#those things are dangerously moreish

[three--good--things]

Day 401

1: Fresh 3d prints

2: New nail polish

3: Lime & coriander poppadoms

[tastesoftamriel]

What have you found to be the more popular meals, snacks, and desserts among the children of Tamriel? I can imagine a khajiiti cub getting scolded for sneaking a moon sugar cookie from the jar.

The children of Tamriel live diverse lives, but have one thing in common: a love for snacks and treats. Of course, every Province offers something different, making even the youngest among us ready for a future in culinary adventures!

Altmer

The High Elves are known for the strict discipline of their children, but they are for the most part pampered and adored. This definitely extends to the diets of Altmeri children, which are really quite impressive and prepares them for a future of haute cuisine. The average meal is an ideal balance of meat or fish, starches, and vegetables, while still being delicious. Grilled cheesy venison patties, a warm salad with brie and roast pears, and lightly fried potato chips with tomato sauce are typical children's fare in Summerset.

Argonians

Children are one of the most important groups in Argonian society, and care extends especially to snack time for the young! A common treat for young Argonians is a sweet sago porridge with mashed taro and sweet potatoes, lotus seed paste, and coconut milk. It's nutritious and delicious, so much that some Argonians still consume it well into adulthood!

Bosmer

Wood Elf kids love munching on sweetgnat "bark", a type of jerky that's made from a dried and smoked paste made from a local insect that is surprisingly sweet. The bark is mixed with honey and fat, and is chewy, nutritious and flavourful. Also especially good for teething infants.

Bretons

The old jokes about Hags preferring to steal Breton children because they're plump and juicy, likely due to the treats that they're plied with. From dried fruit bars to chocolate cookies, you'll find all sorts of sweet delights. Yet surprisingly, the most favoured food among kids in High Rock are "fingers" made from deep fried, breaded fish paste. They're dipped in a mild lemon-pepper mayonnaise, and are a great snack or meal alongside some baked potato fries!

Dunmer

Dark Elf children aren't quite granted the same luxury as others in Tamriel, as there aren't any specific foods for kids- in Morrowind, the tradition is that you eat what's on the table, no exceptions. That isn't to say that snacky morsels don't exist. Scuttle puffs are a cheesy-flavoured snack made from puffed saltrice that's mixed with scuttle and baked until crispy. The end result is absolutely moreish, and chances are you'll be eating them by the fistful! Try them dipped in some fiery Stonefalls-style chili-scuttle sauce for a grownup version of this treat!

Imperials

In Cyrodiil, children traditionally enjoy a balance of sweet and savoury snacks, such as roasted nuts, honey-basted jerky, frozen fruit, and all sorts of baked goods. One of the most popular hits with Imperial kids is a scoop of frozen fruit-based yoghurt (usually berry or stone fruit) that's served in a wafer cone. Sometimes it's topped with fresh or frozen fruit, or a dusting of chocolate chips. It's especially good on a hot day!

Khajiit

Kittens in Elsweyr get a taste for moon sugar early in life, especially when mixed with milk. As such, milk-based desserts and meals are at the forefront of every growing Khajiit's diet. One example of this is a creamy, steamed egg and condensed milk pudding, served with a good drizzle of moon sugar syrup. These little ramekin-sized puddings, usually served cold, are too good to resist, and are the undisputed champion of Khajiiti children's desserts. And yes, they come in big portions too.

Nords

The children of Skyrim, even orphans, are looked upon dotingly by most of the population. I remember snack time at the Temple of Mara as a child: in addition to sweetrolls, taffy, and honey nut treats, we also enjoyed delicious, bite-sized cinnamon buns with honey and cinnamon. They were an enormous luxury, and where I got my penchant for baking!

Orcs

Young Orcs have healthy appetites, and their meals and snacks are served in big portions to make sure they grow up right! One traditional snack that's always popular among the kids (especially those with growing tusks) is mammoth or echatere jerky. The meat is seasoned with spices, smoked, and dried, until chewy but supple...most of the time. I've had echatere jerky that was so hard I nearly broke a tooth once, but it was of course not a problem for the Stronghold youngsters.

Redguards

The Alik'r is a place where you grow up rugged, and even the wealthiest Redguards prepare for a life of harsh sun and sands. Children therefore have a special place in their hearts, and get plied with treats like sugar dumplings. These little parcels of glutinous rice dough are filled with an exploding coconut sugar syrup centre, and are rolled either in dried coconut or powdered sugar. A choking hazard to be sure, but life in Hammerfell is dangerous after all!

[antonthebass-blog]

The When: January 16, 1973 The Where: Purgatory, south Los Angeles The Who: @paulietopaz​

Stage packed up, bits of guitar swept away, most shreds of clothing recovered by all parties. At least, what wasn’t claimed by the crowd. Silas’s collection of scrapes and scuffs had been washed up and plastered. Violent Vale was done for the night; it was time for a pint. 

