Fries and a workout? Living healthy can be quite illogical

A burger lunch and then a lettuce dinner. A cigarette after a long run. Pizza and beer to battle the blues. Sounds normal? It is, with a survey showing most people's attitude to healthy living is quite illogical.

More than half the 10,300 people polled in the global "Healthy Living" survey, conducted by market research firm Synovate, revealed they eat anything they want, when they want, with a third saying they loved fast food too much to give it up.

A third also said they tended to eat more unhealthy junk food when feeling down.

But one in four people surveyed in 12 countries also said they did something to compensate for unhealthy habits such as exercising, or cutting back on food, cigarettes or alcohol, with that number rising to one in seven of all Chinese polled.

"These attitudes may not make complete sense, but when it comes to food, health and weight management, people are inherently contradictory," said Steve Garton, executive director of media for Synovate.

"We did the same survey in late 2007 and it seems people are no less confused about food now than they were then. It all comes back to whether we think of food as pleasure or food as fuel... and it seems that most people vacillate between the two."

While nearly half of all Americans and Britons say they can't give up fast food, the study reveals Bulgaria as the world's most junk-food addicted nation, where nearly 70 percent of respondents head to a fast food joint on a regular basis.

Least susceptible to the taste of fast food were the Swedes and the Malaysians, with only one in five people in both countries agreeing that they need to eat it.

As for those most likely to eat to lift their mood, the survey showed British and American women tend to emotionally eat their way through life, with nearly half of those surveyed saying they eat when they're feeling down.

"The knee-jerk reaction to bad news, or even boredom, is often a cup of tea and something sweet to wash it down," said Jill Telford, chief executive officer of Synovate in Britain.

"Similarly, a bad day can be made a whole lot better with a hefty glass or two of Chardonnay in the evening," she added.

To tackle weight gain, most people surveyed said they increased their physical activity, and reduced their food intake.

Countries most likely to cut back on what they eat include the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the United States, Spain, Britain and Canada.

Spaniards and Brazilians were also the most prone to do everything and anything to lose weight, the survey showed, linking this obsession with looking good to the beach culture in both countries.

"Nearly half of all respondents lay the fault with food choices rather than sedentary lifestyles, again bringing us back to the complicated role food plays in our lives," Garton added.

At Hawksby & Dickens – The Business Caterer, we understand the importance of a balanced diet. Meeting catering in the past has been limited in variety and nutritional value. We have worked hard to change this and are proud to unveil our Healthy options range of sandwiches. We have blended a selection of products to meet strict nutritional criteria yet maintain the same high standards in quality. Complement the sandwiches with a fresh fruit platter and crudités, and you have a tasty meal that is bursting with ‘goodness’.

For more information, why not call us today on 0844 561 6846 or visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

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Store launches tomatoes that won't make sandwiches go soggy

It's the big drawback of sandwiches made with tomato - they go soggy. But now a tomato is about to go on sale that will help your bread stay firm.

Tesco claims to have found the world's first non-leaking tomatoes and expects to have them on its shelves by the end of this week.

Emma Pettitt, the supermarket's tomato buyer, said: 'The arrival of the non-leaking tomato may well be heralded by sarnie fans as the best thing to hit the sandwich world since sliced bread.

'Tomatoes are popular, but unfortunately their juiciness sometimes means that by lunchtime a salad sarnie resembles a piece of wet cardboard. From now on that will be a thing of the past.' She pointed out another advantage to the tomato, which will cost 99p for a punnet of four.

'Tomatoes can be tricky to chop and a squirt of juice can easily end up on the kitchen wall or over your shirt. The non-leaking variety will stop that problem but without the tomato losing any of its taste.'

The tomatoes were grown in Holland under a seed-breeding programme that began in 1986.

After trials using more than 100 varieties the breakthrough came last year when, through natural breeding methods, the growers developed one that held its shape when sliced, baked or diced.

Tests also showed that when making a sandwich from a standard tomato, 8 per cent of its weight is lost after slicing it and a further 12 per cent of the moisture seeps into the bread only an hour later.

The performance of the non-leaking variety is significantly better. Less than one per cent of moisture is lost when the tomato is sliced and only 3 per cent seeps into the bread - but 12 hours after the sandwich is made.


