WHY STROUD....?

Why Stroud? This will be my introduction to why the Stroud Valleys could now lead as a truly dynamic force in the pursuit of local food, local currency, the arts, local crafts etc IN DRAFT

Why did they laugh ?

Created and consumed in Wales, with a layer of mystery! Please enjoy this overly poetic recipe that makes people laugh - perhaps it's the way its performed!?....

So off I cycled last Saturday to an intimate, fun and lovely Stroud Supper Party with these bards, musicians and an author called Drugs Czar reading from his book - who was limping from playing Rugby for The W.A. against the House of Lords!

So wrote this to be a Bard for the night, titled:

Layer upon Layer

Yet to be savored
Unmade, a hot vessel will gift shape
Each layer shall float aloof
Formed by lift and separation
This mystery adds its name

Clear, finger high, a layer now cooks within
Chopped, olive oiled, salt and peppered but not aloof
Coloured hot the vegetables are put aside
Moons torn asunder to be made invisible
Our mystery fills the bottom fed
A hot layer now returned does rest aloft

The fat yellow flow is born of valley found eggs, milk, olive oil & pesta
To lap, crest and crust the roast vegetables
Return to heat as round shapes must be sliced

Clear, see a hot layer of shapes neatly sealed
Now add a third torn layer to go unseen
The mushroom and tomato slices make up a last
A second richer fatter frothy yellow fills the void to paint each slice

Cooked through, risen and browning, dish meets dish
Behold fajita, terrine? No, a new Welsh dish Crumpet Bottom!

Stroudy

PS: The Welsh Crumpet is less than 1% fat - so they tell me, what do you think ..?

You have to admit that the crumpet pieces are not noticed, yet create each layer...

Next mystery poetic installment Tarte Tomate - IF I HAVE TOO!

Soon We Will War for Water

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The Fifth World Water Forum began this week in Istanbul. 97.5 percent of the worlds water stays in our oceans, a further 1.75 percent makes-up the polar icecaps which are melting and raising sea levels to gradually claim homelands and inundate fresh water aquifers. Global Warming will dry out rainforest's, rivers and make huge areas arid, speeding desertification. 70 percent of all groundwater and freshwater supplies are used for irrigation. So little or no freshwater will satisfy the thirst of the forecast nine billion world population in 2050 – some five billion people will likely struggle and war for water!

The week-long forum is held every three years and will discuss the future of the 'commodity' that is so much more vital than oil or gas, gold or diamonds. The forum theme this year is 'Bridging Divides for Water'. It will address global change and the protection of water resources.

The conference is expected to produce a joint declaration, The Istanbul Consensus which will try to settle the simple question: is water a 'commodity' that profit-oriented private concerns can trade in, or a human right to be guaranteed by public institutions? Who owns it? Who should manage it?

Groups are planning anti-Forum demonstrations and will likely riot against Turkish security forces. Tens of thousands marched in protest against the fourth WWF in Mexico City three years ago.

The Forum will seek to be green, in line with recommendations of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October last year. Delegates are advised to travel by train, boat or bus for short distances, use recyclable water bottles, go for electronic documents rather than printed ones, use both sides of paper, lower the thermostat in hotel rooms, turn off the tap when brushing teeth, take showers rather than baths, asks that towels and bedding not be changed every day, and use stairs rather than elevators.

Organisers have committed to planting a tree for each of the 20,000 participants. Trees need water, don't they?!

Save The Vulcan....

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God have mercy....save the Vulcan, this is the campaign to save the oldest pub in Cardiff that is now before The Welsh Assembly. Well, perhaps our prayers have been answered....

A sound commercial and startlingly imaginative architectural engineering solution for the Vulcan is being mooted for arbitration by the Assembly.

The suggestion is to incorporate the Vulcan frontage into the new 20 storey building, but one floor up!

This would create huge visual impact! Whilst allowing the Vulcan public and service areas, plus current fittings, to be built into the building and remain the pub we love!

Everybody gains, nobody loses and Cardiff has an extraordinary architectural art piece - sorry no artists impression?

