Originally posted @ 8:32 pm, Mon 17th Jan 2011
Cameron refused to apologise for the complete re-organisation of the NHS today, even when challenged to by the BBC political correspondent who pointed out that Cameron had told NHS officials and staff one thing and done another.
Plenty of organisations have declared significant concerns about the change in time for Cameron's speech today.
So happens that as he was speaking, a task group of Nottingham City Councillors and officials, along with officials from the NHS, were talking about aspects of public health and well-being. The task group today focussed on food and nutrition. (The group also takes reports on smoking and lack of exercise.)
The culprits in food, excessive salt, excessive sugar, excessive saturated fats and any kind of manufactured trans fat were listed.
Rather like Cameron's reform of the NHS, trans fats have no nutritional value.
But to my innocent eyes, I don't feel it's had anything like the profile that say salt consumption has. And it seems to go by a variety of names - I heard it called Trans Fatty Acids and Hydrogenated Fats at the meeting, but not something as simple as Trans Fats.
The nature of Trans Fats and the health problems associated is explained at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat Trans fats do occur naturally in meat and dairy products, so no more needs to be supplemented to our diets. These fats take a long time to break down, including in the body. Apparently TV presenter Richard Hammond did a programme highlighting the problem with some graphic pictures of such fats accumulated in sewers, along with the weight problems they cause rats (however, rats don't drive jet-powered motor-cars; called 'Should I worry about takeaways' - it was shown on BBC in 2006 ).
An example of the medical profession calling for action is available at - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10369198 - "NHS watchdog NICE calls for trans-fats ban in foods" (June 2010).
An example of a campaigning web-site is - http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/trans-fats-in-the-uk.html
I haven't yet found a web-site which lists the foods to avoid in Britain, although it seems Americans are not so reticent - http://www.acaloriecounter.com/trans-fat-foods.php Kellogg's Special K was a bit of a surprise. The Daily Mail shows some products in a photo without naming them in the article. They call the fats lethal. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291010/The-lethal-trans-fats-STILL-lurking-weekly-shopping.html The Mail journalist talks about both 40,000 deaths a year from trans fats and other substances and 7,000 deaths a year that could be saved by halving trans fats consumed (7,000 in England represents 42 a year in Nottingham, compared to around 360 who die from smoking).
I checked packaging today and I think Trans Fat content gets rolled in with saturated fats so it's hard to make out which products have them.
New York has actually passed local legislation against the use of Trans Fats, as have countries such as Denmark and it seems some supermarkets are also tackling the issue. I heard that the Co-op had led the way, but so far the quote I've found says "Marks & Spencer, one of Britain's biggest supermarket and department store chain, triggered the movement against trans fats in the UK when it announce that it would remove trans fats from its products by mid-2006. Waitrose, another supermarket chain, followed suit soon after. Other major supermarket chains – Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda – announced in August 2006 that they would remove trans fats in their house brand products by the end of the year, or by early 2007"
So if they add no nutritional value and cause health problems, why are they added to food? Seems they can improve the taste of food and extend their shelf life.
So maybe the City Council should explore how it might take action against these fats. There was apparently a regional initiative on displaying type of fats used for cooking in take-aways, but I'm not sure how far it went.
One welcome aspect (in theory) of the health reforms is the return of public health to local government. Public health is coming home.
Catch of course will be that not enough money will follow the change. And the powers to influence both hospitals and schools in what they do and procure is being lost. Just as open-toed sandal wearers see the possibilities of an agenda (to do good for people) that they could warm to, they find the heels of boots coming down on their ability to do anything about it.
[Note, the original article has already been updated; I'll be making corrections if errors are pointed out to me.]
P.S. One Lib Dem in Nottingham fills his blog with his cooking exploits.
OK, I'll give it a go.
Please find a photo of my latest creation.
Duck cooked until brown, accompanied with a brown duck sauce, without (hopefully) artificial trans fats.
P.S. The Guardian carried an article today - "Doctors demand ban on man-made trans fats" - surf http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jan/18/trans-fats-ban-health-faculty and another article by Polly Toynbee - "Tory free-market hurricane will blow our NHS apart" - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jan/17/free-market-bill-blow-nhs-apart
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