Sale of sausage plummets in Britain, edged off the dining table by chicken and steak

Sausages have been favorites on the dining tables and barbecues for ages but, have not fallen out of favor of shoppers because they are going in for other healthier options like chicken and steak.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 21 July 2015.

Sale of sausages have plunged by more than two billion a year, that works out to the equivalent to 260.7million fewer packs being taken off the shelves. That is a reduction of more than a quarter compared to 2008.
Consumers have switched over to chicken and steak because they have become more aware of the fact that sausages fuel the obesity epidemic.
In Britain, the sales of beef, especially steak, have gone up by £1billion to £3billion – or 50 per cent – since 2008. Simultaneously, the demand for fresh chicken has pushed up its sales by nearly half since 2012 to £2billion.
The decline of the sausage, most of which are pork based, is a major twist in the nation’s culinary history because it is one of Britain’s oldest processed foods and had arrived with the Romans.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
You don’t need wads of money to travel like the moneyed – use an Uber-style phone app

Role reversal in Delhi - woman passenger tries to seduce auto driver

Gardeners and sweepers of NDMC will go to Singapore or Shanghai for training

Controversy over water cannons procured for London Police by Boris Johnson

FAO Schwarz, America’s oldest toy store, closes its doors in Manhattan


Egypt unsafe for British tourists – ISIS attacks patrol ship off coast of Sinai

Chinese police shoot dead three knife wielding Xinjiang terrorists

Police foil al-Qaeda terror plot in Britain – hold three men


Grandmothers doubled up as baby sitters and chaperons

Some Prime Ministers ride to office on bicycles, why not we?

Wakeup call for Society – girls as young as six are worried about their bodies

Researchers from Leeds Beckett University has carried out a study on the growing up girls and had asked 301 under-nines questions regarding their attitude to food and how happy they were with their bodies.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 May 2015.

It is shocking to learn that girls as young as six are going on diets and, even though they have just started primary school, the children are already unhappy with their bodies and are trying to lose weight.
Eating disorders and the way these girls worry about their weight when they should enjoy the most carefree part of their lives is a matter of concern.
These raises questions about the attitude of schools towards obesity and anorexia. The child measurement program is one such. It involves children being weighed and measured in school according to their BMI. This has been criticized by parents of children as young as four who have received letters telling them their child must go on a diet.

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


Durga Puja - priest dancing with devotee (YouTube video)


EU realizes the curse of plastic carry bags – to banish the bags

100 cities in India would turn into Smart Cities

Pet Pomeranians of Surat married off, 500 wedding guests enjoy the feast

Woman kills her husband because of his dark complexion

Baltimore on fire as protest over death of a black youth in police custody spirals out of control

‘Papri’ and ‘Barood’ - collection of Bengali short stories published from Nashik

British Army wants computer whizzkids to counter the growing menace of ISIS propaganda

Don’t be afraid of the potato – it can help you control weight

#eathealthy Don’t be afraid of the potato because, the concept that potatoes contribute to the bulging waistline, appears to now be a thing of the past. That can be discarded because scientists have, now, arrived at the decision that the potato, believed to be the nightmare of dieticians, is actually a great help to reduce a few kilos.
The vegetable is being labeled as "the miracle ingredient to fight obesity".
It seems extract of Irish potatoes, which are rich in polyphenols, have been found to reduce weight gain from a diet that is high in fat and refined carbohydrates – this is based on research conducted by scientists at McGill University. The researchers were surprised at the findings and, hence, repeated the experiment just to be sure.
Based on this study it can be sad that potato extracts could be a solution to prevent both obesity and type 2 diabetes. The investigators feel that the potato extract could be made available as a dietary supplement or simply as a cooking ingredient to be added in the kitchen.

