'Afternoon Tea' doesn't HAVE to be a Carbfest.

 'Afternoon Tea' doesn't HAVE to be a Carbfest. - I was invited out for 'Afternoon Tea' one day last week by friends who know that because of iatrogenically-induced food sensitivities I have to be very careful what I eat. -  So K reassured me beforehand that she had looked on the internet for suggestions of 'paleo' snacks. Very thoughtful of her. - I'll bet you're wondering what was on the table and what I had to eat and drink? - Well what I ate consisted of delicious, dainty, crisp-sized omelettes (organic free range egg) onto which K spooned tiny helpings of chopped ripe avocado, and I also ate some Yeo Valley natural unsweetened full fat yoghurt. There were some tiny pieces of chopped apple too, but I didn't have those. And I drank tap water and 2 cups of tea. - A bit of an unusual afternoon tea, perhaps, but much healthier than salt-laden/carb-laden ham sandwiches and sweet scones spread with jam.

I've ordered a jar of coconut oil

I've ordered a jar of coconut oil which I intend to eat. I understand it can be applied as skincare too. I bet it will taste good and I expect it to benefit my health. I tried eating coconut cream a few weeks ago and it was delicious. It's a great shame that for most of my life I have tended to avoid eating anything made from coconuts because they contain saturated fat. - Like most people I had been misinformed, by people supposed to be health experts, that saturated fat is bad for our health. But of course, healthy saturated fats are very good for our health. See here and here. So much of what the experts call 'healthy eating' is not healthy at all. - I do hope you're not eating margarine! - I was misled into eating margarine years ago. These days I make sure it's good pastured butter I eat - never margarine.

Coconuts, it seems, are treasuries of healthy nutrition, skincare and haircare, and a great variety of other useful products, including coir for coconut matting and the leaves for brooms. This Wikipedia article has a wealth of interesting information about coconuts.

Turmeric was mentioned on "Corrie" last night.

Coronation Street is my favourite bit of TV escapism. It's funny and it's very well acted. Last night's episode featured a mention of the spice, turmeric, for the first time ever, I believe, and, I guess, very likely the last time too...(o: - Did you catch it? Sunita's aunts were checking up on what turmeric Sunita had.

I add a bit of turmeric to my soups and stews. If you look turmeric up on the internet you'll find lots of health benefits attributed to it. Not like the foodstuffs more usually featuring on Corrie: beer, sarnies, crisps... - And do you remember how Sally's girls seemed almost exclusively to live on fish fingers years ago? - Yuk!

Poor Gail! - She's got a rotten taste in men. - And in art too. I reckon that ghastly picture in her house - on the wall in between the foot of the staircase and the door to the entrance lobby - must have been one of the (unconscious) considerations that put off prospective purchasers of the property...(o:

Low-Fat Chocolate Bar is not an answer to Obesity

There are currently a lot of articles such as this Daily Mail report about a high-tech, low-fat chocolate bar which, it is claimed, could help with the 'obesity crisis'. This low-fat bar, in which most of the fat is replaced by water, without, apparently altering the taste, is described as a "healthy" chocolate bar.

Well I've 3 observations to make:

1. Pigs will fly before these chocolate bars make the slightest difference to the incidence or severity of obesity.

2. There is no evidence at all to support the theory that fat intake is a cause of obesity.

3. 'Low-fat' does not equate with 'healthy'.

To lose excess weight you need to reduce your sodium intake, not your fat intake.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Associated health conditions

Healthy lifestyle lowers risk of cardiovascular disease

Healthy lifestyle lowers risk of heart disease. - This can't come as a surprise to anyone, surely? - Statistical back-up here: blog on the Boston Globe

Good Nutrition is the Best Physician.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Yet Another Plug for Healthy People to Take Statins...

The Telegraph reports that statins are once again in the news, with researchers again advocating that healthy people should take statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs. An extraordinary claim is made in the report:

"Cathy Ross, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said: "It is well established that most people with heart and circulatory disease benefit from taking statins.

"This study brings together evidence from several clinical trials to highlight that statins can benefit people who don't have symptoms of heart and circulatory disease, termed 'primary prevention'."

I urge you to read about nnt (number needed to treat) here. There you will find that very few people actually do benefit from taking statins. The vast majority of people who take them do not benefit, despite having the bother of taking them every day for years.

Far more people experience unpleasant side-effects from statins than benefit from them. The chief benefit of statins is to the drug companies who manufacture and sell them.

