Following on from Jamie Oliver’s TED speech about teaching every child about food and fighting obesity (as featured in Hungry for Change), Food Revolution Day is all about inspiring people to east real food instead of processed food-like substances.

All around the globe, people will work together to make a difference. Food Revolution Day is about connecting with your community through events at schools, restaurants, local businesses, dinner parties and farmers’ markets. We want to inspire change in people’s food habits and to promote the mission for better food and education for everyone.

Schools, businesses, chefs, restaurants and food lovers all over the world are taking part. Food Revolution Day is open to anyone in the world who wants to take the steps towards a healthier lifestyle and better education. You can raise awareness and fundraise for food education programs by hosting or attending Food Revolution Day events, which will focus on locally sourced, fresh food and promote the need for better food education.

Why Have a Day of Action?

Worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1980. For the first time in history, being overweight is killing more people than being underweight, and at least 2.8 million adults around the world die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. This has to change, and it’s down to us. We need to get back to basics and start thinking about where our food comes from. We need to become a conscious community and understand the food choices we make on a daily basis. We can do this by improving food education.

Encouraging people to cook from scratch at home is at the heart of this. We all have family and friends who could make better food choices. On Food Revolution Day we can work together to empower people with the skills to improve their diet. Making simple changes to our food choices will improve our quality of life and our children’s. Forty-two million children under five are already obese and we need to reverse this. Let’s make some noise, raise our voices together and have a lasting and positive impact on their lives and ours. Food Revolution Day is our opportunity to get the world to focus on food issues and rally our efforts to bring food education back into schools.

Do Something Positive

You can find out more about Food Revolution Day at http://foodrevolutionday.com/ and download a free ebook on how to make a big difference with small changes here: http://foodrevolutionday.com/downloads.html

You can also sign up to help bring food education back into our schools – youth today are inheriting a poor diet and global epidemic of diet-related diseases. This is your chance to demand better food education in schools. Take action and register your school or youth organisation to join students around the world standing up for real food.

At the very least please cook with your kids, teach them about where food really comes from (plants and animals, not boxes and supermarkets) and help the future generations improve their health naturally instead of relying on a pill for every ill.

Year Without Beer

I am giving up all alcohol throughout 2012 (all 366 days) to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Cancer Research UK. I am also using it as a great opportunity to join the reboot!

An 83-year-old man has become the oldest person in the UK to donate a kidney while still being alive, the NHS Blood and Transplant service has said.

Nicholas Crace, from Overton in Hampshire, is also the oldest “altruistic” kidney donor – he will never meet the recipient of his organ.

He said: “It’s nice to feel in old age that one can still be useful.”

His surgeon said a kidney from a live donor “performs better, works quicker and lasts longer”.

Mr Crace, who enjoys visiting friends, gardening and volunteering, made the decision to donate last year in the months after his wife, Brigid, died.

He said he was no longer able to donate blood after turning 70 and when he looked at donating bone marrow he found out he needed to be under 40.

However, there was no age limit for kidneys, even “from somebody as ancient as me”, he said.

He said he was struck by the plight of people waiting for a kidney.

“Apart from going to hospital four times a week, they have a very restricted diet and can’t travel so they live a pretty miserable life and it’s so easy to make that life more agreeable simply by giving them a kidney.”

There were more than a dozen visits to hospital, to check he was fit enough for the surgery and that his kidneys were up to scratch, before the transplant was allowed to go ahead.

Mr Crace said: “I don’t think age makes much difference really. It’s whether you’re healthy or not that’s the important thing.”

As for his other organs, he said: “They can take the rest when I’m dead.”

Quality

Sam Dutta, the surgeon who performed the operation at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Portsmouth, said: “A living donor kidney performs better, works quicker and lasts longer than one from a deceased donor.

“All the detrimental factors related to being on dialysis are completely taken care of by a good functioning kidney.

“An altruistic donor coming forward is an amazing thing for us, the recipient just gets a new lease of life.”

It used to be the case that “living donations” could only take place between between family members or life-long friends. But the rules were changed to mean “altruistic donation” could take place if people were motivated by a desire to help others.

NHS Blood and Transplant’s lead nurse for living donation, Lisa Burnapp, said: “Mr Crace’s example shows that people of all ages can potentially save and dramatically improve the lives of complete strangers by donating a kidney.

“One in three of all organ transplants in the UK is now from a living donor and living kidney donation currently helps to transform around three patients’ lives every day.”

Annabel Ferriman, who heads the charity Give a Kidney – One’s Enough, said: “Altruistic donors are very special people.

“They have the imagination to understand the suffering that people go through on dialysis while waiting for a transplant and the courage and generosity to do something about it.”