And a congratulatory whiskey, from Sonny, on his way out. Lovely man, Mr. Kash. Always looking out for his investments.  And another of those, because the first had been moreish.

... or, apparently, a shot of tequila. Good tequila, too. You could tell, right, because it didn’t smell like turps. Ignoring the frankly over-priced whiskey that’d shown up alongside, Ant gave the gift some thought. The half-a-grin he’d thrown the bartender filled up as his eyes flickered around, curiously. There. She’d been down at the front of the crowd, hadn’t she? Same big, dark eyes, locked right on him. Like they were now. She had her own shot poised, tilted by a slender finger. Waiting to see what he’d make of this.  A challenge. No mistaking that. And an invitation, more the usual. Which was the idea, wasn’t it? Most of them weren’t so, well, cool about it. Or so damn fit, either. Bloody hell. It’d been a while - in rock star terms, anyway - since he took a groupie up on anything. Not because he wasn’t interested, on the whole, just... at this point, the shine was wearing off. Leaving the dull ache of, well, being left. Over and over and over again. After they sat up off his face and shared a cigarette, sweating in the glow of the dressing room lights. After laughing, low and close, once they’d finished doing filthy things in filthier places. There was always after, and every tour brought new faces, new names he’d feel like an ass for forgetting. But they flew on so fast, and so did the band, and... that’s how it was supposed to be, right, that was the lifestyle. A party that never ended, just migrated. 

Too bad Ant was a bloody nester. Meant all the high-flying was doing him in, slowly but surely. But, the party rolled on. Surviving it meant different things to different people, and for Ant... it could mean a couple drinks and company. At least now and then. And this company, here, was gorgeous. Sidling down the bar, Ant straddled the closest seat, elbow up on the counter. “Now, I think you ought to know - you’re the first girl who’s ever sent me anything harder than a bloody lager. So.” He raised his glass, and a grin, glowing with that post-show heat. In the barlights, the tequila had a downright dangerous gleam to it. Just the thing. “Here’s to not fucking about, then?”   

[neganandblake]

I think I liked you better when you didn’t have a knife in your hand, Peaches... Chapter 26- Breakfast in bed

When Blake finds herself sold out to the Saviours by her abusive fiancé, she realises that she's certainly not on her own anymore and finds an unlikely friend in Negan. And Negan does NOT like men who beat their girlfriends, one tiny bit…

Chapter 26

Blake blinked open her eyes groggily, and gave a small moan of tiredness.

Her body felt stiff and her still aching ribs felt like they had only got worse overnight, but despite this, Blake felt wholly alive.

As though over the space of a few hours and a good rest later, she felt like a new person. The weight of the world having been lifted from her shoulders.

And it had been.

For months on end, she had to live with the impending dread that she might get home…go back to her house in Alexandria to find David in an angry mood about nothing. Ready to take it out on her in any way he deemed fit.

But all that was over now. And as much as she was sure she was expected to be sad about his dismal demise…she wasn't.

She felt, in a strange way, freer than she had in a long time.

But even so, as Blake brought herself up onto her elbows, bleary-eyed…giving a frown, suddenly remembering just where she was.

Blake was not back in her room on the third floor, but she was instead up here, in Negan's quarters. On Negan's bed…still in the heavy white bathrobe she had fallen asleep in.

Blake shifted around to peer at the spot next to her on the bed…but there was no sign of the tall, bearded Saviour in question.

Nothing but a small dusty imprint of where his boots had led across the pristine white bedsheets the previous evening.

Had he really slept beside her last night? With no hint of trying to goad her into having sex with him either?

That certainly was not something she had expected from the dangerous leader of the Saviours. Had she just imagined the whole thing? She wouldn't have put it past herself in her exhausted state.

Blake rubbed at her eyes tiredly…and pulled herself up into a neat sitting position, looking around.

She was alone…the illumination from the window casting a bright white light on the room and on the empty sofa and armchairs across the large, open-plan space

In the daylight the room was far more modern that Blake first had thought, with grey walls, ornate lamps and large green plants littering the area. She gave a small sigh as she noticed Negan's barbed-wire covered baseball bat lying abandoned on the coffee table….as if it were the most natural place in the world for it to belong.

The weapon she had partly used to end her boyfriend's life not even twenty-four hours ago.

But before Blake could dwell on any of this further, the large oak door leading into the room suddenly swung open, and in stepped Negan…tall and looming, his usual black leather jacket shrugged easily over his sloping shoulders.

A wide grin slipped onto his face as he suddenly caught sight of her, sitting there on his bed.

