Ben's blog

The news today has reported on a new merger between cereal giant Kellogg's and the Ajinomoto company of Japan, the inventor of the world's most widespread flavour enhancer.

The processed food industry has been experimenting with different ingredients and compounds from all imaginable walks of life for many years. Not all of them turn out to be successful, but some have proven helpful in food production and become common in many processed foods today. We often think that if it is naturally sourced it must be good for us.

During June the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in the UK released new guidelines regarding nutrition and its effects upon cardiovascular health. Today the American USDA released their first draft of their revised 2010 nutrition guidelines.

Cod liver oil is a unique food. We often think of it as a supplement because it is usually sold as a dosing liquid or increasingly in capsule form. The reality is it is an oil, just like olive, vegetable or coconut oil. It is only needed for good health in relatively small daily amounts.

The mainstay of healthy nutrition for 40 years now has revolved around eating more plant foods and minimising fatty animal foods.

Soft drinks are probably acknowledged by most people to be a source of fluid that probably isn't the healthiest option. However, there is one type of soft drink that seems to carry with it an air of elitism - the sports and energy drink! Why is that these drinks don't seem to carry the same concerns for the potential to negatively affect health?

 A minimum of 50% carbohydrates.

A maximum of 35% of calories from fat, with less than 10% from saturated fat.

55g of protein per day for every adult.

A maximum of 6g of salt per day.

If there is any food group that is misunderstood more than any other it is fats! There is so much over simplification and down right incorrect information being passed around about fats that we have decided to be sure that you are fully informed about what foods provide what fats. Think of it as our new year gift to you.

This week the BBC aired a show called 'Who made me fat?' presented by Becca Wilcox in which she investigated the underlying reasons for the ever present obesity crisis. However, this did not take the usual direction that these kind of shows normally follow as she chose to try and dig up some underlying reasons to support her dietary conspiracy theory.

It seems there is a constant barage of information in the press about the extent of the obesity crisis and the continually rising number of individuals who are overweight. The number of the adult population who are considered overweight according to the body mass index system  is approaching 70% here in the UK.

We are fascinated by the idea that the national and global problems associated with our ever increasing waistlines are all about this elusive energy unit we call a calorie.

New 2 minute taster video clip: Salt

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http://www.youtube.com/naturalfoodfinder

New 2 minute taster video clip: MSG - Monosodium Glutamate

Visit and subscribe to our Youtube channel: 

http://www.youtube.com/naturalfoodfinder

BBC news announced tonight that Organic food is no more nutritious than conventional produce! This immediately caught my attention and I suspected the involvement of the Food Standards Agency. I got straight on the internet before the news reader got to this particular  story and sure enough this study was indeed comissioned by the FSA.

On the 11th July 2007 researchers declared the time was right to debate a "fat tax".

But the idea was dismissed in 2004 by former prime minister Tony Blair as too suggestive of a "nanny state".