Hawksby & Dickens - The Business Caterer specialise in providing healthy catering. For more information, please visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

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Why Eat Breakfast

Nutritionists go on about it being the most important meal of the day – but what do they know? Er, quite a lot actually

1 You’ll burn more calories.
People who regularly skip breakfast burn an average of 150 fewer calories a day than regular breakfast eaters, according to scientists at the Mayo Clinic for Medical Education and Research. So you can either shovel snow for 15 minutes, do water aerobics for 30 minutes, or take the easy option and grab some breakfast.

2 You’ll catch fewer colds.
Researchers at Cardiff University showed that people who regularly ate breakfast were less likely to suffer colds, flu and other respiratory tract illnesses than daily breakfast dodgers were. Presumably this is because breakfast boosts your immune system, not because it coats you in a Ready Brek-style germ-proof shield.

3 You’ll be less depressed.
Regular breakfast eaters are less likely to be emotionally distressed, depressed and to die by suicide, according to a study by the University of Bristol. Lack of serotonin will cause you to feel tired, unable to concentrate and irritable. If you’ve ever wondered why your workmates are always keen to make you breakfast, this could be it.

4 Your breath will be better.
Breakfast dodgers are more likely to scare colleagues and loved ones with their halitosis until lunchtime, compared to breakfast eaters, who should lose it after that first meal. Unless you eat garlic bread or raw onions for breakfast, that is.

5 You’ll live longer.
Forget marketing-spun anti-ageing products, fad low-calorie diets and mythical fountains of youth, the truth is unnervingly simple – people who reach the age of 100 consume breakfast more regularly than those who don’t make a century, according to research by the Stress Institute.

6 Your cholesterol will be lower.
Frequent breakfast avoidance could lead to higher cholesterol, say researchers in Nottingham. This obviously depends on your choice of morning grub – oats are a good bet because they’re rich in soluble fibre, but a fry-up oozing saturated fat is not.

7 You won’t crave junk food.
Breakfast eaters are less likely to suffer a mid-morning energy slump and reach for a high-calorie, low-nutrient snack than those who shun breakfast. The obvious exception being if you’ve had a burger for breakfast because (a) it’s unlikely to sustain you for long and (b) you’ve clearly already craved junk food.

8 You’ll reduce your risk of diabetes.
Breakfasters are half as likely to have a blood-sugar problem, which increases your risk of suffering from diabetes, according to a study by the Harvard Medical School. Probably best not to start your day with a sugary cereal or chocolate bar, though.

9 You’ll get more nutrients.
Breakfast gives you vitamins, minerals and fibre, which can be difficult to get in sufficient quantities if you only have two meals a day. Need more convincing? Binge drinkers are more likely to be vitamin-deficient, and more than four pints in a session counts as a binge. Thought that would do the trick.

10 You’ll be smarter.
Breakfast eaters think and perform better at work than breakfast skippers. A study in the Journal Of Psychiatric Research linked having breakfast to academic performance and several studies have shown it improves memory. If only they’d told us that ten years ago… or maybe they did and we just forgot.

Hawksby & Dickens - The Business Caterer specialise in providing healthy catering. For more information, please visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

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Traditional sandwiches make comeback as wraps fall from favour

Traditional sandwiches, from prawn mayo to ham and mustard, are making a comeback as consumers shun the once trendy wrap as a lunchtime option.

Marks & Spencer, the country's largest sandwich maker, has said that for the first time in more than a decade, the tortilla wrap – made from flour and water – has failed to make it into its top ten most popular sandwiches.

Five years ago three of the ten best selling sandwiches were wraps, a very popular option with young office workers.

Along with its fall from grace has gone a variety of exotic flavoured fillings such as Peking duck, Mexican chicken and Italian salami.

Instead, the top ten list is dominated by traditional, English favourites such as salmon and cucumber, egg and cress and bacon, lettuce and tomato, as consumers hunt down simple, cheap lunchtime options.

Topping the table, as it has done since it was first introduced in 1981, is the prawn mayo. So popular is this sandwich, M&S sells 6.5 million of them a year.

Katy Patino, product developer at the retailer, said: "A craving for nostalgia and the simple things in life is causing a return to the school lunch box classics. It seems no matter what their age, at the moment consumers just can't resist the old-fashioned favourites such as Egg & Watercress and Ham & Mustard."

Wraps, originally a Mexican speciality, first appeared in British sandwich shops from the late 1990s and became very popular from 2003, the year when the Atkins diet took off and many consumers looked to ditch carbohydrate-heavy lunches.

Wraps allowed people to eat more filling, but less carbohydrates. In 2004 the chicken caesar salad wrap managed to knock off the egg and cress sandwich as the number one sandwich at Tesco.

