish Independent 9th March 2013

Food Writer Suzanne Campbell - "What I really feed my family"

“Are chicken goujons safe to give the kids?” These are the sort of questions mothers ask me, especially since the horsemeat crisis began in January. As a food writer the story didn’t take me by surprise. I live in the countryside and keep horses; one which was destined for a meat plant before I gave it a home.

Over the past weeks I’ve done countless interviews for Irish and European media on the issue and in a bizarre twist, conducted a live radio piece on horse burgers while exercising my own horse. For me, horsemeat was the perfect storm; the under-regulated horse trade exploding into a Pandora’s Box of horrors for consumers. In 2009 I had spelled out these fears in the book “Basketcase: what’s happening to Irish food?” co-authored with my husband – journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes. Then as now, our warnings about the real cost of cheap food fell on deaf ears.

I’m a journalist and the mother of two young children so I also put a family meal on the table every day. Living in the Wicklow hills may be the foodie dream and I go to a lot of swanky food events but our home menu is far from Masterchef. I don’t spend a lot of money on food, I just keep things simple. When people ask me is something safe to eat, I’m honest. There are some foods I just wouldn’t eat and some surprises that I would. 

Spuds, lamb, summer salad, wild garlic pesto. Fairly uncomplicated

You will never see a ready meal in my kitchen. One spaghetti bolognese I examined recently contains just 16% meat. Food “extenders” and “fillers” often make up the rest, adding volume and taste to sausages, burgers, ready meals and any amount of things in our trolleys. The reason? They reduce food manufacturing costs by 10-30%.

I understand why many consumers buy ready meals. As a working mum I often finish my day with cooking the last thing on my mind. I get round this by always having meals in the freezer. When I cook a chilli beef, ratatouille, curry, Irish stew etc I make twice the amount and freeze a complete meal. This is the key to avoiding take-away on the way home from work or dropping into the supermarket in a flap and coming out with a huge bill and still nothing for dinner.

Goujons - do they have a texture like jelly?

The aforementioned chicken goujons I simply don’t buy or eat. I peeled open a chicken goujon last week that looked like MRM (Mechanically Recovered Meat). MRM has a texture like sponge. It is not allowed at present in European food manufacturing but businesses get around the law by using the “Bader process” to make virtually the same thing – meat recovered from sinews and scraps from carcasses.

The safety issue for me is what’s used to congeal these bits of meat back into a palatable foodstuff. I don’t eat anything “re-constituted” that doesn’t have muscle texture, including turkeys or chickens at carvery counters that look like footballs.

After our RTE documentary “What’s Ireland Eating” aired many people approached myself and Philip with fears about ham. We showed a process where ham joints were boosted to a huge size by hundreds of needles pushing water and nitrates into the flesh. Processed meats, including hams and salamis have been linked to colonic cancer. Imported rashers and ham has higher nitrite levels (up to 20%) than are allowed in Ireland so I always buy ham with Bord Bia quality assured label.

Billy Roll - I don't go near it

Look for ham (even packed slices of ham) cut from the bone where you can see muscle grain. Likewise, jelly-textured cubed chicken found in sandwich bars, and deli counters. Even if it’s covered in a heavy “Cajun” or “Tikka” dressing; most of this chicken comes already processed from Thailand or Brazil and rarely made from fresh Irish chicken.

Ireland imports 2.5 million chicken breasts a week. Many of these have been found by the FSAI to be gas-flushed with CO2 to preserve them, on sale with incorrect use-by dates and could be up to ten days old from as far away as the Ukraine. Butchers are my first choice for buying beef but I don’t buy chicken in some butchers as many imported chicken fillets are sold loose on their counters. At the very least this chicken is stale. I only buy chicken fillets if they are Bord Bia certified (in supermarkets), free-range or if I’m flush, organic. 

This carrot and parsley soup takes about 20 mins to make

In our house meat is not a central part in every meal. I make a soup (curried carrot and parsnip, leek and potato) about twice a week, and yes, I add cream. This could be a dinner in my house. As is also scrambled eggs with tomato and basil, simple spaghetti with Irish mushrooms and pesto, cous cous or quinoa salad with mixed leaves, chopped peppers, cumin, olives and salami.

We’ve one child who is a great eater, the other one is more tricky. I adopt the French approach with children; mealtime choice is - menu A or menu A. Research show some foods like lettuce have to be offered up to 21 times before they are eaten; I put it in lunchtime sandwiches, it gets picked out. Then one day it isn’t picked out and eaten from then on. So don’t give up.

