Diet Novelties .com

…„TEACHERS warned last night that Scottish children are failing to achieve their full potential at school because of their appalling diet of salty snacks and sweets.

Unions claim many youngsters are so thirsty and malnourished that they cannot concentrate on their lessons.

In a disturbing report, they say a constant diet of fatty, unhealthy food is making some pupils too tired and bloated to work.

They say food and soft-drink giants are exploiting children, singling out companies who offer free school equipment in return for tokens from crisp packets and sweet wrappers for particular criticism.

Last night, the Scottish Executive vigorously defended its record in promoting healthy eating in schools.

Ministers are ploughing millions of pounds into free fruit initiatives and breakfast clubs to improve nutrition.

But teachers accused companies of putting profit before children’s health and called for them to be prevented from advertising in schools.

The problem was highlighted by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association yesterday, following research into the quality of nutrition in schools.

Unhealthy food in canteens is having a serious impact on educational attainment, teachers say. Many pupils are seriously dehydrated-because of their addiction to fizzy drinks containing caffeine and arrive at school on an empty stomach, leaving them too lightheaded and hungry to focus on lessons.

Barbara Clark, the union’s assistant general secretary, said: ‘Properly nourished children learn better and have a more disciplined attitude in schools, yet the costing of school meals often makes it difficult for caterers to provide a sufficient range of healthy food for pupils.’

Politicians and teachers are concerned about the role of food and drink companies who run free school equipment promotions and also advertise in schools.

Walkers Crisps has provided more than six million free books to British schools in the last three years, but many believe the scheme has encouraged youngsters to eat more salty snacks.

Mrs Clark said: ‘The role of sponsorship by food and soft- drink companies causes serious concern as this can send conflicting messages to children about less healthy foods and drinks.’

The association will this week send a list of recommendations to the Executive, including reviewing arrangements for awarding school catering contracts to minimise brand name advertising and reducing the amount of fast food in canteens.

Dietitian Gaynor Bussell of the British Dietetic Association said: ‘Schools will consider any way of getting extra cash, but the companies aren’t in it for charity.’

She added: ‘ The body is like an engine.

If it doesn’t get the right fuel, it won’t run as well.’ A spokesman for Walkers Crisps said: ‘We are very conscious of our responsibilities as a company when it comes to advertising and sponsorship. We believe that crisps and snacks form an important part of a healthy, balanced diet.’

A spokesman for the Executive said ministers recognised that healthy eating habits were essential, highlighting its Eating for Health action plan.

He added: ‘It is a farreaching policy to improve Scotland’s diet, with particular focus on youngsters.’ …”

…„I used to buy a low-carb bagel; it weighed about six pounds, had to be cut with a band saw and contained all sorts of non-carby things. Chicken grit, whole-grain pumice, post-consumer recycled kapok, who knows what else. I loved them, so naturally the company stopped making them. Why? Because clinical studies showed that the body was incapable of digesting these things, and had to be removed surgically? No. Because the low-carb fad is over. Done. Dead. Carbs are in again! Pour yourself a big bowl of Lucky Charms and add some pasta! Wash it down with a mug of Mrs. Butterworth’s!

This will be good news for most, since the low-carb diet irritated some people beyond measure. It just annoyed them. Perhaps it was the counter-intuitive nature of the diet - bread was bad, but a 6-foot-diameter pepperoni log was A-OK. Perhaps it was the sudden profusion of low-carb products aimed at desperate faddists. There were low-carb steak sauces, for example. Normal steak sauce: 4 carbs. Low-carb steak sauces: 3 carbs. No one ever put on a pair of pants, felt the waistband bite and thought: I gotta cut down on the steak sauce. So what killed the diet? Well, the South Beach Diet - you eat only the items left on the plate by Miami-based fashion models who lost their appetite after two lines - had hipper graphics. Price gouging by Atkins didn’t help either. One bar of Splenda-infused sawdust? That’ll be $19. In the end, though, most people simply couldn’t see the point of living if it doesn’t involve pancakes and French fries. Period. Next popular diet: the High Fructose Corn-Syrup Diet. You rub it on your skin. You’re too busy scraping off the yellow jackets to eat. …”

…„The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena prides itself in attracting the best scientific minds in the country. In fact, it is said that the university built a $70,000 kitchen just to make sure one of those minds would attend Caltech. Determined to win over a promising graduate student who kept a kosher diet, the university built a kosher kitchen within its dining facilities to accommodate his dietary needs.With such specialized service, of course the promising graduate student decided on Caltech. The school is now one of the only universities on the West Coast that provides students with a fully operational kosher kitchen and dining facility, certified by the Rabbinical Council of California.

“The university was very accommodating in terms of setting up the kitchen,” said certified kosher chef Joel Weinberger, who is the one-man team that supervises the kosher facilities. Although the space is small, only 70 square feet, Caltech pulled out all the stops, stocking the kitchen with all new appliances, utensils, pots and pans.

New equipment made the job of creating a kosher cooking environment much easier, said Weinberger, because there was no need to kosherize used pots and appliances. Used equipment would have to be kosherized through a process depending on the item’s use.

“With a pot, for example, that is normally used to boil water, I would boil water in it and let the water boil over,” Weinberger said. “After sitting idle for 24 hours, the pot would be rendered kosher.

“It’s really a matter of exposing the item to its most extreme use and then letting it sit idle for at least 24 hours,” explained Weinberger.

Weinberger, who is also a certified kosher inspector, prepares between nine and a dozen lunches and dinners for students daily throughout the school term. It’s a small operation, but Weinberger also takes special orders from campus faculty and prepares meals for Orthodox Jews on staff at the nearby Jet Propulsion Lab.

The kitchen, now in its third year of operation, is also accepted as hallal, meaning it meets Muslim dietary requirements as well. Three Muslim students on campus this year are taking advantage of the kosher meal plan.

More than simply maintaining a kosher environment, preparing kosher meals involves following a complex code of what foods are permissible and how they are prepared, said Weinberger. Familiar tenets of the kosher diet include never mixing dairy and meat products in meals, as well as the exclusion of pork and shellfish, but the list of rules is long. Most critical to the kosher diet are the rules that govern how permissible meats are butchered and prepared for consumption, according to dietary laws laid out in the Torah.

Each meal prepared by Weinberger is also specially packaged with a seal from the Rabbinical Council ensuring its kosher content.

Because meat and dairy products must be prepared in separate facilities and he is limited by space, Weinberger maintains a nondairy kitchen, opting to prepare lots of beef, chicken and fish dishes.

The kitchen is kept under lock and key, to ensure its kosher integrity, and Weinberger is always present during meal preparations, as mandated by the Rabbinical Council. The kitchen is also inspected on a regular basis by the council.

“The university staff is extremely devoted to its students,” said Rabbi Nissim Davidi, Kashrut Administrator at the Rabbinical Council. “We are proud to work with this premier institution to provide first-class kosher supervision.” …”