Shame on the Royal Society of Chemistry!

In pursuit of a cheap, filling meal in the name of austerity, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has resurrected, and is publicising, an economical dish from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. The dish in question is a Toast Sandwich. You can read about it in this BBC News report. The 'meal' consists of a slice of thin toast sandwiched between two slices of buttered bread, with salt and pepper added to taste. You can listen to the Today programme's interview with an RSC employee here, and you will find that swapping the butter for margarine instead is even recommended as being more healthy! - I think not!

What an unhealthy meal the Royal Society of Chemistry is advocating! Bread is high in salt and is the main food source of salt intake for the average person in this country, and we are constantly being enjoined to eat less salt in order to reduce high blood pressure, reduce risk of stroke, heart disease and heart attack, reduce risk of developing type 2 diabetes and reduce risk of countless other degenerative conditions. And you even suggest adding more salt! - Spot on there, then, RSC, I don't think! - Bread's also high in carbohydrate: wheat flour and sugar. - More baddies, RSC! - Yeast and gluten are other ingredients problematic for many consumers. Factory-produced bread also contains undesirables like flour 'improvers', preservatives and other unnatural ingredients.

You point to bread as containing additives of calcium, iron and B vitamins making it extra nutritious! - Shame on you, RSC! - This is not a nutritious meal! - At an estimated cost of 7½p, this is a cheap travesty of a meal and a cheap way of damaging your health, endorsed and promoted by a respected institution that should know better!

New warning about high salt content of bread

BBC News reports that Consensus Action on Salt & Health (CASH) campaigners are warning again about the high salt content of bread. "A third of breads contain more salt than recommended under guidelines being introduced next year, a survey found. Most breads were within the current guidelines of 1.1g of salt per 100g - but this is being cut to 1g per 100g. Campaign for Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which looked at 300 breads, said it was "outrageous" that bread contained even the current level."

These are the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt. If you are vulnerable to salt you may like to consider cutting down on the amount of bread you eat. At any rate, you could benefit your health by choosing a lower salt bread, using the information given on the CASH website.

The Department of Health remains complacent: "The Department of Health said "considerable" salt reductions had already been made." - That's as in 'considerable' salt reductions from the scandalously high levels of salt most bread has contained for many years. The bread industry has assuredly played a major part in the distressingly high incidence of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and obesity in modern times. It has also helped to cause most people in our country to develop a taste for salt - like an addiction - such that food with little or no added salt tastes too 'bland' to them.

"British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said retailers and manufacturers are to fund independent research to look for ways of meeting the 2012 target - "while still making foods which consumers want to buy"." - I'll translate that for you. - It means that they are doing their damnedest, by means of additives and technology, to lower the salt content by the minimum they can get away with, while retaining the same degree of salty taste in order to keep their customers addicted to salty bread.

Salty food is very bad for babies and small children

Salty food is very bad for babies and small children. It harms them in many ways. Two new newspaper articles this week draw attention to the harmful effects of salty food on children. In the Telegraph we read that cow's milk is too salty for babies and in the Independent we learn of a study finding that parents are feeding babies too much salty food, e.g. bread and baked beans. Babies and small children need to be protected from salt, not just because of harm in the present - higher blood pressure, serious damage to their immature kidneys, raised risk of heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes and all the other degenerative health conditions - but because by developing a taste for salt, or even an addiction to salt, these health difficulties will multiply throughout their (very likely shortened) lives. Inappropriately high salt intake is also a major cause of child obesity. And see Sodium in Foods.

If you harm a baby by feeding it salty food, the harm is permanent; you cannot undo that harm later.

Beware the Great British SALTY Breakfast!

The Food Standards Agency is warning that British breakfasts tend to be high in salt, as is reported by the Telegraph today: Breakfast is often the saltiest meal of the day.

Rosemary Hignett, the FSA’s head of nutrition, says, among other things, "“We’re not suggesting people stop eating or even cut down on bread or breakfast cereals, as they are important part of a healthy diet." Unfortunately it is quite untrue for her to say that they are an important part of a healthy diet; they are not at all important to a healthy diet. It's about time the FSA clarified its thinking on this matter. They clearly have divided loyalties, but by kowtowing to the Food Industry they subvert the facts they should be presenting to consumers.

Top 10 foods which contribute most to our daily salt intake:

1. Bread

2. Meat products (that is processed meat products, e.g. sausages, bacon)

3. Breakfast cereals (e.g. Kellogg's cornflakes)

4. Cheese

5. Butter/spreads (Buy unsalted butter instead of salted butter.)

6. Baked beans

7. Ready meals

8. Soups

9. Pizzas

10. Crisps and snacks

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods

Children and Obesity

See also FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Britain's most-popular brands of bread could be banned from claiming health benefits of their very salty loaves, under draft EU regulations.

Bakers face ban on claiming salty breads are healthy
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Bakers would no longer be able to market their products as "high in fibre" or "wholesome" if they contain more than 1g of salt per 100g.

Research in 2007 indicated that nearly half of loaves on supermarket shelves in Britain were above this threshold, indicating that the proposed rule could affect millions of loaves sold each year.

Major producers including Warburtons and Hovis are among the worst offenders, tests have shown, with some breads marked multigrain, organic or "diet" containing higher than recommended levels of salt.

Bread is the largest single source of salt in our diet and health experts say that cutting the amount used in baking could save 7,000 lives a year by reducing rates of heart attacks and strokes.

The EU limit is lower than a 1.1g per 100g target set for 2010 by the Food Standards Agency."

"The British Federation of Bakers said that the salt content of loaves had fallen substantially in recent years, and said that the EU regulations may include exemptions for certain types of loaf – including wholemeal and brown – by the time they are finalised next month."

I regard it as disgraceful that bread manufacturers have been allowed to manufacture and sell these high salt breads when it is known that high salt intake can and does harm health.

You can easily make your own bread by using a breadmaker and ensure that it has a much lower sodium content, especially if you use a lower sodium salt substitute instead of ordinary table salt.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

A bit more info about the high salt/sodium content of bread.

Warburtons warned over salty loaf
from an article in The Independent

Extract:

Salt in bread: How brands compare

Average salt content per 100g bread. Loaves surveyed October 2008. Recommended daily salt intake is 6g

Warburtons 1.08g

Hovis 1.07g

Asda 1.05g

Kingsmill 1.03g

Tesco 0.96g

Waitrose 0.94g

M&S 0.92g

Sainsbury 0.86g

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods