Mayor UK Supermarket Chain Will Sell Vegan Foods In Meat Aisle

Maria Chiorando wrote . . . . . . . . .

UK supermarket giant Tesco will start selling vegan and vegetarian foods in a new fixture in the meat aisle in a bid to ‘promote health and sustainability’.

Products from brands including Heck, Vivaris, Beyond Meat, and Vegetarian Butcher will be available in the fixtures in larger Tesco stores from April 8.

The move follows Sainsbury’s, which started selling vegan mince and burgers in its meat aisle last year, before announcing it would trial placing its vegan meat counters next to traditional meat counters earlier this year. According to Tesco, the initiative comes as 21 percent of UK households have reduced their meat intake (Kantar Worldpanel April 2018).

Vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian

“The rise of eating more plant-based food and people becoming flexitarian is having a massive effect on the way many people shop and as a result the retail industry is having to adapt,” Derek Sarno, Tesco’s Director of Plant-Based Innovation, told Plant Based News.

“We are seeing a new kind of shopper – more conscious of their own health and the environment and perfectly happy to make dietary changes such as becoming vegan, vegetarian or flexitarian to achieve those aims.

“Plant-based alternatives in general have become so high in quality that most life-long meat eaters are now including these foods as part of their diet. It makes sense to range them next to each other in the same aisle and bring a wider breadth of options available to choose from.”

Source: Plant Based News

Stir-fried Tofu with Orange Ginger Sauce

Ingredients

2 packages of extra-firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 cups carrots, shredded
2 cups organic mushrooms, sliced
2 cups broccoli, chopped
1 cup spinach
black and white sesame seeds, cashews and green onion to garnish

Sauce

3/4 cup organic orange juice (fortified with calcium)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp organic corn starch
1 tsp ginger, grated

Method

1. Mix together sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Sautee tofu with some oil in a wok until browned slightly (about 10 minutes).
3. Add carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add 3 tbsp water and cook for about 3 minutes.
5. Add spinach and cook for another 3 minutes or until spinach has wilted.
6. Add sauce and stir-fry until the sauce thickens.
7. Add sesame seeds, cashews and green onion. Toss to combine. Remove and serve hot.

Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Source: Vista Magazine

For A Healthier Planet, Eat These 50 Foods, Campaign Urges

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Eleanor Beardsley wrote . . . . . . . . .

Why would a wildlife conservation organization be involved in a campaign to push people to diversify their diets? As it turns out, the way we humans eat is very much linked to preserving wildlife — and many other issues. This was the topic at a recent conference in Paris, where the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) and Knorr foods teamed up to launch their campaign and report, titled “Future 50 Foods: 50 Foods for Healthier People and a Healthier Planet.”

The WWF’s David Edwards says that there has been a 60 percent decline in wildlife populations since 1970 and that working to protect animals is no longer enough to save them.

“We have to address the drivers of habitat loss and species collapse,” says Edwards. “And the biggest driver is global farming.”

According to the report, 75 percent of the food we consume comes from just 12 plant sources and five animal sources. And just three crops — wheat, corn and rice — make up nearly 60 percent of the plant-based calories in most diets.

The lack of variety in agriculture is both bad for nature and a threat to food security, the report says. It argues that it’s essential we change our eating habits to protect the planet and ensure we are able to feed our growing global population.

The report says that repeatedly harvesting the same crop on the same land depletes nutrients in the soil, leading to intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides that, when misused, can hurt wildlife and damage the environment. The report pushes protein-rich, plant-based foods that can be eaten in addition to or instead of meat. Red meat production in particular requires much more water and land than plants and produces significant greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s a driver of deforestation.

The staggering wildlife loss in the past 50 years includes the precipitous decline in insect populations — often referred to as the insect Armageddon. “Nature can’t continue to take this pressure,” says Edwards. “The food system has pushed wildlife to the extremes.”

Maria Haga, the head of Crop Trust, an organization focused on preserving crop diversity, says the new campaign is on target. “We probably have globally like 30,000 plants that we could eat,” she says. “We eat roughly 150 of those.” And to have just a handful of crops be so dominant is “really a challenge for the whole food system.”