I contacted Rachel Thomas of the campaign via facebook, who confirmed that: The Vulcan must stay where it is and that there is no reason at all why the developers can't incorporate it into their plans!

Mercy indeed, with the miracle of a floating Vulcan over the streets of Cardiff

Stroudy visits the Vulcan, Cardiff

PS: I had meant to post this on the first of April....

stroudyrant.blogspot.com

Our Real World Leaders are Al Gore & Prince Charles

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An Inconvenient Truth, the must see climate change documentary by former US Vice President Al Gore, has opened across the UK. It looks at scientific evidence on the causes and likely impacts of a warming world and at climate change politics.

Al Gore says he wants to make ordinary people aware of the "terrifying" reality of climate change, and demand action from their political leaders.

More than two million people have seen it since its US release 16 weeks ago.

The UK release comes in a week which has seen scientists release evidence that: Old Arctic ice may be melting spectacularly fast; humanity's greenhouse gas emissions are probably stoking the power of hurricanes; Observed temperature rise cannot be explained directly by changes in the Sun's output.

Al Gore tried when Vice-President to act on Climate Change, and whatever failures that occurred were not for lack of his efforts, Al faced incredible resistance and denial by anal business interests, which is why he decided to reach out directly to the public, making this presentation more than 1,000 times, plus the movie and the book, in the hope that we the public will demand that political leaders stop paying it lip service and act!

Politicians act? Wishful thinking Al....!

He discusses the death of his sister from lung cancer, comparing the stance of tobacco companies then with the stance of oil, coal and car companies today. He cites cases of scientists who, he says, have been persecuted, even hounded from their jobs, because they have raised the "truth" about Climate Change - from which the movie gets its title.

In the US, An Inconvenient Truth has become the third highest grossing documentary of all time, returning more than $23m.

Environmental groups hope it will receive similar attention in Britain. "It's a cliche to say a book or film will change your life, but this film is truly inspirational," said Ashok Sinha, director of Stop Climate Chaos, an umbrella organisation for campaigning groups.

"It's brilliantly clear both on the science and the gravity of where the policy of business as usual has got us today, and where it will lead if we don't start taking personal and political action now."

The United States of America Senate and its Spineless Senators will soon rubber stamp the end of our World and our progeny!

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As Lee Iacocca asks, so does the Huffington Post today, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?". We may pine or scream for enlightened leadership, but it is not likely to be bestowed as a gift on a politician..... Al Gore? Prince Charles?

Can we really expect politicians to face up to the challenge posed by climate change -- and it is, literally, apocalyptic -- for them to acknowledge that forestalling global warming must become the organizing principle of society?!

We're a long way from that recognition and orientation. The only way we are going to get there is for those willing to look honestly at the situation to build a powerful movement. It must be broad, and it must very aggressively demand change. There is a role in this for celebrities and concerts. But there is a crying need too for people who insist on shaking things up.

That movement has been slow in coming, but it is just possible to see the beginning signs that it may be starting to crystallize. (Yes, all those qualifiers are necessary.) A very important early manifestation of what may be a new movement is the call for a No War, No Warming mobilization in Washington, DC, from October 21 to 23.

Details of the protest activity are just starting to be worked out, so stay tuned for more. But while all efforts have to made to block the lunacy now on display in the Congress and to achieve some incremental gains for renewable energy and efficiency (getting started sooner will make the hard work to come much easier), the real leadership on this issue will not be found on Capitol Hill. The leadership is going to come from the streets.

So the Democratic controlled Congress is considering an energy bill. The likely outputs are pretty grim. Coal state members of Congress are pushing for coal-to-liquid projects that might help move in the direction of "energy independence" for the United States, but will make global warming worse. Senators from Michigan are set to gut efforts to increase auto fuel efficiency standards.

It is completely reasonable and critically important to denounce these maneuvers, which suggest that the Democratic controlled Congress is on course to do little or no more to alleviate global warming than its Republican predecessors.