For my food shop I buy meat and vegetables from shops in my local village, spending about thirty euro a week in each. I buy store cupboard foods in one big shop about every three weeks in either Superquinn or Aldi. I know many Irish farmers who produce own brand product for Aldi. I also buy a lot of their imported foods like kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, chick peas, chillies, herbs and spices. Choose what has the least added ingredients and cooks well.

Remember, the more players involved in a single food product, the more likely it is to go wrong. Yearly I buy half a lamb from my neighbour butchered into joints ready to cook or freeze. At the weekend I buy sourdough bread, Kilbeggan porridge oats, Ed Hick’s rashers and eggs from the local farm shop.

My family food spend is under 150 euro a week, not counting wine or craft beer which I splurge on now and again. If I wasn’t partial to French wines and Irish cheese I would probably be the most healthy person on the planet.

So what can we do to eat safely and not pay out a fortune? Keep your food chain short and keep things simple. It takes work but shouldn’t break the bank. I dislike patronising advice to consumers to only buy organic or local. Find a place on the food and cooking scale you are comfortable with. Ditch Masterchef, take the pressure off yourself and cook with freshness to get taste.

Six foods I wouldn’t eat

Chicken goujons

Billy roll or any ham with a clowns face on it

Huge glossy chicken fillets in independent retailers or butchers often sold at discount

Chicken in a restaurant or sandwich bar – unless stated on the menu it is imported

Breaded fish including salmon, I stay away from farmed salmon and buy wild smoked salmon as an occasional treat

Brightly coloured snacks or crisps. McDonnell’s and Keoghs are pretty additive free.

My unexpected favourites –

Aldi’s Duneen natural yoghurt; I use it with everything; blitz with fruit for summer smoothies

Burgers – cook your own from mince or buy Aldi’s Aberdeen Angus 100% Irish beef; red meat is the best way to get iron into your system

Beans (without sugar) – unglamorous but a nutritious two minute meal heated on crusty bread

Smoked mackerel or herring costs about three euro a pack. Smashed up with crème fraiche and rocket makes a gorgeous topping on toast. Goatsbridge trout is so good eat it on its own.

Sodastream – invest in one. I drink two litres of sparkling water a day. Saved me a huge amount of cash and recycling of water bottles.

So what's your crap food secret? Here's ours... What's Ireland Eating

Last night on RTE television, journalist (and my other half) Philip Boucher-Hayes presented the second "What's Ireland Eating?" documentary which we developed from the book we wrote together in 2009 - Basketcase; what's happening to Irish food?.

Like the first "What's Ireland Eating" programme which grabbed Irish audiences by the throat last year, it was a powerful investigation on what's going on in the Irish diet. Plenty of shocking footage of visceral fat choking a patient's insides as he lay on the operating table of a Dublin hospital. Plenty of new research denoting that high calorie, high fat, high salt food is not just loosely "addictive" but actually addictive. Norah Volkow, a scientist in addiction from the US explained how even the idea of consuming a food you crave creates a dopamine response, which is often not matched by eating the food itself. So you consume more, to get the same hit. Looking at signage of fast food brands can cause this response in people, with some reaching the point where they can no longer regulate their brain's response or demand for certain foods, let alone deal with what happens once they are in their body.

Let's be clear here. We all eat bad food from time to time. My particular "crap food" favorites are peanut butter, crisps and prawn crackers. In a sequence that was cut from the final edit for time constraints, Philip recorded a food diary, accurate down to the last Skittle and glass of whiskey. Fortunately his main meal that day was a ratatouille that I had made for supper, which is low in calories and thankfully full of pretty good nutrients. The photo on the right shows him receiving his nutritional breakdown which was conducted by Teagasc. Not a very happy face is it? But that's real life, we're not all as healthy as we may think we are.

But is a high calorie snack food bad for you if you only consume it now and again? One of the central questions we wanted to ask in the documentary was - is curing Ireland's obesity problem as simple as saying "everything in moderation". Professor Mike Gibney from UCD shook his head "That's not working is it?" which is pretty much the case. We know more about food values and calorie content in Ireland than perhaps we ever did. Yet our obesity figures are still on the rise. So why are so many of us out of control in our eating habits and does the food industry have a role to play in curbing this pattern?