Haga says dependence on just a few crops is also a threat to food security. The world’s population is on track to reach 10 billion by 2050. If we’re to feed everyone with a changing climate, says Haga, we’ll need diverse crops that can adapt to extreme weather conditions. The planet has lost thousands of varieties of foods in the last hundred years, says Haga. And once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.

Pierre Thiam from Senegal is now a chef in New York. He says people are beginning to wake up to the problem and to the wide variety of alternative foods, many of which he grew up eating. One example is the ancient grain fonio, which resembles couscous.

“It’s a grain that’s great for the planet,” says Thiam. “And it’s gluten free; it’s drought resistant; it grows in two months; it scores low on the glycemic index, so it’s great for your health too.”

Thiam says many of the items on the future-foods list are from Africa, which also has 60 percent of the world’s arable land. But he says that in recent decades, multinational food companies have been pushing Africans to import foods from the West, like bouillon cubes. Thiam says that farmers are the backbone of the African economy and that boosting their ability to make a living would lift up the entire continent.

The campaign’s 50 foods were selected for their high nutritional value, low environmental impact, flavor, accessibility and affordability. Besides grains like fonio, they include various mushrooms, beans and pulses, nuts, tubers, algae and cactuses.

Many of the food crops that the report recommends have higher yields than the crops we currently rely on, and several are tolerant of challenging weather and environmental conditions, meaning they could not only reduce the land required for crops but also prove invaluable in the face of growing climate uncertainty.

This conference being in France, the report was served up with a four-course lunch featuring some of the 50 products.

Back in the kitchen, chef François Roche is busy shaving salsify, a root vegetable, into the form of tagliatelle pasta. It will be served with British cheddar and fino sherry sauce, walnuts and smoked egg yolk. He says the menu is very plant focused. He does not cook with much meat, mostly using it as a seasoning or part of a dish.

Bongiwe Tshiqi is a magazine editor from South Africa. She’s stunned by the wonderful tastes of all the plants. “This whole idea of diversifying our diets is very interesting from our perspective, because we come from a very staple, starch-and-meat type of environment in South Africa,” she says. “Wheat and maize are the biggies for us. So learning what we can replace them with is amazing.”

You might expect global food conglomerates to resist such a diversity push. But Dorothy Shaver, who is head of sustainability for Knorr, says the company wants to be part of this movement. She says the shift in the amount and types of food people eat is inevitable and will also open new markets.

“This actually gives us a major opportunity to identify some of the flavors that people are missing out on,” she says. “And then we can get them on people’s plates. We can get people to switch out one of their white potatoes that they eat potentially four or five times a week with a purple yam. Or in Indonesia make it an Indonesian sweet potato instead of white rice.”

Shaver says doing this all over the planet would have an enormous impact on the environment. She says Knorr will try to mainstream 10 or 15 of these so-called future foods in its dishes. She says its popular cheddar and broccoli rice dish will soon have versions featuring black beans and quinoa instead of rice.

Sam Kass was White House chef under President Obama and directed first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. Kass says with one in three American kids now headed for obesity, a push to diversify our diets — with a greater focus on plant-based foods — is exactly what’s needed.

“What’s exciting about this is some of the biggest issues we face – climate change and human health – are coming together and the solutions are deeply aligned,” he says. “What’s good for us is also better for the planet.”

Kass says consumers can just as easily drive the solutions as the problems. And don’t worry if you’re not familiar with foods like fonio grain or salsify root. You can start by cutting back on meat and eating more beans.

“Any bean,” says Kass. “You can’t go wrong. Black beans, pinto beans … they couldn’t be better for you, and they are as sustainable as any other product.”

Source: npr

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Read also at World Wide Fund for Nature:

Future50 Foods – 50 foods for healthier people and a healthier planet (pdf) . . . . .

Canadian Agency Looks to Europe for Safety Standard of Arsenic for Food

Christine Bear wrote . . . . . . . . .

