I made it! Not particularly fast, mind (crossed the finish line in 1hr 14min), but I ran the whole way and it was a particularly hilly course. By 3/4 of the way through, my legs were screaming.
It felt so good to cross the finish line. But I was really wobbly - didn't have much breakfast (too early, so just a banana smoothie and some water and coffee. I had my carbo-loading session the night before, so I wasn't too bad.
Right after the run: an energy top-up was necessary - a banana and some water.
But an hour or two later, it was lunchtime. Time for a mix of protein for muscle repair and healthy carbs for energy. I wanted something comforting, but didn't want to eat something unhealthy. Went for a fish pie - lots of prawns, mussels and salmon with some mash on top. Luckily, not too creamy or heavy. (Husband went for beef pudding - looked heavy - but hey, he ran the 10K a good 20 min faster than me, so who am I to judge?)
Dinner: More protein - we went to Belgo's in Covent Garden for a kilo of moules traditionelle - mussels cooked in white wine, garlic, onion and celery. It was really satisfying - helped by the fact that mussels are right in season now, so they're at their best. Of course, it was all washed down with lots of Belgian beer - which helped quiet the screaming calves and knees, at least for the rest of the evening.
Showing posts with label seasonal food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seasonal food. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Monday, 15 October 2007
Supermarkets improving but still have a way to go as more customers try to go green
A new report out today shows that consumers in all income brackets are looking to buy green, but while food retailers are getting better with regards to sustainability, there is still room to be done.
The National Consumer Council’s report finds that all retailers are improving, not just Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose, traditionally seen as serving a higher-income bracket. Sainsbury’s got the best rating of all supermarkets in question, receiving a B, as did M&S and Waitrose.
Asda and Tesco improved their rankings from a D to a C. And in what the council calls “perhaps the most significant of all in terms of long-term trends,” Morrisons and Somerfield both gained higher marks this year, each earning a D rather than an E.
Some highlights:
-an Asda product, ‘Smart Price’ value fish fingers, which are sourced from a sustainable supply of pollack and display the Marine Stewardship Council certification. Pollack is recommended by the National Trust.
-another own-brand Asda product, toilet paper, dispaying the Forest Stewardship Council’s approval marking.
-Asda, Co-op and Somerfield selling more in-season, UK-sourced vegetables.
Despite these improvements from the bottom of the pile, the Council still voices some concerns, as not one retailer earned the A mark of a “truly green business.”
A few low points:
-No supermarket gained the top mark for UK-sourced, in-season produce.
-“Wildly varying” performance with regards to packaging and plastic bags was registered.
-Some stores contradicting their own green messages: for example, a Waitrose store advertised the plum season across the world, conflicting with its advertised policy of sourcing locally wherever possible.
The Council is calling on all major supermarkets to source more local produce, to stock more energy-saving lightbulbs, to implement carrier-bag incentive schemes, to sell more sustainable fish, and to use more recycled materials, and to set stricter targets for increasing organic ranges.
The Culinary Digest reckons that the National Consumer Council has pretty well hit the mark. Local, sustainable initiatives have filtered through society quite dramatically, with all consumers wanting to make a difference, so long as they can afford to. It is critical that these retailers look to change many of their policies as soon as possible.
One issue with packaging that The Culinary Digest has noticed, particularly in the case of Sainsbury’s, is the ‘Sorry, not yet recyclable’ mark on many plastic packages and cartons. Firstly, why are these not recyclable, when so many types of plastic are? Secondly, instead of spending money or time on printing fancy packaging, why are they not spending resources in this area? And finally, why are these types of packaging so common in the up-market ‘Taste the Difference’ range, when consumers are already paying a decided amount more for a top-quality product? Should not sustainability be an important part of this?
The NCC report Green Grocers is available here
The NCC report Greening Supermarkets: how supermarkets can make greening shpping easier (2006) can be found here
The National Consumer Council’s report finds that all retailers are improving, not just Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose, traditionally seen as serving a higher-income bracket. Sainsbury’s got the best rating of all supermarkets in question, receiving a B, as did M&S and Waitrose.
Asda and Tesco improved their rankings from a D to a C. And in what the council calls “perhaps the most significant of all in terms of long-term trends,” Morrisons and Somerfield both gained higher marks this year, each earning a D rather than an E.
Some highlights:
-an Asda product, ‘Smart Price’ value fish fingers, which are sourced from a sustainable supply of pollack and display the Marine Stewardship Council certification. Pollack is recommended by the National Trust.
-another own-brand Asda product, toilet paper, dispaying the Forest Stewardship Council’s approval marking.
-Asda, Co-op and Somerfield selling more in-season, UK-sourced vegetables.
Despite these improvements from the bottom of the pile, the Council still voices some concerns, as not one retailer earned the A mark of a “truly green business.”
A few low points:
-No supermarket gained the top mark for UK-sourced, in-season produce.
-“Wildly varying” performance with regards to packaging and plastic bags was registered.
-Some stores contradicting their own green messages: for example, a Waitrose store advertised the plum season across the world, conflicting with its advertised policy of sourcing locally wherever possible.
The Council is calling on all major supermarkets to source more local produce, to stock more energy-saving lightbulbs, to implement carrier-bag incentive schemes, to sell more sustainable fish, and to use more recycled materials, and to set stricter targets for increasing organic ranges.