It is also hard to avoid complaining about the spinelessness of the Democrats, but there is another, more important way to look at the present energy bill mess. And that is to acknowledge that members of Congress have no morality and care nothing for their progeny, so respond to powerful constituencies -- most importantly the polluters' lobby, but not just big corporations. The unions in these sectors are supporting retrograde positions, which is reflective of their short-term and misguided calculations about jobs and members' well-being.

The Nordic Diet may be history to our progeny as will much of the Mediterranean peoples homelands!

An article in the Telegraph compares the traditional Nordic Diet to be as good or better than the Mediterranean Diet! This is good for us Today, climate change will mean Southern Europe will be arid with desert encroaching on homelands and the traditional Nordic Diet might just lack the Riendeer and so much more.....Yet, the change in the Gulf Stream may make it colder and more relevant to what is left of Britain.

So lets ponder the diversity and difference in two of the Worlds healthiest diets, whilst considering that it will be Global Warming that will be the decisive factor in if Northern Europe will be eating a Nordic or Mediterranean diet - when Europe gets hotter, homelands become lost and the World sinks towards unimaginable anarchy...

Research by Elling Bere from the University of Agder, Norway, has shown that native berries from northern Europe such as blueberries, cowberries and cloudberries contain as much unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids as fish per unit Scientists at the University of Copenhagen, in Denmark, have set up a EURO 13.3 million (£12.2 million) project aimed at identifying and testing more products from the region that can fit into the "New Nordic Diet". They also plan to carry out trials with schoolchildren to see how the diet can help improve their health.

Professor Arne Astrup, president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity and head of the department of human nutrition at Copenhagen University, is leading the project.

He said: "The plan is to develop a counterpart to the Mediterranean diet that is superior in terms of health effects and palatability."

In Finland, around 23 per cent of people are obese; in Sweden, the figure is as low as 10 per cent; but in the UK, the number is around 25 per cent.

They also found that they were rich in antioxidants, which are known to reduce the levels of harmful molecules in cells that can build up over time and cause damage, leading to diseases such as heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Rapeseed oil has been found to be a good alternative to olive oil, containing more omega-3 fatty acids and being a good source of vitamin E. Cabbage and other brassica species such a kale and Brussels sprouts, which tend to thrive in cold-weather conditions, have been found by scientists at the University of Oslo to contain some of the highest levels of antioxidants of any vegetable and are a good source of vitamin K, which plays a role in blood coagulation. I highly recommend Hillfarm extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil from Sussex and Sainsburys!

Traditional Nordic diets have also been high in fish, as in the Mediterranean, with particular preference for salmon, trout, cod and herring - cold water fishes that will decline too in warmer fisheries.

Prof Astrup also believes that game meat from animals such as elk and reindeer, and birds such as grouse, should also form a greater part of people's diets as these meats tends to be leaner than farm-reared livestock - rabbit too!

Dr Joan Ransley, a lecturer in nutritional Epidemiology at Leeds University, said: "In northern climates it is difficult to adopt Mediterranean diet simply because the ingredients like peppers and tomatoes don't grow in colder climates and the growing season is so much shorter - Your ignoring the future and climate change, will these even leave us any choice in foods Dr. Ransley?

"If they can present these traditional foods in an attractive way it could be great."

Trina Hahnemann, a Danish chef who recently published The Scandinavian Cookbook, added that in many parts of Scandinavia and Britain, traditional diets had been abandoned in favour of foods from Italy and Spain.

She said: "I think that people have lost their food culture and forgotten about how foods suited to northern climates can be healthy. In Britain you have a lot of kale, but almost no one realises that you can eat it raw like lettuce and it is very nutritious."

The popularity of the Mediterranean diet stems from data showing that people living in countries bordering the Mediterranean have lower levels of cardiovascular disease, obesity and certain types of cancer.

Regional eating habits include consuming large amounts of vegetables, nuts, bread and fish, which make the Mediterranean diet very low in saturated fats, which typically come from meat.

The Mediterranean diet – one of the leading eating plans for the past 20 years – is facing competition from the "Nordic diet", which, scientists are finding, could be significantly healthier.