Obesity is bad – we could lose up to eight years of our life because of this

Obesity is a word on everyone’s lips and all those who are obese try to find out how to lose weight and get rid of that unwanted tag. No one wants to become the center of attention in a crowd and airlines frown upon the obese – some airline have travel restrictions for this category of people.
A new report paints a terrible picture – it seems being severely obese can knock up to eight years off your life and cause decades of ill health. The analysis showed that being obese at a young age was more damaging to health and life expectancy.
The report is of a team of McGill University in Canada, and they have found that heart problems and type 2 diabetes were major sources of disability and death.
The report in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology had made use of a computer model to take various types of risks and calculate the impact of weight on life expectancy throughout life. It was revealed that in comparison with 20 to 39-year-olds with a healthy weight, severely obese men of the same age lost 8.4 years of life and women lost 6.1. Moreover, the men also spent 18.8 more years living in poor health while women spent 19.1 in that state.
In the age group of forties and fifties, the men lost 3.7 years and women 5.3 years to obesity while in the age group of 60s and 70s, men and women lost just one year of life to obesity – however, they had to face seven years of ill health.

Eat less, live more

Small is good as far as food is concerned. Eat less to live long is what the experts are preaching. They have their reasons. In today’s life, our health is more likely to be at risk from an overabundance of food than a shortage of it.
It is a paradox that globally, thrice as many people die of illnesses related to obesity than do of starvation. Hence, smaller plates of food is the cue to a longer life.
If we study the situation, we will find that humans today do not live as our prehistoric people lived. While we go in for sedentary lives in front of computer screens, our ancestors hunted game and gathered wild fruits. That is how they remained active and were always bursting with energy.
Moreover, in today’s world, food is readily available and nearly all of us eat three square meals a day, every day. However, in the ancient prehistoric times, our ancestors would have been used to a cycle of feast and famine because there was no guarantee of meals at all times. They would probably have been used to a 5:2 diet – or people were allowed to eat for five days a week. This acted as a check for their caloric intake on the other two.
Incidentally, there is a clear link between obesity and cancer. The blood-vessel damage caused by obesity and diabetes goes on to affect the veins in the brain as well as the body, this puts one at the risk of dementia.

Tips for frequent travelers on what to eat to maintain the health

People who have to travel frequently on business assignments or on company duties usually always leave their food habits back home. The reason is simple - they have to, perforce, go in for higher-calorie restaurant meals and blame it on hectic agendas, time changes, lack of proper sleep and long periods of sitting in airports on in meetings. Such tortures on one’s regular routines can have bad effect on the most disciplined eaters.
Research has revealed that people in this category namely, frequent business travelers who have to travel for 20 or more days a month were usually more than twice as likely to be obese than those who travelled at most six days each month. Moreover, those who travel extensively were also prone to be victims of high blood pressure and unfavorable cholesterol levels.
Hence, here are a few points to remember for frequent travelers –
Carry some snacks with you – this can fill nutrient gaps and curb hunger when you are in transit or in between meetings. Such an activity would be of great help in being in control of the situation and also help in controlling what is taken at lunch and dinner.
The healthy, non-perishable snacks like nuts, dried fruit, dark chocolate, or whole-food energy bars can be packed in the briefcase.
Other methods to achieve the objective are to manage intake of alcohol, not to ignore breakfast, to pump up the intake of protein like lean meat, chicken breast, fish, egg whites, and tofu. Moreover, going easy on caffeine and drinking plenty of water while traveling, especially on long flights, also help to keep fit while on the road.

Britain mulling idea to ban high-sugar food for children

Alarmed at the growing rate of obesity among children, Britain is toying with the idea to ban high-sugar content foods for children.
As per the latest Health Survey for England it is revealed that 28% of children aged between two and 15 were classed as overweight or obese and that a number of popular children's breakfast cereals contain as much as 30% sugar.
If it had its way, Labour would outlaw high levels of sugar, fat and salt in children's food and have GPs prescribe exercise. This has been indicated by Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary. In his opinion, many more actions would be necessary to tackle lifestyle problems as part of NHS reforms. He has added that it was a matter of grave concern about the level of sugar being fed to children and pledged it was time to tackle the food industry.
He has remarked that he was considering how to impose a mandatory maximum limit on fat, salt and sugar in foods that are consumed by children. One method would be to tackle lifestyle and Andy Burnham has suggested that family doctors should refer patients for exercise to help them tackle weight and healthy eating problems.
Incidentally, the Action on Sugar group of specialists are concerned with sugar and its effects on health and wants a ‘sugar tax’ imposed. As per this group, one in five 10 to 11-year-olds in the UK are now obese, while one in three are overweight. In order to check this trend, some measures should be introduced to cut added sugar in food by 40% by 2020, to cut fat in foods and to ban sports sponsorship by "junk food" companies.