The recession, however, has encouraged a return to traditional flavours because they tend to cost less to make.

Jim Winship, director of the British Sandwich Association, said: "A lot of the retailers have in the last year moved to simpler sandwiches because of the recession. These traditional flavours, such as ham and mustard and egg and cress are just so much cheaper."

About 2.7 million sandwiches are bought from shops every year, according to the trade body, with the market now worth £5.4 billion in annual sales.

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Hawksby & Dickens - The Business Caterer specialise in providing healthy catering. For more information, please visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

10 Golden Rules of Healthy Eating

Good nutrition isn’t brain surgery. Just follow these simple rules to feel good and lose fat all the time

1 Ditch the junk
Have you noticed all the adverts on TV for fresh broccoli? No? That’s because there aren’t any. Bloated corporations have no interest in selling you fresh food, only heavily branded, pre-packaged slop created using the cheapest ingredients and made to taste palatable by stuffing them with fat, salt and sugar. Most junk food is heavy in calories and light on nutrition.

By junk, we’re talking burgers, crisps, ready meals, anything in ‘a delicious crispy coating’, anything formed into unnatural shapes (stand up chicken nuggets), anything containing hydrogenated vegetable oils, and anything wrapped in pastry where you can’t identify the grisly substance inside. Buy fresh and learn to cook.

2 Balance calories in with calories out
It’s simple really. To stay the same weight you need to burn off the same number of calories through activity as you take in through food. If you eat more than you burn, that excess energy is stored as fat for use later on. Before you know it, you’re wearing vertical stripes in a vain attempt to look slimmer.

Here’s what you need to do: take your bodyweight in kilos and multiply by 29 to get your resting metabolic rate (RMR) – that’s the approximate number of calories you burn a day simply by going about your regular business of sleeping, eating, working, watching TV, etc. Now add the number of calories you burn through formal exercise. For example, the average man might burn 250 calories through 30 minutes of cardio training, or 200 calories for 30 minutes of intensive weight training. The total is the number of calories you burn a day, and also the maximum number of calories you can eat per day if you don’t want to put on weight.

3 Make fat only 25% of your diet
As we’ve just seen, it’s calories that count when it comes to controlling your body fat. However, dietary fat contains nine calories per gram compared with carbohydrates and protein, which both contain just four calories per gram. Basically, fatty foods are more than twice as calorific as other foods for the same sized meals, so it makes sense to limit your fat intake.

What’s more, the wrong kinds of fat can clog up arteries, making heart attacks more likely in later life. Try to steer clear of trans fats (it’s those hydrogenated vegetable oils again) and keep saturated fats, found mainly in red meats and dairy foods, to a minimum. Instead, go for ‘healthy’ fats, such as the kind found in fish, nuts and olive oil. These kinds are actually good for your heart if taken regularly in small doses.

4 Drink lots of water
There are hundreds of good reasons for drinking water – you’d be dead without it being number one on the list – but it is also vital for maintaining a healthy weight. If you don’t drink enough water your kidneys don’t function properly, and they pass some of their waste-filtration responsibilities on to the liver, which is then required to give up some of its fat-metabolising duties. The result is that you hang on to more stored fat than you would if you glugged down water on a regular basis. Drink water, lose fat –it really is that simple.

5 Eat five or six small meals a day
Most of us have been brought up on the concept of three square meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, this throws your metabolism into disarray because you stuff yourself with food, creating an energy overload, followed by starving yourself until the next meal. Your insulin levels bounce up and down as your body tries to stabilise your blood sugar, and the result is that you store more fat than you actually need to.

A better method is to eat small meals throughout the day. That way you get a constant drip-feed of energy, your blood sugar levels remain stable, and you never get hungry, so avoiding that mid-afternoon raid on the biscuit tin.

6 Downsize your meals as the day goes on
Does this diet sound familiar? Coffee for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, huge plate of meat and potatoes plus cake and ice cream for dinner. It’s the Great British way of eating, and it could explain why we’re fast becoming a nation of bloaters.

In the morning you need energy to get you through the day, so then is the time to stock up on carb-heavy meals – cereals, toast, fruit. As the day goes on try to eat less with each meal so that your last meal is a small one, mainly protein-based. There’s no point having a large bowl of pasta before bed, because all that energy won’t get used up and will find a resting place in your sagging belly.

7 Eat 30g of fibre every day
Amazing stuff, fibre, and not just because it makes your bowels as regular as a Swiss watch. Fibre helps to lower insulin levels in your body, which decreases fat absorption. It also absorbs water and swells up in your stomach, making you feel fuller and less tempted by the sticky toffee pudding for afters. Good sources of fibre are oat-based cereals, beans and pulses.