The findings have generated excitement among many nutrition experts in the United Kingdom as the British climate is more suited to producing the kinds of foods found in Scandinavia than it is to growing the sun-ripened foods of the Mediterranean.

Nutritionists in the UK have, consequently, pushed the vegetable and olive oil-rich diet as a way of combating Britain's appalling public health record, and in Scotland the Government funded intensive research into the effectiveness of the diet - If you allow nutritionally impoverished processed foods made to taste acceptable with additives, flavours, simple sugars and salt this grossly expensive health problem is bound to happen? Should we call these industrial products foods or poisons?

Blogging to rescue the Planet

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I have chosen to report here in my Blog what is being said about the future of our World by the most learned and informed of us. Yes, it is not my original writing or thought. I do it to inform, to provide background references to what should be uppermost in our minds - the survival of the Planet as we know it or the extinction of our progeny....

I then plan to propose, write, discuss and blog on a way forward - a rescue plan if you so wish?!

WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!

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The World's leading scientists have made a desperate plea to politicians to act on climate change or see civilisation as we know it degenerate into mere survival, banditry, war, chaos and death.

The future therefore means no politicians but also the death of our progeny and the World as we know it!

In what was described as a watershed moment, more than 2,500 leading environmental experts agreed a statement that called on governments to act before the planet becomes an unrecognisable, unpleasant, difficult and in places, impossible – place to live or probably even survive....

At the emergency climate summit in Copenhagen, scientists agreed that "worst case" scenarios were already becoming reality and that, unless drastic action was taken soon, "dangerous climate change" was imminent, with increasing average temperatures will mean huge areas lost to massive rises in sea level, devastated by hurricanes, rainforest's become uninhabitable desert, social unrest, then the forced migration of billions of people from what were their homelands, with fighting, banditry, war and famine flushing away what little is left of civilisation and our children's lives.

In a strongly worded message that, unusually for academics, appealed directly to politicians, they said there was "no excuse for inaction" and that "weak and "ineffective" governments must stand up to the short term concerns of big business and other "vested interests".

Steps should be "vigorously and widely implemented", they said, to reduce greenhouse gases. Failure to do so would result in "significant risk" of "irreversible climatic shifts", the statement added.

The plea came as Lord Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank whose report two years ago drew attention to the possible results of global warming, told the conference that unless politicians grasped the gravity of the situation it would be "devastating with.... increases in average temperatures of six degrees by the end of the century were an increasing possibility and would produce conditions not seen on Earth for more than 30 million years..... that could mean massive rises in sea level, whole areas devastated by hurricanes and others turned into uninhabitable desert, forcing billions of people to leave their homelands."

He told the summit that politicians continued to underestimate the impact of climate change and that scientists needed to redouble their efforts to get them to understand. "Much of southern Europe would look like the Sahara. Many of the major rivers of the world, serving billions of people, would dry up in the dry seasons or re-route..... what would be the implication? Hundreds of millions of people would have to move, probably billions. What would be the implication of that? Extended conflict, social disruption, war essentially, over much of the world for many decade upon decade"

The Copenhagen conference is intended to publicise the latest research on climate change ahead of December's meeting of world leaders. The United Nations Climate Conference, which will also be held in Copenhagen, aims to draft an updated Kyoto-style agreement on reducing emissions.

Under the Kyoto deal, developed nations have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. However, during the meeting scientists have frequently spoken about how former assumptions about the risks have had to be redrawn. They have repeatedly warned that higher than expected emissions have meant that temperatures will rise at rates far higher than thought just a few years ago. This in turn will lead to disastrous sea level rises, melting of the icecaps and acidification of the oceans.

Scientists warned that the weather will continue to change resulting in destruction of the rainforests, widespread droughts and flooding.

Prof Kevin Anderson, the research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in Manchester, said: "Scientists have lost patience with carefully constructed messages being lost in the political noise. We are now prepared to stand up and say enough is enough."

Let Charles be King, empower him and his message!