Should there be a reformulation of ingredients in manufactured foods? Would a sugar tax bring about behaviour change? Should healthier options be subsided by taxing sugary drinks? Is more education the answer? There are many options in the war on obesity that have been employed by other countries - Denmark (fat tax) and some states in the US (banning sodas over 16 ounces in volume, punitive taxes on soda drinks in others) but obestiy is a complex issue that needs a complex set of solutions. As the weight watchers group in Athlone who featured in the documentary admitted "we eat when we're miserable, we eat to celebrate.. that's why we're here". They said that a lot of their excess weight was down to their individual responsibility. On twitter yesterday in Ireland #whatsirelandeating was the topic trending for the entire day with multiple tweets per second as the programme aired "what can we do about obesity... tax the junk food companies.... I never knew a bag of prawn crackers had 600 calories!". What was most important was that Irish people were engaged by the issue and engagement itself has to be part of the solution.

We didn't provide answers in the documentary but asked the questions. If you want to have a look it's on the RTE player at the link below.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/whats_ireland_eating.html

Latest leak from MacDonalds at London Olympics; their contract prevents other foods suppliers selling chips

The Super Dooper MacDonalds in Olympic Park

It's not surprising that MacDonald's sponsorship of the London Olympics has generated a bit of heat, after all, sport and Big Macs are hardly a new pairing - the MacDonald's brand has been linked to the Olympics for several decades. For London 2012 MacDonald's will have four restaurants in Olympic park, including the biggest MacDonald's in the world which will serve up 1200 customers an hour and sell £3 million worth of fast food during the games. 

As expected, the chain has been criticised for promoting the consumption of fast food at a time when the UK, like ourselves, is facing huge problems with obesity and should be linking sports participation with healthy living.  Last week, members of the London Assembly said firms which sold junk food should not be linked to the Olympic Games. Cadbury and Coca-Cola are also sponsors. 

Sponsorship by these type of brands is at odds with UK policy on obesity and as with Ireland, calls into question the role between food companies and sports advertising. It's also now apparent that the deal with MacDonald's is going to negatively affect other food retailers at the Olympics who are not allowed sell chips unless they are with fish, as this was stipulated in the MacDonald's deal. 

A recently published memo to food suppliers from the London 2012 organisers Locog says "Due to sponsorship obligations with MacDonalds, Locog have instructed the catering team they are no longer allowed to serve chips on their own anywhere within the Olympic park." Not surprisingly, this latest piece of news has gone down like a lead balloon with other food suppliers contracted to the games.

As with a recent social media campaign that went wrong for MacDonald's, their Olympics sponsorship has so far generated much more bad news stories than good. But controversy or not, the more burgers MacDonald's sells the better it is for Irish exports; they are the biggest single buyer of Irish beef and use it in their restaurants all over Europe. 

So here's a conundrum. Can we complain on one hand about food companies contributing to obesity when they are also such big contributors to our GDP and create valuable Irish jobs? On Today with Pat Kenny this week I examined this paradox and the huge buying power MacDonalds has in the Irish beef sector. Check out our discussion on the programme at the link below

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/2012-07-26.html

Want to ban cheese ads being seen by Irish kids? You've two days to do so... or not

Cheese is getting cheesed off. And I'm not surprised. If you're a supporter of Irish cheese or hate the fact that cheese could soon be banned in advertisements shown during children's television, you have just a few more days to submit your views to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland on the proposed ban.

What the BAI want to do is ban ads for foods which can contribute to obesity in children. There's no doubt we have an obesity crisis in this country but under the BAI's nutritional profiling model, cheese is classed in the same grouping as fast food burgers and chips, soft drinks and chocolate bars. This is because cheese frequently has high levels of saturated fats, and there's no doubt that it does - with the average commercial cheddar made up of about 40% fat, or more.

But as we know, cheese has a very clean slate of ingredients compared to processed foods and snacks which are at the heart of our obesity problems. Many in Ireland's food sector view the ban as something that could be both detrimental to our dairy industry and also to children's diets. With research showing that many Irish children and teenagers are deficient in calcium it seems a contradictory approach to class cheese as a "bad" element of a varied diet. Particularly when you compare of dairy produce to the empty calories that children and young people are getting from soft drinks and the super high fat foods that they eat outside the home.