"Well, mornin' sunshine," he said in a charmingly gruff voice, kicking the door closed behind him and strolling towards her.

He held out a plastic plate of hot food, as he arched his back, eyeing her, smirking.

"Thought you might be hungry…" he murmured in a low drawl.

Blake peered up at him for the first time properly, pulling her robe around herself just a little defensively, suddenly wholly aware that she was very, very naked beneath it.

But Negan, catching this, gave an immediate chuckle.

"Hey, don' mind me. You wanna get your titties out in here, then be my guest," he said in a teasing voice, causing Blake to scowl up at him, huffing.

"I wasn't-" she started, before she narrowed her eyes and snatched the warm plate from his grasp. "Just…..shut up."

Negan laughed loudly.

On the plate in Blake's hand was a small stack of limp looking pancakes. But all the same, Blake hadn't eaten since yesterday. And for the first time in a long time, she finally realised how much of appetite she actually had.

Six months of mistreatment and vile words would certainly do that to a girl.

She placed the plate down beside her on the bed and tore apart a piece of the dry pancake with her fingers.

"Now no getting' crumbs on my bed, Doll-face," said Negan pointing at her, in a voice of faux-warning. "An' don't think I'm fuckin' jokin'!"

But Blake flashed him a frozen smile, as she placed a piece of pancake in her mouth.

It was dry and didn't taste of much, but it was warm and surprisingly moreish.

"So…am I going to get breakfast in bed every day?" she asked in an innocent tone, after a couple of long moments of silence, raising her eyebrow up in the tall, dark-haired man's direction, fiendishly.

Negan grinned, showing her a line of white teeth.

"Uh, do I look like a fucking servant to you?" he asked incredulously, placing a hand to his chest in a gesture of mock-defensiveness. "I mean, Jesus, Sweetheart. I try to be fucking nice, and you just take advantage."

Blake chuckled, shifting her bare feet against the sheets below her, taking another bite of pancake.

A moment of long, drawn-out silence seemed to fall over the pair of them, but it wasn't an uncomfortable one.

Blake finished off the last of her plate of food, brushing the crumbs from the bed as Negan stared over at her grinning, his hands shoved into the pockets of his grey pants as he rocked back on his heels.

"So…." Blake finally uttered, her eyes flickering up to him after a second or two….looking a little tentative if truth be told.

She blinked her eyes, and cocked her head, giving Negan a small smile.

"…no coffee?"

At this Negan gave a whining laugh of approval.

"Well shit, Peaches," said the tall, tanned saviour shaking his head and surveying her with twinkling eyes. "You are fucking lucky I have a soft spot for ya"

Negan pointed at her, tugging on his bottom lip with his teeth.

And for the briefest of moments, Blake felt her breath catch momentarily in her throat. But she hurriedly pushed this feeling away.

"Look, I'll get Laura to bring some up for you," he said easily, stretching his back with a groan, his eyes still fixed to hers. "But in the meantime, Doll-face. If you wanna take another bath, I mean, I would be more than willin' to join you for that one. I could even scrub your back for you….massage those aching shoulders of yours."

But Blake rolled her eyes, smirking, and pushed herself from the bed.

"As tempting as that sounds," she said smirking and getting to her feet. "I thiiink I'm all bath-ed out."

Her tone was simpering and teasing, and she glanced up at Negan before bumping her shoulder with his as she sauntered past him.

"You can get Laura to bring that coffee to my room," she finished, wrinkling her nose as she smiled up at Negan teasingly.

Blake was glad about all this….their pointless sniping at each other.

Acting as normal, as if yesterday had never happened.

Negan, of course, grinned back, giving a gentle huff, as Blake tied the robe tighter around herself and made to head out of the door, ready to make her way back to her own room, three floors and few hallways down.

But before she could reach the door, she felt Negan's sudden hand reach out, grabbing her upper arm gently, stopping her in her tracks.

He had turned around and was stood beside her now, his face much more serious that it had been a second or two ago, his chocolate eyes boring into hers.

Blake gave a sudden, gulp the atmosphere in the room changing slightly.

"You sure you're alright, Peaches?" asked Negan suddenly in a low voice. "Coz' I mean, as badass as you were last night…you still fuckin' killed your own fi-an-ceby feedin' him to those dead pricks out there. An' I know how much that type of thing can kinda screw with your head."

Blake stared back at Negan for a long second before nodding.

She was ok.

In fact, she felt better than she had felt in a long, long time.

But did that mean she was over it? Now that she wasn't quite sure of…

"I'm fine," she said in a sudden quiet voice, reassuring him. "I just…"

There was something else she wanted to say, but she could not quite find the right words at this very moment.

But she gave another nod instead, her eyes drifting around the room. Looking anywhere but at Negan right now.

"…I think coffee would help."