In his keynote speech in Brazil, Prince Charles delivered a stark warning that if nations fail to tackle deforestation and other problems within 100 months then irreversible harm will be done to the environment of the World.

"As the world's economy heads further into recession, it would be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture; to commit the sin, as we say in England and if you will pardon the terrible pun, of 'not seeing the wood for the trees'. For we are, I fear, at a defining moment in the world's history.

We are facing a series of challenges so immense that we can, perhaps, be forgiven for feeling they are all too forbidding to confront."

In his speech, Prince Charles quoted Chico Mendes, the great Brazilian environmentalist, who said we are all "fighting for humanity."

The Prince said of his coming visit to the Galapagos Islands. "That place, in particular, reminds me of the urgent need to find ways simultaneously to pursue economic benefits while at the same time protecting the balance of nature that in the end is the security for all economic activity.

This is, I believe, the central challenge of the 21st century, and one that your great country is showing such commendable leadership in meeting."
He warned the need for action was urgent. "The best projections tell us that we have very little time to alter our behavior before we risk catastrophic climate change."

The Prince said there is not necessarily a clash between the interests of big business and the environment. He argued that being green can be good for businesses and create jobs.

He ended his speech by saying: "For, in making progress here (in Brazil), you are providing immense and invaluable contributions to humanity as a whole. Therefore I can only pray with all my heart that the international collaborations you are engaged with in protecting your forests, and in promoting sustainable development meet with unqualified success.

If we can redouble our efforts to unite the world in meeting perhaps its greatest and most critical challenge, then we may yet be able to prevail and thereby to avoid bequeathing a poisoned chalice to our children and grandchildren. But we only have 100 months to act."

The Prince's speech was timely coming only a day after scientists at the Met Office warned that climate change could kill the Amazon rainforest even if deforestation and emissions are curbed.

A climate change summit in Copenhagen was told that even small rises in temperature could destroy large swathes of the jungle. Changing rainfall patterns already under way could leave up to three quarters of the forest dry and withered by the middle of the next century.

The Prince is to travel deep into the Amazon rainforest to meet local communities and political leaders.

The Prince’s passion to protect the environment is greatly respected and the sooner he becomes King, he will be further empowered to lead the fight to save the World.

Kick-Start Your Metabolism - Lose Wieght by Not Dieting!

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I am so empowered, alive and myself again thanks to my new life time diet and will do my first posting on the amazing difference it has made as soon as things slow down just a little bit!

Please read my rant below on Your Dietary Health & Wellbeing ..., this will help you understand how you might have been poisoned by processed foodstuffs.

We now know that our mental powers peak at 22 and start to deteriorate at 27, if you overeat, feed on industrial processed packaged nutritional impoverished foodstuffs and drink booze you risk illness whilst also hastening your mental and physical decline. Politicians are of course a special case, they are able to acrue wealth and live a long time with there heads in the sand!

Prince Charles will RANT on: 'ONLY 100 MONTHS TO SAVE THE PLANET'

The Prince of Wales is preparing to tell the world we have "less than 100 months to act" before the damage caused by global warming becomes irreversible. Charles will issue the warning in a speech to business leaders in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil next week.

He is visiting the country on a 10-day tour of South America with the Duchess of Cornwall.

A true Stroudy in spirit and life, Prince Charles has given a series of addresses over the past 12 months expressing his fears about climate change and the threat to the environment.

The Prince will tell his audience on Thursday it is vital for the business community to join the fight against global warming. He has been campaigning on the issue for some time and set up his Rainforests Project group in 2007 to help find a solution.

We will reprint the Prince Charles Stroudy Rant here soonest!

Your Dietary Health & Wellbeing ...

What are we doing to ourselves by eating what is literally poison!

Scientific evidence is overwhelming! Yes, the results and conclusions of each individual research program or study are very carefully presented and worded. Yet! all together they scream one thing, the lack of any effective regulation of the processed food industry or a governmental policy to safeguard each individuals health from this endemic epidemic of glossy plastic-cardboard wrapped industrial processed food......... Strong stuff? There is a lot more to come as I set out and summarise rational Stroud'y like viewpoint and beliefs.

