EatingBritain.com

New rules for gluten free foods

Sarah Cabral — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:30:24 +0000

Under the new EU regulations, only foods that contain less than 20 parts of gluten in a million will be allowed to use the term ‘gluten-free’ on their packaging. Recent evidence has shown that this extremely low level offers better protection for those with an intolerance to gluten. Previously, a food labelled ‘gluten-free’ could have contained up to ten times more than this.

In addition, some foods made using cereals that have been specially processed to remove most of the gluten, but which contain less than 100 parts in a million, will be able to make the claim ‘very low gluten’. These include substitutes of certain staple foods such as bread.

The introduction of just two types of labelling will reduce consumer confusion in this area and help coeliacs to make safe and informed choices about the types of food they eat.

Sue Hattersley, head of food allergy policy at the Food Standards Agency, said:

“Around one per cent of people in the UK are intolerant to gluten, and packaging claims about gluten in foods are very important to these people.
The number of products marketed to them is increasing rapidly. Without rules controlling the levels of gluten in them, the amounts of gluten could vary greatly, which could cause serious health problems.

“The new lower limit of 20 parts in a million means greater peace of mind for people with a gluten intolerance , as they can be sure that foods sold as ‘gluten free’ do not contain levels that could be harmful to them.”

Manufacturers can use the new labelling system immediately, but in order to give them time to adapt to the new rules by reformulating products or changing existing packaging, products do not have to comply with the new rules until 1 January 2012.

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Tune up your digestion

Sarah Cabral — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:30:27 +0000

You are not just what you eat. You are what you can digest and absorb. The fundamental design of the human body is a tube – like a doughnut with a hole in the middle. We, like other animals, spend our physical lives processing organic matter for waste. How good you are atthis determines your energy level, longevity and state of body and mind, as well as your digestion.

Over a lifetime, no less than 100 tons of food passes along the digestive tract and 300,000 litres of digestive juices are produced by the body to break it down. Our ‘inside skin’ – a thirty foot long tract with a surface area the size of a small football pitch – is only the thickness of a quarter of a sheet of paper. Amazingly, most of the billions of cells that make up this barrier between us and the inside world are renewed every four days. It’s also where we make many key brain neurotransmitters and hormones that change how you feel.

If you suffer from indigestion, bloating, abdominal pain or feeling sleepy after meals, or if you often get stomach upsets, diarrhoea or constipation, there are four simple steps you can take to tune up your digestion.

1. Avoid allergenic foods

Your ‘inner skin’ can be easily damaged – alcohol, antibiotics, food allergens and painkillers (the average person takes 300 a year) are the most common culprits. The result is that the digestive tract becomes more permeable and whole food proteins – which aren’t on the guest list so to speak, rather than broken down amino acids, which are – get through into the bloodstream. Then your immune system attacks. That’s the basis of food allergy.

You can find out what you are currently allergic to with a simple home test kit that measures IgG food allergies (see www.totallynourish.com). By avoiding your current food allergens – wheat, milk and yeast being the most common – you give your digestive system a break. The good news is that most food allergies aren’t for life. If you remove the offending item strictly for around four months, and heal the gut during this break (see point 3), you can lose your sensitivity to foods. (There is a more severe and immediate ‘IgE’ allergy which lasts for life, but these are less common. I know of no way of reversing these kind of allergies.)

2. Increase your digestive capacity

Another way to lessen the load on your digestive system is to take a digestive enzyme with each meal. These enzymes – called protease, amylase and lipase – literally help digest your food. If you instantly feel better after taking them, you know you’ve got a problem with your digestion.

If you get bloated after lentils or beans, choose an enzyme that also contains glucoamylase, sometimes called amyloglucosidase. You might not need these forever but they’re excellent to take for a month after eliminating your food allergies, and whenever you eat foods you find hard to digest.

3. Repair your gut lining

Next, you can help rebuild your digestive tract by feeding it glutamine. While the rest of your body runs on glucose, the rapidly repairing cells in your gut can run on this amino acid, which is abundant in many foods but destroyed by cooking. It’s a clever design that allows your gut, the food delivery system of your body, to run on something other than glucose, which is what the rest of your body’s cells need. Having a heaped teaspoon (5g), ideally last thing at night in a glass of water, can promote rapid healing and repair. Do this every day for a month, or after any kind of infection, alcoholic excess or course of antibiotics.

