Schools Advised to Have Meat Free Day Each Week

It's official. School Food Plan.

Healthier School Meals in Croydon?

"Encourage all children to have a meat-free day each week, using alternatives such as pulses, soya
mince, tofu and Quorn™.

Ensure vegetarian meals are as varied as the rest of the menu by using pulses twice a week, soya,
tofu, or Quorn™ once or twice each week, and eggs and cheese once or twice each week."

No excuses now Croydon!

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says "This is a great first step to fighting childhood obesity and diabetes. We look forward to seeing how these guidelines are put into practice"

Meat Free Mondays in London - Croydon Health

http://londonvegansocieties.com/lmfm/

London Meat Free Mondays

Croydon Health Officials

Now that the #changeyourplate campaign seems to be getting off the ground thanks to an article in the Daily Mail  and the success of The London Vegan Society In Southwark It's probably about time we had another stab at trying to talk the Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Council in Croydon into tackling the obesity and diabetes problems in our area head on.

#LondonMeatFreeMondays is in line with the latest research that we should eat MORE THAN 7 portions of fruit and vegetables a day and government recommendations that say that any amount of red meat increases your risk of bowel cancer and that no more than 1 small portion of meat should be eaten per day.

Croydon's PCT dietitians have claimed in the past that a plant based diet is something the British Dietetic Association cannot condone as it excludes important food groups even though their (out of date) Vegetarian and Vegan Diet information sheet admits 'Well planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of life'

NHS eatwell plate advises a portion of Cake and Cola a day

 With the certainty that 5 a day, probably only 3 portions of vegetables a day, is woefully inadequate to help protect our children from chronic disease isn't it time we started a meaningful education program with one day a week focusing on increasing the foods we need to eat more of.

One Meat Free Day a week across all council sponsored facilities seems the very least a responsible administration could do.

Croydon Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says 'The latest NHS recognised research has at last caught up with Nutrition Therapist optimum Nutrition advice that is we should be eating at least 5 portions of vegetables a day,  3 portions of fruit with an emphasis on berries, at least one portion of beans a day and one portion of essential fat rich seeds a day. The fact that we need to encourage and educate children and their parents about eating more natural, fresh, plant foods is undeniable even for a head in the sand Tory Council with a laissez faire attitude to public health"

It's unquestionably not a case of letting sleeping dogs lie, the rabid dogs of morbid obesity, heart disease and childhood diabetes are biting health budgets squarely on the bum - it is irresponsible to simply dismiss solutions such as a 5 a Day Day in Croydon

Healthy Snacks and School Meals

Healthy Snacks and School Meals:

More healthy ideas for schools from an initiative supported by Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association

mechanically reclaimed chicken

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s...: Meat the truth - those delicious chicken nuggets are made of this - hungry? KFC = Kak Freakin Crap? Kreepy Frankenstein Chooks?
Yum Yum Yum - NOT!

Interesting piece on transition town food here - New Forest Food by Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston

Child Nutrition Act USA

Child Nutrition Act USA: More effort to give children a healthier start in life; legislation to improve healthy options for school children. If you know anyone in the USA please forward to them ASAP to try to stop the senate from watering this legislation down to another worthless 'could do'.


Elizabeth Kucinich, Director of Public and Government Affairs in PCRM, has published this message today: Congress is on the verge of voting for a new Child Nutrition Act, and we’ve received word that an excellent House version of the bill, which would allow more children to have access to healthful plant-based options, may be rejected for a much weaker, stripped-down Senate version. This Senate version will make it harder for children to choose healthy food options in the cafeteria. Our chance to improve school lunches across the nation lies in the hands of Congress today! Please urge key leaders in the House to pass the superior House bill, H.R. 5504, and reject the Senate’s bill, S. 3307.