The Culinary Digest reckons that the National Consumer Council has pretty well hit the mark. Local, sustainable initiatives have filtered through society quite dramatically, with all consumers wanting to make a difference, so long as they can afford to. It is critical that these retailers look to change many of their policies as soon as possible.
One issue with packaging that The Culinary Digest has noticed, particularly in the case of Sainsbury’s, is the ‘Sorry, not yet recyclable’ mark on many plastic packages and cartons. Firstly, why are these not recyclable, when so many types of plastic are? Secondly, instead of spending money or time on printing fancy packaging, why are they not spending resources in this area? And finally, why are these types of packaging so common in the up-market ‘Taste the Difference’ range, when consumers are already paying a decided amount more for a top-quality product? Should not sustainability be an important part of this?
The NCC report Green Grocers is available here
The NCC report Greening Supermarkets: how supermarkets can make greening shpping easier (2006) can be found here
Supermarkets improving but still have a way to go as more customers try to go green
A new report out today shows that consumers in all income brackets are looking to buy green, but while food retailers are getting better with regards to sustainability, there is still room to be done.
The National Consumer Council’s report finds that all retailers are improving, not just Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose, traditionally seen as serving a higher-income bracket. Sainsbury’s got the best rating of all supermarkets in question, receiving a B, as did M&S and Waitrose.
Asda and Tesco improved their rankings from a D to a C. And in what the council calls “perhaps the most significant of all in terms of long-term trends,” Morrisons and Somerfield both gained higher marks this year, each earning a D rather than an E.
Some highlights:
-an Asda product, ‘Smart Price’ value fish fingers, which are sourced from a sustainable supply of pollack and display the Marine Stewardship Council certification. Pollack is recommended by the National Trust.
-another own-brand Asda product, toilet paper, dispaying the Forest Stewardship Council’s approval marking.
-Asda, Co-op and Somerfield selling more in-season, UK-sourced vegetables.
Despite these improvements from the bottom of the pile, the Council still voices some concerns, as not one retailer earned the A mark of a “truly green business.”
A few low points:
-No supermarket gained the top mark for UK-sourced, in-season produce.
-“Wildly varying” performance with regards to packaging and plastic bags was registered.
-Some stores contradicting their own green messages: for example, a Waitrose store advertised the plum season across the world, conflicting with its advertised policy of sourcing locally wherever possible.
The Council is calling on all major supermarkets to source more local produce, to stock more energy-saving lightbulbs, to implement carrier-bag incentive schemes, to sell more sustainable fish, and to use more recycled materials, and to set stricter targets for increasing organic ranges.
The Culinary Digest reckons that the National Consumer Council has pretty well hit the mark. Local, sustainable initiatives have filtered through society quite dramatically, with all consumers wanting to make a difference, so long as they can afford to. It is critical that these retailers look to change many of their policies as soon as possible.
One issue with packaging that The Culinary Digest has noticed, particularly in the case of Sainsbury’s, is the ‘Sorry, not yet recyclable’ mark on many plastic packages and cartons. Firstly, why are these not recyclable, when so many types of plastic are? Secondly, instead of spending money or time on printing fancy packaging, why are they not spending resources in this area? And finally, why are these types of packaging so common in the up-market ‘Taste the Difference’ range, when consumers are already paying a decided amount more for a top-quality product? Should not sustainability be an important part of this?
The NCC report Green Grocers is available here
The NCC report Greening Supermarkets: how supermarkets can make greening shpping easier (2006) can be found here
The National Consumer Council’s report finds that all retailers are improving, not just Sainsbury’s, M&S and Waitrose, traditionally seen as serving a higher-income bracket. Sainsbury’s got the best rating of all supermarkets in question, receiving a B, as did M&S and Waitrose.
Asda and Tesco improved their rankings from a D to a C. And in what the council calls “perhaps the most significant of all in terms of long-term trends,” Morrisons and Somerfield both gained higher marks this year, each earning a D rather than an E.
Some highlights:
-an Asda product, ‘Smart Price’ value fish fingers, which are sourced from a sustainable supply of pollack and display the Marine Stewardship Council certification. Pollack is recommended by the National Trust.
-another own-brand Asda product, toilet paper, dispaying the Forest Stewardship Council’s approval marking.
-Asda, Co-op and Somerfield selling more in-season, UK-sourced vegetables.
Despite these improvements from the bottom of the pile, the Council still voices some concerns, as not one retailer earned the A mark of a “truly green business.”
A few low points:
-No supermarket gained the top mark for UK-sourced, in-season produce.
-“Wildly varying” performance with regards to packaging and plastic bags was registered.
-Some stores contradicting their own green messages: for example, a Waitrose store advertised the plum season across the world, conflicting with its advertised policy of sourcing locally wherever possible.
The Council is calling on all major supermarkets to source more local produce, to stock more energy-saving lightbulbs, to implement carrier-bag incentive schemes, to sell more sustainable fish, and to use more recycled materials, and to set stricter targets for increasing organic ranges.
The Culinary Digest reckons that the National Consumer Council has pretty well hit the mark. Local, sustainable initiatives have filtered through society quite dramatically, with all consumers wanting to make a difference, so long as they can afford to. It is critical that these retailers look to change many of their policies as soon as possible.
One issue with packaging that The Culinary Digest has noticed, particularly in the case of Sainsbury’s, is the ‘Sorry, not yet recyclable’ mark on many plastic packages and cartons. Firstly, why are these not recyclable, when so many types of plastic are? Secondly, instead of spending money or time on printing fancy packaging, why are they not spending resources in this area? And finally, why are these types of packaging so common in the up-market ‘Taste the Difference’ range, when consumers are already paying a decided amount more for a top-quality product? Should not sustainability be an important part of this?
The NCC report Green Grocers is available here
The NCC report Greening Supermarkets: how supermarkets can make greening shpping easier (2006) can be found here
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Five ways with celery
An underappreciated vegetable, celery is great for many reasons – it is grown all year long in the UK (though it’s best in December) and it is extremely versatile. Cold and crunchy, celery works well in snacks, sandwiches, salads and soups. (Not to mention that rumour that the act of eating celery burns off any calories incurred through eating it.)
Update a classic
Waldorf salad was originally created over 100 years ago and includes celery, apples, walnuts and mayonnaise. Apples traditionally dominated the salad. Update the salad with more celery to increase the fruit and vegetable count.
(serves 2)
2 apples of your choice
1 pack of celery hearts
a handful of walnuts, chopped
4 tablespoons light mayonnaise
lemon juice
4 pieces of cos lettuce
Core the apples and chop into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep from browning.
Chop the ends and the leaves off of the celery and slice into 1-cm sized pieces. Mix the apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise and serve on a leaf of cos lettuce. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.
All aboard
Use celery as “boats” and stuff with fun fillings. These snacks work well for kids, who will enjoy the activity.
(serves 4 children)
1 pack of celery hearts
4 tbsp hummus
4 tbsp peanut butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
Chop each of the celery hearts into two separate sticks.
Use a butter knife to fill up the celery with the individual fillings.
If you don’t like one of the fillings, simply use more of one of the others.
Make it light: use reduced-fat versions for a lower-calorie treat.
Cheeseboard sandwich
A cheeseboard doesn’t just have to be eaten after a posh meal. It makes an excellent sandwich as well.
(serves 1)
2 slices of seeded bread
2 stalks of celery, shaved or sliced thin
a bunch of grapes, sliced in half
20 g of farmhouse cheddar
20 g of stilton or blue vinney
butter, margarine or mayo
How to do it:
Smear a bit of your spread on the bread.
Stack the celery, then the cheese and finally the grapes (with the cut side against the cheese).
Modern tuna salad
An old sandwich filler gets a clean update with fresh tuna and butter beans.
(serves 2)
2 pieces of fresh tuna
1 tin of butter beans, drained
6 celery hearts, chopped or shaved
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Heat ½ of the oil in a saucepan until very hot, then add the tuna, searing for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. Chop the tuna into thin slices.
Add the tuna, celery, butter beans and the rest of the oil. Sprinkle with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve in individual shallow bowls.
One-pot risotto
Almost any vegetable tastes great in a risotto – so why not celery? Add it to this vegetarian one-pot dinner.
(serves 2)
4 stalks of celery, trimmed and sliced thinly
1 onions, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoons of olive oil
½ litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
100 g Arborio rice
50 g parmesan shavings
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently sauté the onion, celery and garlic over a medium heat until soft. Add the rice into the pan and allow the oil to coat, sautéing for a further few minutes.
Add the stock from a measuring jug bit by bit, allowing only enough to just cover the rice. Stir often, and keep adding the stock until the rice is soft and creamy, about 25 minutes.
Stir the parmesan into the risotto and serve in bowls.
If the stock runs out and the rice is not yet done, just make up some more stock.
Update a classic
Waldorf salad was originally created over 100 years ago and includes celery, apples, walnuts and mayonnaise. Apples traditionally dominated the salad. Update the salad with more celery to increase the fruit and vegetable count.
(serves 2)
2 apples of your choice
1 pack of celery hearts
a handful of walnuts, chopped
4 tablespoons light mayonnaise
lemon juice
4 pieces of cos lettuce
Core the apples and chop into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep from browning.
Chop the ends and the leaves off of the celery and slice into 1-cm sized pieces. Mix the apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise and serve on a leaf of cos lettuce. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.
All aboard
Use celery as “boats” and stuff with fun fillings. These snacks work well for kids, who will enjoy the activity.
(serves 4 children)
1 pack of celery hearts
4 tbsp hummus
4 tbsp peanut butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
Chop each of the celery hearts into two separate sticks.
Use a butter knife to fill up the celery with the individual fillings.
If you don’t like one of the fillings, simply use more of one of the others.
Make it light: use reduced-fat versions for a lower-calorie treat.
Cheeseboard sandwich
A cheeseboard doesn’t just have to be eaten after a posh meal. It makes an excellent sandwich as well.
(serves 1)
2 slices of seeded bread
2 stalks of celery, shaved or sliced thin
a bunch of grapes, sliced in half
20 g of farmhouse cheddar
20 g of stilton or blue vinney
butter, margarine or mayo
How to do it:
Smear a bit of your spread on the bread.
Stack the celery, then the cheese and finally the grapes (with the cut side against the cheese).
Modern tuna salad
An old sandwich filler gets a clean update with fresh tuna and butter beans.
(serves 2)
2 pieces of fresh tuna
1 tin of butter beans, drained
6 celery hearts, chopped or shaved
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Heat ½ of the oil in a saucepan until very hot, then add the tuna, searing for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. Chop the tuna into thin slices.