4. Repopulate the good bacteria

Inside your body are more bacteria than living cells. They flourish in a healthy digestive tract and die off in an unhealthy one. So, once you’ve improved your digestion, ‘reinoculating’ your digestive tract with exactly the right strains of bacteria makes a big difference. These are called ‘human strain’ Acidophilus and Bifidus bacteria and work much better than dairy-derived strains found in yoghurts. Again, having a capsule or powder for up to 30 days is all you need to get your inner flora flourishing.

The maintenance stage

After four weeks improving your gut health, a few additional measures can help you to maintain the benefits. What damages your digestive tract the most is too much alcohol, deep-fried food, burnt meat, coffee and wheat. Wheat contains something called gliadin, not found in oats or rice, which irritates many people’s insides. Even if you are not allergic to wheat, it’s best not to eat it every day. By ‘rotating’ these potentially problematic foods – which means eating them no more than once every four days – you are less likely to develop an intolerance. Fresh fruit, vegetables and soluble fibres found in oats and vegetables, plus plenty of water, helps digestion, as does chewing well and not eating when you’re stressed.

Common symptoms of food allergy

30 Day Action Plan for Healthy Digestion

• Either avoid wheat, milk and yeast (found in beer but not spirits, bread but not pasta) or, ideally, test what you’re allergic to with a pinprick blood test, from a home test kit (see www.totallynourish.com).

• Take a heaped teaspoon of glutamine powder last thing at night to improve the integrity of your digestive tract.

• Take digestive enzymes with each main meal.

• Reinoculate your gut with beneficial bacteria by taking a capsule or powder of human strain acidophilus and bifido bacteria.You can get combined digestive enzymes and probiotics (see www.totallynourish.com).

• Eats lots of vegetables, fruit and fish, and less deep-fried food, alcohol and caffeine (tea, coffee and chocolate). Start each main meal with some salad or something raw.

• Chew your food well and don’t eat when you’re stressed.

• Drink 8 glasses of water every day, but in between rather than with meals (as it can dilute your digestive juices).You really need it. Dehydration is the most common cause of constipation.

This 30 day tune up is like a trip to the health farm for your insides. As one Harvard professor of gastroenterology once said, “Having a strong stomach and good set of bowels is more important to human happiness than large amounts of brains”.

This article is taken from Patrick Holford’s 100% health Newsletter available to members of his 100% health Club – for more information visit www.patrickholford.com

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Cracking the Christmas cocktail

Sarah Cabral — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:30:52 +0000

The festive period is already in full swing and as the drinks begin to flow during the ultimate party season, how can you be sure that your Christmas party shines brighter than the rest? Throwing the perfect party and making sure your guests have a good time is always stressful but worry not because help is at hand to make sure your Christmas do is that little bit different.

Mixologist and cocktail expert Ben Reed is giving top advice on preparing the perfect tipple, in this live webchat. Wondering which liqueurs go well with a mince pie or what cocktails are best to serve during winter? Well this is your chance to have your questions answered live by the master.

Forget Grandma’s old sherry, spice up your winter warmer with a cocktail list to make even Tom Cruise jealous. Log on and find out how to make your guests’ taste bud tingle make your yuletide bash a night to remember!

Mixologist Ben Reed will be live online, on Thursday 4th December for tips on making the perfect cocktails for the Christmas period.

Click here to submit questions before the chat

For more information visit www.firstdrinks.co.uk

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Tell them what you really think!

Alison Clarkson — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:30:16 +0000

I’m so happy to introduce our latest guest writer for Eating Britain, Alison Clarkson, a food stylist, home economist and food writer. Alison grew up in a small village in South Wales surrounded by generations of great home cooking and from an early age it was clear that she had a passion and flair for excellent food. A Marketing degree enabled her to become a food and drinks Marketeer spending the early part of her career working on new product development and food and flavour trends. Find out more about Alison and see her portfolio in Alison’s Kitchen.

