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Food

Interesting idea

Dozens of health and children’s groups have urged ministers to tackle obesity by imposing taxes on foods containing too much salt or sugar.

New levies based on the sugar tax on soft drinks would make it easier for consumers to eat more healthily by forcing food manufacturers to reformulate their products, they claim.

So, what was the effect of the sugar tax? Anyone? Has obesity decreased? Sugar consumption fallen? Health improved? No? Ah, well then….

We have actually tested the idea, see?

And sorry, no:

The health groups believe taxing unhealthy foods such as cakes, sweets, biscuits, crisps and savoury snacks would generate billions of pounds for the Treasury and cut the number of people becoming ill as a result of a bad diet.

You only get one of those two, not both. Either Lossa lots of people eat less bad food and are healthier, or you raise lossa lots in tax because people don’t stop eating the taxed food.. But not both.

The old ways are best, eh?

A mass outbreak of suspected food poisoning has caused “carnage” across two university halls in New Zealand, with reports of early morning queues for toilets, vomit dripping down building windows and students abandoning exams to dash to the loo.

More than 100 students reported being struck down with vomiting and diarrhoea at two University of Canterbury student residences on Sunday night, the university confirmed on Tuesday.

The cause of the illness was yet to be determined, but students at University Hall and Ilam Apartments – both run by UniLodge – said they began feeling sick on Sunday evening, after eating the catered chicken souvlakia dinner, local news outlet Stuff reported.

If they’d just had mince* on toast instead then this wouldn’t have happened. Proper New Zealand food, not this imported Greek muck.

*I sorta, vaguely, know that mince on toast is something NZ. Kiddie comfort food sorta stuff apparently? But is it lamb mince or beef mince that is usually referred to?

These twats can fuck off ‘n’all

Food companies must be completely banned from advertising highly calorific or unhealthy food to combat a “public health emergency”, a House of Lords report has concluded.

Peers said that instead of relying on weight-loss jabs to solve the obesity crisis, the government should “fix the broken food system” through radical measures including taxes on junk foods.

People enjoying themselves leads to bad outcomes. We can now cure those bad outcomes but we’re not going to, instead we must stop people enjoying themselves.

Now apply that logic rigorously. We can now prevent people from getting HIV as a result of being promiscuous bum chums. But we must not allow anyone to use PrEP, instead we must insist they either stop shagging around or they die. Har Har.

No, these twats can fuck off.

As ever, the comic got there first

What is the worst thing in the world? There was a time when, for Britons, it was strange Chinese delicacies such as sea slugs.

The converse was also true, and while Chinese food is now universally accepted in the West, the British packed lunch with its essential ingredient, the sandwich, still provokes horror from Beijing to Hong Kong.

So much so that when a Chinese woman began to post videos online of her British husband carefully preparing his daily ham and tomato sandwich, they attracted millions of horrified viewers.
….

After its years of explosive growth, the Chinese economy has hit a wall in the past two years, which along with the pandemic and lockdowns has given rise to an internet vogue for a sort of amused acceptance of a fate beyond our control.

Old Dry Keith’s struggles with his sandwich became an ideal topic, as Zhou observed when — to general shock — Brown was unable to find avocados to go with his smoked salmon.

Zhou wrote: “We watch him struggling to saw apart two slices of dry bread, as hard as weapons-grade steel, slicing off a few thin streaks of yellow from a block of hardened butter that has not yet completely thawed, and then placing two slices of pre-smoked salmon on top.

“This vision is enough to make ordinary people think of the lunch they just hurriedly swallowed, and feel empathy and sadness.

“He is just like all those of us who have to pay our credit card bill but our salary hasn’t arrived, or have to go to a meeting but find that their mobile phone battery is at 10 per cent. He bravely faces all of life’s blows.”

Arthur Dent.

Those who know, know….

The wowsers keep going

It’s difficult to say whether alcoholic drinks count as UPFs, Monteiro and colleagues wrote in 2019. But they provide some general guidance: fermented drinks like beer, cider and wine are considered “processed” and “ultra-processed” if they are fermented and then the resulting alcohol is distilled – like whiskey, gin, rum and vodka.

So all spirits are UPF and must be abjured etc. Which does rather go against their other definition, what you wouldn’t find in Granny’s kitchen. Depends upon the Granny really, doesn’t it? Mine, well……

My own belief here is that they’re all just making it up as they go along. The real definition that they’re not quite using yet is “anything made by capitalism”.

Government that treads more lightly upon lives

Animal agriculture is one of the biggest drivers of climate breakdown and the destruction of natural habitats, but European leaders have made little effort to steer diets heavy in meat and milk to whole grains and plant-based sources of protein. The report did not set targets for meat production, such as culling herds, but called for support to help shift dietary habits, such as free school meals, more detailed labels, and tax reductions on healthy and sustainable food products.

Government that tells you what you pay eat.

A certain tension there.