Year Without Beer

I am giving up all alcohol throughout 2012 (all 366 days) to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Cancer Research UK. I am also using it as a great opportunity to join the reboot!

A study of 175,000 patients, in the Lancet, said even very low-risk patients benefited from taking statins, and thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented if the cholesterol-lowering drugs were more widely prescribed. The Oxford researchers says the NHS should consider giving statins to healthy people and the NHS drugs watchdog, NICE, is reviewing the evidence.

Stop!

There are a few points that need to be made. Firstly, how healthy are these ‘healthy’ people? Let’s not forget that most people have no idea they have heart disease until they have a heart attack (and sadly for a number of these said heart attack will end their lives). The biggest thing for me though is why take a drug to reduce cholesterol at all. Surely it is better to avoid getting high cholesterol in the first place, i.e. is it not better to treat the cause instead of the symptom!

Side Effects of Statins

Statins have many known side effects, the most general one are:

• Migraine headaches
• Have a hard time sleeping
• Pain and weakness of the muscles
• Feelings of drowsiness
• Dizziness
• Feeling nauseous and sometimes, vomiting
• Pain or cramping in the abdomen
• Stomach bloating
• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Skin rash
• Liver damage

Many of the people who take this drug will end up taking them for as long as they live. The side effects for those individuals who are unable to tolerate the drug would then be hard to manage. In other words, they would probably have to live with it or the doctor would have to prescribe another drug to help manage the symptoms of the side effect…

An example of the extreme side effects possible with statins was reporting by the Daily Mail in 2010. A routine check-up revealed that Paul Rhoades had high cholesterol levels; at 9.7 these were well above the recommended limit of 5. So, like six million other people in the UK with raised cholesterol, Paul was prescribed a statin to reduce his risk of heart attack or stroke. He was given the standard 40mg daily dose of simvastatin – the most commonly prescribed statin in the UK.

Not long after, he developed his troubling symptoms – symptoms which have since worsened, leaving Paul, now 64, largely dependent on a wheelchair. He is convinced that statins are to blame.

Worryingly, his story is far from unique, with new evidence suggesting many more people than previously thought suffer adverse reactions to the drugs.

Lower cholesterol without side effects?

Diet can be used to manage cholesterol levels and indeed high cholesterol levels can often be lowered using nothing but diet and nutrition. A whole foods plant based diet has been shown to lower cholesterol (an example of this is shown in the film ‘Forks Over Knives‘). Also many studies and websites list foods such as soya milk, tofu, oat bran, live yoghurt, walnuts, garlic and onions as having a cholesterol-lowering effect.

As well as reducing the level of LDL in the body, certain foods can help increase the level of ‘good’ cholesterol HDL. Oily fish (eg salmon, mackerel, herring, trout, tuna) and raw garlic appear to do this, which again makes them good choices for anyone with high cholesterol. Exercise has also been shown to raise HDL levels and this is likely to be one of the reasons why regular exercise reduces the risk of conditions such as heart disease and stroke.

Personally I would suggest some tasty healthy food and a bit of exercise (with no known side effects) over any drug that cause a lifelong dependancy and side effects including kidney failure and liver problems!

Yesterday I wrote about proposals for a ‘fat tax‘ and the rising cost of obesity. Ultimately the answer to so many of these issues is better education about good nutrition, I just hope our schools will follow Jamie Oliver’s lead and teach every child about food to fight obesity.

Year Without Beer

I am giving up all alcohol throughout 2012 (all 366 days) to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Cancer Research UK. I am also using it as a great opportunity to join the reboot!

In May 2011, David Cameron was quoted as saying that obesity “already costs our NHS a staggering £4 billion a year. But within four years, that figure’s expected to rise to £6.3 billion.”

In an ideal world people would eat less junk, eat more fresh fruit and veg and improve their health. This would reduce the burden on the NHS and lower the cost of disease care. Personally I am doubtful that a “fat tax” would actually achieve this, but perhaps if the taxes were to be spent on the NHS and nutrition education it could still help the NHS balance its finances!

Year Without Beer

I am giving up all alcohol throughout 2012 (all 366 days) to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Cancer Research UK. I am also using it as a great opportunity to join the reboot!

Springtime is in full bloom here in the US which means beautiful blossoms but for many of us, dreaded seasonal allergies.   These allergies often flare up with the change of season leaving you sneezing, coughing and feeling under the weather.  Before you bust out another box of tissues or over the counter allergy medication, consider this amazing day to day benefit of eating and drinking more fruits and veggies – less pesky allergy symptoms!  A few Rebooters even share how the Reboot helped to relieve seasonal congestion in our One Year Anniversary video.

What counts as your 5 a day?

