Food Standards Agency - God Save us from Job's Worths

God preserve us from political knee jerk reactions and bureaucrats!

The latest attempt by the Government via the Food Standards Agency (yet another quango) to address obesity in children is a formula/table for measuring the value or detriment to ourselves and our children of food ingredients. Firms which produce foods that appear on the table as being high in fat, sugar or salt will not be able to advertise their products on TV to children. Not a bad idea I hear you saying as kids today eat too much junk food! The trouble is that many of the foods to be banned are what we and many intelligent people consider to be healthy eating options.

Firms will not be able to advertise products like: -

Bran flakes; Raisins; Marmite; Cheese and Manuka Honey will all be banned because they contain too much salt, sugar or fat per 100 grams. However, if we look closer at these foods then we find that;

• Bran flakes provide about 16 to 18 percent of our daily fibre needs per 30 gram serving. 
• Raisins have loads of phytonutrients (valuable natural plant sugars and vitamins) which are considered to be excellent for brain and eye health.  
• Marmite, love it hate it, has loads of Vitamin B which is good for the Kidneys and the Liver 
• Cheese, as we all know has calcium in it but it also contains Vitamin A phosphorus and something called riboflavin all of which are essential for growing healthy young bones, but steer clear of processed cheeses, buy the natural varieties 
• Manuka Honey has numerous antiviral properties and would not be consumed by the 100 gram portion. Its antiviral properties are so coverted that some hospitals are ordering it by the lorry load to help them fight MRSA and other infections 

They will be able to advertise products like: -

White bread; Chicken Nuggets: Oven Chips and Fizzy Drinks.
 
These foods on one hand have some nutritional value; however when we look more closely we find that -
 
white bread these days has very little nutritional value compared to whole wheat varieties. Neither do the sugary fizzy drinks which are full of artificial sweeteners, while Chicken Nuggets and Oven Chips have long been blamed for filling our children with unnecessary fats and contributing to the obesity pandemic in the young.
 
Is it so long ago that Jamie Oliver was chastising Government for feeding our children such foods in their school meals that they have already forgotten?

Confusion reigns

The confusion occurs because the FSA's model for assessing whether a food is good or bad for us is based on a portion of 100 grams when in fact the average daily portion of something like Bran flakes is around 30 grams.
 
The profiling model has been attacked by Nutritionists and MP's alike as being totally flawed in the way it measures certain ingredients while ignoring others. The main criticism is that the model ignores nutrients like calcium, iron and other vitamins and does not distinguish between natural and processed sugars.
 
The FSA are adamant that they have got it right!
 
Is this a case of confuse and conquer or just plain bureaucratic incompetence once more blighting out lives?

What do you think?

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