8 Veg out
Vegetables are the one food you can eat as much of as you like all the time (within reason – eating a dozen cucumbers a day may have a strange effect on your digestive tract). They provide stacks of vitamins with minimum calories. Vegetables make great snack foods eaten raw – carrots, celery, etc – and can provide the mainstay of bigger meals when steamed, grilled or fried. To get the most out of veg, cook them quickly and eat them crunchy before they lose their nutrients. Five portions a day is a minimum – nine would be better.

9 Take supplements sparingly
If your diet is good enough, you shouldn’t need to pop pills to stay healthy, and you certainly shouldn’t use multivitamin tablets to make up for a poor diet. Your body needs a huge array of nutrients, which you can only get from having a varied diet.

That said, if you work out often, you might want to take extra vitamin C and E to replace lost stores during training. Vegetarians can miss out on vitamin B12 unless they use supplements.

10 Enjoy treats in moderation
If you like ice cream, have a bowl now and then. Just don’t demolish a two-litre tub of double-choc-chip every night. If you always deny yourself the stuff you like, you’re unlikely to be able to keep up a healthy eating plan, and you’re more likely to fall off the wagon and have a lard blowout.
The trick is to have occasional treats to keep you happy, while eating healthily the rest of the time. That way you’ll find it easier to make good nutrition part of your life, rather than something you do grudgingly for a short period.

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The nations favourite sandwich......

Elvis liked his sarnies stuffed with peanut butter, bananas and bacon, while Paddington Bear was stuck on marmalade. But the best-loved buttie of the great British public is something far less exotic.

A survey has found that the nations favourite filling is a bog standard cheese and pickle.

The world may have moved on since the upper crust 4th Earl of Sandwich created the first sarnie, beef and watercress on bread, back in 1762.

But despite all the pretentious paninis and wonderful wraps now on shop shelves, we still prefer a no-frills chunk of cheddar and a dollop of Branstons wedged between doorsteps.

The poll, by supermarket Aldi, also found that boring BLT came in second while good old tuna mayo was third. All very nice, but not exactly designed to tickle the tastebuds.

More café and sandwich chains make FSA healthy food pledge

Four more café chains have agreed to work with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to promote healthier eating through their shops. Camden Food Co, John Lewis Partnership Cafés, Sainsbury’s Cafés and Upper Crust have followed big chains such as Greggs and Starbucks in announcing various healthy eating commitments in conjunction with the FSA.

Initiatives focus on reducing salt and saturated fat, providing more nutritional information and promoting healthier options on menus.

Upper Crust, which is owned by travel food retail operator SSP and has over 60 shops in railway stations and airports, plans to develop a programme of recipe amendments on items that do not meet the FSA salt targets or which earn ‘red’ traffic lights by 2010. The company will also investigate calorie-content labelling and better nutritional labelling.

Sainsbury’s, which operates 242 cafés, plans to cut saturated fat by 18%, by changing the cooking oil it uses in its cafés, and will trial milk with a 1% fat content rather than semi-skimmed.

As Manchesters leading healthy business caterer, we are pleased at these wider developments in this industry. For more information about our healthy business catering, please visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk or callus on 0844 561 6846.

Its National Vegetarian Week on Monday

NATIONAL Vegetarian Week begins on Monday - time to consider the health benefits of a meat-free diet.

If nothing else, a diet high in fruit and vegetables is good for the figure.

For the awareness week, the Vegetarian society is offering free packs of recipes and information on the vegetarian lifestyle.

This year the society is focussing on the fact that a vegetable-based diet is not only rich in essential minerals and vitamins but is also cheaper than meat. Its recipes include everyday meals for families for less than a fiver.

Even if you’re not prepared to give up meat entirely, if you’d like to know how to include more vegetables in your cooking, check out www.vegsoc.or/nvw

At Hawksby & Dickens – The Business Caterer, we understand the importance of a balanced diet. Meeting catering in the past has been limited in variety and nutritional value. We have worked hard to change this and are proud to unveil our Healthy options range of sandwiches. We have blended a selection of products to meet strict nutritional criteria yet maintain the same high standards in quality. Complement the sandwiches with a fresh fruit platter and crudités, and you have a tasty meal that is bursting with ‘goodness’.