The best, cheapest, and most effective way to lower your risk of heart attack, reduce heart disease, lower high cholesterol levels, lower high blood pressure, reduce excess weight and benefit your health in a host of other ways with no adverse side-effects whatsover is to reduce your intake of salt and salty food as much as you can. Salt/Sodium reduction is of especial benefit to people who already have heart and circulatory disease or high blood pressure, or are overweight, etc. Salt reduction is real 'primary prevention'.

I don't know why the British Heart Foundation persists in banging the drum for statins, instead of stressing the many huge benefits of sodium reduction. - What's in it for them? Why do they want more and more people taking drugs - even when there is nothing the matter with them? - What's in it for them?

Very often it is prescription drugs that cause heart problems, etc. in the first place...)o: - drugs like steroids, HRT, tricyclic antidepressants, antipsychotics and many more that are frequently over-prescribed and frequently unmonitored. It's best to avoid prescription drugs unless you feel they are really necessary. As a whole, they do far more harm than good.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Teenagers favour caffeine to help them with exam revision

The Telegraph reports that "A study by the School Food Trust found that students revising for exams skip meals, do less exercise and indulge in more junk food."

I'm sure students are given lots of good advice by their teachers about how best to revise and how to tackle exam questions. I wonder whether the advice includes the importance of healthy eating.

If I were advising them these days, I'd suggest cutting down on salt and salty food, eating plenty of fruit - and definitely not skipping meals. Following this advice would certainly help them to concentrate better and to feel less tired.

Do YOU need to cut down on SALT?

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Center for Science in the Public Interest has brought out a report very critical of the high levels of salt/sodium in Darden Restaurant chain.

"Who knows how many Americans have been pushed prematurely into their graves thanks to sodium levels like those found in Olive Garden, Chili's, and Red Lobster?" said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.

Maybe you are one of the people for whom a reduction in salt intake would result in greatly improved health? - Read on:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Hypertension may be lowered by a protein in yellow peas.

The Telegraph has an article about the discovery of a protein in peas - a protein that lowers high blood pressure and is of especial benefit when high blood pressure accompanies kidney disease.

In fact all vegetables and fruits, because of their high potassium content, help to lower high blood pressure, though this report about a protein in peas must mean that there is an additional benefit conferred by peas. The reason potassium lowers high blood pressure is that potassium displaces sodium in the body. The fastest way to reduce high blood pressure is to eat less salt/sodium and salty food, so make sure your peas and your other vegetables are not salted.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

A West Yorkshire town, Todmorden, is attempting to become the first in Britain to become self-sufficient in vegetables.

Todmorden: Britain's first self-sufficient town
article in the Telegraph

What a super idea! - It sounds great fun for the children too.

Extract:

"Every square inch of available ground in Todmorden is being dug up and turned into a vegetable plot.

Red-ribbed chard decorates the kerbside of A646 to Halifax and fruit trees are thriving in dustbins in the backyards of artisans' cottages. Even floral displays, which once helped the town take second place in Britain in Bloom in the small-town class, have given way to edible plants. Commuters passing through its tiny station are urged to bring scissors to crop herbs from planters on the platform.

Mary Clear, Todmorden's community development worker and a founder of the "Incredible Edible Todmorden" project, said: "Why pay the supermarket £1 when you can have it fresh for free?"

Mrs Clear, 53, and local café owner Pam Warhurst, launched the scheme last year.

Mrs Warhurst, 57, said it made sense to forget flowers and grow food. "Given costs and concern about where produce is sourced – and it has all sorts of benefits: it's healthier and reduces food miles. It also encourages a sense of community.""

High levels of 'hidden' salt in soup can increase the risk of cancer, experts have warned.

High levels of hidden salt in soup 'can increase the risk of cancer'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"People who regularly sit down to a warming bowl of soup could inadvertently be doing themselves long-term damage, according to Dr Rachel Thompson, science programme manager for the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

She warned that servings of some well-known brands contained half the recommended daily limit of salt intake.

Rather than a healthy comforting meal, soup was one of the "worst offenders" for high levels of hidden salt in food, she added.

Doctors have long warned that salt can increase the body's blood pressure and contribute to a stroke or a heart attack.

But recent research has suggested that too much salt could also be a factor in the development of stomach cancer."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Pupils of Pontrhydfendigaid Primary School will no longer be able to have Marmite on toast at their breakfast club because of its high salt content

Marmite has been removed from the menu of a Welsh school breakfast club
Article from walesonline

Extracts:

"A SCHOOL has banned its pupils from eating Marmite because it says the spread contains too much salt.