As a fully fledged foodie I spend a lot of time eating out, but whether it’s at a Deli, the local greasy spoon or a smart restaurant I suffer from a very British affliction. You’ll recognise the scenario, the meal isn’t up to scratch and you spend 5 minutes complaining to your dinner companion and the waiter comes over to enquire ‘Is everything OK?’ and your response is ‘Fine thanks, lovely’ and then you kick yourself and spend the rest of the meal moaning but will probably leave a tip – it’s impolite not to!

How often do we put up with poorly cooked meals and substandard ingredients but are far too polite to complain? In other countries it doesn’t happen, the French would be up in arms, Americans would rather complain than not, Italians just wouldn’t put up with it. But us Brits don’t like to make a fuss, claiming we’ll vote with our feet instead but essentially we cop out. This is the case for a lot of transactions but especially when we’re eating out, we put up, make do and bow out.

On Saturday my husband and I were served an overpriced, poorly prepared lunch at a nearby Hotel, we did complain and, in fairness, they were very apologetic and did all they could to remedy our complaints. The situation did, however, spark off the conversation that maybe our reluctance to complain means Chefs will just carry on regardless, without our feedback they may think that everything is fine. And, if we don’t make our feelings known we aren’t giving them the opportunity to make amends. Given our foodie status we’re actually very well placed to give constructive feedback but whilst we eat out a couple of times a week rarely do we give an honest and specific response. If the foods good we’ll often throw in a cursory ‘lovely’ or ‘very nice’ but not much more.

So we’ve made a pact, for the next 3 months, when asked, we’ll give detailed and candid feedback both positive and negative, and I throw down the gauntlet to you too. There are two critical elements to remember though. Firstly to be really specific and constructive stating what you liked and why you liked it and the same for what you didn’t like. Secondly, if you’ve had more than 3 glasses of wine, let it lie! So join us in taking the waiter by the horns and seeing if we can make a difference. If we don’t change the face of British eateries, we’ll at least make ourselves feel a bit better!

Are you honest when it comes to telling the waiter what you really think? Do you keep schtum and just think, well, I won’t be coming here again? We’d love to hear about your experiences and any feedback you’ve received.

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Bake up a feast of family fun

Sarah Cabral — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:30:34 +0000

There’s a real concern among today’s mums and dads that the essential life skills they were taught as children aren’t being passed on to their own kids. It’s especially justified when it comes to cooking. With home economics no longer a compulsory part of the school curriculum, it’s up to parents to teach their kids to cook and bake. With this in mind, kid’s food expert Annabel Karmel is hosting an exclusive webchat, packed with simple recipe ideas and tasty tips designed to encourage parents to get creative with their kids in the kitchen and have loads of fun while they’re at it.

Teaching children to cook both encourages them to eat well and equips them with one of the key skills they’ll need when they grow up. Seeing the fruits of their labours emerging from the oven gives kids a real sense of achievement, and it hardly needs saying that that the messier the ingredients that go into their culinary masterpieces are, the more they like it. Baking is especially good fun, and that’s why Annabel’s chosen to share scrumptious baking recipes with you that are a piece of cake for kids to make. She’ll also be telling you about The Kellogg’s Big Bake, a new campaign that aims to get children cooking up a storm all over the country with the ultimate prize of appearing in a Kellogg’s TV advert in May. Log on to the chat and get ready to join in the yumminess with your young ‘uns.

Annabel Karmel joins will be live online, on Wednesday 3rd December from 3pm to 3.30pm to discuss how to get your kids baking.

Click here to submit questions before the chat

For more information visit www.thebigbake.co.uk

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Dinner for one?

Sarah Cabral — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:45:41 +0000

Being a singleton gives you the freedom to do what you like, when you like. But it also has its challenges. As a couple or a family you get to share the shopping and choice of what the family eats. As a singleton the choice is yours alone. But what do you cook?

Having to cook for just yourself has a way of sapping the inspiration from mealtimes. For most singletons, no matter how well-intentioned at first, it usually winds down to a choice between beans on toast or a microwave dinner in front of the telly. But now food companies and supermarkets have responded by developing ranges of dinners for one. Major manufacturers are also introducing scaled-down versions of their products specifically with singletons in mind.