The proposals are also potentially harmful to the international push we are giving Irish dairy products in huge grocery marketplaces like China. This is the view of Irish artisan cheese producers, the Irish Farmers Association and summed up pretty much here in the The National Dairy Council's view on the issue -

“Restricting the advertising of cheese in Ireland will directly undermine the development of the Irish cheese industry, an industry where a huge element growth is predicated in terms of exporting increased production of Irish cheese to international consumers. The positioning of cheese in this proposed regulation as, effectively, 'junk food' could create reputational issues which may take years to reverse.”

My piece on the issue from the Irish Independent is at the link below which fleshes out the subject.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/smart-consumer/cheesed-off-are-tv-ads-helping-to-make-your-kids-obese-3110747.html

If you want to submit your views to the BAI, you have until this Thursday 31st May to do so. Check out the link at the bottom of the page, and if cheese is your passion, let your opinions be heard. 
http://www.bai.ie/?p=2431

Eating - it's all emotional. No Seriously...

Feeling low.... fumble for the chocolate at the back of the cupboard? Missed your train, give yourself a boost with a milky latte? We all have certain foods we reach for when our plans, or our emotions hit the floor. Up to recently this was viewed as something that was our own fault - a behaviour rather then a pattern we couldn't account for.

But new research suggests that the Gut-Brain Axis - the relationship between our brains and what we eat is much more complex than this. For example 50% of Irish people who suffer Irritable Bowel Syndrome also have depression. Did their feelings of "lowness" bring on problems in their gut or vice versa?

The link between mood, depression and diabetes is also becoming clearer with a huge rate of those diagnosed with both type 1 and type 2 depression in Ireland also taking medication for depression.

We also now know that a nerve called the GABA nerve is very active is in how our neurotrainsmitters work and what feelings and emotions the brain produces. It's also heavily influenced by certain foods, and the messages these foods upload in terms of our emotional state.

One sure thing most of us reach for when feeling low is sugary snacks or refined carbohydrates - that tub of Ben and Jerry's or the white baguette sandwich smeared with mayonnaise. Eating refined carbohydrates boosts insulin and provides a clearer path for tryptophan - the amino acid linked to serotonin production, to act in the brain. No surprise then that sugar gives us an instant "high"- but we now know that this spike of wellbeing is physiological rather than emotional. It's just a pity that half an hour later you crash back down to earth.

I wrote about this cycle today in The Irish Times, and talked about some foods to throw in your trolley to break the flip-flop cycle of eating for your mood. It's a fascinating area as most of us forget that our brain needs fuel and fail to see there are simple foods we are neglecting and thus prolonging our pattern of sugar high and sugar crash eating. Check it out at the link below, and my personal tip - unsalted peanuts... great brain fuel and they taste pretty good.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0403/1224314289134.html

Yes, you can self medicate with food. Things to throw in your trolley...

What's a legume? Well essentially its a bean - a kidney bean, chick pea, butter bean, runner bean... you name it. Legumes take central stage in a piece of mine in the Irish Times today. It's the start of a series on how what you put in your trolley can improve common illnesses we all suffer from.

Instead of telling people what Not to eat, my approach here is to give them solutions. So if you've high blood pressure, eating legumes helps rid the body of excess water, which if retained can raise blood pressure. Beans such as lentils and white beans also contain high levels of potassium which helps rid the body of excess salt.

There's all sorts of things you can include in your diet to address many different health issues. The series will also cover mental health, fatigue, fertility and lots of other annoying conditions that appear in our lives on an ongoing basis. What I'm saying is - before getting a prescription as long as your arm for simple common conditions, (like migraine, or continual tiredness) try looking at your diet. Though perpetual tiredness... with a toddler and a young baby on the go I'll put my hand up to this. Though 70% cocoa chocolate helps, a lot. x

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0320/1224313565296.html

Fat tax adds 6% to price of cream; supermarket charges 17% more, just for the hell of it. The Denmark fat tax experience

Yes sometimes I moan about supermarkets, but I never thought they could have an active role in mucking up public health policy.

I recently did a report on RTE radio about Denmark's Fat Tax. Instead of the expected trend in consumers purchasing high calorie foods, what I found was that retailers there are using the tax to fatten their bottom line. A price survey of eight supermarkets carried out by weekly Danish newspaper Søndagsavisen with co-operation from the Tax Ministry, revealed that prices on many fatty foods were significantly higher than warranted by the tax’s introduction.

