As a bid to cut their carbon footprint, the NHS has pledged to provide more meat-free meals.

Dr David Pencheon, director of the NHS sustainable development unit, told the Guardian “we should not expect to see meat on every menu. We’d like higher levels of fresh food, and probably higher levels of fresh fruit and veg, and more investment in a local economy.” This is terrific news not only for the environment but also for the nation’s health.

A Which? survey in 2007 found that one in three people were unhappy with hospital food. A quarter of the 1000 patients surveyed said the food was so bad they had to buy their own; one patient also reported their horror at being served pie and chips when they could hardly even manage to drink fluids due to tonsillitis and an abscess.

As if the food served in the hospital canteens are not bad enough (often serving pizzas, pies, chips and burgers) there are even some hospitals which have a Burger King within the grounds, such as Southampton general hospital, Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge, Mayday University hospital in Croydon and Rotherham general hospital. Visiting these hospitals could actually increase your risk of life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer!

Has your hospital visit increased your risk of disease?

Considering the release of the World Cancer Research Fund report in 2007 which gave the stern warning that there is no safe level of processed meat consumption with regards to cancer risk, it is shocking to discover that any hospital would allow a Burger King outlet anywhere near their patients. In particular, Addenbrooke Hospital has an Oncology Centre, linked with six other cancer units in the region.

So, let’s hope that this news from the NHS will result in lots of fresh, healthy fruit, vegetables and whole grains appearing on hospital plates from now on, and happier, faster healing patients as a consequence (not to mention a healthier planet as well of course).

Find out more about food choices that are sustainable, equitable and environmentally responsible.

3.2 million people tuned in to Claire Sweeney’s ‘My Big Fat Diet’ last night. The documentary illustrated what happens, in as little time as 6 weeks, when you eat what you want and don’t exercise.

In under a minute in to the programme, we see Claire eating a burger and ice cream. She also tells us she is looking forward to eating full fat butter.

At the beginning, Claire is 9st 13, has a Body Mass index of 21.3, fat content of 22% and a very healthy pulse rate of 60, blood pressure of 110/70 and a waist size 27.5 inches. To maintain this, she has 3 intensive sessions per week with a personal trainer (and often dancing daily due to her job) and a very strict diet. After just 6 weeks, she was 11 st 12.5, a BMI of 25.2, fat content of a whopping 30%, waist size of 38 inches and a blood pressure reading of 150/110 - which is in the zone of high blood pressure, increasing her risk of a heart attack or stroke.

The clips in the programme showed Claire eating a lot of meat, dairy and egg; as well as many chips! I wonder if she went on a full fat vegan binge whether she would have gained quite so much weight? It’s almost impossible to consume too much fat as a vegan and the fat you do eat is almost exclusively good fat (unless you find vegan cakes and biscuits made with hydrogenated fat), since saturated fats can only be found in animal products.

The programme motivated me to get back on the scales; the first time for a couple of months. With Christmas and New Year just gone (and I ate loads!), and having not exercised any more than walking the dogs for the last few months I was expecting to see some weight gain. As it turns out, I’ve lost a few pounds (now 8st 9) and still have a low 23.6% fat content. My BMI is 18.9. I eat healthily - lots of fruit, veg and grains as you would expect for a vegan - but I also drink wine and beer, eat dark chocolate (almost every day) and crisps, indulge in cake and chips now and again and it seems almost impossible to put weight on.

Alanis Morissette was also in the press this week. She has gone vegan and lost 20 pounds since September. She says in an OK! interview “I feel very alive. Even after a workout, I feel like if I rest a little bit I could go out dancing all night, so that’s exciting. I have no more aches and pains, and my allergies are gone, too.”

So, if you don’t have the timeor money for personal trainers and hours of working out every week, plus you can’t face a really strict diet with no treats, don’t do it Claire’s way, do it Alanis’ way and go vegan!

A major report by the World Cancer Research Fund will yet again prove the link between red meat and cancer.

We’ve heard it over and over again, but here is more evidence to prove to the meat industry, that along with the tobacco industry, they are killers.

21 experts have spent 5 years researching this report which will warn the public of the dangers of pork, beef and lamb. As one in three cancers are diet related, it’s time for people to think carefully about what they eat or face the consequences. Going vegetarian is a small price to pay to avoid operations, months of debilitating chemotherapy and an uncertain future.

Other serious cancer risks are alcohol and obesity. As meat and dairy are the main sources of unhealthy saturated fats which can lead to obesity, a vegetarian or vegan diet is an easy way to protect yourself from cancer.

Read Observer article

Whilst I welcome yet another study which shows that the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer and neurological disorders, it leaves me wondering yet again, when is there going to be some real positive action to promote a healthier diet?