She wrinkled her nose again and grinned up at him once more.

That soft, mild and warm atmosphere filling the room once again as Negan smiled back, chuckling.

He gave an enormously sarcastic roll of his eyes.

"Alright, alright…" he said raising his hands in defeat. "One coffee comin' right up, your Majesty."

Blake bit her lip, turning on her heel and headed out of the door…

But what she didn't see was Negan's face stare after her as she left the room, a large admiring, devoted smirk, plastered across his long, bearded features, as he watched her go….still wearing his bathrobe as she went.

It wasn't even twenty minutes later, that Blake, having just got showered, was stood in the corner of her room, doing up the last couple of buttons on her navy shirt.

She gave a sigh, glancing into the mirror, just as she had the day before…looking back at her hollow cheeks and her purple ringed eyes.

But today she could have sworn she looked fresher….felt more alive….

There was today, colour to those cheeks and after having a good night's sleep, the bags beneath her eyes had all but disappeared.

But there was nothing that could be done about those bruises. No. It would take a few days for those, and her broken bones, to heal.

Blake was convinced she had done even more damage to her sprained wrist after using Lucille yesterday, so she planned this morning, to take a walk to see Dr Carson to check up on it.

She had all but completely forgotten about Negan's promise of coffee when the door to her room was suddenly shoved open, and in walked the tall-dark haired Saviour himself.

He looked as haphazard and as thrown together as always, with legs that seemed far too long for him, a dazzling grin at his bearded face, and a knife at his belt.

"I thought you were sending Laura," said Blake eyeing him suddenly, as her fingers danced cross her buttons, doing them up to her collarbone neatly, as Negan's eyes, she was sure, lingered there for a long second.

He gave a sudden chuckle.

"Oh by all means, Doll-face," he said ignoring her comment, and approaching her with that cocky walk of his. "Leave those buttons open…"

He almost groaned the words causing Blake to roll her eyes and tut as he stopped close to her, pressing a mug of hot black coffee into her hands.

She pursed her lips, staring up at him.

"In your dreams….errand boy…." she said in a mocking tone, taking the coffee cup and pushing suddenly past him, moving over to the large bureau which sat near to the window, and picking up a hairbrush. "Listen, shouldn't you be out there…"

She shrugged giving a frown and taking a sip of her coffee, glancing back over at Negan.

"…I don't know…..killing people and taking their shit or something? Isn't that what you do."

Negan marvelled at her, spinning around on his heel to face her, arching his back as he did so.

"Well, ok there Ms 'I've got a taste for killing people now'," he said in a loud, incredulous voice. But it might fuckin' surprise you to know, that that is not in my regular day job."

Blake cocked her head at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Really?" she uttered in a scathing voice of utter disbelief. "What is then? Bringing me coffee?"

She shot him a teasing look, raising both eyebrows in his direction, as she pulled the brush through her long damp hair, lifting the coffee cup to her lips again and taking a long sip.

But Negan just grinned back, his teeth gritted together.

"Listen, Peaches," began the tall Saviour, moving over to her slowly, leaning his long face into hers, coming to stop just a breath away. "As much as you really got me goin', using Lucille like that last night...you have gotta be careful usin' that smart-mouth tone with me, because I cannot tell you how hard you are makin' me right now."

Blake pursed her lips, sensing the utter goading in his voice, as she stared up at him.

"Ugh...you're despicable," she uttered finally, shoving him away with her hand and moving away from him once again. "And I don't have a taste for killing people, by the way."

She stopped in her tracks.

"Last night...that was...different..." she uttered with a reassuring nod.

That was the truth. Or at least she hoped it was.

Although Blake still felt pretty shell-shocked about the whole thing. As though it hadn't really hit her yet what had truly happened.

"Well, like I've said before," said Negan strolling back across the room, his boots chinking as he went. "Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you, Doll."

Blake glanced over at Negan to see him pointing back at her smirking.

She rolled her eyes.

"Listen, I've got to go and see Dr Carson," she said taking a final sip of her coffee before placing it down on the nightstand beside her bed. "Why don't you go bother someone else instead."

"Ooh, buttercup," said Negan wrinkling his nose, his tongue poking through his teeth. "Can I just say, I am thoroughly enjoyin' our repertoire today."

Blake tutted, moving over towards the door, giving a sigh.

"Was there anything else you actually wanted?" she said in a faux-tired voice, her eyes drifting back over towards the tall, dark-haired, intimidating Saviour.

But in a blink of an eye, Negan's face became suddenly serious.

"Actually….." he said dragging a hand down his bearded face and giving a heavy sigh. "There was somethin' I wanted to ask you."

Blake gave a tiny gulp, the atmosphere in the room having changed once again.

It was as if since last night, something had changed between the pair of them. An unspeakable sort of bond.