For example, while Skat – the Danish Tax and Customs Administration had calculated that the price of sour cream would increase by 6.6 percent due to the fat tax, the spot check revealed that at supermarket Aldi the price of sour cream was raised by a whopping 17.3 percent.
Aldi was the worst offender in the study, with the supermarket raising prices on 9 of the 10 inspected products by more than what could be accounted for by the new tax. Lidl was also an offender - they had increased the price of sour cream by 15.1 percent more than warranted by the tax. Both of these firms operate in Ireland and in fact are growing their share of the grocery market here.

The Danish Consumer Council’s reaction was “Supermarkets can determine their own prices, so it is not prohibited, but it doesn’t look good.” Yes, it sure doesn't look good. Politicians there have now said that there needs to be a debate on “whether there are ways to protect the consumer.”

In all my analysis of fat taxes and obesity measures around the world I was probably naive to overlook the huge issue of how these taxes are delivered - via the supermarkets. As there is yet no regulation on supermarkets in Ireland, going down a sugar tax or fat tax route could put us in exactly the same postition as the Danes - being fleeced. There are also supermarkets in Denmark who are not charging the new tax and trying to gain competitive advantage. So basically, the public health measures expected from the tax are at the whim of the companies who deliver them.

Later this winter we should have legislation here on a proposed new supermarket ombudsman and the possibility of at last protecting both consumers and food producers. After giving a witness statement at an Oireachtas Committee on this back in 2009 it's getting critical that something finally be done. Successive governments here have shirked their responsibilities on the issue. The Danish example just goes to prove that if you have no legal framework to work with the supermarkets on pricing then you may as well be throwing public health measures down the pan.

If you want to hear my discussion with Pat Kenny on the Danish fat tax dilemma it's on the following link; scroll down to November 1st and you'll see my name and the Fat Tax item.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_patkenny.xml

Denmark's Fat Tax - one month old and already gone badly wrong

After a fabulous Friday spent at Savour Kilkenny I'm firmly back in the real world after discovering a food news shocker today. I should have known that after a lovely interlude of chatting with author Colman Andrews about locavores, eating Goatsbridge trout and Knockdrinna cheese with fantastic wine pairings in Mount Juliet, things would come down to earth with a bump via my old nemesis - the supermarkets.

Tomorrow morning I'm reporting on the Kenny Show on Fat Tax and how Denmark is reacting to its first month under the new expensive food regime. Aside from the expected consumer complaints about more expensive processed food, dairy and meat products, the real shocker is that the supermarkets there have taken complete advantage of the new law and are charging as much as 15% more on products such as butter and cream, on top of the 6% or so mark up from the fat tax itself.

This is profiteering on an outrageous scale and again there's no measures or legislation to stop them. Not only are the Danish chains involved in this desception but also Aldi and Lidl which operate here in Ireland. Sometimes I think I'm far too cynical about supermarkets but this new piece of skullduggery in action blew me away. And what would happen here if a fat tax was introduced? Exactly the same thing, particularly as we've no supermarket ombudsman or protection from this sort of practice.

What's the point of having any kind of public health policy if supermarkets use it as a tool to rip off consumers? I'll be going through it in detail after 10am on RTE radio one tomorrow and will put an audio link up here on the blog later.

Fat tax: outrageous infringement of our right to eat, or a tool to tackle an obesity crisis

Ah the fat tax. We're all doomed. My weekend packet of McDonnell's crisps could be 20 cent more. My couple-of-times-a-year fish and chips might set me back an extra two euro. But more importantly, what about the massive amount of cheese and whole milk I consume? The pizzas I make myself, the bakewell tarts with local eggs and apples. The chocolate, em, lots of it.

This is the problem; a fat tax doesn't just tax junk food, it potentially taxes all foods that contain saturated fats. In my own humble opinion I think my diet is pretty wholesome and fairly healthy. But is that healthy diet going to yet another part of my life that seems to cost more money daily? Or is a fat tax worth levelling at all of us, and at many types of food in order to tackle what is a clearly out of control obesity problem.

Earlier this month Denmark was the first of our neighbouring states to introduce a fat tax - making goods like butter, pizza, crisps, oil and processed foods more expensive for the consumer. Anything with more than 2.3% of saturated fat gets taxed. The idea is that if something is more expensive, we eat less of it. To be fair, this has worked in the past; alongside huge negative health messages about cigarettes, making them very expensive has not just been a huge cash earner for the Government but a deterrent to their use. Look at it this way, if a packet of fags costed two euro many people would smoke a hell of a lot more than if (as now) they cost close to a tenner.