Do fuck off here

The Olympics should sever its ties with Coca-Cola as it is using the Games as a “gold medal opportunity to sportswash unhealthy products”, public health experts have said.

experts from Vital Strategies, the international public health organisation, have written in a BMJ journal.

The tell here?

The pair warned that “by continuing its association with Coca-Cola, the Olympic movement risks being complicit in intensifying a global epidemic of poor nutrition, environmental degradation and climate change”.

Just the usual idiot fashionable whining.

This is lucky

Swapping sausages or bacon for beans or tofu could cut a person’s risk of dementia by nearly a quarter, a study has found.

Always did think that soss, beans ‘n’chips plus bacon was being a bit greedy. Save* the bacon for the bacon egg and beans the next day, obviously.

*I’ve been living in countries without proper supplies of decent bacon and sausages for decades now. Save is the right word

Ah, bureaucracy!

Nice opted to block the new treatment for English patients in March after ruling that metastatic breast cancer, also known as stage IV breast cancer, was a “moderately severe disease”. Because of this, it decided that AstraZeneca’s breast cancer drug did not offer value for money.

At the time, the spending watchdog said the cost-effectiveness was “above the upper end of the range Nice considers an acceptable use of NHS resources”.

Sir Pascal called on Sir Keir Starmer to investigate how these decisions are made, arguing that Nice had made an error in classifying stage IV breast cancer as “moderately severe”. He added: “Everybody would tell you it is a severe disease.”

Stage IV breast cancer is not a severe disease.

If you get to define your own meanings then you can prove anything.

Monomania

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.

Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of São Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week.

“UPFs are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,” Monteiro told the Guardian ahead of the conference in São Paulo.

“UPFs are displacing healthier, less processed foods all over the world, and also causing a deterioration in diet quality due to their several harmful attributes. Together, these foods are driving the pandemic of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.”

Sigh.

Given how difficult it is to be famous these days it’s necessary to go ever further off into hte wolds in order to become famous.

People have climbed Everest so it’s got to be Kilimanjaro onna pogo stick. Sputnik has already happened so billionaires require their own whole rocket company. We grasp the basics of diet now, carbs, vitimins and so on, so now it’s got to be some blather about being made in a factory.

Shrug.

But why aren’t they doing it already?

So, climate change means we should wipe out the native British breeds of cattle:

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has funded a study with more than £10,000 of taxpayers’ money in which scientists at Harper Adams in Shropshire, a specialist agricultural university, will investigate possible ways of reducing emissions.

Possible routes being studied include increasing the use of dual-use cows instead of dairy-only herds and also swapping traditional British breeds for more muscular breeds that produce more meat.

Sounds a bit planner’s delusion to me but there we are. However:

The brief from Defra mentioned the possibility of pivoting to European breeds, such as the charolais or Belgian blue, but the scientists focused on the British blue.

The British blue has a gene mutation that allows it to naturally grow 20 per cent more muscle mass compared with other breeds while the animal is fine-boned and docile by nature, which leads to high volumes of meat produced per animal.

“British blue cattle tend to be more efficient with faster growth rates, higher carcass weights and a lower age at slaughter, which reduces their carbon footprint compared with the angus breed,” said Prof Jude Capper, lead author of the Government-commissioned study at Harper Adams University.

Well, that’s great. Sounds more economic all ’round in fact. So, why aren;t farmers already using the faster to grow, more profitable, vattle? What#s the reason they’re not?’

Well, yes

Spurlock was also later criticised for not disclosing that he was an alcoholic or for acknowledging that his drinking during the making of the movie could have impacted his health.

As he should of course

Soviet politician Anastas Mikoyan spearheaded a boom in ice cream production after encountering the product during a US goodwill trip in the 1930s.

Mikoyan enacted strict controls that forced producers to adhere to state standards around ingredients and production methods.

There were three main varieties of Soviet ice cream: molochnoye, made with milk; slivochnoye, made with cream; and plombir, which is made with cream and egg yolks.

Some Russian manufacturers still make ice cream to those specifications, with Golden Standard among them.

Mikoyan was said to have been accused by Stalin of caring more about ice cream than Communism.

Can also be remarkably good. Basically, because they’ve done absolutely no innovation at all – hey, Soviets – and they’re still making, really, what is iced cream.

So I start reading the story and blow me

Eating ultra-processed meat is linked to an increased risk of early death, a Harvard study over 30 years has found.

Scientists tracked more than 114,000 adults in one of the most extensive studies into the long-term consequences of modern diets.

So, ban UPF and all that. Except, the bit that surprises:

“The study showed a modest association with high UPF consumption on the outcome category ‘All deaths’ which were 4 per cent higher in the high UPF group.”

However, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics, University of Cambridge, said such an association was “weak”.

He said it was “surprising” that researchers’ conclusions focussed on the risks from processing given their acknowledgement that overall dietary quality had the greatest impact.