In this latest study, the results of 12 major studies involving over 1.5 million people showed that a diet rich in olive oil, grains, fish, fruit and vegetables, with low amounts of meat, dairy products and alcohol, reduced the risk of dying of heart disease by 9%, developing cancer by 6% and being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease by 13%.

This is no great revelation! And yet, if you go in to any school, music festival, shopping mall, high street or even leisure centre all you can see is sausages, chips, burgers, bacon butties and fried chicken - and very little in the way of fresh salads, fruit, vegetables and whole grains. To top that, fast food chains continue to spend hundreds of millions on promoting their foods to children. These companies need to be held accountable for what they are doing to our health and the other disastrous consequences of their practices, such as environmental damage and human rights abuses.

Tobacco companies have been successfully sued for millions in damages and yet those who have attempted to sue the likes of McDonald’s for health reasons have not been successful. It seems these massive fast food corporations have a free reign to do whatever they wish in the name of profit.

Following the largest beef recall in the US - over 140 million pounds - the US Department of Agriculture has announced a new rule; retailers supplied with contaminated meat will be now be named.

It is absolutely shocking that this has only just been introduced. Currently, when meat is recalled, only the name of the company recalling the meat is made public, along with a description of the meat and brand names, but that is no use to consumers since noone knows where this meat is being sold. The new rule will ensure that the grocery stores stocking the contaminated meat will be named.

But to all you meat eaters out there, don’t think you’re safe - the new rule doesn’t apply to all meat recalls (only those with the most serious risk to health) and plus, most often recalls do not occur until it is way to late, i.e. the diseased meat is already in your belly.

Surprise, surprise, the meat industry has come out against the new rule saying it could ‘confuse’ consumers. They know as well as anyone how damaging it would be for a meat retailer to be named as a seller of potentially lethal contaminated meat. Best bet; stay away from meat all together.

The health section of the Observer magazine today offers advice from a nutritionist, chef and supplements expert to a mother worried about her 17 year old son becoming vegan.

The responses were helpful and positive but there are a few other facts that would have put this mother’s mind at ease.

Foods from animal sources are high in saturated fat, which clogs arteries and can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Obesity is another problem caused by excess fat in the diet, and as the UK Department of Health advises on it’s website, obesity causes around 58% of type 2 diabetes, 21% of heart disease and between 8% and 42% of certain cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

With over 21% of the UK population classified as obese, this mother should be thrilled her son is very unlikely to become one of them, especially at this most important time in his life. Vegans are seldom over weight - population studies show that meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians and nine times the obesity rate of vegans.

The experts also fail to mention all the many ‘meat substitutes’ on the market these days. Everything from vegan mince for spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and chillis, to vegan ice-cream in all kinds of yummy flavours, to fish-free fish fingers, dairy-free cheese and meat-less sausages. Redwood Foods are stocked in most health shops and make a vegan diet both easy and delicious.

As his fellow students grow fat, spotty and sluggish, tucking in to typical student food like McDonalds and KFC, this 17 year old will be bright and healthy and getting in to good habits to ensure a long, disease-free life. And what’s more, what mother could be more proud of a son who is providing a good example to other (often selfish) teenagers by putting his energy in to living with compassion?

Observer article
Obesity ‘as bad as climate risk’ BBC article

An interview in the Independent with Dr Michael Antoniou, a reader in medical and molecular genetics at King’s College London, revealed that feeding animals GM crops is detrimental to their health.

Amongst the conditions caused by GM potatoes, soya and maize are intestinal lesions, liver cell changes, premature death in the young and problems with the kidneys and blood system.

As GM crops become cheaper, farmers are switching to them, which not only causes suffering to the animals but possibly to those who eat the meat from these animals as well. The wider impacts of GM include environmental, social and economic factors, but the fact that they damage the health of animals is not widely known. Who exactly is benefiting from GM? I think we all know the answer, and it isn’t us, the animals or the local communities and wildlife whose homes are being destroyed by monoculture GM plantations.

Read interview

So I hear, China will be offering special organic pork for athletes participating in the Olympics. The reason for this is that ordinary pork has so many chemicals/ drugs in it that it can cause athletes to fail their drug tests!

The food legally fed to animals raised for meat is quite frightening, read this report to find out all the details.

Just to whet your appetite some examples of the ingredients include…
animal waste; marine by-products; dried animal blood; animal digest from dead, dying, diseased or disabled animals; food adulterated with rodent, roach or bird excreta; edible food waste from restaurants and plastic. Remember, this is food given to animals like cows and sheep, ie herbivores, not carnivores!

How can an animal fed this disgusting cocktail be healthy, and how can anyone in their right mind then eat that animal?

I don´t mean to focus so much on the negative impacts of meat on our health, but there are just so many studies at the moment and I can´t ignore them! We know that red meat increases our risk of certain cancers and heart disease but this is the first time I´ve heard about red meat causing diabetes…