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Well my special chick pea recipe was a hit at our social night. Generally when i cook I like to adopt the Julia Child’s style of cooking (a movie was released recently starring Meryl Streep).
It’s just thrown together with a lot of love and feeling you’re way around the quantities. generally unless it sa recipe that involves achemical reaction, it’s all about making adjustments, just like making the perfect coffee, the grind is never the same.

2 big hand fulls of salad leaves, spinach and those bitter variety
2 beetroots, cooked and sliced into the shape of a garlic glove
1 punnet of cherry tomotoes, not the mass produced style that are the size of a small apple
1 cup of cooked chick peas (soak overnight in water)
1 salad onion
1 packet of mung beans
Himalayan crystal salt & coarsely ground pepper
Mmm another ingredient, can’t quite remember

Salad dressing (placed poured over salad before serving)
Seeded mustard
Himalayan crystal salt
Garlic (local only)
Honey
White Malt Vinagar
Chilli
Extra Virgin Olive oil (I like Mount Zero, not paid for this plug)

So there you have it, my special boot camp salad recipe.

Obesity and people’s health is becoming the new marketing frontier for food companies.
Products that bring weight management, that make you feel better, have more energy and help the digestive tract are going to be big movers on the supermarket shelves.

Numerous companies adding nutrients, bacteria and minerals to our highly processed foods in order to win the sale, with Omega 3 and anti oxidants topping the list.

Recently Kelleggs made some crazy nutritonal claims that “Now Helps Support Your Child’s IMMUNITY” right on the front of the cereal box with the added claims of 25% of the daily value of antioxidant vitamins A, C and E.

Together with Kellogg’s, Groupe Danone and Nestle are getting into the nutritional bandwagon with creating additives that make there products more nutritionally appealing.

Danone have Dannon Activia and DanActive Yoghurt are leading the charge with there Probiotics, the healthy bacteria that are found in your gastrointestinal tract. Once again there is limited research to support the benefits of probiotics and more importantly the different strains of probiotics.

It’s a shame that as a society, we are increasing becoming more reliant on the avalanche of processed foods that large food vendors are happy to produce to satisfy demand.

Ultimately clever marketing and development of new products will persuade unsuspecting consumers to make choices as to what they consume, be it food closer to it’s natural state or the processed variety from food companies.

Chemical free garlic verses imported garlic, well after going to the local farmers market last Saturday, I decided to do a test to determine whether the local chemical free garlic is better.

Well this image was taken today, exactly 1 week after purchasing the chemical free garlic and an imported variety from my local supermarket.

A big test of freshness and the state of the fruit and vegetables is how quickly it rots and deteriorates. Try this out with your onions as well as it starts to sprout some stalks if it is still living and hasn’t been killed by chemicals and pesticides.

Most imported Garlic contains Methyl Bromide, a very nasty chemical.

So while the chemical free garlic may not more expensive than the imported garlic, what price can you place on your health.

McDonalds recently introduced a play food toy set which is being sold through Toys R US in the USA, with increasing levels of childhood obesity, is this being responsible?

The Australian Government has introduced the National Preventative health taskforce but has not regulated the marketing or the use of toys for promotional and advertising purposes, at this stage it is tabled to be phased out.

It is concerning that global icons such as McDonalds have many touch points to children around the world, in Australia they sponsor little athletics, have a restaurant at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, childrens birthday’s catering, branded Characters, ie Hamburgler, internet Games and have branded toy giveaways at their restaurants.

Now McDonalds can build brand awareness through their play food set which included hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks and Sundaes.

It’s strange that McDonalds have healthier meal options yet none of these products are included.

The danger here is normalising the experience of going to McDonalds or eating any fast food for that matter.
As a child going to McDonalds was for special occasions or a rare treat, now there is an expectation that eating fast food is something we engaged with on a regular basis.

I would like to see a survey of Children from the USA or Australia in age brackets from 3 -5 and 6 – 8 and show them the McDonalds logo and ask them to identify the company and secondly to go to a McDonalds restaurant and to see what the children order or point to.

Childhood obesity is a very complicated issue with numerous elements contributing to the overall growth.

All we can do is to evaluate what has changed in the past 10-20 years with the promotion of fast & junk food to help understand and change this global epidemic.

While no one is pointing the blame to any one person, company, school or business, we all have a role to play in helping to reverse the trend.

But there has to be a point where we have to ask if the McDonalds play food set toy is being responsible and what needs to change to address this issue.

Travel Tip –when you check in, order the vegetarian option before the flight, will not only get food first but will be less congested after a 12 hour flight.
With minimal activity for 8-14 hours, eating a heavy meaty dishes may just sit in your stomach so try order a lighter alternative.

We have also listed our top 10 travel tips that may be worth considering to ensure a healthier holiday.

So order vegetarian today for your next flight and feel healthier.