"Y'know, if it's whether or not I wanted to be one of your wives," she said a little nervously, talking fast and giving a brief unsure smile. "Then just so you know, the answer's still no."

But Negan's dark eyes remained fixed to hers, as he took a heavy step towards her once again, coming to stop less than a foot away from her.

Blake looked up into his eyes, full of something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

And her stomach jolted….as Negan suddenly spoke.

"I was gona ask if you want me to take you back to Alexandria?" he asked his voice full of low concern.

Blake stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. Never expecting this. Not from Negan of all people.

"I mean Rick is still a HUGE prick, don't get me wrong. But I fully fuckin' understand that it wasn't your decision to come here. An' just so you know, I don't fucking offer this to a lot of people, Doll-face. But you're just a special exception," uttered Negan in a low growling voice, his gaze earnest. "An' I fucking like you...enough to see you go...if that's what you want."

Blake stared up into Negan's chocolate eyes for the longest of moments. Fully contemplating what he was asking her.

He was giving her the choice.

Giving her freedom.

The absolute opposite of what David had ever, ever offered her.

But was this what she wanted? Right now? Of course it was. It had to be, right?

But before Blake could nod and agree, she felt a pull in the back of her chest. Something stopping her from doing so.

She parted her lips slowly, taking in every inch of Negan's features, before giving one last gulp.

"Ask me tomorrow," Blake said in what was merely a whisper.

And with that she turned on her heel and headed out the door.

Leaving it at that.

But in the hallway, still illuminated from behind by the light of the doorway, the caramel-blonde woman paused for a long second.

"Oh, but…uh….if you're wondering what to bring me for lunch," she called back over her shoulder at him. "I'm kinda in the mood for chicken and collared-greens...errand boy."

And with that, Blake smiled to herself as she heard Negan give a laugh behind her…as she disappeared off down the corridor to find Dr Carson.

@collette04 @attorneyl @charoly@princessmoonspunky@mssharingisfun @shimmerybutt@yellatthetopofyourlungs@daydreamsandchai@onemorebeautifulnightmare @arwa-alii@letsdosciencekids@maggiesourie @blumenkind72@toloaughistolove @alonna-oxoxox @brebre149@hibernatingallyearround @baked-potatoes@elinyaes @jmackie1983

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[vacationsoup]

New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/the-alton-towers-story/

The Alton Towers Story - The Power of the Towers

Miles away from the coast, but sure to satiate your roller-coaster desires – it’s time to find out ‘the power of the towers’…

Alton Towers – the place where dreams are made of (well, a place where fun times are had, anyway) and, being located in the middle of nowhere, this really is the go-to destination for anybody travelling through Staffordshire. Check out these hacks of what to do and what not to do to make the most of your visit, whenever you may go.

From Flowers to Towers

If you don’t know anything about the history of one of the most famous theme parks in the world, here’s definitely a good place to start.

A fort / castle establishment has been at the heart of the Alton Estate for hundreds of years. In fact, an iron age fort was built there and in 700AD, a fortress replaced this by a Saxon king. In the twelfth century, the large manorial estate (in which Alton Towers is located) was given to a knight – Bertram II de Verdun – for his work in the Crusades. However, the current estate as it is known today was created in the first decade of the nineteenth century by the fifteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, where the buildings and the farmland around the stately home were turned into one of the largest formal gardens in Britain. After many more years of different people inheriting the land, the eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury acquired the Alton Towers estate in 1859 – and this is the point in time which became the major turning point for the future of this Staffordshire landmark.

Believe it or not, but Alton Towers opened as a country estate nearly 180 years ago, in April 1860. The Earl celebrated his acquisition of the Alton Towers estate by holding a procession through Staffordshire, attracting some 40,000 people to the grounds.

Following the success of the eighteenth Earl, the successive earls consequently monetised how popular and how much of an attraction this place actually was. Opened for raising money to refurbish the house in the first instance, a tradition arose and it became obvious that the public were just as enthusiastic to take a visit to the estate as the first instance. In fact, the twentieth Earl instigated the tradition of bringing summer fetes to the Staffordshire Moorlands. Not just with the attraction of the gardens being open to take in, but fireworks, balloons and several exhibitions ensured that the future of the estate was secured for many years to come.

However, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, the separation of the Earl and the Countess slowly but surely put the future of the whole estate in danger until 1924, when it was brought into public ownership. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Alton Towers showed even a tiny glimpse of what it is today, with the inclusion of a few little attractions, such as a boating lake, a chairlift and a small fair. However, when the Tussauds Group purchased the site in 1980, this foreshadowed the many decades of development and the scope for what was to come to ensure the continuity of this site through the major development of roller-coaster rides; notably installing the famous Corkscrew that year.

