Sneaky Superstore "Savings"

Here's an interesting article on a couple of things big chain retailers try to do to confuse or con people into thinking they are getting a good deal.

Click through to BBC News.

Looks like UK schools are actually asking for more crappy food to be sold on the premises. Isn't that lovely.

Poison Soup

Chemical Poisoning due to slow leeching of soup tins

Yum yum!

Anyway, I work for a charity that helps people in Wales tackle depression--on Thursday we raised 433 pounds as part of an auction and comedy/music night. It was utterly exhausting, especially compering unexpectedly on very little sleep.

And now.... grant applications and further planning to turn some of that money into an arts therapy program.

I know, I know

It's been almost two weeks since we posted anything, but we have good reasons.

I've been recovering from food poisoning. Oh yes. I make bad food choices too. I opted for take-out and unfortunately that can be like playing russian roulette with your digestive system.

Furthermore, tonight is the culmination of 3 months' worth of work-- a charity fundraiser I've organised involving music, comedy and an auction. Phew! I will let you know how it went.

In the meantime, check this out.

Claims as to health benefits of sea salt "flawed"

Eat like the English

Apparently about 4000 lives a year could be saved if the Scottish and the Welsh ate "more like the English".

Sensationalist and hardly groundbreaking, as the article goes on to define that as simply eating more fruit and veg.

As a person living in Wales, I tend to agree. I know more than a handful of fully grown adults who flat out refuse to eat 95% of vegetables I can think of. But what's behind this? On one of my grouchier days, I would simply call them childish....but even children eat vegetables!

We need to get people excited about vegetables again.

Here's a link to a fantastic broccoli stir-fry to get you started!

Eating Slowly

Just a quick link to a BBC news article about eating slowly--before I forget about it.

Also spotted this article while browsing. Gastric bands for teenagers? Really?

And yet more calls for "Fat Tax". At least this time it's a tax on fatty foods, rather than taxes aimed at overweight people directly.

Nutritional Labels

This ties in with one of my pet peeves (at least food related ones)-- people don't read food labels unless they are centrally placed.

Companies seem to be hiding their labels in smaller and smaller writing--I know with some packaging that is necessary, but it's still frustrating. Not to mention that even when the average person reads a list of ingredients or nutritional label, the odds are they won't know what a good percentage of the information actually means.

Pariah Potato

The potato is a wonderful thing. You'll probably not be surprised when I say I am really confused about the latest suggestion by the United States Department of Agriculture.

There are more ways to cook a potato than there are to skin a cat, and the majority of those won't have a negative effect on your health as long as you don't eat doofus amounts.

As for the low-Gi thing.... that's not really a problem. As long as you vary the carbohydrates that you eat and fill your diet with other healthy foods.

Anyway, there's not much else I can really say that the article doesn't cover quite nicely, so I'm just going to share my stupidly easy potato wedge recipe.

2-3 potatoes (preferably roasting ones--the amount of potatoes you will need is entirely down to you. Despite their "low GI" they are incredibly filling)
2-3 spoonfuls of oil OR spray oil like Frylight
Chilli powder and paprika (to taste)

• Cut the potatoes into eights--if any of the wedges seem to be too big, cut them in half lengthways.
• If you are using oil, poor it onto the oven dish/tray you are going to use. Make sure it has at least a lip on the edge, you don't want to hot oil spilling all over you when you pull it from the oven. Add the spices to the oil and mix them about.
• If you are using an oil spray, spray the tray before placing the wedge skin down on it. Sprinkle the spices lightly over the potato and spray them until they are just over half-covered with oil.
• Place the wedges in a pre-heated oven-- 200 degrees-- 30 minutes should do it, but you may want to make that 35 if you have particularly thick wedges.

I tend to have my potato wedges with dijonnaise. For the "poor man's" version, mix mustard with mayonnaise on a 1:6 ratio.