For good health it is not quantity but the quality of food. Too long have we considered and labelled the three groups of macronutrients in simple terms of calories and grams of carbohydrates, fats and proteins per day. Totally ignoring the huge difference in the quality and density of the nutrient value of fresh foods versus that in industrial processed fast foods!

Now I am going to try to simplify further and just summarise how processed foods can be so poor in the control of content, there quality and nutritional density that they promote ill health - indeed history may class them as poisons!

Carbohydrates are composed of small carbohydrates called monosaccharides or disaccharides - simple sugars that are easily ingested into your body and the larger carbohydrates called polysaccharides or oligosaccharides that include fibers and starches that have much greater health giving value, aiding digestion, absorption plus elimination of toxins and waste products in the gastro-intestinal tract. Together they provide nearly half your energy supply.

Processed food often has too much simple sugar to give taste and sell product - the result an energy shock wave as we immediately ingest single sugars, the result a fluctuation in blood sugar that will soon leave us feeling tired, run-down and consuming another snack! Worse still, such frequent shocks will promote diabetes and other blood sugar dysregulation conditions.

Further danger is caused by the presence of the disaccharide lactose, a simple milk sugar in processed foods. Lactose requires its own digestive enzyme and hence the growing number who have Lactose Intolerance as we age. Where lacking the enzyme lactase that splits Lactose into two single ingestable sugars, means unfriendly bacteria ferment the lactose to produce acid which causes huge discomfort and is highly damaging to the cells of the intestinal tract lining - meaning less enzymes to cut the disaccharide sugars into digestible monosaccharides and so the cycle of fermentation acid digestion problems is ever perpetuated!

Root and seed foods can be rich in complex carbohydrate, energy stored as starch which is broken down into glucose when the plant grows. Amylose and amylopectin are the main food starches, they differ in the way all the sugars are strung together to form these complex carbohydrate macromolecules and so amylopectin is able to be more quickly broken down and digested. In natural foods these macromolecules are found folded together and encased in other macromolecules such as protein and fibre which have to be digested before the starch macromolecules. So this means it is slowly absorbed over a longer period providing a natural flow of energy to the body after a meal - with no huge rises and falls in blood sugar to tire you and endanger health.

Industrial processing will remove this natural complexity and packaging to separate macromolecules before adding what is created to a processed foodstuff to be folded or poured into its glossy plastic-cardboard skin. So the complex interaction during digestion is absent and starch is easily absorbed in a similar manner to the simple disaccharide sugars, to endanger healthy blood sugar control.

Polysaccharides or dietary fibres and resistant starch, are also a complex carbohydrate that is easily found in whole fresh and dried foods, here the single sugar molecules are bonded or welded together so that they cannot be digested in the small intestine. Instead they move through the small intestines to the large intestine completely intact, binding toxins to promote, protect then feed our healthy beneficial symbiotic intestinal bacteria, so speeding up the excretion of both toxins and waste. These symbiotic health giving microbes then produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA) to control cancerous colonic cells, reduce serum cholestrol, protect intestinal tract cell walls, maintaining healthy digestion and blood sugar levels. Again, food processing removes and damages a great deal of natural dietary fibre to increase the risk of cancers, intestinal damage, poor digestion, dysfunctional immune system, diabetes etc. etc. The answer is to eat apples with the skin on, brown rice, include bran in your locally milled porridge or cereal sweetened with magical prunes, eat more soya beans etc. etc.

Proteins, the active structures of folded strings of amino acid molecules that build, maintain and constitute most the structure of your body, are involved in your every function. Our hard working enzymes are protein molecules - breaking down old tissue and rebuilding new, creating channels in cell membranes to let in the necessary nutrients and delivering energy to cells; Immunoglobin made of proteins are the antibodies of your immune system; Some hormones are protein; The digestive enzymes that metabolise and break down wastes and toxins; Blood coagulating factors are made of protein, hemoglobin carrying oxygen to your blood cells; They make up the matrix of bones, skin, nails, teeth and tissue; Collagen giving elasticity to your skin and the collagen fibril chain allowing cells to communicate - all are complex structures of innumerable amino acids! Then amino acids break down to provide us nitrogen and again energy.