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says it will launch a months-long consultation process this year on setting a maximum level of arsenic allowed in food, including baby cereal.

Currently, there is no hard limit on arsenic in food in Canada and the U.S., despite existing regulations in Europe.

Although the toxicity of arsenic depends on its chemical form and level of exposure, the naturally occurring element can cause various health issues including skin lesions, nausea and diarrhea, with long-term exposure associated with an increased risk of cancer.

“Health Canada will continue to take steps to help ensure that dietary exposure to arsenic is as low as possible for Canadians, including infants and young children,” said Maryse Durette, senior media relations adviser for Health Canada, in an email.

A proposal for these new measures should be available for consultation with the food industry, professional organizations and consumers by mid-2019, Durette said.

“In the near future, Health Canada will recommend new maximum levels for inorganic arsenic in rice, consistent with those established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international group that sets safety standards for foods.”

While the CFIA monitors arsenic levels in baby food, the process of setting a cap is taking years, it says, due to consultations with stakeholders on both sides of the Canadian and American border, including the food industry — and because the science that tells us how much arsenic is dangerous is still emerging.

The limit enforced by the European Commission — 200 parts per billion (ppb) for adults and 100 ppb for infants — was set in 2016 based on research showing that higher arsenic concentrations were associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Arsenic is ubiquitous in our environment, in the soil, air and water, with concentrations near mining sites skyrocketing to levels that can be carcinogenic.

Because of the risk to human health, total arsenic and its various types, including inorganic arsenic, the form considered most toxic, are measured in bottled water, juices and nectars, fish protein, baby formulas, foods and supplements by regulatory bodies around the world, including the CFIA.

The potential for high arsenic concentrations in rice-based foods, including infant cereals and biscuits, is a higher concern because arsenic can accumulate in rice as it grows in the standing water of paddies.

The Europeans moved to cap infant ricebased food at 100 ppb, half the level of 200 ppb recommended for adults, because rice can form a major component of the diet for babies. Those recommendations were made based on two 2010 studies of a Taiwanese community, in which researchers found that if the concentration of arsenic was above 100 ppb, there was a greater risk of urinary and lung cancer in children and adults.

While the average inorganic arsenic concentration tested in Canada by CFIA on different infant cereals was approximately 100 ppb, certain brands of infant food exceeded the European legal limit, with the highest measurement being 200 ppb, according to a CFIA Food Safety Action Plan report, which conducted testing in 2015 on samples collected between 2011 and 2013.

Although Canada and the U.S. adhere to the Codex Alimentarius standards

set by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, each government must first consult with stakeholders before implementing additional safety measures like those set by the Europeans for infant food and this takes time.

In a recent review of arsenic tolerance in apple juice, for instance, representatives from a whopping eight industries weighed in, including the Canadian Beverage Association, Heinz Canada, Juice Products Association (American) and Société des alcools du Québec. These stakeholders were asked for comment regarding limits for apple juice in 2014 — and regulatory changes have not yet been implemented.

Another barrier to implementing maximum levels of allowable inorganic arsenic in baby food is uncertainty regarding how much arsenic is too much.

The Taiwanese studies cited by Europe in its decision to cap levels in baby food at 100 ppb described the health effects of arsenic contamination consumed by approximately 7,000 people.

Since the time of these Taiwanese studies in 2010, scientists say there is still much to learn about the cancer risk at low arsenic levels.

As recently reviewed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, Center for Environmental Health in the U.S., the risks associated with arsenic for different types of cancer, such as liver, bladder, kidney or lung cancer, are highly variable and the reason for this variability is not understood. They recommend additional studies on large populations of arsenic-exposed people of different age and gender.

Expert committees, including the Joint FAO/ WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, recognize there are other, non-cancer areas of concern for the toxicity of inorganic arsenic, such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Scientists at the FDA are currently testing the effects of arsenic on neurodevelopment.