Alton Towers was requisitioned as an officer cadet training camp. The house and grounds remained under the control of the war office until 1951.

Don’t Halt in Alton!

If you’re one of the millions (yes, really) of people who have visited Alton Towers over the years, you’ll have probably experienced the feeling of nervousness and excitement as you drive through the little, hard-to-navigate streets of the namesake’s chocolate-box village. The only thing I would advise you to do is to keep on driving. You see the name, ‘Alton Towers’ is actually quite misleading, as the actual grounds are located in an even smaller place called Farley. It’s like the Glastonbury of theme parks!

But once you do arrive into the grounds, that is just the start of your experience. Whether you park as close as humanly possible to the main entrance, or you drive just a little further afield and catch the monorail, the scenery and the staff all make your time at Alton Towers that much more magical – it’s like you’ve been transported into a completely different world.

Alton Towers is Europe’s joint-12th most visited theme park in Europe, with attendance breaking the 2,000,000 annual visitor mark in 2017 

Make the Most of Your Stay!

Ensuring that you have the best time, the Alton Towers Resort is fantastic at providing things for everybody to do. So much so that this overview of the theme park does very little justice to what you can actually get out of being there – so my first tip is that you really don’t know the magic of Alton Towers until you visit Alton Towers. Along with their world-famous roller-coasters (which people literally travel across the world to visit), visitors are encouraged to have a leisurely stroll through the centuries-old Gardens,

along with taking the Skyride to really get a different perspective on what stood (and still stands) in this now-changed country estate. Not only this, but Merlin also provides a plethora of arcade games dotted around each attraction to keep literally everybody occupied for the day (or even longer…) Saying this, I really would recommend that, if you were staying for more than one day, you purchase the Alton Towers season pass – for a little more extra than the price of an ordinary ticket, it pays itself off in only a couple of visits; so definitely do your research and do your planning before paying.

Make sure to visit https://www.altontowers.com/tickets/ and also make sure to visit the well-known voucher code websites to really get the best deal

As with a lot of the major attractions which Merlin has, the amount of roller-coasters and things to do is physically staggering. So much so, that a lot of the coasters are split into different ‘sectors’ – including CBeebies Land (for smaller children), Mutiny Bay (for great family fun), the Dark Forest (for everybody wanting to take a delve into the unknown of roller-coaster rides) and the X Sector (for the true thrill seekers). This can mean that different areas of the park are busier at different times, and this can be super annoying for people waiting in the queue, because it can mean that you are spending much more time queuing rather than getting to the next ride to quench your thrill-seeking thirst. So, firstly, I would always pick a day during the week to visit the park where possible. As a general rule, the areas furthest away from the entrance are the best places to visit first. Not only would this get some of the Big 6 coasters ticked off the list first, but, it would also mean that the queue times are shorter, because not many people really feel like walking their legs off at the beginning of the day to get to the far corners of the park. Aside from this, it must be said that lunchtime is always a good time to go on any of the big rollercoasters – because not many people really have the desire to jump on the front of The Smiler just after wolfing down a hugely tasty (but a little pricey) spicy chicken burger and chips! And remember – always check to see when the ride close time is; this is the time when the entrances to each of the roller-coaster rides shut, so make sure to jump in the queue before then. 

If you are peckish, there are so many great places to eat in and around the park, but it can be equally nice to take your own food, giving you the freedom to eat it wherever your heart desires. This might be a good idea too, because it means then you can really treat yourself during the day to a pack of moreish doughnuts from Mutiny Bay instead of splashing all your cash on the savoury stuff at midday. Nitrogenie, located outside Duel, is a particular favourite too for snacks on a hot summer’s day, with ice cream made directly in front of you. Made with a splash of magic (also known as liquid nitrogen), the whole experience of watching your food being made is hugely satisfying – and this is certainly no exaggeration.  However, if you don’t take your own food, Pizza and Pasta restaurant is the destination to go to – with an all-you-can-eat buffet selection. The downside to this is, you could literally spend all of your time at Alton Towers solely eating – so definitely approach with caution on that one! Feeling a little more flush or going for a special event? The Roller-coaster Restaurant is amazing; it is fantastic for families too, but err on the ride of caution with this one – there is no movement or indeed human interaction involved as you order all of your food with a tablet at your table and you pay for it all at the very end. Terrifically typical of Alton Towers, the magic of the park even flows into the theming of the food – which is really tasty, by the way.

Apart from the main attractions, there are other things you can do there, but this is all at a cost. For example, you can while away the hours at the Spa,or you can even visit the on-site waterpark, Splash Landings, but both can get hugely busy during the peak periods, so you really do need to make a day of going to those places too. Splash Landings is the place for everybody, and, when it’s not full, you really can let your hair down (or not) and just let go of the flow of life for a few hours! When it is busy, though, it sometimes doesn’t feel like you really get the full value of your time there, so it is probably best to plan ahead before you go, just like with the theme park, if you can.

