Fishy tales in the Food Industry. Bolder Innovation Needed
Last week’s Lancet published results of research and comment that "maternal fish consumption benefits children’s development”. This information requires urgent action in introductions in widely acceptable additions to choices in the British food market.
1. Guts and hearts are organs yielding some place in the nation’s health and lifestyle policies to bones and brains, with vascular complications common to all these contexts. Essential fatty acids and omega 3s and omega 6s have gained renewed significance in areas of research in which these substances were comprehended in the description of vitamin F and curiosity over “Eskimo diets”, which were very high in marine fats and less sticky blood in the consumers – which was not necessarily a benefit for the Inuits who lived vigorously but dangerously in the practices of killing and butchering marine mammals and fish with the consequent risks of cuts and bleeding wounds.
2. Government agencies and the ailing fish industry, abetted by the psychologists perceiving possible sources of wisdom in the saying that “fish is good for the brain” (possibly an item of the ancient nutritional Doctrine of Signatures – John Bull lived on beef, for instance, whereas Germans were Huns who ate a lot of swinish flesh in various forms; but, incongruously, the liking for pickled vegetables earned the style of Krauts – and the slippery French were called Froggies etc) examined the effects of food and eating practices on behaviour and learning (broadly defined as cognition by educationalists).
3. These matters were not lost on scientifically-minded veggies, whose lifestyles might be determined from conception by inherited predisposition (the “compassionate gene” concept) and environment or by abstention from bellicosity generated by factors carried in the “fish, flesh, and fowl” of animals terrified at the time of slaughter and with stressor hormones pouring through their bodily fluids and tissues. Inspection and comparisons of meat (including fish) at the butchers’ or in the kitchen for its color and texture manifest in DFD (dark, firm, dry) beef (especially from uncastrated animals) and PSE (pale, soft and exudative, especially from pigs notable for excitability and susceptibility due the “halothane gene”, which some humans carry and so require especially care from anaesthetists).
Click here to read the full report.
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Make Your Own Houmous Dip
Following recent Houmous recalls due to Salmonella contamination VEGA gives you a recipe for making your own houmous as well as a recipe for a bean and avocado dip.
Houmous Dip
Serves: 4
INGREDIENTS: 400g cooked chickpeas, 1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped oil lemon juice, 1.5dl tahini, olive oil and paprika to serve salt and freshly ground black pepper
PREPARATION: 1. Cook the garlic in some oil over medium heat for 7-8 minutes, uncovered, until the garlic is softened. Leave to cool then add to the chick-peas and tahini and whizz in a food processor until smooth. 2. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve in a bowl with a little olive oil poured over and sprinkle with paprika.
Source: Tesco
Bean & Avocado Dip
Serves 10
INGREDIENTS: 400g cooked kidney beans, 400g cooked chickpeas, 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and dice, 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion, 1/2 cup slivered almonds, roasted (roasting instructions), 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 tablespoons soy-based yoghurt, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, Hot sauce to taste
PREPARATION: Combine about half of kidney beans and about half of chickpeas in a food processor or blender, and pulse until mashed but still chunky. Transfer mixture to a bowl, and stir in remaining kidney beans and chickpeas as well as avocado, red onion, almonds, yoghurt, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and hot sauce. Serve with whole wheat pita crisps or oat crackers.
NUTRITIONAL ANALYSIS: 229 calories 6 g protein 2 g saturated fat 10 g monounsaturated fat 1 mg cholesterol 19 g carbohydrates 3 mg vitamin E 320 mg sodium 15 g fat 2 g polyunsaturated fat 6 g fibre 46 mg calcium
Source: The Portfolio Eating Plan
Also available here |
Kill it, Eat it, Cook it - UK TV programme
The series Kill it, Eat it, Cook it (BBC3), 22.30pm-23.15 (5th-8th March) will feature the slaughter of a cattle, lambs and pigs.
The premise of the series is to show viewers how the meat is raised, slaughtered and butchered. Monday's programme showed the killing of 3 cattle; locally farmed sucklers had their calves with them for 6 months and after another year the calves were "ready" for slaughter, taken a short distance to a small local abattoir, and slaughtered by skilled slaughtermen.
The viewers/participants on the show saw the killings and were afterwards asked for their opinions on slaughter. Not surprisingly, the meat eaters still thought it was fine to eat meat as "the animals were not stressed, the slaughtermen were skilled and the kills happened quickly". When the presenter of the programme asked the vet who attended what the difference was between this small abattoir (very clean for the cameras) and larger ones, the vet answered that the only difference was the number of animals being slaughtered. Nothing was said about sometimes unskilled workers doing the killings, animals being rushed and kicked to go through the 'process' quicker, cattle not always being stunned properly and therefore still being conscious while having their throat cut open, not to mention the difference in farming; calves being taken away from their mothers after 1-2 days etc etc.
The programme still gives people an insight in the actual cutting up of an animal (for those of you who want to see this), but for showing real slaughter - not really. |
New - Recipe of the Week
A collection of non-dairy, non-meat recipes (Starters, Desserts & Bread, Mains, Basics). See also: Portfolio diets
Recipe of the week
Almond Baba Ghanoush
Makes 5dl
Ingredients
- 5cl extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 large aubergines or eggplants (about 0.2kg each), trimmed, peeled, and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 tablespoons almond butter
- 6cl chopped almonds, roasted (roasting instructions)
- 6cl lemon juice
- 3cl minced Italian parsley, plus sprigs for garnish
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
Heat 3cl oil in a large pan. Cook aubergines and garlic on medium heat 7 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the aubergines darken. Place aubergines, garlic, almond butter, almonds, lemon juice, parsley and remaining oil in a food processor or blender, and puree. Season with salt and pepper. Place in serving bowl and garnish with parsley sprigs. Serve with whole-wheat pita crisps or whole-wheat crackers.
Nutritional Analysis: 90 calories, 2 g protein, 1 g saturated fat, 5 g monounsaturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 6 g carbohydrates, 2 mg vitamin, E 3 mg sodium, 7 g fat, 1 g polyunsaturated fat, 2 g fibre, 27 mg calcium.
Source: The Portfolio Eatingplan |