“Concerns have been raised about potential developmental effects on infants and adverse pregnancy outcomes,” says an FDA site about arsenic in rice cereal. The agency also found that exposure may result in a child’s decreased performance on certain developmental tests that measure learning.

In addition, the translation of new scientific findings into changes in policy takes time.

Sarah Rothenberg, assistant professor in the School of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University, says she was approached by staff from a U.S. regulatory agency at a recent conference and told “you need to keep doing your work (on arsenic in rice-based foods); we are reading your papers.”

But, “you need multiple research groups reporting the same thing before regulatory groups take a look,” Rothenberg says.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press Newspaper

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Read also at FDA:

What You Can Do to Limit Exposure to Arsenic . . . . .

Study: Exercise Key to Staying Slim After Weight Loss

Serena Gordon wrote . . . . . . . . .

If you’ve lost a bunch of weight and want to keep those pounds from piling back on, you’ll need to make regular physical activity a part of your life.

New research looking at people who lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for a year or longer found that regular exercise was key.

“These people rely on physical activity to maintain their weight rather than restricting calorie intake. This shows how critical physical activity is for maintaining weight,” said lead author Danielle Ostendorf. She’s a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.

But Ostendorf was quick to point out these findings don’t mean that people shouldn’t pay attention to their diet. “Diet is very important, especially for weight loss,” she said.

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you use during the day, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of calories someone needs depends on several factors, including age and activity level.

Generally, a 40-year-old woman needs between 1,800 and 2,200 calories a day, the U.S. government’s dietary guidelines recommend. A man the same age usually needs about 2,400 to 3,000 calories daily. The more you move, the more calories you can eat.

The current study looked at three groups of people.

The weight maintainer group included 25 adults who had lost about 30 pounds or more and kept it off for more than a year. Another group included 27 adults at a normal weight. The final group had 28 adults who were either overweight or obese.

All three groups were monitored over a week while they were living as normal. No one gained or lost weight.

The volunteers weren’t given any specific instructions on diet or exercise. They gave urine samples at the beginning and end of the study to measure how many calories they used (energy expenditure).

Each participant also wore a fitness device to measure their activity. It could differentiate whether people were standing or stepping and determine intensity level, Ostendorf said.

The study found that people who maintained their weight loss burned about 180 more calories a day during physical activity than other participants.

People who are overweight and obese use more calories normally, just to move a larger body throughout the day, the researchers explained. So, the fact that the maintainers used more calories than people who were still overweight or obese suggests they were more physically active.

Data from the fitness devices suggested the same. Maintainers clocked about 12,000 steps per day. Normal-weight adults had about 9,000 steps daily, and those who were overweight or obese had 6,500.

The maintainers spent about 95 minutes a day doing moderate to vigorous activity, Ostendorf said. Moderate activity might be walking up a hill; you can still talk but you might be a little out of breath. Running is an example of vigorous activity, she said.

Compared to the normal-weight group, both the maintainers and the overweight and obese group ate and used 300 calories more a day. But the maintainers appeared to compensate with more activity, researchers said.

The takeaway: You have to be active to stay at a healthy weight.

“People can lose weight and maintain the weight loss. There are people who have done this successfully. And it doesn’t have to be an extreme workout,” Ostendorf said.

Current U.S. physical activity guidelines call for at least 150 to 300 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity activity. Any physical activity counts toward that goal.

Dana Angelo White, a registered dietitian and clinical assistant professor of athletic training and sports medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., agreed with the study’s conclusion.

“If you manage to successfully lose weight, there’s a certain level of maintenance required. And, you can’t just rely on diet or exercise by themselves,” said White, who wasn’t involved with the study.

She emphasized that everyone — regardless of weight status — needs to be physically active for good health.

“Commit to moving more. That doesn’t mean you need to go from zero to a hundred overnight. But find some sort of enjoyable exercise routine, and increase your activity outside of exercise as well. Make extra steps wherever you can. Walk around on your lunch break, or if you can, walk your kids to school. Anything to keep moving,” White suggested.

The study was published in the March issue of Obesity.

Source: HealthDay

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