Author, obesity researcher .

Kellogg’s Coco Pops Advert

Bit of a long blog this, but hopefully worth it! 1)  I subscribe to the Children’s Food Campaign newsletter and support their campaigns. The CFC got a great article in The Independent, which can be seen here. 2) This was an extract from the Children’s Food Campaign January newsletter: “Ever thought of avoiding Coco Pops [...]

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Ban butter to save lives says heart surgeon

Shyam Kolvekar (a heart surgeon) is all over the news today having asserted that Butter should be banned to save thousands of lives. The Daily Mail asserted “Saturated fat is blamed for a third of the 200,000 premature deaths from heart disease a year.” Facts please, Daily Mail?! There is not even a consistent association [...]

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Sugar – how quickly can we get hooked?

I had an interesting experience over the festive season: I helped someone with an employment law case (I used to be an HR Director) and they very kindly sent me the biggest box of chocolates ever as a thank you. (My love of chocolate is well known). This was a 1.4kg box from Hotel Chocolat [...]

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Kids can eat enough for 4 on Xmas Day…

… but the lunch won’t be the problem. A study done by Carnegie Weight Management (fat camp for kids, basically) found that an average Christmas dinner can contain 956 calories and48g of fat. Who cares?! Turkey, carrots, sprouts, parsnips, even roast potatoes and a bit of stuffing are not going to do anyone any harm. [...]

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Which 2 ingredients do UK people eat the most of?

I have been analysing the National Food Survey stats (DEFRA)  for some months. Sadly this stops at the year 2000 – the FSA took over responsibility after this and we haven’t had a survey since. This is a tragic loss of continuous data. However, I have just compared some of the yr 2000 DEFRA figs [...]

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Actimel vs Natural (Live) Yoghurt

Another Danone product: The ingredients in Actimel Original are: Yogurt (Skimmed milk, Skimmed milk concentrate, Yogurt cultures), Water, Skimmed milk, Dextrose, Stabiliser (pectin), L.casei imunitass® cultures, Flavouring, Sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame K). The ingredients in Forest Fruits Actimel are: Yogurt (Skimmed milk, cream, skimmed milk powder, yogurt cultures), Skimmed milk, Liquid sugar (sucrose 8.4%), Fruits of [...]

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Lunch boxes with as much sugar as 10 doughnuts

This was widely reported in the UK Media on 16 November: A “Which” Consumer survey found that a child’s lunchbox could contain as much sugar as 10 doughnuts. A packed lunch with 5 items including cheese, biscuits and fruit juice, contained 60g of sugar. This equates to 12 teaspoons making the lunch as sugary as [...]

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Pasta Sauces slammed for salt intake

Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) have done a survey on the salt content in pasta sauces and found, horror of horrors, that Jamie Oliver’s spicy olive garlic and tomato pasta sauce has 3g of salt per 100g of product. When are we going to have a CASH 2 – Consensus Action on SUGAR [...]

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Lighter Life Ingredients

Had a very interesting exchange with a club member on Lighter Life! Thought you may be interested… Member:  I was wondering whether you would have time to answer a question for me…  Upon looking at the ingredients (in Lighter Life),  I wondered if there might be stuff in them that don’t try and cure my [...]

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Breakfast cereals with more sugar than a doughnut

This accompanied a great Despatches programme on Channel 4 (UK) on Monday 26 October 2009: (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3007260) The programme looked at sugar (and salt) in our breakfast cereals and did some really practical exercises with children and parents, which were very visual and impactful. The parents didn’t have a clue how to read a cereal packet [...]

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