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Veganism - a subject strewn with dis-information and confusion. Here The Chineapple Punx will attempt to de-mystify the vegan lifestyle and show you the reasons behind this oft misunderstood stance on animal rights.
MORE Britons were poisoned by their food in 1997 than in any year since records began, figures show today.
By far the biggest culprits were the well-known bugs salmonella and campylobacter, with Escherichia coli 0157 on the rise. Notified cases of food poisoning jumped past 100,000 for the first time since modern records began - seven times higher than 15 years ago. Around 200 people died from food poisoning in 1997.
Experts, who say that only one in 10 cases is notified, estimate that up to a million people may have suffered food poisoning last year. The worst outbreak was in Scotland where, by last January, meat pies tainted with E coli 0157 had killed at least 18 Scottish pensioners and made 500 others ill. The Public Health Laboratory Service had recorded nearly 40,000 cases of salmonella by Dec 5. Salmonella is carried mainly in contaminated animal products, especially poultry.
Half of the salmonella notifications were of the virulent form that rose to notoriety in 1989 when it was found to contaminate British eggs. There were more than 50,000 notified infections with campylobacter. The bug causes serious outbreaks of gastroenteritis and appears commonly in poultry although it can be transmitted in beef or milk. "British consumers routinely bring stuff into the kitchen that is virtually sure to be contaminated," said Richard Gilbert, head of food safety policy development at the Public Health Laboratory Service in London. We still have salmonella in eggs and the nation has gone back to using raw eggs."
While the latest figures on salmonella in eggs have yet to be published, in 1994 a survey found that a third of chilled chickens sold in British supermarkets contain salmonella. Two-fifths of the chickens contained campylobacter. The steady rise in figures each year has been attributed to poor hygiene in abbatoirs and food processing plants. Bacteria spread more easily among animals intensively farmed. Animals were increasingly driven long distances to slaughterhouses because local abbatoirs were closing.
New Scientist magazine, which reports the figures in today's issue, said consumers could protect themselves by ensuring that meat did not contaminate other produce in the kitchen and by cooking meat until it reached 320F all the way through, which should be tested with a meat thermometer.
Daily Telegraph - Thursday 1st January 1998
A report by Government-appointed nutrition experts that recommends a reduction in the consumption of red meat to cut cancer has been withheld by the Department of Health after a row with the Ministry of Agriculture.
The report, by the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy, recommends that people eating red and processed meat twice a day - equal to about 140 grams - should eat less. Even those eating an average amount should consider cutting back.
The Department of Health published a summary yesterday of the report's recommendations - which also include a call to eat more fruit and vegetables - but Frank Dobson, the Health Secretary, has ordered that the full report should be withheld. His decision follows an extraordinary series of interventions by Jack Cunningham, the Agriculture Minister, although there is an official denial of any row.
Nevertheless, the recommendations to eat less red meat as a means of cutting cancer are a further setback for beef farmers, already hit by the BSE crisis. As originally drafted, the report concluded that a reduction in meat eating, and an increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables, would cut levels of cancer, particularly those of the colon and breast. It is now being re-written to include precise figures on portions to enable consumers to implement its recommendations in what appears to be a "victory" for the Health Department.
Mr Dobson said that he and Mr Cunningham had discovered last Friday that the proposed recommendation on red meat consumption had not been fully discussed.
The committee met again on Wednesday and agreed on precise recommendations. The row overshadowed publication of a report yesterday by the World Cancer Research Fund, which also recommended a reduction in consumption of red meat and concluded that up to 40 per cent of cancers could be avoided by a change in diet.
The report said dietary changes alone would cut lung cancer by 20 per cent, breast cancer by 33 per cent and colon cancer by as much as 66 per cent. "Together with no smoking, this means that up to 70 per cent of cancers are preventable," it said.
The conclusions say that diets "rich in vegetables, fruits, bread, grains, pasta, potatoes and pulses" are the key factor in cancer prevention. One of the authors, Professor Philip James, of the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, said: "Reliable evidence accumulated over the last 15 years shows that what we eat and drink is crucial in determining our risk of cancer."
Daily Telegraph - Friday 26th September 1997
‘Coz cheese is milk that’s just gone off
All hard and going rotten
It’s all congealed, that’s how it feeled
How could I have forgotten?
It smells of socks and sweats a lot
When left out in the heat
It’s pretty gross when you’re up close
Not very nice to eat
So I’ll leave milk to baby cows
I think they like it better
They drink it raw, that’s what it’s for
And I like houmous better.
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