For more information, why not call us today on 0844 561 6846 or visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

Foods that actually make you smarter

Add these foods into your diet to boost your brain with zen-like concentration…

As you mull over your tax returns your brain greedily chews through calories. But it’s a very picky eater so those croissants won’t help you find the extra deductions. By eating the right nutrients you’ll think quicker, get an elephantine memory and improve your concentration without having to bury your snout in books. Here are the best foods to help you flex your grey matter.

Bluberry hill
Don’t revere blueberries solely for their antioxidant levels. The boffs at Tufts University in the US found that snacking on these superfoods everyday slowed, even reversed, age-related brain decline, as well as improved short-term memory. Add one to two cups of blueberries to your diet each day or drink unsweetened blueberry juice.

Bean working all day
Scoff your way to genius by eating baked beans for brekkie. Research at the University of Ulster discovered that eating toast alone boosted scores on cognitive tests, but when the tests got tougher, toast and beans got the best scores. The beans are also rich in fibre and protein which gives your brain a long lasting energy supply.

Red devil
Roll out the pizzas because tomatoes harbour the powerful antioxidant, lycopene. In addition to fending off prostate cancer it boosts cognitive ability, according to research in the Journal of Gerontology. It’s also rich in vitamin C, which is used to make the neurotransmitters vital for securing you more answers in the pub quiz. Eat one a day – Bloody Marys don’t count.

Sharp shooter
Yoghurt’s rich in vitamin B12 – the mechanic of your nervous system which repairs any damage to your nerves. This vitamin also helps your brain absorb energy from food and a deficiency is linked to depression and poor memory. Lathering your breakfast cereal with two small cups will give you half of your RDA of B12.

Happy fatty
Chocolate gets a bad rep by running with a bad crowd, namely sugar and fats. But the cacao bean itself is a powerhouse of cognitive enhancement. It contains serotonin, tryptophan, anandamide and dopamine which all have a positive effect on your brain’s chemistry by promoting an overall sense of well-being and leave your thoughts sharper then a two-edged sword. Cram in a few blocks a day.

Happy to rise
When we say get some cereal down you, we don’t mean Sugar Puffs but anything with whole grains. These are fortified with vitamin E, which a study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found helps to prevent goldfish-like memory. They are also a good source of serotonin, the chemical responsible for pleasure – a happy brain is a more efficient brain.

Nut case
They resemble our brains for good reason. Rich in protein, nuts also have high concentrations of omega-3s, vitamin E and serotonin. A recent study found that a diet that included walnuts improved people’s mental abilities and fought off Alzheimer’s disease. Eat one to two handfuls a day to keep your nut in nick.

Hydro-power
Water delivers nutrients to your brain while dehydration prevents your brain circuitry from speeding in top gear. A study at Leeds University proved this by discovering that schoolchildren with the best results in class were those who drank up to eight glasses of water a day. Drink at least two litres of water every day to keep your thoughts ‘lubed’ for performance.

Something fishy
It’s no secret that the omega-3s in salmon boost brain power, but munching the wild version could mean the difference between being the dunce or the dux. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that farmed salmon have two to three times fewer fatty acids than their wild counterparts. Your noggin is made of 60% fat and a lack of omega-3s can lead to depression, a Honey Monster-battling low IQ, learning disabilities, dyslexia and ADD. Get plenty of this fat for the skinny on getting smart.

Tea, please
The British Empire was won and lost on cups of tea for a good reason. Researchers from the University of Innsbruck in Austria found that the caffeine in two cups of coffee increased brain activity in the memory-rich frontal lobe and the attention-controlling anterior cingulum. The best decisions really are made with a brew in hand.

Right said egg
Eggs are rich in the proteins used to make neurotransmitters – your brain’s messenger boys. They are also rich in choline which researchers at Boston University found enhances memory and minimises mental fatigue. Other studies found that low levels of this chemical are linked with Alzheimer’s disease. Crack onto at least two eggs a day to break your brain out of its shell.

Think green
Avocados are on par with blueberries at boosting your grey matter. They are extremely rich in all the nutrients needed to be your neighbourhood Einstein. They also lower blood pressure which is good because high blood pressure makes your cognitive abilities decline. If you’re after one fruit for a hole-in-one brain injection then ’ave an avo each day.

Energy boost
Go for beans on toast in the morning. The iron in the beans will help stop that afternoon crash. Gym pain? Eggs are the answer: they contain choline, a nutrient vital for reducing inflammation.

Hawksby & Dickens - The Business Caterer specialise in providing balanced catering. For more information, please visit us at www.hawksby.co.uk

Source: FHM