Queue Times: The Inside Track

When I say ‘a completely different world’, I really do mean it – once you make it into the theme park itself, it really does place you in a very strange place, where the reality of the outside world might as well not just exist. One of the reasons behind this is the fact that physical time within Alton Towers times is completely different to how you’d experience time during (to quote one of the most famous rides at the theme park, ‘The Smiler’) your ordinary, mundane lives. So, because of this, be sure to always make a plan of action before you step foot into the park – this will ensure you get the best out of these few precious hours where fun is the one and only thing on the agenda!

Visit http://ridetimes.co.uk/ to get the queue times.

Depending on the time of year you visit, what you can physically do within the confines of a single day can vary hugely.

Thinking of going at the start of the season (March/April)? Yes, the queue times might be quiet, but the likelihood is that you’ll be quite chilly when walking between the rides and between finding things to do. I’d recommend to go during this time if you’re a true adrenaline junkie, but beware of horrible weather and this might cause some rides to close in adverse conditions.

Thinking of going before the summer holidays (April-June)? In my humble opinion, this is the best time to go. Okay, the weather might not be as good as during the peak summer season, but, the likelihood is that you’ll be met with sun and not showers. Apart from the seemingly endless bank holidays, these months create the fine balance between having a good time and being able to really quench your thirst for adrenaline.

Thinking of going during the summer period (July-September)? The holiday season only means one thing; FUN! The height of the British summertime brings along with it something not seen at any other time of the year for all of the fun and thrill seekers among us – it brings the chance to stay outside for longer and, for the kids, to stay up for longer! This is definitely the time to go if you are up for even more time to thrill seek on your day out. Usually, the ride close times are much later than at any other point in the season, but the flip-side to this is the hideously long queue times. Of course, it all depends on the day – you can never be too sure.

Thinking of going during the festive period (October-November)? A little like the summertime, this brings a whole different kettle of fish to the forefront – the Scarefest spook-tacular, during which The Laurels is dressed up and Fireworks extravaganza. Especially during Scarefest, the ride times are even later, with rides closing at 9pm (yes, really) but again, this means that the crowds can be heaving during the busier periods– so be prepared to walk (or stand) your legs off if you take the plunge and decide to visit during the period that Alton Towers is most famous for.

Let’s Just Go!

If you are a thrill-seeker, a fun fanatic, or just fancy going somewhere for a day out in the middle of the Staffordshire countryside (and who wouldn’t want that?!), you need to put Alton Towers on your list of places to visit. If you’re from the UK, or even further afield, you have probably heard of Alton Towers – especially as Merlin seem to have taken over the world with its theme parks, located at various locations in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia.

Yes, a trip to the Towers can be an expensive way to while away a few hours of the day, but there are so many different things you can do to make the most of your time there. You don’t have to be a Merlin employee to really make the money stretch further when you get there. One of the main ways which people save money is (I’m going all Martin Lewis here) by using popular online voucher code websites, where Alton Towers regularly offer huge discounts. Additionally, stay at The Laurels B&B is a fraction of the price of what Alton Towers charge per night – so if you don’t mind a little bit of travelling if you are staying in the area for more than an afternoon, it really does pay to do your research. The same goes with food; with so much to choose from in and around Alton itself, if you don’t mind what to eat, your taste buds might thank you – yes, the food at Alton Towers is nice, but healthy? Let’s just say, there is only so much fried food you can take as well as having the stomach to be able to not turn green on the most exhilarating roller-coasters!

So, if you plan your day right, if you know the best days to visit and if you come to the park with a good pair of walking shoes (trust me – you will need them) you’ll have a whale of a time. You’ll leave this incredible attraction smiling with your wallet not being drained into oblivion and your head not spinball whizzing with confusion!

Travel Tip created by Phil & Helen in association with Vacation Soup

[greatdrams]

Five pours to get you started as a whisk(e)y drinker

Most of my friends don’t drink much whisk(e)y. In fact I’d venture to suggest that the majority of them only really drink it around me, and occasionally only because I press it upon them. Humouring me, bless ‘em.

Still, the recommendation requests pop up every once in a while, so I thought I’d stick a few thoughts into a post. A starter pack for those looking for something more interesting than Bells, if you like.

Whisk(e)y geeks, this probably isn’t for you. I’ve put together five whiskies (plus a special bonus – no extra cost...) and whilst they by no means cover all the flavour bases they’re enough for a decent snapshot.

