Hello

Some of you might be contemplating New Year resolutions with regard to your own physical health and well being, so maybe its time to reiterate how important diet is. In my opinion, your long term health and vitality is pretty much directly linked with what you consume. I’m a firm believer that most illness and disease suffered by humans is due to what we do or don’t eat... As a nation I think we have slept-walked into believing that just because something is nicely wrapped, or has been subject to the food standard agency controls, that it is automatically safe for us to consume. The problem with the word “Safe” is its subjectivity. I could write a much longer article on the subject of food safety and the amount of misinformation that circulates amongst us, but here are just a couple of things to keep in mind.

(1) Fish is seen as a healthy food, and indeed in many respects it is. However, one of the hidden problems with fish is the increasing level of Mercury (a toxic heavy metal) found in some of them. Sadly, this is fundamentally a man made problem. Most of the contamination has been caused by pollution from industry: the practice of dumping chemicals into waters where fish are caught has come back to bite us in the backside. Some fish do however contain high levels of selenium, which counteracts the mercury, so it’s not all bad news. Also, taking vitamin C helps rid the body of heavy metals, so I would recommend fish lovers ensure they get enough C in their diet as a precaution. The food and drug administration in the USA, and our own food standards agency do make specific recommendations when it comes to the consumption of certain types of fish. Fish is still a great source of nutrition, and I wouldn’t recommend giving up fish altogether but the mercury issue is a reflection of hidden dangers we need to be aware of that lurk in some of the foods we eat.

(2) Artificial flavouring and colourings are now widespread in the world of processed food. While being classified as “safe” according to the FSA and FDA, I would still like to convey a little tip passed on by a customer of mine. The customer in question is a pathologist and he often gives me snippets of very interesting and useful information. With regard to artificial flavourings, we don’t really know the long-term effects of consuming too much of one particular flavouring, and as artificial flavours are chemicals, it would be prudent to limit over exposure to any particular one. Therefore alternating the flavour you choose for any processed food that you do eat, or drink on a regular basis, would be a wise thing to do. Many of us have perhaps never thought about this, but it makes a lot of sense.

Until next time…you know where to come.