And just because no one is coming to dinner doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself. That’s the rationale behind a new cookbook devised by celebrity chef Alan Coxon – The Singles Cookbook, “With so many single households, I thought it was essential to have a cookbook that delivers dishes to please one person,” he says.

Alan’s also enthused about the appearance on the shelves of single-person sized versions of food products. He singles out new 50g sized ‘Mini Blocks’ of Lurpak Butter as an example of how such bijou products are helpful not just to one-person menus, but to the environment. “They ensure people cut down on food waste whilst retaining product freshness,” he says, “they also cater to singletons who love to cook and eat well but don’t need to cater to an entire household. It’s perfect.”

For more information visit www.lovelurpak.co.uk

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Dairy Crest recalls Country Life Spreadable due to possible rubber contamination

Sarah Cabral — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:00:23 +0000

Product details

The affected products are:

* Country Life Spreadable
* Pack sizes: 250g and 500g
* Batch codes: 8285 and 8286
* Use by: 20 December 2008 and 21 December 2008

Dairy Crest has recalled the affected products. Product recall notices will appear in the national press today, Thursday, 13 November 2008 and point-of-sale notices will be displayed in shops where the products are sold. These notices will explain why the products have been recalled. Anyone who has bought them should not eat them and should contact the customer care team. The contact details for the customer care team are:

telephone: 0800 328 5344
email: clsrecall@dairycrest.co.uk

Write to:
Consumer Care Manager
Freepost Country Life Spreadable
Dairy Crest
SY1108
Telford
TF6 6ZA

No other Country Life products or other products made by Dairy Crest are affected.

Source

Food Standards Agency

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Seymours of Norfolk recalls olive oil products

Sarah Cabral — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:00:07 +0000

The products have been recalled on a precautionary basis. The Food Standards Agency has issued a Food Alert for Information.

Product details

The recalled products are:

Infused Olive Oil (in the following types of flavour):

* Rosemary
* Thyme
* Basil
* Garlic
* Lime
* Lemon
* Chilli

Best before: all date codes up to and including March 2009

Size: 250ml and oil from cask

The company has recalled the affected products. Product recall notices will be displayed in shops that sell the products, explaining why they have been recalled. Anyone who has bought any of the olive oil listed above can return it for a full refund.

Source:

Food Standards Agency

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Sprinkle a little Divine inspiration into your Christmas festivities!

Sarah Cabral — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:00:36 +0000

The Divine Christmas product range is continually expanding and this year sees even more exciting developments because Divine is celebrating its 10th anniversary!

All the tempting Divine products are made using only the finest cocoa beans from smallholder farmers in Ghana. 45,000 farmers supply all Divine’s high quality cocoa and because the entire Divine range is Fairtrade certified, they are guaranteed a fairer deal. As the farmers also own a 45% stake in the Divine business this means they contribute to the running of the company and share in the profits. Buying Divine for your loved ones will make everyone’s Christmas merrier!

So to enter the competition to win this gorgeous, guilt-free (well almost!) Advent calendar, just answer the question below and send your details to us via our Contact Page. The competition is open only to UK residents and closes on Friday 28th November 2008.

How old is Divine this year?

Good luck!

To buy Divine advent calendars click here.

To buy Divine gifts click here.

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Master Multiple Meals

Sarah Cabral — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:30:17 +0000

Are you are a parent that boasts at least ten tried and trusted dishes in your culinary portfolio? Well consider yourself part of a new generation of mums and dads dubbed ‘Repertoire Cooks’ that is emerging onto the parenting scene.

Whether you are part of the 47% of parents that say they stick to a variety of their favourite meals because they know their families will love what they make, or the 82% that rotate their signature suppers, updating your recipe repertoire with quick, easy, wholesome meals is never a bad thing.

Uncle Ben’s Sauces, with the help of a celebrity chef and a nutritionist have produced three videos to give you inspiration to ensure each member of the family belongs to the clean plate club.

Click below to watch the videos with celebrity chef Sophie Michell from C4′s Cook Yourself Thin and nutritionist Juliette Kellow:

Recipe 1

Recipe 2

Recipe 3

For more information visit www.unclebens.co.uk

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