Food for thought and food for life

Why blog about food

This is my first venture into social networking. I am motivated by all the fake news that is found about food, as well as politicians and other celebrities. The internet is a minefield of disinformation and some of the more factually inaccurate of this deserves to be challenged. I feel qualified to do this because I am both knowledgeable and passionate about food.

My Credentials

One qualification is that I have been involved in food education for over 40 years. I have an excellent publication record, mostly in peer-reviewed journals and have written four books. All this material is scrutinised for its accuracy prior to publication.  My experience and recent publications can be found on my website ( www.dairy-solutions.com).

This blog aims to provide an informed view about the wide variety of food that is available to us and how it is made safe. We are very fortunate to have such a good choice of food; in fact we have never before had the choice to be able to eat such a fantastic range of foods. However, in terms of what we should eat,  the messages are  simple; to eat wide variety of food to ensure a balanced diet;  to not eat too much and to enjoy your food.

A further credential is that I love food and I love eating, but I also wish to stay healthy and active, which poses a real challenge. I am 68 years young, no longer a Spring chicken and trying to avoid being described as elderly. A major nutritional concern for my generation is muscle wastage, known to medics as sarcopenia. This is counteracted by eating plenty of protein and taking regular exercise. One of my favourite nutritious breakfasts or lunches is baked beans and egg on toast, with butter and brown sauce as optional extras. This provides protein from three different sources and also fibre from the beans and is a very tasty and healthy meal. We also make our own museli, soups and stewed assorted fruit mixtures, all with no added sugar.

 I also firmly believe that we all should take some responsibility for our own health and well- being.

What is food - Introduction

Food is extremely complex in its chemical composition. Those who shun food additives because they are chemicals overlook the fact that foods are chemical in nature. In fact many of the permitted additives (E numbers) are found naturally in foods. There are many publications that provide informative information about the main nutrients in the major types of foods. This information is extremely useful to all of us and for vegetarians, vegans and others on more restricted or specialised diets will help identify any specific nutrients that might be lacking in that particular diet… and therefore to be able to take some corrective action.  

It is important to appreciate that values for all nutrients supplied in these food compositions tables are average values, Foods are biological in nature and like our blood, faces and urine, their composition will vary from day to day. For example your home-grown tomatoes will be subtly different in composition to those of your neighbour and also to those purchased from any retail outlet. These tables do not tell us everything about food. For example most foods contain active enzymes and microorganisms ( eg yeast, moulds and bacteria). For example, raw milk may contain over sixty different enzymes and up to 1000 different species of bacteria. A small proportion of these may also be pathogenic ie may produce food poisoning.

In the case of milk, these pathogens are removed by pasteurisation. I will expand on measures taken to ensure that our food is safe in future blogs.

Calorie counting

It is that time of year where many of us have taken a month out to give our bodies a rest from life’s normal excesses. As an introduction, it is worth recapping where we get our energy (calories) from.

The four major sources are carbohydrate (4), protein (4), alcohol (7) and fat (9). Figures in brackets are the calorific value (Calories or kcal) per gram of that component. Water, which is the main component of most foods, has a calorific value of zero.

One important factor we should know about our diets is what proportion of our total calories come from each of these components.

Carbohydrates comprise simple sugars and more complex carbohydrate, for example starch. I will talk about sugars at a later date, especially the reference to natural and added sugar. For example, fruit and milk contain sugar, which is natural but still calorific. The latest dietary advice is to reduce calories derived from sugars to below 10% of total calorie intake, and ideally below 5%. This is not simple and poses a nutritional challenge.

Starch is the most abundant complex carbohydrate. Potatoes, rice and cereals are good sources of complex carbohydrate.

Fat can be classified as of animal or vegetable origin. The downside of fat intake is that it is the most calorific of the components of food. The upside is that it provides the essential fat soluble nutrients, particularly vitamins. There is also some confusion about fat. The current recommendation is that we should obtain less than 30% of our calorie requirements from fat. This again is a challenge and the average figure is probably higher than this.

Alcohol is interesting and provides 7 cal/g; in other words it is midway between carbohydrate and fat and considerably calorific. Obviously, for those who do not drink alcohol, it is not an issue. The Chief Medical Officers’ guidelines for both men and women is as follows  ”You are safest not to drink regularly more than 14 units per week, to keep health risks from drinking alcohol to a low level.” Therefore, for somebody with a calorie uptake of 2500 per day, this represents about 5.5 % of energy being derived from alcohol. For a lower calorie intake, the proportion would be higher.

To summarise so far, if we follow recommendations for fat, alcohol and sugar intakes, these  will account for about 45% of our total calorie intake. This leaves about 55% of our calories to be derived from complex carbohydrate and protein.

I would suggest that protein is the least contentious of the nutrients. A diet containing adequate protein is essential for all age groups. We should also eat a range of proteins to ensure that we receive all our essential amino acids. My simple meal of baked beans and egg on toast provides protein from beans, eggs and bread. If butter or spread is used it will also provide a small amount of fat and if a soft cheese spread is used as an alternative, you will also get dairy protein and fat. It is also high in fibre and more complex carbohydrate. A slice of bacon will further supply some animal protein. On occasions, this can provide a nutritious breakfast or mid-day meal. My uncle George, who reached 85, had a cooked breakfast every day of his life. I am not proposing this for everybody  as he may have reached 100 if he had eaten museli every morning, or not smoked a pipe, or had not been slightly overweight.

The rules of dieting are simple. If you want to maintain or lose some weight, then calorie intake should be equal to or less than calorie expenditure.

My wife’s contribution to this discussion expands this point and is as follows: The most simple solution for not putting on weight is to manage the amount of energy you burn off so that it balances your intake of calories. Don’t randomly snack, don’t sit down for too long and walk, walk, walk.

I recently wrote an article on the case for milk. One interesting exercise was to compare how much we paid for protein derived from milk compared to that derived from some plant protein beverages that are increasing in popularity. Milk protein costs about 2 p per gram, whereas soy was approximately 1.9 times more expensive; oat 8.8 times; almond 15 times, coconut 35 times and rice 70 times.  Some of these are not cheap sources of protein. Other cheap sources in the UK diet are bread, eggs, chicken and baked beans. This list is not exhaustive and there will be many others.

Some upcoming topics

How and why we process foods and what are ultraprocessed foods

How do we assess whether our lifestyle is keeping us healthy or improving our health

You are what you eat or should it be you eat what you are!

Why we should not waste food

Is the Nations diet in a state of crisis?