Some onlookers say the Danish tax won't work; making foods more expensive won't change behaviour as sweet foods, chocolate or the odd MacDonald's is a treat and people will still consume them whatever the small price rise. The real sufferers of obesity in Ireland tend to lie in lower income groups, so is penalising them fair, or will it force them to change their food habits?

All we can do is watch and see how the Danish fat tax works on people's eating behaviour. It seems that the obesity task force in Ireland is looking firstly at taxing sugary drinks - a fat tax is not yet on the table. Below is a piece I wrote this week for the Irish Times outlining the Dane's plans. Read and weep, rejoice or whatever you feel, I'd love to hear your comments x

The Irish Times Tuesday, October 18th

Suzanne Campbell

THE FAT TAX: HOW IT WORKS IN DENMARK
Methods of taxing the rising tide of obesity are being debated around Europe following the initiative of Hungary who began penalising high calorie food and drinks on September 1st, with Denmark introducing a “fat tax” earlier this month.
The Danish tax operates as a surcharge on foods such as butter, oil and pizza which contain more than 2.3 per cent saturated fat. For consumers, these foods now carry a levy, calculated at €2.15 per kilogram of saturated fat, meaning that the cost of a pound of butter has increased by about 20 cent.
With an obesity rate of 9 per cent, Denmark is far below the European average of 15 per cent, while 23 per cent of Irish people are considered to be obese. Denmark and Finland have already levied taxes on sugary drinks, while Hungary brought in a wide ranging “fat tax” on foods, soft drinks and alcohol in a bid to tackle its 18.8 per cent obesity rate.
British prime minister David Cameron suggested earlier this month that the UK could follow Denmark’s lead, and from January 1st France is to introduce a tax on sugary drinks which will add 2 cent to every 33cl can.

While taxing sugar-sweetened drinks is being discussed by the Special Action Group on Obesity in this country, Minister for Health James Reilly says there are no plans for a “fat tax” on high fat, salt and sugary foods “at this juncture”. But, in response to a recent parliamentary question, Reilly said that he plans to ask the country’s fast-food operators to include calorie details on their menus.

For many Irish food manufacturers, a “fat tax” is an unwelcome vista. “Under the Danish measures, Irish cheese and milk would be taxed as they contain more than 2.3 per cent saturated fats,” says Catherine Logan, nutrition manager at the National Dairy Council.
“But we have to remember that people eat whole foods rather than just single nutrients.”
Could there be a workable solution that doesn’t penalise nutritionally valuable foods such as dairy produce? “There are alternative ways of taxing and with something like cheese you could come to an agreement where it is defined differently,” says Dr Martin Carraher, professor of food and health policy at City University, London.

His suggested measure for Ireland is to tax “processing” and, in doing so, favour foods that are produced locally. “You can do this as long as you don’t provide a barrier to trade.”
His suggestions would be welcomed by many Irish food producers, but without a change of direction from the Minister for Health, the prospect of an Irish “fat tax” in the near future is still an unlikely one.

Red meat - the most intense nutrient-rich food available to human beings

A new take on meat - my piece in today's Irish Independent

With celebrities from Paul McCartney to Star Wars actress Natalie Portman telling us to eat less meat, switching our shopping habits towards a vegetarian diet is one of the pieces of advice dominating the food world right now.

The rise in obesity levels combined with the unsustainable nature of beef production means that consumers are now encouraged to limit the quantity of meat they eat and turn instead to buying more vegetables, fish and meat alternatives.

But a new book by Irish butcher Pat Whelan argues that going back to the old-fashioned staples of our traditional diet; eating plenty of beef, pork and lamb is not only a healthy choice but one essential to our wellbeing. Whelan, who is the fifth generation of his family to be involved in meat production, runs a butcher shop in Clonmel, Co Tipperary and his knowledge of meat from farm to fork has earned him a Rick Stein Food Hero award.

In his book "An Irish Butcher Shop", Whelan argues that one of the reasons consumers find it easy to turn away from meat is a lack of knowledge on how to prepare it and an over reliance on inferior quality meat sold in plastic packaging in supermarkets.
He points out that beef should not be sitting in a pool of its own blood in a plastic box, and that everything about the mass production of meat and the way it's marketed to consumers is contrary to the core benefits and joys of eating it.