Well, chips are made from potato (a vegetable) which can be fried in vegetable oil and cows eat grass, so beef has been kind of been made from veg and if you wash it down with cider (made from apples – a fruit) surely you are nearly there? Er, no…

According to the NHS the following count as one of your five a day:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables.
• Frozen fruit and vegetables.
• Tinned or canned fruit and vegetables. Buy the ones tinned in natural juice or water, with no added sugar or salt.
• Dried fruit, such as currants, dates, sultanas and figs.
• Fruit and vegetables cooked in dishes such as soups, stews or pasta dishes.
• A glass (150ml) of unsweetened 100% fruit or vegetable juice. Juice counts as a maximum of one portion a day, however much you drink. That’s mainly because juice contains less fibre than whole fruits and vegetables.
• Smoothies. A smoothie containing all of the edible pulped fruit and/or vegetable may count as more than one portion but this depends on how it’s made. Smoothies count as up to a maximum of two portions per day.
• Beans and pulses. These only count as one portion a day, no matter how many you eat. That’s because they contain fewer nutrients than other fruits and vegetables.
• Fruit and veg in convenience foods, such as ready meals and shop-bought pasta sauces, soups and puddings. Some ready-made foods are high in salt, sugar and fat, so only have them occasionally or in small amounts. You can find the salt, sugar and fat content of ready-made foods on the label

Personally I am cautious of some of the things on this list and definitely would not count shop purchased juices in my 5 a day.

Do potatoes count towards 5 A DAY?

Potatoes are classified nutritionally as a starchy food. That’s because the main nutrient in potatoes is starch (carbohydrate). Also, when eaten as part of a meal potatoes are generally used in place of other sources of starch, such as bread, pasta or rice.

Other vegetables that don’t count towards your 5 A DAY are yams, cassava and plaintain: they are also usually eaten as starchy foods.

However, other root vegetables such as sweet potatoes, parsnips, swedes and turnips do count toward your 5 A DAY, because they are usually eaten in addition to the starchy food part of the meal.

While potatoes don’t count towards your 5 A DAY, they do play an important role in your diet. They are a great choice of starchy food, particularly if they are not cooked in too much salt or fat. They are a good source of energy, fibre, B vitamins and potassium. Although potaoes don’t contain much vitamin C compared to other vegetables, in Britain we get a lot of our daily vitamin C from them because we eat so many.

Is 5 a day enough anyway?

In Japan the recommendation is 17 a day, but to be honest is only 20% of the population is managing 5 a day then is it worth increasing the recommendation? Actually I think it might be – if the population was trying to get say 10 a day then even if they only had a 50% success rate they would be achieving the current guidelines!

Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle

Back in December it was reported that Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year – over 130,000 in total – are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things! In fact a lack of fruit and vegetables was the 2nd greatest risk factor for cancer in men and the 5th greatest for women.

Talking about the YouGov survey, Kate Mendoza, head of education for the World Cancer Research Fund said:

“These figures show that many people are still finding it difficult to follow the healthy eating message.”

“Getting at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day is the building block of a healthy diet. Not only are fruit and veg a good source of nutrients, they also tend to be low in calories and full of fibre and so help us maintain a healthy weight.”

“A diet based on plant foods, such as wholegrains and pulses as well as fruit and vegetables, can reduce cancer risk as research shows they protect against a range of cancers. Recent research has confirmed that foods containing fibre reduce the risk of bowel cancer.”

“Although people are more aware of the significance of eating five a day than they used to be, it is clear that there are still barriers to incorporating plant foods into our daily diets,” she added.

The charity is holding an awareness day, “Fruity Friday”, on 18 May as part of Cancer Prevention Week.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We know we need to do more to encourage people to eat their five a day and help prevent diseases like cancer.”

“That is why, through our Change4Life campaign, we invested around £10m last year on encouraging healthier lifestyles. This included things like the Supermeals campaign which promoted five a day by giving recipe ideas and money off fruit and vegetables in retail stores.”

Hungry for Change?

If you want to more about the links between our diet and our health then I suggest watching one of these documentaries:

• Hungry for Change
• Forks Over Knives
• Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
• Food Matters
• May I Be Frank
• Simply Raw
• Average Joe on the Raw
• Crazy Sexy Cancer
• Super Size Me

Year Without Beer

Please support my Year Without Beer by donating to one of these fantastic causes:

• To donate to Cancer Research UK please click here to visit my just giving page or donate by text – send AYWB66 and the amount to 70070. For example, texting “AYWB66 £5″ will donate £5.
• To donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust please click here to visit my just giving page or donate by text – send AYWB55 and the amount to 70070. For example, texting “AYWB55 £5″ will donate £5.