Add the tuna, celery, butter beans and the rest of the oil. Sprinkle with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve in individual shallow bowls.
One-pot risotto
Almost any vegetable tastes great in a risotto – so why not celery? Add it to this vegetarian one-pot dinner.
(serves 2)
4 stalks of celery, trimmed and sliced thinly
1 onions, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoons of olive oil
½ litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
100 g Arborio rice
50 g parmesan shavings
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently sauté the onion, celery and garlic over a medium heat until soft. Add the rice into the pan and allow the oil to coat, sautéing for a further few minutes.
Add the stock from a measuring jug bit by bit, allowing only enough to just cover the rice. Stir often, and keep adding the stock until the rice is soft and creamy, about 25 minutes.
Stir the parmesan into the risotto and serve in bowls.
If the stock runs out and the rice is not yet done, just make up some more stock.
Five ways with celery
An underappreciated vegetable, celery is great for many reasons – it is grown all year long in the UK (though it’s best in December) and it is extremely versatile. Cold and crunchy, celery works well in snacks, sandwiches, salads and soups. (Not to mention that rumour that the act of eating celery burns off any calories incurred through eating it.)
Update a classic
Waldorf salad was originally created over 100 years ago and includes celery, apples, walnuts and mayonnaise. Apples traditionally dominated the salad. Update the salad with more celery to increase the fruit and vegetable count.
(serves 2)
2 apples of your choice
1 pack of celery hearts
a handful of walnuts, chopped
4 tablespoons light mayonnaise
lemon juice
4 pieces of cos lettuce
Core the apples and chop into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep from browning.
Chop the ends and the leaves off of the celery and slice into 1-cm sized pieces. Mix the apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise and serve on a leaf of cos lettuce. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.
All aboard
Use celery as “boats” and stuff with fun fillings. These snacks work well for kids, who will enjoy the activity.
(serves 4 children)
1 pack of celery hearts
4 tbsp hummus
4 tbsp peanut butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
Chop each of the celery hearts into two separate sticks.
Use a butter knife to fill up the celery with the individual fillings.
If you don’t like one of the fillings, simply use more of one of the others.
Make it light: use reduced-fat versions for a lower-calorie treat.
Cheeseboard sandwich
A cheeseboard doesn’t just have to be eaten after a posh meal. It makes an excellent sandwich as well.
(serves 1)
2 slices of seeded bread
2 stalks of celery, shaved or sliced thin
a bunch of grapes, sliced in half
20 g of farmhouse cheddar
20 g of stilton or blue vinney
butter, margarine or mayo
How to do it:
Smear a bit of your spread on the bread.
Stack the celery, then the cheese and finally the grapes (with the cut side against the cheese).
Modern tuna salad
An old sandwich filler gets a clean update with fresh tuna and butter beans.
(serves 2)
2 pieces of fresh tuna
1 tin of butter beans, drained
6 celery hearts, chopped or shaved
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Heat ½ of the oil in a saucepan until very hot, then add the tuna, searing for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. Chop the tuna into thin slices.
Add the tuna, celery, butter beans and the rest of the oil. Sprinkle with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve in individual shallow bowls.
One-pot risotto
Almost any vegetable tastes great in a risotto – so why not celery? Add it to this vegetarian one-pot dinner.
(serves 2)
4 stalks of celery, trimmed and sliced thinly
1 onions, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoons of olive oil
½ litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
100 g Arborio rice
50 g parmesan shavings
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently sauté the onion, celery and garlic over a medium heat until soft. Add the rice into the pan and allow the oil to coat, sautéing for a further few minutes.
Add the stock from a measuring jug bit by bit, allowing only enough to just cover the rice. Stir often, and keep adding the stock until the rice is soft and creamy, about 25 minutes.
Stir the parmesan into the risotto and serve in bowls.
If the stock runs out and the rice is not yet done, just make up some more stock.
Update a classic
Waldorf salad was originally created over 100 years ago and includes celery, apples, walnuts and mayonnaise. Apples traditionally dominated the salad. Update the salad with more celery to increase the fruit and vegetable count.
(serves 2)
2 apples of your choice
1 pack of celery hearts
a handful of walnuts, chopped
4 tablespoons light mayonnaise
lemon juice
4 pieces of cos lettuce
Core the apples and chop into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice to keep from browning.
Chop the ends and the leaves off of the celery and slice into 1-cm sized pieces. Mix the apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise and serve on a leaf of cos lettuce. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.
All aboard
Use celery as “boats” and stuff with fun fillings. These snacks work well for kids, who will enjoy the activity.
(serves 4 children)
1 pack of celery hearts
4 tbsp hummus
4 tbsp peanut butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
Chop each of the celery hearts into two separate sticks.
Use a butter knife to fill up the celery with the individual fillings.
If you don’t like one of the fillings, simply use more of one of the others.
Make it light: use reduced-fat versions for a lower-calorie treat.
Cheeseboard sandwich
A cheeseboard doesn’t just have to be eaten after a posh meal. It makes an excellent sandwich as well.
(serves 1)
2 slices of seeded bread
2 stalks of celery, shaved or sliced thin
a bunch of grapes, sliced in half
20 g of farmhouse cheddar
20 g of stilton or blue vinney
butter, margarine or mayo
How to do it:
Smear a bit of your spread on the bread.
