The Fresh Network Blog

Would you like fries with that?

I spent most of today editing articles for the next issue of Get Fresh! magazine, and in the course of fact-checking one of them, I found myself on the website of a well-known fast food chain, clicking on their nutrition tab and scrolling through lists of ingredients. And I mean scrolling. Here as an example, dear reader (as I am so shocked by this I couldn't not share it), is the natural goodness that goes into said fast food chain's bacon sandwich:

INGREDIENTS: Egg Patty [Whole Eggs, Whey, Pasteurized Process Monterey Jack Cheese (Monterey Jack Cheese (Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Water, Milkfat, Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Sodium Hexametaphosphate), Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Skim Milk, Potatoes (Potatoes, Dextrose, Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate (Added To Maintain Color), Potassium Sorbate (Added To Maintain Freshness), Swiss And Mushroom Round (Swiss Cheese And Pasteurized Swiss Cheese Product (Swiss Cheese (Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Water, Milkfat, Sodium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Salt, Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Natural Flavors, Sodium Citrate, Xanthan Gum), Roasted Mushrooms (Mushrooms, Canola Oil, Salt , Pepper)), Butter Flavored Oil (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Soybean Lecithin, Artificial Flavors, Butter Oil, Vitamin A Palmitate Beta Carotene Added For Color), Dried Cream Cheese Product (Cream Cheese (Pasteurized Milk And Cream Cheese Culture, Salt, Carob Bean Gum), Non Fat Dry Milk And Sodium Phosphate), Soybean Oil, Onions, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Liquid Pepper Extract And Citric Acid], Croissant (Enriched Unbleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Enzyme, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Palm Oil, Sugar, Canola and/or Soybean Oil, Contain less than 2% of the following: Margarine (Vegetable Oils [Palm, Canola], Water, Mono and Diglycerides, Potassium Sorbate [to Preserve Freshness], Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D3), Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Salt, Artificial Flavor, Datem, Dextrose, Corn Syrup Solids, Fructose, Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative), Monoglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Locust Bean Gum, Colored with [Tumeric and Annatto Extracts], Ascorbic Acid, Sodium Steroyl Lactylate, Leavening [Baking Soda], Azodicarbonamide, Pepper Bacon (Bacon Cured with Water, Salt, Sugar, Smoke Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite, Bellies Coated with a Mixture of Ground Black Pepper), Colby Jack Cheese (Colby Cheese [Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes and Annatto (vegetable color)], Monterey Jack Cheese [Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes]).

Companies make and sell stuff like this? And it's legal? To package this stuff as food that men, women and children then eat?

But of course nowadays fast food chains cater for healthy eaters too, so there are several salads on the menu. You can't go far wrong with a salad, right? Well, we'll skip the Chicken and the Caesar but let's take a look at the ingredient list of their Mediterranean Salad......... Just lettuce, tomatoes and...

More scary stuff about cooked food

If you're not 100% raw chances are you still consume some canned food. And with the powers that be telling us that cooked and preserved produce from a vacuum-sealed metal cylinder absolutely counts towards our 'five a day' it is easy to be fooled into thinking this is a good alternative to fresh fruit and veg.

If you're health-conscious you've probably already ditched fizzy drinks and the kind of canned food that that is loaded with trans fats, salt, sugar and E numbers. But what could be a healthier cooked choice than a home-made hummus made with mashed chick peas (garbanzo beans), olive oil, lemon juice and fresh garlic? Or lightly cooked vegetables in a tomato sauce? Of course it is so much quicker to grab a can of chick peas than to soak them overnight and cook them yourself. And it is much cheaper and easier to crack open a tin of chopped tomatoes than to buy fresh organic tomatoes and chop them by hand.

But here's some information that may make you look at canned food in a different way from now on. A study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigated the presence of a chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) in canned foods. BPA is a key component of the epoxy resins that line the inside of most food and beverage cans. It is also a chemical that has been reported as a dangerous toxin in over 100 peer-reviewed studies, although safety standards have yet to be updated in line with these findings.

The results of the recent study? BPA was found in over 50% of the canned foods tested (just to be clear that means in the FOOD itself, not on the can). For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant foods, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the US government's traditional safe level of exposure.   

Whole Foods Market and the organic 'debate'

The new Whole Foods Market in Kensington, now the largest food outlet in London, has been getting a fair (or rather an unfair) amount of bad press in the UK, complete with predictions of its inevitable failure. After all, the argument goes, that wholesome, holier-than-thou formula may work in the US but we don't want their sort over here!