He argues that instead of turning away from meat, we should be appreciating its unique benefits -- red meat is the single most intense nutrient-rich food available to human beings. It's a crucial source of iron and trace elements such as zinc and copper, as well as vitamins B12 and B6.
Fat on meat is also something we shouldn't be afraid of -- it is fundamental to the taste and tenderness of the finished product.

Irish beef that is fed on pasture develops a good covering of fat which gives it great flavour. Because it's grass-fed, this makes the meat a high quality, close to organic product. Meat from grass-fed animals has up to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than meat from grain fed animals. It is also the richest known source of CLA or "conjugated linoleic acid"; an exceptional omega-6 fat which has been attributed with antioxidant and anti-cancer properties.
Most of the current opposition to beef consumption is related to cattle "feed lots" -- vast industrial-scale feeding units found typically in the US but now growing in popularity in India and China. Here animals live on a regime rich in maize and cereals which is not their natural diet.
As the appetite for beef grows across the world, we have to produce more cereals (wheat, barley and so on) to make the animal feed that cattle eat.

In many developing countries, feeding cattle (or chicken and pork in large quantities) takes other foods and water resources out of the food chain. Put simply, if everyone across the world adapted to the 'Western Diet', we'd run out of many foodstuffs, and water.

Farm animals also produce more than 10% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions but new approaches to the anti-meat argument such as Simon Fairlie's book -- Meat: A Benign Extravagance has swayed even the hardened environmentalists such as best-selling author George Monbiot back towards eating meat. Fairlie argues that it's specifically feed-lot production of cattle that reduces the world's food supply and that what we should be doing is eating meat but simply less of it.

In Ireland the situation is very different; cattle and sheep roam outdoors and eat grass which is in plentiful supply, so the beef and lamb we eat takes a minimum of inputs and is fairly sustainable.

However, most pigs and poultry in Ireland are farmed in intensive indoor units where the quality of the animals' lives is poor and again they are eating a cereal based diet.
Ireland comes closest to factory farming in these pig and chicken "units"; vast indoor sheds packed densely with animals.

The intensive production of chicken and pork over decades has also affected what we're getting on our plate -- pigs are slaughtered at about seven months old, and unfortunately quality and flavour of modern pork has been affected by the breeding of faster maturing pigs. So the consumer pays the price with an inferior-tasting product.

The bacon and rashers most of us eat have been injected with brine, and can often contain more water than meat content. So while we think mass-produced cheap rashers are good value, if they end up a third of their original size after cooking then it's a bad deal.

You might get better value from an artisan-produced pork that's more expensive raw but yields more meat when cooked. One way to keep both sides happy is to continue to eat meat but put more thought into what we buy.

Pat's book is full of recipes for everything from 'pot-roasted shoulder of lamb' to 'boozy rabbit with prunes'.

His advice is to vary what you buy from the old staples of sirloin, fillet, lamb cutlets, pork chops and rashers. Try new cuts and free-range or artisan products occasionally. The pay-off is in quality, taste and ultimately better value for money.

An Irish Butcher Shop by Pat Whelan, published by Collins Press. Suzanne Campbell's food blog is at www.basketcase theblog.blogspot.com
- Suzanne Campbell
Irish Independent

Ditch the diet gurus, just read "Food Rules"

The 64 healthy eating tips that will change your diet forever
By Suzanne Campbell, The Irish Independent, Thursday Jun 17, 2010
Summer time spells anxiety for many of us, and the prospect of stripping off by the pool can push us towards a quick weight-loss plan. In Hollywood, a new diet trend is to eat only raw food or even baby food -- yet another weight-loss plan supposedly practised by celebs such as Jennifer Aniston. But as these trends come and go, how many of us ask: "South Beach", "Atkins", "The Zone", did any of them work in the long term?
With a diet industry that's worth over €200bn worldwide, it's not hard to see how peddling the latest solution for weight loss is a financial winner. New diet products and "experts" exist to sell us new ways to do the same old thing: lose weight and become healthier.
American author Michael Pollan has an alternative approach. In his new book Food Rules: An Eater's manual, he offers 64 simple tips on how to eat healthily. They read like advice your granny would have given you, and provide a refreshing antidote to the constant stream of nutritional "trends".
Ditching diet gurus and getting real about food is the only approach that works, according to Pollan. Writing about diets is a new departure for Pollan, whose laser-beam attention is normally focused on supermarkets and food manufacturing. His landmark book In Defense of Food made him one of the world's most trusted writers on the subject.
A professor of science journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, Pollan turns the focus on to us in Food Rules, advising us to ignore "The Nutritional Industrial Complex".
He uses old-fashioned sense to simplify what we put into our mouths and see how it's affecting our weight and health.
Pollan was nudged towards writing about weight loss by doctors who approached him looking for a pamphlet with some simple rules for eating. One physician told him about the insides of patients which were wrecked by eating "food products" rather than food. In the past, Pollan has detailed the huge health cost of processed foods and points out that the way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.