Stack the celery, then the cheese and finally the grapes (with the cut side against the cheese).
Modern tuna salad
An old sandwich filler gets a clean update with fresh tuna and butter beans.
(serves 2)
2 pieces of fresh tuna
1 tin of butter beans, drained
6 celery hearts, chopped or shaved
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Heat ½ of the oil in a saucepan until very hot, then add the tuna, searing for 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. Chop the tuna into thin slices.
Add the tuna, celery, butter beans and the rest of the oil. Sprinkle with black pepper and a pinch of salt. Serve in individual shallow bowls.
One-pot risotto
Almost any vegetable tastes great in a risotto – so why not celery? Add it to this vegetarian one-pot dinner.
(serves 2)
4 stalks of celery, trimmed and sliced thinly
1 onions, peeled and sliced thinly
1 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoons of olive oil
½ litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
100 g Arborio rice
50 g parmesan shavings
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently sauté the onion, celery and garlic over a medium heat until soft. Add the rice into the pan and allow the oil to coat, sautéing for a further few minutes.
Add the stock from a measuring jug bit by bit, allowing only enough to just cover the rice. Stir often, and keep adding the stock until the rice is soft and creamy, about 25 minutes.
Stir the parmesan into the risotto and serve in bowls.
If the stock runs out and the rice is not yet done, just make up some more stock.
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Judging food by its cover
“Paper or plastic?” In the US, this is the three-word grunt of the teenager bagging groceries at the supermarket. If only it was that simple: these days, the question of food packaging surrounds everything we eat.
Is it better to eat canned, fresh or frozen food? There are several angles to mull over within this one question. One one side, consider the health implications surrounding nutritional content. On the other, contemplate the energy implications, such as food miles, local food, seasonal food, carbon emissions and recycling.
I’ll attempt to get to the bottom of these issues, though admittedly not quite as fast as I can get to the bottom of a bowl of crab linguine. But that’s another story.
Seasonal considerations
Fresh is generally regarded to be best when it comes to food – and the fresher, the better. In many consumer’s minds, fresh foods are healthy, natural foods, those unspoiled by the rigours of a freezer and kept free from the evils of sodium. To a point, this is true.
However, eating fresh, refrigerated foods all year long isn’t always possible – or practical – or the tastiest. For example, tomatoes on the vine in the summertime provide a rich, flavourful product. Six months later, in the cold dark month of February, tomatoes are watery, uninteresting and even tasteless. During the winter months, eating canned chopped tomatoes is the smartest choice: the tomatoes inside the tin were likely grown in the sunshine of June but just did not make it to the market.
Seasonal food often implies local food, but not always: and if it’s local, it may not need all the bells and whistles that come with the packaging. Local markets are often as plastic-free as you get.
Frozen facts
Frozen product manufacturer Bird’s Eye run regular commercials about how frozen food carries the highest nutritional content. For example, their peas and carrots are immediately placed in a deep freezer, preserving from the start the vitamins and minerals so valuable to the system. The carrot in the ice cube is convincing, but it is still a marketing campaign, so I remain cynical.
After all, how much energy does it take to keep those peas frozen? According to a study by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) of Oakland, California, the average amount of energy consumed from farm to table for a frozen product is about 23 MJ per kilogram of food (APEALnews 29, May 2007). The life cycle includes food production, food processing, packaging, transportation, storage and meal preparation. As a comparison, SCS estimates that refrigerated food uses about 14 MJ/kg and canned food slightly less at 13 MJ/kg.
The proof is in the packaging
The canned food industry wants to highlight the “from farm to table” aspect of food, however, because its product uses the most amount of energy in the packaging. The energy cost for the steel can is about 5 MJ/kg, more than one-third of the energy consumption. The cardboard and plastic packaging of frozen and refrigerated foods are 4 MJ/kg and 2 MJ/kg (APEALnews 29, as above).
When it comes to the question of recycling, though, the steel can comes out a winner. Steel and glass can be recycled endlessly, whereas paper and plastic can generally only be recycled a few times. The process of sorting and recycling is an easier one as well, which is perhaps why the recycling rate is so high: according to APEAL, the association of European producers of steel for packaging, in 2005, the metal packaging recycling rate was 92% in Belgium, and 12 European countries had recycling rates over 60%.
How far is too far? Green beans from Kenya, bananas from the Caribbean
The can has its merits, but how do we know how far it has come to sit on our pantry shelf? We as consumers have been conditioned to like variety in our food, which has led us to buying food from Africa or Australia, thousands of miles away. A backlash has been brewing, with many of us turning inwards, trying to source our produce as locally as possible. “Food miles” is another buzzward.
Here, a holistic approach is necessary too, in my opinion. Those green beans may have come from Kenya, but would it be better to grow them in a glasshouse, using kilowatt after kilowatt of electricity? And do we want the workers in the Caribbean dependant on bananas for their livelihood to go out of business? The question just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The Guardian ran an excellent article on this topic. Here, academics from the University of Wales Institute at Cardiff argue for a system that “considers all environmental impacts from farm to dinner plate,” measuring food in “global hectares.” They offer the ‘eco-friendliest’ diet possible:
A typical day on the diet
Breakfast: Cereal and milk, tea/coffee (from weekly allowance half as large as normal diet)
or
Toast and jam (or marmalade)
Lunch: Avocado and poached egg with toast
or
Black-eye bean, rocket and pinenut salad
Dinner: Spinach, leek and pinenut risotto with yoghurt.