Well, it's early days but the four times I've ventured in there it's been so packed I gave up trying to shop, and I've seen the 350-seat dining area so busy there isn't a single empty table. This would suggest that Britain is more than ready for the greatly increased choice Whole Foods offers in all things organic, ethical and ecological.

It does have its faults. If you are all raw and you eat there, prepare to be disappointed as salad doesn't come any more boring than this, and a word to the wise: give the dressings a wide berth. Better still, give the entire salad bar a miss and buy your lunch in the produce section downstairs. This is arguably better than any other UK supermarket in terms of choice, and definitely sports the best selection of sprouts this side of the Atlantic.

Like any 'health' store, the majority of products contain either white flour, white sugar, dairy, heated oils or other distinctly non-healthy ingredients. Being as gigantic as it is, Whole Foods Kensington has aisles and aisles of what can be best described as high-end organic junk food. Its raw section, meanwhile, is microscopic and contains only a fraction of the products available in its US stores, but as it's not so long ago that no UK health store even had a dedicated raw section let's call it embryonic instead and look forward to watching it grow.

These provisos aside, I'm a fan of this new store and the added (good) choices it brings.

Fast Food Nation

This movie (subtitle: Do you want lies with that?) was released in the UK on Saturday. I couldn't not blog about it because it raises all of the issues closest to my heart. Like many of the people who have naturally gravitated towards careers promoting the raw lifestyle, I do the work I do not only for the proven benefits it brings to individuals who choose it, but also for the happy effects on others and the planet that are set in motion by each and every person who travels down this path.

We at The Fresh Network support people in reaching their highest potential, and promote a lifestyle that involves treading lightly on the earth; a lifestyle that requires the exploitation of no individual, human or otherwise. This makes us, along with the other great companies working alongside us in our field, the very antithesis of everything the fast food industry is about. And the perfect antidote to it!

The movie, whose cast includes Greg Kinnear, Ethan Hawke, Bruce Willis, Kris Kristofferson, Ashley Johnson and Avril Lavigne, is based on Eric Schlosser's best-selling book of the same name. Both book and movie lift the lid on the truth behind those 99 cent burgers that are marketed as great value for money and fun for all. But the movie is not a documentary; instead it takes several of the main themes from the book and puts faces and plotlines to them.

The story begins when a meat contamination scare at Mickey's fast food chain (the name may be fictional but the issues explored are not) prompts a look inside the huge Colorado meatpacking plant that supplies the company's frozen burgers. Greg Kinnear plays the marketing executive who is sent to the plant to investigate but finds that dodgy hygiene practices are only the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with the place. 

Got Mylk?

Dr Gabriel Cousens of the Tree Of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona has released a highly recommended new article on dairy. It can be found here on his website together with a video of him talking about the subject.

Becoming vegetarian is an important step towards health and away from animal suffering, but as Gabriel explains, for the person truly concerned about these two things, the next step – veganism – is the natural progression.

Gabriel discusses why dairy – regardless of whether it’s raw or cooked – is ultimately not a good choice from a health perspective, an ecological perspective, a spiritual perspective, an animal welfare perspective or a human perspective – there’s an uncomfortable link between the number of people living in starvation and food choices the world’s privileged make. Quite simply, with world population set to hit 10 billion early in the second half of this century, the only way to prevent the number of starving humans escalating year on year is a large-scale switch away from the foods that are most wasteful of resources – namely animal flesh, eggs and milk.

If you are reading this and wondering how you could ever live without your daily dose of dairy, check out the divine-sounding recipes at the end of the article: Simple Brazil Nut Mylk, Creamy Black Fig Mylk, Hemp Ice Cream and Basic Walnut Yogurt.

Most people who get into the nut and seed version of the white creamy stuff soon wonder what they ever saw in the bovine version. There is an endless variety to be had and even a cool gadget for quickly making it. The Yaoh Hemp Milk Maker (so named because Yaoh is a company which specializes in hemp-based products) in fact whizzes up any nut or seed milk in approximately two minutes. It is available from The Fresh Network online shop for just £59.99 (5% off if you have the Fresh Discount Card). Any good blender will do the job too – it will just take a little longer as you’ll need to strain the mixture using a Nut Milk Bag – also available here.