The Food Magazine Issue 75

Ocotber/December 2006

Is advertising undermining breastfeeding?
A Food Commission survey found 364 adverts promoting the benefits of bottle feeding in just ten parenting magazines in one week. Breast is best, but commercial advertising seems to be undermining this message.

Trans fats: is the tide turning?
The New York City Board of Health is seeking to ban all but tiny quantities of trans fats from being used in the city's 24,000 restaurants. Despite a lack of action from the UK Government our own food manufacturers are starting to clean up their act.

Five a day the easy way?
The Department of Health says smoothies can only count as one of your recommended daily five portions of fruit and veg – so why do Innocent and PJ Smoothies claim otherwise? Meanwhile, Ultralife is marketing a supplement called ‘Fruit & Veg: 5 a day the easy way!’ which is described as ‘nutrition in a drink – just add water!’ and Fruit2day is pulled from the market because of misleading marketing.

Call for beam trawl ban
Commercial fishermen kill or throw away one quarter of the fish they catch – as well as seabirds, sea turtles, marine mammals and other ocean life, according to a new campaign from Greenpeace.

Changing climate for food choices
The impact of the food system on human-induced climate change is generally calculated to be around 25 to 30% of the total effect, and yet the recent Stern Report on climate change failed to emphasise food as one of the main ways to deliver such change.

A matter of social justice
Even conservative measures suggest that around ten million people are living in poverty, including three million children. The Food Magazine asks: what income do people need if they are to eat a healthy diet?

Pressure grows to reduce salt in children's food
The first scientific review of the medical effects of reducing children's salt intake has shown that this can significantly reduce children's blood pressure.

US obesity Chairman faces jail
The ex-head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Chairman of its authoritative Obesity Working Group, Lester Crawford, has admitted owning shares in Pepsico and food company Sysco. He has pleaded guilty to a Conflict of Interest charge and to making false statements to the US Senate, and faces a possible two-year prison term.

GM consultation ‘flawed’
Food campaigners say UK Government proposals for the coexistence of genetically modified (GM), conventional and organic crops would result in widespread GM contamination, leaving UK consumers increasingly unable to tell if their food is GM free or not.

Smart appliances use energy intelligently
Could 'intelligent' domestic fridges play their part in tackling climate change?

Saving orchards the local way
“What is going on here looks picturesque but it's deadly serious. I don't get out of bed at four in the morning every Saturday and Sunday for nothing, I do it so we can make a living.” We take a look at traditional apple production at Stocks Farm, in Constable Country.

‘Five a day’ the salty way
Del Monte Premium Tomato Juice claims that it is ‘The healthy way to 5-a-day’ but a single, salty 200ml serving contains more than a quarter of an adult's maximum daily salt intake. (200ml juice contains 1.58g salt or 0.63g sodium). Manufacturers are required by law to give some nutritional information if the label makes a nutritional claim, as in this case – but there is no requirement to include salt levels. We think there should be.

Appetite for change
In 1996, the report Eating for Health: a Diet Action Plan for Scotland set a framework for improving the diet of the Scottish people. Ten years down the line, Bill Gray reports.

Advert ban ‘best way to beat child obesity’
Advertising controls are likely to prove the single most cost-effective means of cutting childhood obesity levels, according to work undertaken by the State of Victoria, Australia.

Good intentions with small steps
What is important to catering and food manufacturing companies owned by people from London's multicultural communities? Zeenat Anjari finds it is more than just turning a profit.

Still a jungle...
In 1906, when monopolies controlled almost every sector of the US economy from steel to sugar to coal to meat, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle – a novel exposing the horrors of the stockyards of Chicago, the centre of the US meat industry. 100 years later, Sheila Dillon explains how little the meat industry has changed.

Getting school meals right
Lynn Walsh reports on healthy eating initiatives in Welsh schools.

Healing bodies and minds
Good nutrition should be an essential element in treatment for those with drug and alcohol dependencies. Helen Sandwell reports.

Double standards in food safety
Stephanie Williamson reports on agricultural safety in Senegal, where struggling smallholders use hazardous pesticides on crops grown for the local market, while nearby export crops are grown with all the money and technology needed to ensure the produce meets UK safety standards.

The latest research from the medical journals
Overweight men worry about being useless; UK: Diabetes numbers soar; Cancer: American Cancer Society calls for diet action.