Fruit salad
or
Pork cassoulet with mustard, honey and cinnamon, served with green salad. Sweet pancakes with jam, honey, tahini, chocolate sauce or yoghurt
Drinks/Treats: Two glasses of beer, pack of fruit pastilles, two Jaffa Cakes
or
One can cola and nine boiled sweets
(The Guardian, 4 June 2007)
Overall, I am happy with this diet. But when it comes to the snacks section, I am not quite so pleased. I do not encourage any diet that calls for beer, cola, boiled sweets or gummi-bears. Where’s the nutritional content?
If I’m not mistaken, that brings us back to the “fresh is best” question. Well, is it?
My verdict: Eat seasonally all-year round. If you want a certain product out of season, source it in a canned or frozen variety. Eat locally as much as possible. (For example, grow your own herbs in a windowbox.)
Don’t eat garbage – whether it is frozen peas, canned tomatoes or fresh celery, make your own food.
(Oh, and I didn’t even get into organic food. We’ll talk about that another day.)
Is it better to eat canned, fresh or frozen food? There are several angles to mull over within this one question. One one side, consider the health implications surrounding nutritional content. On the other, contemplate the energy implications, such as food miles, local food, seasonal food, carbon emissions and recycling.
I’ll attempt to get to the bottom of these issues, though admittedly not quite as fast as I can get to the bottom of a bowl of crab linguine. But that’s another story.
Seasonal considerations
Fresh is generally regarded to be best when it comes to food – and the fresher, the better. In many consumer’s minds, fresh foods are healthy, natural foods, those unspoiled by the rigours of a freezer and kept free from the evils of sodium. To a point, this is true.
However, eating fresh, refrigerated foods all year long isn’t always possible – or practical – or the tastiest. For example, tomatoes on the vine in the summertime provide a rich, flavourful product. Six months later, in the cold dark month of February, tomatoes are watery, uninteresting and even tasteless. During the winter months, eating canned chopped tomatoes is the smartest choice: the tomatoes inside the tin were likely grown in the sunshine of June but just did not make it to the market.
Seasonal food often implies local food, but not always: and if it’s local, it may not need all the bells and whistles that come with the packaging. Local markets are often as plastic-free as you get.
Frozen facts
Frozen product manufacturer Bird’s Eye run regular commercials about how frozen food carries the highest nutritional content. For example, their peas and carrots are immediately placed in a deep freezer, preserving from the start the vitamins and minerals so valuable to the system. The carrot in the ice cube is convincing, but it is still a marketing campaign, so I remain cynical.
After all, how much energy does it take to keep those peas frozen? According to a study by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) of Oakland, California, the average amount of energy consumed from farm to table for a frozen product is about 23 MJ per kilogram of food (APEALnews 29, May 2007). The life cycle includes food production, food processing, packaging, transportation, storage and meal preparation. As a comparison, SCS estimates that refrigerated food uses about 14 MJ/kg and canned food slightly less at 13 MJ/kg.
The proof is in the packaging
The canned food industry wants to highlight the “from farm to table” aspect of food, however, because its product uses the most amount of energy in the packaging. The energy cost for the steel can is about 5 MJ/kg, more than one-third of the energy consumption. The cardboard and plastic packaging of frozen and refrigerated foods are 4 MJ/kg and 2 MJ/kg (APEALnews 29, as above).
When it comes to the question of recycling, though, the steel can comes out a winner. Steel and glass can be recycled endlessly, whereas paper and plastic can generally only be recycled a few times. The process of sorting and recycling is an easier one as well, which is perhaps why the recycling rate is so high: according to APEAL, the association of European producers of steel for packaging, in 2005, the metal packaging recycling rate was 92% in Belgium, and 12 European countries had recycling rates over 60%.
How far is too far? Green beans from Kenya, bananas from the Caribbean
The can has its merits, but how do we know how far it has come to sit on our pantry shelf? We as consumers have been conditioned to like variety in our food, which has led us to buying food from Africa or Australia, thousands of miles away. A backlash has been brewing, with many of us turning inwards, trying to source our produce as locally as possible. “Food miles” is another buzzward.
Here, a holistic approach is necessary too, in my opinion. Those green beans may have come from Kenya, but would it be better to grow them in a glasshouse, using kilowatt after kilowatt of electricity? And do we want the workers in the Caribbean dependant on bananas for their livelihood to go out of business? The question just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The Guardian ran an excellent article on this topic. Here, academics from the University of Wales Institute at Cardiff argue for a system that “considers all environmental impacts from farm to dinner plate,” measuring food in “global hectares.” They offer the ‘eco-friendliest’ diet possible:
A typical day on the diet
Breakfast: Cereal and milk, tea/coffee (from weekly allowance half as large as normal diet)
or
Toast and jam (or marmalade)
Lunch: Avocado and poached egg with toast
or
Black-eye bean, rocket and pinenut salad
Dinner: Spinach, leek and pinenut risotto with yoghurt.
Fruit salad
or
Pork cassoulet with mustard, honey and cinnamon, served with green salad. Sweet pancakes with jam, honey, tahini, chocolate sauce or yoghurt
Drinks/Treats: Two glasses of beer, pack of fruit pastilles, two Jaffa Cakes
or
One can cola and nine boiled sweets
(The Guardian, 4 June 2007)
Overall, I am happy with this diet. But when it comes to the snacks section, I am not quite so pleased. I do not encourage any diet that calls for beer, cola, boiled sweets or gummi-bears. Where’s the nutritional content?