The pupils at Pontrhydfendigaid Primary School in Cardiganshire, have been tucking into Marmite on toast at the school’s breakfast club since the start of term."

"A spokesman for the school said they had begun serving Marmite in the breakfast club, but it was now off the morning menu after the salt content was highlighted.

He said the food served at school breakfast clubs are based on Welsh Assembly Government guidelines – and Marmite is not included.

He said: “Breakfast clubs are intended to improve the health and concentration of children – to assist in the raising of standards of learning and attainment.

“But anything served must be healthy and nutritionally balanced.

“Marmite is not included on the list of items as it does include a high level of salt.""

This is a sensible move by the school. Children already have too high an intake of salt from eating cheese and crisps and other salty food/snacks and for food at school also to be highly salty would be very bad for the children's health. Indeed, the toast itself is high in salt! Salt and salty food are the primary cause of child obesity and many other health problems.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

Tomato ketchup has become the latest foodstuff to be banned from canteens at some schools as part of a move towards healthier eating.

Ketchup banned from school canteens due to salt and sugar levels
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"The popular condiment has been taken off the menu at primary schools in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, in a move branded "daft" by some parents.

It comes after Marmite was banned by Ceredigion Council, in Mid Wales, from school breakfast clubs because of "a high level of salt"."

Well that's a good move. Reducing chilldren's salt intake reduces their likelihood of being overweight and having high blood pressure, etc.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

One in seven children - up to 1.7million - never eat any fruit, a report has warned.

One in seven children never eat fruit, says School Food Trust
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"In total, 14 per cent of youngsters do not even touch an apple, orange or a banana ever despite experts recommending that we eat five portions of fruit or veg a day.

Many children wrongly think that a healthy diet involves starving themselves, the government-backed report by the School Food Trust claimed.

"Although the term healthy eating is familiar to children, it is neither well understood nor applied in practice," it said."

"Childhood obesity is growing with one in three children regarded as overweight or obese, according to the report. By 2050, two in three children and 90 per cent of adults could be fat, risking heart disease and diabetes."

Fruit (and vegetables) are rich in potassium, and potassium helps to prevent/reduce obesity in children because it displaces sodium from the body. When children eat salt and salty food their bodies get too much sodium and this causes fluid retention/weight gain, leading to obesity.

So food low in added salt is best for children's health and happiness (fat children are often bullied and humiliated) and plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables makes their food intake even healthier. - Children should NEVER be expected to diet to lose weight. Dieting is harmful and unnecessary. They just need to avoid salt and salty food.

See Sodium in foods

You can read about the causes of obesity on my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (the site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information) and in particular about child obesity on this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

If you are overweight/obese and want to lose weight, you can do it easily and safely. - Read these pages to see how:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See also FAT RETENTION

Vulnerable groups

Not all junk food is cheap and nasty. - Some is very expensive and nasty. - Caviar, for instance. - It's laden with salt/sodium...)o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

Jamie Oliver is being criticised over the level of salt in his tomato sauce.

Jamie Oliver's Pasta Sauce is too salty
Article in the Guardian

The Guardian reports that, "Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital in south London, said he was shocked by the figures. MacGregor, who chairs Consensus Action on Salt and Health, said Oliver's tomato, olive and garlic sauce contained 20% more salt than Atlantic seawater."

I'm disappointed that Jamie has not ensured that the sauces with his name on are not lower in salt than other sauces. - I've just been looking on the internet and found a very low salt tomato sauce on this webpage: http://www.westcountryspice.com/products.htm

Here is why you need to protect your child from salt and salty food:
Children and Obesity

Salt levels listed in the Guardian article:

"Jamie Oliver's pasta sauce 3g/100g

Kelloggs cornflakes 1.75g/100g

Sharwood's Tikka Masala Cooking Sauce 1.65g/100g

Heinz baked beans 1.3g/100g

Hovis Farmhouse white loaf 1.25g/100g

Goodfella's Cheesy Pizza 1.1g/100g

Bernard Matthews Turkey Twizzler 0.925g/100g (new recipe) or 1.24g/100g (old recipe)

McDonald's Big Mac 0.9g/100g

Covent Garden Food Co. plum tomato and marscapone soup 0.4g/100g"

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has called for restaurants that serve fruit and vegetables out of season to be fined for not using home-grown produce.

Gordon Ramsay's war on out-of-season vegetables

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Ramsay said he had spoken to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly about the issue and warned that buying food from abroad made cooks lazy.

"If we don't restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control," he told the BBC.

He criticised fellow celebrity chef Delia Smith for her support of ready-made food and canned goods.

"I would expect students struggling on £15 a week to survive eating from a can but the nation's favourite, all-time icon reducing us down to using frozen, canned food - it's an insult," he said.

"And it makes our lives, from a chef's point of view, a lot harder. Here we are trying to establish a reputation across the world for this country's food and along comes Delia and tips it out of a can. That hurts."

Here is a list of which vegetables, according to the food website Eat the Seasons, are in season and when:

January - beetroot, brussels sprouts, parsnip, apples

February - cauliflower, chicory, leeks, pears

March - purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb, spring onions

April - jersey royal new potatoes, radishes, watercress

May - asparagus, spinach, spring onions

June - artichoke, carrots, courgettes, runner beans

July - broad beans, cucumber, onions

August - peas, potatoes, raspberries, plums

September - butternut squash, marrow, blackberries

October - celery, kale, chestnuts, elderberries

November - pumpkin, swede, quince, walnuts

December - turnips, leeks, apples"

Fruit and vegetables can help you lose excess weight and improve your health in many other ways too. - See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

How to live a longer, happier, healthier life.

Five ways to live longer

Extracts from the Telegraph's article:

1. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
2. Eat oily fish and nuts
3. Eat whole grains
4. Thirty minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week
5. Vigorous exercise for at least 20 continuous minutes three times a week

Strange that they have missed out the two most important ways to live longer!

1. Avoid doctors and their pharmaceutical junk. Prescription drugs do far more harm than good on the whole and are a major cause of morbid obesity and its attendant ill-health.

2. Avoid salt/sodium and salty food.

And here is another:

3. Avoid dieting/'slimming' - slimming is harmful - and diet food and diet drinks. - Water is a healthy, non-fattening drink...(o:


Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Are you overweight/obese and tired of people telling you that you are greedy and should be eating less?

A person who gains weight has a higher calorie requirement. There are two reasons for this. Having to carry a greater mass around and service a more massive body uses more calories. And having a bigger surface area means greater heat loss, since heat lost is proportional to surface area. - A greater calorie requirement results in greater appetite/hunger, so, really, overweight people need to eat more than people of normal weight. If the overweight eat insufficient calories (ie if they 'diet') they may lose weight, but it is at the cost of being hungry. There has never been the slightest evidence that the practice of fewer calories in and more calories out by way of exercise reduces obesity! - It is often confidently stated that fat will be lost by doing this. - Sadly, what is more often lost is lean tissue, usually an irreversible adverse effect.
The result of the misunderstanding of the cause of obesity is the well-known fact that over 95% of dieters actually gain weight in the long term! - They cannot be expected to go hungry all the time. - Nor would staying hungry all the time benefit them. - With insufficient calories for the body's needs, the body feeds on itself. - The skin becomes thinner; the bones become less dense; there is some hair loss, etc.
Contrast this with the safe, effective, fast way to lose excess weight - by eating less sodium. - Eating less sodium releases some of the excess water held in the blood stream. This lowers the blood pressure and, significantly, lowers the weight. - Weighing less results in a lower calorie requirement so very gradually less food is eaten and this becomes a virtuous circle because less food eaten results in lower sodium intake.
In societies in which no salt is eaten (what some might describe as undeveloped or uncivilised societies) there is no obesity and no hypertension.
The cavemen and women who were our ancestors lived for millennia without added salt. Our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity.
I submit that the universal 'slimming' advice - to eat fewer calories/less fat and take more exercise - is a major cause of obesity. - All that is usually necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium. This is a drug-free, cost-free course of action. There are no hunger pangs and no adverse side-effects. It requires no visits to the doctor or to the gym and it WILL work.
Lose weight by eating less salt!-Go on!-Try it! My website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk provides more details and advice.

Superfoods

Food for life - Telegraph - Professor Karol Sikora, cancer expert

Extract:

"BROCCOLI
TOMATOES
CHILLIES
CABBAGE
ONIONS
CARROTS
BLUEBERRIES
APPLES
WATERCRESS
GREEN TEA"

Detail about quantities, researchers, etc are in the article.

An easy, cost-free way to reduce your risk of developing cancer is to give up sprinkling salt on your meals and cut down on convenience foods which are high in salt.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!