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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.

Are Junk food companies developing brand loyalty towards children? With childhood obesity being a complex issue, is regulation required?
With the recent approval of McDonalds at the Royal Children Hospital, is creating brand awareness from an early age a good thing.

I like to compare it to tobacco adverting in motor sport, if it had no effect on peoples decision top either change their cigarette brands or influence their decision to commence smoking why would they spend hundreds of millions of dollars placing there logo’s on the cars?

Well guess what, they ban any form of advertising in Australia yet junk food is ok to be promoted unregulated.

Today everyone from breakfast cereal companies such as Nutri-Grain which is a third sugar to McDonalds sponsoring Little athletics.
Coco Krispies made similar nutritional claims in the US.
The next strategy are branded toys and even McDonalds now has a toy whereby the children can make hamburgers in a Barbie doll style plastic kitchen.

Now we are seeing websites created by the big multi nationals with web based games show casing planety of company logo’s and product images.

So why do junk food companies do it?
*Brand awareness
*Creates associations with a particular event or activity
*Creates a relationships with the parents
*Influencing children at an age where they lack the ability to make healthy food and beverage decisions.

Ultimately you can argue that the parents have the final say or control the money to purchase these products but the same can be said for cigarette advertising.
Ultimately it makes it harder for responsible parents to take control of there children’s health.

The latest Government Preventative Health Taskforce document targeting obesity and Diabetes make recommendations to phase out junk food advertising before pm and banning junk food toy competition promotions.
The only issue is the voluntary nature of this report, once again leaving it to the socially responsible corporations to follow the guidelines.
Unfortunately self regulation hasn’t worked as was experienced by Coke last year.

So will the junk food companies adopt a more responsible approach when developing their brand loyalty towards children

A leaked document purports that beverage companies are using scare tactics to reduce the consumption of tap water and increase the sales of bottled water.

Apparently some people from a PR company working with the Natural Hydration Council contacted a Scottish newspaper with information E Coli contamination in the water supply.
The Natural Hydration Council (NHC) whose founding members are , yes you guess it companies who would benefit from increased bottled water consumption, Danone Waters (UK & Ireland) Ltd, Nestlé Waters UK Ltd and Highland Spring Ltd.
They also have a sister website about You ought to drink more water, well that’s great but what is the home page cover shot promoting, general water consumption?

There premise is to effectively finds ways to help promote the consumption of bottled water siting environmental, health and other sustainable benefits so consumers can make informed decisions.
It would be intersting to see how extensive and objective there research is regarding the benefits of drinking tap.

I find this very strange stating an environmental benefit when the oil consumption for producing bottled water (excluding the transportation) is 17 million barrels or 3.5 days of the US’s daily oil consumption (4,950 ,000 barrels/day)

Selling bottled water is one the 20th centuries great strokes of marketing genuis, apart from created a multi billion dollar market that was non existent 25 years ago, we are encouraged to drink water constantly like we are walking in the Sahara desert without shade. “Quick Bob, don’t forget to take some water with you if you’re walking around for 30 minutes, you may get dehydrated” Although this sounds silly drinking water on the go is thoroughly encouraged.

Check out a great slide presentation of Why we shouldn’t drink bottled water.

So next time you reach for the wallet, have a think about what these beverage companies are doing to reduce the consumption of tap water.

The alcopops tax passed through the senate with a resulting 70% increase in the tax, distillers will introduce alcohol labeling laws by the end of the year.

With the government reviewing a multitude of the Food & beverage industries it is interesting to see the voluntary initiatives being introduced by the Confectionery, Fast Food and now the liquor industry.

While the alcoholic beverages sees the writing on the wall with tougher regulations on the horizon. Like the fast food industry, the distillers are taxing a pro active approach before the government introduces there own legislation.

The Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia Inc (DSICA) are introducing labeling to feature the message “Is your drinking harming yourself and others?”
The question is whether the impact of this type of label is as effective as the current cigarette labeling. Will a 16 year old say “Hey Dude, better stop drinking as this is not only causing irreputable damage to my brain cells & kidneys but also affecting my friends”?

With a Government Senate enquiry into the Ready to drink alcohol beverages from June 2008 showed some disturbing figured regarding the consumption of pre mixed drinks for both male and females in the 12-19 year old age group.

To put the RTD or ready to drink market into perspective according to this Senate enquiry, RTDs increased from three per cent of total alcohol sales of $942 million in 1997 to 15 per cent of total sales of $5134 million in 2006 or a massive increase of 450%.

The interesting point is that a standard drink is only 1.5 RTD cans/bottles or no more than 4 standard drinks on an average day – and never more than 6 per day.
No more than two standard drinks in the first hour and one per hour after that.
For women No more than 2 standard drinks on an average day – and never more than 4 per day. No more than one standard drink per hour

So with so much at stake, it is well worth protecting this market before the government introduces there own tougher regulations.

Unfortunately, consumers generally modify behaviour for 2 reasons, availability & price. This has been anecdotally witness in New Zealand with tougher smoking laws making it difficult to smoke in public places or with car usage, remember paying $1.55 per litre for petrol? Did people reevaluate car usage, did public transport patronage increase?

So will wait and see the effects of the new Alcopops tax and alcohol warning labels on consumption.

The City of Melbourne Council has introduced a new Traffic light Nutritional Guideline system to food vendors at the food court at QV in Melbourne’s CBD to enable the public to make more informed choices about the nutritional value of foods without having to navigate any food labeling information.

The guidelines have been simplified into 3 colours, Red, Amber & Green which is universally understood by most people when referenced to traffic lights.

Red – less healthy choice

Nutritional value = Low
Saturated fat and/or sugar and/or salt = High
Kilojoules = High
Overall: Minimise/reduce consumption

Amber – ok choice, more about moderation

Caution to be exercised
Saturated fat and/or sugar and/or salt = Moderate
Kilojoules = High if consumed in large serving sizes
Nutritional value = Not significant enough to influence decision to purchase
Overall: Moderate consumption, foods are mainly processed

Green – The healthiest choice
Nutritional & Fibre value = High
Saturated fat and/or sugar and/or salt = Low
Kilojoules = Low
Overall: Aim to consume these when making decisions to buy

So far 9 Food Outlets have participated in this program that has been every menu item have been analysised subject to the accreditation process of Nutrition Australia.

This lead to some changes in the type of cooking oils used, substituting high fat diary products with low fat, leaner cuts of meat and introducing more fresh fruit & vegetables.

Check out the Melbourne City Council’s website for more info about the “Green Light, Eat Right” campaign

So overall definitely a move in the right direction by Melbourne City Council in introducing the traffic light nutritional guidelines.