Please follow this link ASAP to send an email, or for more info: http://www.pcrmlf.org/cna/index.cfm

The health of America's children is declining rapidly, with millions afflicted by obesity and at high risk for adult diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. These children, many of whom get more than half of their daily calories in the school lunch line, are not given the opportunity to choose healthier food or learn good eating habits at school. Urge Congress to help provide students more plant-based options in the federally funded school lunch and school breakfast programs. Please support H.R. 5504, The Improving Nutrition for America's Children Act of 2010, to give students the healthy school lunches that they deserve.

Fruits & Veggies More Matters

Fruits & Veggies More Matters: More logic and sense this time from the Produce for Better Health Foundation or PBHF.

Wake up Croydon Council ! Wake up Croydon PCT ! Yo hello Headmasters of Croydon Schools and education trusts.

The status quo is suicide - inaction is not acceptable - what are you going to do ?

Most Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables, and fruit consumption has dropped slightly, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. Researchers found that last year about one-third of U.S. adults consumed fruit or fruit juice at least twice a day, down slightly from more than 34 percent in 2000. About 26 percent of Americans ate vegetables three or more times a day, the same results as reported in 2000.

 

California had the highest consumption rate for fruit, Oklahoma had the lowest.  The state with the highest consumption rate for vegetables was Tennessee, and South Dakota had the lowest of any state. No state, however, met the Healthy People 2010 targets as set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The goals for fruit and vegetable consumption under this initiative are for three-quarters of adults to consume two or more fruit servings and for half of adults to consume three or more vegetable servings each day.

 

Eating a colorful variety of fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruits and vegetables (including 100% juice) is an easy and positive step in helping to lead a healthy life.

The UK and particularly Croydon need to take a lead on this to avoid even more damning figures on Croydon's state of ill health 

Nestle's Obesity Summer Swindle

Nestle's Obesity Summer Swindle: so is Nestle in Croydon conning the Nation with it's get set go free campaign?

Will the calories you have to eat to get the tokens over shadow the calories you could burn from doing the activity?

Will it be a net weight gain or net weight loss?

More childhood obesity or less?

World Vegetarian And Vegan News: Council tried to seize ‘veggie’ child

Council tried to seize ‘veggie’ child

Whoa! We think things are bad in Croydon with our Burger King sponsored Mayday NHS Hospital

In Lewisham they are persecuting people for deciding not to eat meat and dairy! Looks like they'll soon be the unhealthiest borough in London if they scare residents into not eating fruit and vegetables.

The family they threatened and refused legal aid to were not even vegan or vegetarian - they all ate fish.

The vegan families in Lewisham must be petrified they will have the Lewisham Health and Social Services mafia banging down their doors for eating too many fruits and vegtables any day now.

Lewisham Council quite rightly awarded a 'Twonk of the Week' award by the Pirates of The Carob Bean for such blatant professional incompetance.

More on the London Nutritionist Blog

London Nutritionist on 5 a Day

Nutritionist London - Diet Advice

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston today hit out at Croydon Tory Council

"I really can't understand why Croydon Council wouldn't want to jump at the chance to implement this. Having a weekly focus on 5 a Day is a total no brainer. Surely only eating more of the foods we typically don't get enough of in modern diets for one day a week is logical enough even for a conservative councillor to get their head around."

"It's cost effective, it's easy, it's healthy, it's sustainable, it's inexpensive, it's positive"

Yvonne reveals that only response from the Croydon health administration so far is that they couldn't endorse or recommend restricted diets. Apparently a days focus on plant foods would be classed as a restricted diet.

Tony Bishop-Weston author of "The Complete Book of Vegan Cooking" says "The restricted diet excuse is complete nonesense, a red herring, caterers work on a 1-3 week rota and have to get minimum levels of key nutrients included in a set period. Nowhere does it say you must include saturated animal fat laden protein, processed nutrient deficient carbohydrates, and fibre free food every day of the school week."

If Croydon wants to shake off it's label of the unhealthiest borough in London and reduce childhood obesity and rising rates of diabetes then they have to start taking more responsibility for practical health education in the borough and being more proactive rather than leaving it to Rentokil (Eden Foods) to profitably defend the school dinner status quo.

