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...

Why I'm getting things done (plus random ramblings about Christmases past and present!)

I just love this time of year and always have. I enjoy the celebration, the get-togethers with loved ones, the excitement, the anticipation and (since Christmas 2002) the sheer magic of experiencing it all with a small child. And almost as much as all of the fun stuff, I enjoy the natural urge to take stock of the year that’s closing and to plan for the one about to begin.

But for me, until a few Christmases ago, my enjoyment of all of the above was curtailed by the fact I invariably spent this season in a junk food-induced fog. I’d exist on a diet based around canapés, mince pies, chocolates, cake, cheese, wine, champagne and more chocolates.

I’ve been ‘health conscious’ since the tender age of 14, but until my 'rawakening' I’d invariably assume a different personality over the festive season...one that wanted to consume its weight in marzipan and Milk Tray! Over the last six years that has all changed, and during that time I’ve been lucky enough to make many friends who have walked just the same path as I have, with the same happy results.

Like all of us, I also have a few people in my life who remain genuinely perplexed as to why I eat the way I do. I wish I could make them understand I’ve had hands down the best Christmases ever since I banished junk food from my life! The fog I used to be in for the whole of December and into the new year? I still remember exactly what it felt like... Yes, I had fun, but once you really experience that you can have all that fun and more without the negative side effects…well, why wouldn’t you?!!

Why going raw = going green

There was an article in Saturday's Times newspaper entitled: 'Walking does more than driving to cause global warming.' Sound outrageous? That's exactly what it is...if you eat a vegan diet. No prizes for guessing that the calculations were based on beef or dairy fuelling the exercise, in which case the shocking statement is true.

Chris Goodall, author of How To Live A Low-Carbon Life, calculated that: "Driving a typical car for 3 miles adds about 0.9kg of C02 to the atmosphere. If you walked instead, it would use 180 calories. You'd need about 100g of beef to replace those calories, resulting in 3.6kg of carbon emissions, or four times as much as driving." Replacing the calories with milk instead of meat would result in 1.2kg of CO2 being added to the atmosphere – still more pollution than the car journey.

But then we already knew that if we care about the environment, we are better off ditching meat and dairy than ditching our cars. Goodall's calculations were based on intensive cattle rearing systems used in Japan, which are similar to those used in Europe and the US. With the return of foot and mouth disease to the UK, it would be easy to suggest that rearing animals organically is the answer. But, reports the same article, from an ecological perspective, animals raised organically are actually worse for the environment because they emit more methane gas, which is 21 times more harmful than C02.

It's milk, but not as we know it

Thanks to biotechnology and selective breeding there will soon be entire herds of cows producing skimmed milk, and others producing milk with the characteristics to make butter that is spreadable straight from the fridge.

Is it just me or is that really scary?

No doubt there will be demand for these products and they are great news for agribusiness. But will these products benefit those who eagerly consume them?

Isn't dairy already unnatural enough? Let's see...

There is nothing natural about drinking milk past weaning. No other species does this.

There is nothing natural about drinking the milk of another species. No other species does this, either.

There is nothing natural about drinking milk that is pasteurized so that its enzymes are destroyed and its molecular structure is changed. No other species does this, and humans have only been doing it for around 100 years.

There is nothing natural about drinking milk that has been produced from animals kept in captivity and dosed up on antibiotics and hormones. This experiment has been going on for just a few decades.

This latest 'breakthrough' just makes an already unnatural product even more unnatural. 

Personally, I'll be sticking to nut milks whenever I feel like a 'dairy' fix. They're amazingly versatile. Choose from almond, macadamia, brazil, cashew, hazelnut, pecan, pistachio and more. Plus you can vary the proportion of nuts to water, allowing you to make anything from a thick cream to a skimmed milk equivalent – but without the need for biotech firms and mutant cows.

Want something spreadable? Look no further than raw nut butters. Again, there is a huge variety of flavours to choose from and they are packed with nutrients. Ideally, use them sparingly as you would regular butter. Their one downside is that they are a good deal more delicious, making this challenging at times. Apparently some people have even been known to take a spoon and eat raw nut butter straight out of the jar, but I wouldn't know about that. 

Rhio tells it like it is!

During my recent trip to New York I was lucky enough to meet Rhio, one of the city's best-known and loved raw food authorities. There is a quote on page 82 of her book Hooked On Raw which in my opinion says it all, really.