If I’m not mistaken, that brings us back to the “fresh is best” question. Well, is it?
My verdict: Eat seasonally all-year round. If you want a certain product out of season, source it in a canned or frozen variety. Eat locally as much as possible. (For example, grow your own herbs in a windowbox.)
Don’t eat garbage – whether it is frozen peas, canned tomatoes or fresh celery, make your own food.
(Oh, and I didn’t even get into organic food. We’ll talk about that another day.)
Judging food by its cover
“Paper or plastic?” In the US, this is the three-word grunt of the teenager bagging groceries at the supermarket. If only it was that simple: these days, the question of food packaging surrounds everything we eat.
Is it better to eat canned, fresh or frozen food? There are several angles to mull over within this one question. One one side, consider the health implications surrounding nutritional content. On the other, contemplate the energy implications, such as food miles, local food, seasonal food, carbon emissions and recycling.
I’ll attempt to get to the bottom of these issues, though admittedly not quite as fast as I can get to the bottom of a bowl of crab linguine. But that’s another story.
Seasonal considerations
Fresh is generally regarded to be best when it comes to food – and the fresher, the better. In many consumer’s minds, fresh foods are healthy, natural foods, those unspoiled by the rigours of a freezer and kept free from the evils of sodium. To a point, this is true.
However, eating fresh, refrigerated foods all year long isn’t always possible – or practical – or the tastiest. For example, tomatoes on the vine in the summertime provide a rich, flavourful product. Six months later, in the cold dark month of February, tomatoes are watery, uninteresting and even tasteless. During the winter months, eating canned chopped tomatoes is the smartest choice: the tomatoes inside the tin were likely grown in the sunshine of June but just did not make it to the market.
Seasonal food often implies local food, but not always: and if it’s local, it may not need all the bells and whistles that come with the packaging. Local markets are often as plastic-free as you get.
Frozen facts
Frozen product manufacturer Bird’s Eye run regular commercials about how frozen food carries the highest nutritional content. For example, their peas and carrots are immediately placed in a deep freezer, preserving from the start the vitamins and minerals so valuable to the system. The carrot in the ice cube is convincing, but it is still a marketing campaign, so I remain cynical.
After all, how much energy does it take to keep those peas frozen? According to a study by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) of Oakland, California, the average amount of energy consumed from farm to table for a frozen product is about 23 MJ per kilogram of food (APEALnews 29, May 2007). The life cycle includes food production, food processing, packaging, transportation, storage and meal preparation. As a comparison, SCS estimates that refrigerated food uses about 14 MJ/kg and canned food slightly less at 13 MJ/kg.
The proof is in the packaging
The canned food industry wants to highlight the “from farm to table” aspect of food, however, because its product uses the most amount of energy in the packaging. The energy cost for the steel can is about 5 MJ/kg, more than one-third of the energy consumption. The cardboard and plastic packaging of frozen and refrigerated foods are 4 MJ/kg and 2 MJ/kg (APEALnews 29, as above).
When it comes to the question of recycling, though, the steel can comes out a winner. Steel and glass can be recycled endlessly, whereas paper and plastic can generally only be recycled a few times. The process of sorting and recycling is an easier one as well, which is perhaps why the recycling rate is so high: according to APEAL, the association of European producers of steel for packaging, in 2005, the metal packaging recycling rate was 92% in Belgium, and 12 European countries had recycling rates over 60%.
How far is too far? Green beans from Kenya, bananas from the Caribbean
The can has its merits, but how do we know how far it has come to sit on our pantry shelf? We as consumers have been conditioned to like variety in our food, which has led us to buying food from Africa or Australia, thousands of miles away. A backlash has been brewing, with many of us turning inwards, trying to source our produce as locally as possible. “Food miles” is another buzzward.
Here, a holistic approach is necessary too, in my opinion. Those green beans may have come from Kenya, but would it be better to grow them in a glasshouse, using kilowatt after kilowatt of electricity? And do we want the workers in the Caribbean dependant on bananas for their livelihood to go out of business? The question just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The Guardian ran an excellent article on this topic. Here, academics from the University of Wales Institute at Cardiff argue for a system that “considers all environmental impacts from farm to dinner plate,” measuring food in “global hectares.” They offer the ‘eco-friendliest’ diet possible:
A typical day on the diet
Breakfast: Cereal and milk, tea/coffee (from weekly allowance half as large as normal diet)
or
Toast and jam (or marmalade)
Lunch: Avocado and poached egg with toast
or
Black-eye bean, rocket and pinenut salad
Dinner: Spinach, leek and pinenut risotto with yoghurt.
Fruit salad
or
Pork cassoulet with mustard, honey and cinnamon, served with green salad. Sweet pancakes with jam, honey, tahini, chocolate sauce or yoghurt
Drinks/Treats: Two glasses of beer, pack of fruit pastilles, two Jaffa Cakes
or
One can cola and nine boiled sweets
(The Guardian, 4 June 2007)
Overall, I am happy with this diet. But when it comes to the snacks section, I am not quite so pleased. I do not encourage any diet that calls for beer, cola, boiled sweets or gummi-bears. Where’s the nutritional content?