Nine essential amino acids cannot be made in our bodies and we require them in certain ratios, therefore the damage writ by a diet based on processed food is difficult to convey: Stunted growth, poor muscle formation; Thin fragile hair and nails; Damage to the immune system; Etc. etc!

The lack of the complex essential amino acid profile and 'free amino acids' in processed food, damages and fosters poor health to an unknown degree, so promoting new forms of disease and long term ill health!

Now, we get to one of the least understood, the most complex and diverse food macromolecule, Fats! Forget the poor reputation and take a big interest in these! What constitutes seventy percent of your brain, are health promoting and often essential? Yes, fat!

Regret all those diets you have been on and every processed food in your diet? Well you will! The different physical properties of fats are why the body uses and requires so many. Fats keep your cells flexible and movable. Yet, high levels of saturated fats cause the cell membranes to become inflexible, to function poorly and leave DNA unprotected.

Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats are produced by chemical process and are used in processed foods - to me they are something to be avoided totally as are lard, margarine and more recently butter. I stick to raw nuts, raw seeds, cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, soybean oil and just a little palm oil - which is really too high in Omega-6 fats.

There is a need for a properly balanced 1:1 diet of Omega-3 fats and Omega-6 fats. Where processed foods may have a ratio greater than 1:20 or worse, they can also include a lot of saturated and hydrogenated fats - so cancers, asthma, arthritis, bowel and cardiovascular problems will continue on the increase.

Food intolerances, toxic and allergic reactions are a growing problem, with processed foods containing high levels of additives, preservatives, dyes, carrier ,sulphates, gluten, flavouring agents, simple sugars, unlisted small amounts of processed pesticides and other residue foodstuffs.

Our own processing and cooking of whole fresh foods may also greatly decrease the nutritional value and health benefits. Visit Stroud's health shops, organic market stalls and whole food cafes, if you need to find out more on avoiding this.

Healthy, fresh whole foods that are organically grown and farmed, that provide complete naturally packaged and complex macronutrients, complete with there full quota of vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients, that can be simply prepared are the answer we need!

SO, WHAT DO WE DO?

There is a culpable lack of real policy, regulation and action again? There is the usual governmental agency weak kneed 'counter advertising' on bus stops and such, the latest is 'change4life' - which says they know what damage is being wreaked, but won't act, we must! But isn't it ACTION, that is required for most of our countries ills.

One man with fundamentalist beliefs heading a political party can take us to War and did; Yet, these politicians for too long and likely for ever a dirty word, found reason to ignore and not act, concerning corrupt practices in the International & British Financial Business Community! Until the first institutional collapse that is; So now, it becomes yet more politic to not act and upset employers, like the hugely influential International Industrial Processed Fast Food Business Community! Even should its plastic-cardboard wrapped products be actively undermining the health of the indigenous national community, where the change in our diet and family values is likely greatest. Its politic to throw money at the NHS but ignore or give lip-service to the real underlying problems of family life and diet!

We need a radical National Agricultural and Food Policy. An impossible hope? Well with today's politicians and it having to be agreed in Europe, Yes! So action has to be local in villages and our old market towns. We cannot rely on the hope of a real National Leader or genuine Independent Members of Parliament who might ignore politics and Europe to actually act! Neither does the South West of England enjoy Regional Government, its all down to remote squabbling politicos in London and Europe, where talk is cheap but very well paid!

We need Local Action, Local Leaders...... So lets please debate it locally where it matters, on local and regional radio e.g. Peeky Blinders style on Stroud FM for starters? To find and support individuals, groups, cafes, societies, shops charities, local projects who are taking Action and have formed realistic ideas on how we can further come together and effect Health locally.

I suggest our debates be recorded and on air during day and night slots.

Thank you for reading my rant – please have your say by clicking 'comments' on the final line below this posting!

with love
Stroud'y

stroud_ey@yahoo.com