It’s not a strong association and further:

Dr Mellor said: “It is also noticeable that those who consumed most ultra-processed foods tended to eat few vegetables, fruit, legumes and wholegrain. This appeared to suggest that it might not be as simple as that those who ate more ultra-processed foods were more likely to die earlier – it is quite possible that these foods might displace healthier foods from the diet.”

It’s not even obvious that it’s the consumption of UPF that does it. Rather, the non-cosumption of the other stuff.

The surprise being that the journos actually bothered to do all of this.

I love it when a plan comes together

For the last six years, I’ve eaten pizza every single day. Sometimes it might just be a slice, but most days I will get through a whole one. My favourite is a classic American deep-pan pepperoni. I also love tomato and cheese on a nice thick crust, so a plain margherita will never go amiss.

Ohhhhkay…..

My wife is very supportive and often brings slices home. Last year, I spent 16 days in Italy exploring Rome, Naples and the Amalfi coast with her and our daughter. I ate pizza there, too, of course.

Well, yes, obviously. Top tip from the home of pizza – you don’t use water buffalo mozzarella, use the “fake” cow milk one. It melts better. You do use the water buffalo on a saltimbocca though (an extremely fine one to be had in the church square in the middle of Pozzuoli).

But:

I think people find it hard to understand why I do it, and just how much I love pizza – but it’s as simple as that. I’ll continue my streak as long as I’m still excited about pizza, and I’m happy to enjoy my delicious journey, one bite at a time.

You know, man’s a little weird. Not knife slashingly weird, but he is a bit weird.

Just over a year ago, a pizza box company saw my Instagram and asked if I’d be interested in working for them. I left my job to sell boxes to pizza stores full-time. It’s the perfect job for me, as I can travel and try pizzas from all over the country. This spring, I had pizza in 10 different US states. I also went to Las Vegas for a pizza convention. My favourite crust is the thick, crispy and chewy style from New Haven, Connecticut. The city has the best pizza I’ve ever tried. I love eating at a place called Sally’s Apizza, which has been open since 1938. The sauce is like nothing I’ve ever had, and the coal-fired oven puts the perfect char on the crust.

But isn’t that glorious? And no, I am not making a joke nor sneering. I think it is both glorious and gorgeous. We live in a society free enough, rich enough (to a great extent, the same thing) that the slightly weird squiggle shaped peg of a guy is able to find exactly that right slightly weird wiggle shaped hole into which he fits.

Sure, sure, Instagram, pizzas, cardboard boxes, all very trivial – and yet a guy is able to make his living doing what he loves. We should have more of this capitalism and markets so more of us can do that, right?

Amazin’

A fat gene which makes an adult six times more likely to be obese has been found by scientists.

Around 1 in 6,500 adults, or around 10,000 people in the UK, are thought to have the faulty version of the BSM gene, also known as “Bassoon”.

Watch as 10 million claim to have the gene had by 10,000

Tsk

I actually quite like Dan Scardino – been interviewed by him twice and all that. But:

The most striking point made at this year’s forum came in a seemingly innocuous comment in the event’s opening speech. The director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, Dr Qu Dongyu, questioned why, with more than 1,000 known varieties of banana, the world mostly depends on just one, a species called the Cavendish. That needs to change, he said, hinting that we are all part of the problem.

Cavendish is not a species, it’s a cultivar. And yes, this is important:

Most people don’t question why every banana they’ve ever eaten looks and tastes pretty much the same. Most of us will never try a blue java from Indonesia with its soft, unctuous texture and flavour of vanilla ice-cream, or the Chinese banana that is so aromatic it’s been given the name go san heong, meaning “you can smell it from the next mountain”. The demand for low-cost, high-yielding varieties has resulted in vast monocultures of just one type of globally traded banana, and this is true of many other crops as well. Homogeneity in the food system is a risky strategy, because it reduces our ability to adapt in a rapidly changing world.

Unlike wild bananas, which grow from seed, every single Cavendish is a clone, the offspring of a slice of the plant’s suckers growing below ground.

All of thosew 1,000 cultivars – not species – of banana are sterile in this same sense. The Blue Java also – for example – suffers from Panama Disease.

There are indeed the two ancestral, wild, bananas who propagate by seed. But they have, through varied cross breeding, produced those 1,000 types. And, you know, if you’re going to write a book about the problems of genetic diversity in our foodstuffs – Dan’s project – this is one of those things that you really need to get right at the beginning, no?

This is terribly simple

Some complain that pricey sourdough is elitist and pretentious. Others lambast cheap sliced white as unhealthy and unsustainable. How did our most basic foodstuff become a source of conflict and division?

It’s about class. This is England, of course it’s about class.

And the division here is interestiong too for what it tells us about class. The poshoes these days are the Guardian reading fannyistas who insist that anything not wildly expensive in the food line should be banned for the proles.

This is England, it\’s always about class after all.But who is being Lady Bountiful tells us who that top dog class – in their own estimation of course – is.