"The modern supermarket has on average 47,000 products. The industry does not want you to know the truth about what you're eating because if you knew, you might not want to eat it."
Obesity costs Ireland €4bn a year. And as we eat more of the so-called Western diet -- processed foods, meat, added sugar, fats and refined grains -- we're also experiencing more of the diseases associated with this diet: obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Yet people who consume more traditional foods experience these diseases at a much lower rate.
After years analysing the problem, Pollan's answer is shockingly simple: "Eat real food, not too much of it, and eat more plants than meat." Expanding on this central theme, Pollan took the doctors up on their challenge: collecting and formulating straightforward, everyday rules for eating for a book that could be understood by everyone. For advice he turned to chefs, scientists, doctors and the readers of his books. Then he boiled down the knowledge into 64 essential rules about eating with a paragraph explaining each.

For such a heavy hitter such as Pollan, it's refreshing to read a collection of positive tips on eating that is as relevant at the holiday buffet counter as in the aisle of the supermarket. Here's a selection of his food rules:
- Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself
Pollan suggests there's nothing wrong with eating sweets, fried food or pastries now and then. The problem is that food manufacturers have made eating these formerly expensive and hard-to-make treats so cheap and easy that we're eating them every day. Once the food industry took over the task of washing, peeling, cutting, frying potatoes and cleaning up the mess, it makes things like French fries much more attractive.
"If you made all the French fries you ate, you would eat them much less often, if only because they're so much work. The same holds true for fried chicken, chips, cakes, pies, and ice-cream. Enjoy these treats as often as you're willing to prepare them -- chances are good it won't be every day."
- Eat when you are hungry, not when you are bored
Pollan says that many of us eat when we are not hungry.
"We eat out of boredom, for entertainment, to comfort or reward ourselves. Try to be aware of why you're eating, and ask yourself if you're really hungry -- before you eat and then again along the way. (If you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you're not hungry.) Food is a costly antidepressant."
- Avoid foods you see advertised on television
Food marketers are ingenious at turning criticisms of their products into newer, reformulated versions of the same foods. They re-advertise the product as being low in fat or low in salt and then boast about their implied health properties.
Pollan's tip: "The best way to escape these marketing ploys is to tune out the marketing itself, by refusing to buy heavily promoted foods. More than two-thirds of food advertising is spent promoting processed foods (and alcohol), so if you avoid products with big ad budgets, you'll automatically be avoiding edible food-like substances."
- Do all your eating at a table
And no folks, "a desk is not a table". Pollan points out that if we eat while we work, watch TV or drive, "we eat mindlessly -- and as a result eat a lot more than we would if we were eating at a table, paying attention to what we're doing".
Testing this, he offers an interesting solution to the problem of fussy children. "Place a child in front of a television set and place a bowl of vegetables in front of him or her. They will eat everything in the bowl, often even vegetables that he or she doesn't ordinarily touch, without noticing what's going on. Which suggests an exception to the rule: When eating somewhere other than at a table, stick to fruits and vegetables."
- Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk
"This should go without saying. Such cereals are highly processed and full of refined carbohydrates as well as chemical additives."
- Cook
"Cooking for yourself," he writes, "is the only sure way to take back control of your diet from the food scientists and food processors." And by cooking at home he doesn't mean something complicated or arduous. It's throwing leftovers from the fridge together for an omelette, opening a tin of tuna with some salad, or even beans on toast.
Pollan's rules distil much of what we know about food into easy, memorable nuggets of information. The book's strength lies in that it's uncomplicated, jargon-free and points out with a large dollop of humour the madness of some of our eating habits. After all, "it's not food if it arrives in the window of your car" isn't that hard to argue with. Food Rules set out to be the antidote to diet books, but it could just change the way you eat for a very long time.
Suzanne Campbell
Irish Independent Read more: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/health-fitness/the-64-healthyeating-tips-that-will-change-your-diet-forever-2223296.html#ixzz0r6kagJBR