"Some people say they "just don't have the time" to prepare raw/live food; their lives are toooo busy. But when they get sick, they'll be spending time at home feeling ill and they'll find the time to go to doctors and hospitals, if necessary. So it's just a matter of choosing where you want to spend your time. The time WILL be spent....either in the kitchen or at the doctor. You choose."

Rhio gave me some truly great information and insights during our interview. You'll be able to read it all in an upcoming issue of Get Fresh! magazine. Don't miss it!

Your BMW or your Big Mac?

The cover story of the current US edition of Time magazine is 'The Global Warming Survival Guide: 51 Things You Can Do To Make A Difference.'

Number 18 is entitled 'Skip The Steak' and reads: "Which is responsible for more global warming: your BMW or your Big Mac? Believe it or not it's the burger."

Kudos to Time magazine for highlighting this important fact. It's hard to open a newspaper these days without reading alarming statistics about carbon emissions, greenhouse gases and climate change. But usually the number one cause of all of this is conspicuously absent from the report: the way we eat. Discussions of what individuals can do to tread more lightly on the earth tend to stick to such steps as ditching the car, eschewing air travel, buying organic, buying less and recycling – all very positive, of course. 

But the most effective step of all – indeed the only truly sustainable way to live – is to choose a plant-based diet. Simple as that. We all have to eat, and animal agriculture uses substantially more land, water, grain and fuel than plant agriculture, and creates vastly more pollution. That goes for organic as well as non and it is a difference not of degrees but of multiples. With human population set to top 10 billion shortly after 2050, meat and dairy products are fast becoming wasteful extravagances the planet cannot afford.

As Time magazine reports, a recent University of Chicago study concluded that with a shift to just a vegetarian diet (not even a vegan one) the average person will reduce their carbon footprint by around 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Trading a standard car for a hybrid, meanwhile, cuts only 1 ton.

The good news is that more and more people are gravitating towards plant-based diets. Just 20 years ago it was considered radical to be vegetarian. Since then, the number of vegetarians has increased year on year to the point that it no longer raises an eyebrow, and it's hard to find a restaurant that does not offer vegetarian dishes.

Over the last five years, the number of vegans has been increasing rapidly, while the number of people eating raw or high-raw diets has gone through the roof. This is not only the healthiest way to nourish yourself and a delicious one at that; nor is it simply the most ethical. It is also the most sustainable. It's plant-based, for starters, and with every meal or snack you choose that is unfired, your carbon footprint shrinks further still.

Even better, it is getting easier and easier to live this way as more and more companies are popping up to offer a whole range of information, products and services that support it.

To think that not so long ago the choice not to eat meat meant putting up with a soggy, grey vegetarian lasagne every time you ate out, while being raw meant being a social outcast. Yet now raw restaurants are popping up everywhere, there is an ever-expanding array of superfoods and raw treats for sale, and a huge selection of events and social occasions catering to this lifestyle. All of which means that it is fun as well as healthy, delicious, ethical and sustainable.

What's not to love about being raw?!! 

Raw Food - Why Wouldn't You?

Karen: Emma and I are busy finalising all the details for the Raw Food Leader Teleclasses for the rest of the year. We have a great line up ahead for every single month, with Paul Nison speaking with us live in just under 2 weeks on Wednesday 17th May, and then Cherie Soria four weeks later in June.

All the teleclasses between now and December are looking FANTASTIC, and you'll be able to read details on here about Paul's call in the next few days. In the meantime, if you'd like to find out more about what these teleclasses are (I didn't know what a teleclass was until a year ago and was more than a little wary, but now I LOVE them!), then you can read all about them by clicking here.

Cherie has just submitted her photo to accompany her call information, and, seriously, after looking at what raw food can mean in the photo above, it really does beg the question, Why wouldn't you?

(Click on the photo to enlarge it and feast your eyes on that little lot ; )

Come back Radio 4, you've got it all wrong!!!

So, so, wrong.....

Is it possible to be a raw foodie AND a ‘foodie’?

Sarah here with some thoughts on Radio 4’s Food Programme about the raw diet, which included an interview with Karen (see her post below for more details). I share Karen’s views on the way the topic was presented, and will be writing in to voice them to the producers, but for now some musings of a slightly different nature...

Has anyone else noticed the extreme resistance traditional ‘foodies’ – and this was after all a show for foodies, presented by a foodie – seem to have to the notion that we should place any restrictions on the foods we eat? The unspoken rule seems to be that if something tastes divine enough or is labelled by the culinary establishment as a ‘delicacy’, to avoid it out of concern for its effects on health and/or because of the cruelty involved in producing it is to reveal oneself not to be a ‘true’ gastronome.