Healthy School Lunches / Scarlett Johansson Urges Congress to Pass Healthy School Meals Act

Healthy School Lunches / Scarlett Johansson Urges Congress to Pass Healthy School Meals Act

Scarlett Johansson has recently sent a request to Congress to add more fruits, vegetables, and healthy meal options to school lunchrooms.

This is great news that a greater focus has been put on the next generation to avoid our health mistakes and get our school kids to learn healthy habits.

Johansson has written a letter to Congress urging support for the Healthy School Meals Act of 2010, H.R. 4870, which was introduced on March 18 by Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado. The bill would reward school districts for offering plant-based vegetarian options and healthful nondairy beverages.

“I’ve been involved with efforts to feed hungry children for years,” writes Scarlet. “Millions of families in America rely on subsidized school lunches, and these meals are absolutely crucial to children’s well-being.”

Scartlett Johansson stars in The Other Boleyn Girl and Lost in Translation.

Lets hope that the new Croydon Council is inspired by these new initiatives and the Meat Free Monday Campaign to adopt our campaign for 5 a Day Days in Croydon Schools and Hospitals.

Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect' - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent

Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect' - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent

People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money on advertsing campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government’s food watchdog admitted yesterday.

In a nationwide nutrition survey, the Food Standards Agency found that the majority of people were still eating too many processed foods and sweets and not enough oily fish and fresh fruit and vegetables. Adults ate twice as much sausages as white fish, and boys almost equalled their consumption of salad and other raw vegetables with chocolate. Teenagers ate five times as much white as wholemeal bread.

The survey suggests that the Government has made little headway in reducing the diet-related ill-health, which the Cabinet Office estimated last year costs 70,000 lives and £6billion to the NHS annually.

Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: “After 10 years of largely small, weak or voluntary initiatives, like Change4Life, we have seen little improvement in the nation's diet.

“Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our 'obeseogenic' culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.”

Leading UK Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston from Foods for Life says "It's a little early to be saying that the Change4Life campaign has failed but there's no doubt government needs to dramatically rethink the issue of holistic preventative health measures to save the NHS from collapsing into a black hole"

Croydon Eco Veggie Fayre

Croydon Eco Veggie Fayre - The UK's Best Veggie Fayre's - the biggest vegan veggie eco friendly family day out in the UK

It all started with The Croydon Eco Veggie Fayre, (actually it all started with the Bristol Vegan fayre but that's a longer story). Just as Yaoh Hemp Foods, Off the Hoof, Veggievision, Foods for Life Nutrition and Health et al were laying down the foundations for a Festival of Sustainability and Health the news broke of Croydon's latest accolade.

The Croydon Guardian named (and shamed) Croydon as one of the unhealthiest boroughs in London. Research by mysupermarket. co.uk revealed Croydon spent more on cigarettes and alcohol whilst sales of fruit and vegetables had gone down not up!

Since Paul McCartney had relaunched his Meat Free Monday campaign with all his celebrity friends, many health campaigners had toyed with the idea of following Belgium City Ghent's example of going Meat Free once a week (like the old fish on a Friday tradition)

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston and her husband, cookbook author Tony, decided a concerted effort was needed to encourage Croydon to focus on healthy plant foods, 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, at least once a week.

They launched CHOP ( the Croydon Healthy Office Project) .

Then they contacted all the main active UK health and sustainability campaigners such as Animal Aid, The Vegetarian Society, The Vegan Society, Viva!, PeTA, The Young Indian Vegetarians, Passion for The Planet Radio, Lifescape Magazine, Friends of The Earth, Veggies, The Vegan and Vegetarian Foundation to encourage them to join hands and work together to prove to Croydon Council the sense , logic and advantages of promoting a weekly meat free day.

Please help us.

Nutritionist Yvonne says "It's common sense - it's not more meat in our diets that we need to be healthier it's more fruit and vegetables! We have a golden opportunity to easily turn Croydon from being one of the unhealthiest communities to one of the healthiest"