If I’m not mistaken, that brings us back to the “fresh is best” question. Well, is it?
My verdict: Eat seasonally all-year round. If you want a certain product out of season, source it in a canned or frozen variety. Eat locally as much as possible. (For example, grow your own herbs in a windowbox.)
Don’t eat garbage – whether it is frozen peas, canned tomatoes or fresh celery, make your own food.
(Oh, and I didn’t even get into organic food. We’ll talk about that another day.)
Is it better to eat canned, fresh or frozen food? There are several angles to mull over within this one question. One one side, consider the health implications surrounding nutritional content. On the other, contemplate the energy implications, such as food miles, local food, seasonal food, carbon emissions and recycling.
I’ll attempt to get to the bottom of these issues, though admittedly not quite as fast as I can get to the bottom of a bowl of crab linguine. But that’s another story.
Seasonal considerations
Fresh is generally regarded to be best when it comes to food – and the fresher, the better. In many consumer’s minds, fresh foods are healthy, natural foods, those unspoiled by the rigours of a freezer and kept free from the evils of sodium. To a point, this is true.
However, eating fresh, refrigerated foods all year long isn’t always possible – or practical – or the tastiest. For example, tomatoes on the vine in the summertime provide a rich, flavourful product. Six months later, in the cold dark month of February, tomatoes are watery, uninteresting and even tasteless. During the winter months, eating canned chopped tomatoes is the smartest choice: the tomatoes inside the tin were likely grown in the sunshine of June but just did not make it to the market.
Seasonal food often implies local food, but not always: and if it’s local, it may not need all the bells and whistles that come with the packaging. Local markets are often as plastic-free as you get.
Frozen facts
Frozen product manufacturer Bird’s Eye run regular commercials about how frozen food carries the highest nutritional content. For example, their peas and carrots are immediately placed in a deep freezer, preserving from the start the vitamins and minerals so valuable to the system. The carrot in the ice cube is convincing, but it is still a marketing campaign, so I remain cynical.
After all, how much energy does it take to keep those peas frozen? According to a study by the Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) of Oakland, California, the average amount of energy consumed from farm to table for a frozen product is about 23 MJ per kilogram of food (APEALnews 29, May 2007). The life cycle includes food production, food processing, packaging, transportation, storage and meal preparation. As a comparison, SCS estimates that refrigerated food uses about 14 MJ/kg and canned food slightly less at 13 MJ/kg.
The proof is in the packaging
The canned food industry wants to highlight the “from farm to table” aspect of food, however, because its product uses the most amount of energy in the packaging. The energy cost for the steel can is about 5 MJ/kg, more than one-third of the energy consumption. The cardboard and plastic packaging of frozen and refrigerated foods are 4 MJ/kg and 2 MJ/kg (APEALnews 29, as above).
When it comes to the question of recycling, though, the steel can comes out a winner. Steel and glass can be recycled endlessly, whereas paper and plastic can generally only be recycled a few times. The process of sorting and recycling is an easier one as well, which is perhaps why the recycling rate is so high: according to APEAL, the association of European producers of steel for packaging, in 2005, the metal packaging recycling rate was 92% in Belgium, and 12 European countries had recycling rates over 60%.
How far is too far? Green beans from Kenya, bananas from the Caribbean
The can has its merits, but how do we know how far it has come to sit on our pantry shelf? We as consumers have been conditioned to like variety in our food, which has led us to buying food from Africa or Australia, thousands of miles away. A backlash has been brewing, with many of us turning inwards, trying to source our produce as locally as possible. “Food miles” is another buzzward.
Here, a holistic approach is necessary too, in my opinion. Those green beans may have come from Kenya, but would it be better to grow them in a glasshouse, using kilowatt after kilowatt of electricity? And do we want the workers in the Caribbean dependant on bananas for their livelihood to go out of business? The question just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
The Guardian ran an excellent article on this topic. Here, academics from the University of Wales Institute at Cardiff argue for a system that “considers all environmental impacts from farm to dinner plate,” measuring food in “global hectares.” They offer the ‘eco-friendliest’ diet possible:
A typical day on the diet
Breakfast: Cereal and milk, tea/coffee (from weekly allowance half as large as normal diet)
or
Toast and jam (or marmalade)
Lunch: Avocado and poached egg with toast
or
Black-eye bean, rocket and pinenut salad
Dinner: Spinach, leek and pinenut risotto with yoghurt.
Fruit salad
or
Pork cassoulet with mustard, honey and cinnamon, served with green salad. Sweet pancakes with jam, honey, tahini, chocolate sauce or yoghurt
Drinks/Treats: Two glasses of beer, pack of fruit pastilles, two Jaffa Cakes
or
One can cola and nine boiled sweets
(The Guardian, 4 June 2007)
Overall, I am happy with this diet. But when it comes to the snacks section, I am not quite so pleased. I do not encourage any diet that calls for beer, cola, boiled sweets or gummi-bears. Where’s the nutritional content?
If I’m not mistaken, that brings us back to the “fresh is best” question. Well, is it?
My verdict: Eat seasonally all-year round. If you want a certain product out of season, source it in a canned or frozen variety. Eat locally as much as possible. (For example, grow your own herbs in a windowbox.)
Don’t eat garbage – whether it is frozen peas, canned tomatoes or fresh celery, make your own food.
(Oh, and I didn’t even get into organic food. We’ll talk about that another day.)
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