Needless to say, I think these are all very tasty indeed. I’m sure the list would look different were it to be put together by any other enthusiast; I can already hear the incensed cries of ‘no! Why didn’t you include...?’ ... ‘That one? What are you on about?’ etc etc ad nauseum. Whisky is a broad church, after all, and that’s something to be embraced. All are under £40 per bottle; if you do some digging – and you always should – you can find most of them under £30.

Glenfarclas 10 year old

If you’ve tried any Single Malt, it’s fairly likely you’ve encountered Glenfiddich 12. Maybe even Aberlour 10. Glenfarclas falls into broadly the same flavour bracket. Sherry casks means it’s a fruity number; baked apples alongside pears, with some honey and brown sugar. It’s only 40%ABV, so there’s no real heat, but the influence of the sherry casks alongside a pretty robust spirit makes for a nicely plump body and mouthfeel. If you find this works for you, then good news – you’ve become a fan of one of the whisky community’s best-loved distilleries. And the rest of the range is awfully good value too. Happy exploring. 40% ABV

If you enjoy this, have a go at Glendronach 12 years old and Benriach 12 year old Sherry Wood.

Teeling Single Grain

One of the most dangerously easy-drinking whiskies I’ve ever come across. Which sounds like damning with faint praise, but translates as ‘very tasty, very moreish and likely to please everyone.’ I’ve just finished my bottle, and I’m more than a little gutted. Young Scottish Single Grains aren’t really my thing; they tend to be wheat-based, and don’t lose their spirity edge until they’ve matured for a good long while. Teeling, by contrast, is Irish and corn based, which makes for lovely sweet flavours of creamy vanilla and buttered...well...corn. They’ve also used some red wine casks which add an extra layer of strawberry and cranberry. Are you going to discover previously undreamt-of complexity? No. But of all the pours on this list, I reckon Teeling would convert the most newcomers, because – drumroll – it tastes good. And it does so in an astonishingly approachable and straightforward way. A crowd-pleaser in the best sense of the term. Not sure about whisk(e)y? Try this one. Seriously. 46% ABV

If you enjoy this, have a go at Bain’s Cape Mountain and Kilbeggan 8 year old Single Grain.

Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select

There are a few good bourbons in this price range I could have gone for, but Woodford converted me, and a few years later it converted my mother too. So it seemed the obvious choice. Deep vanilla and brown sugar, with a little added spiciness from the relatively high rye content. (More on this later...) By the standards of this price point Woodford is also fairly rich on the toasty oak front, and more full-bodied than its direct competitors. The bottom line is that it’s the bourbon that got me into bourbon, and despite having tried hundreds and hundreds since, I still love it every time I go back. Can’t say much fairer than that. The bottle shape means you can also conceal it in a bookcase. Which isn’t a major factor in my recommendation, but what’s not to love about a bottle you can conceal in a bookcase? 43.2% ABV

If you enjoy this, have a go at Buffalo Trace and Four Roses Small Batch.

Bulleit 95 Rye

Bulleit’s design makes me want to throw back a glass in a crowded saloon, or swig it straight from the bottle on horseback as my steely-eyed gaze takes in some mountainous horizon. But both would be irresponsible and vulgar, and in any case I own neither a horse nor the means with which to look steely-eyed. So don’t do that. But do invest in a bottle of this, which has (finally) brought rye onto UK supermarket shelves. Rye is leaner and spicier than bourbon as a style. Some of the familiar vanillas and brown sugars are still there, but they’re accompanied by a whole load of green apple peel, nutmeg and pepper. It’s less voluptuously full-bodied, but the flavours tend to be a bit more concentrated. And that spiciness is a really wonderful thing. On offer you can find this at £22, which is a steal. It also comes with an unequivocally high rye percentage; if you’re a fan of this then rye is unquestionably a style for you. 45% ABV

If you enjoy this, have a go at Rittenhouse 100 proof and Rebel Yell Small Batch Rye

Nikka From the Barrel

I’ve tended towards lower alcohol whiskies in making this list, as the chief complaint I field when doing ‘intro’ tastings is usually to do with heat. But bear with me on this one, because it isn’t a huge leap booze-wise, and the alcohol is fully balanced by body and flavour. More importantly, this is one of those whiskies that everyone who tastes it seems to love. As in properly love. I’ve seen so many people with only a couple of pours under their belt take one sip of this and be instantly smitten. It’s also a brilliant exception to the rule that great Japanese whisky tends to be on the super-pricey side. Flavour-wise I often describe this as a bridge from scotch to bourbon. It has the rich oak and caramel of the latter, with a fruity spiciness and mildly smoky (not peaty) meat that puts me in mind of the former. It’s also much more scotch-like than bourbonesque in terms of structure and body, but that’s drifting a little too far in the direction of tasting note poncery... Anyway, perhaps it’s wrong of me to compare it to either. Nikka from the Barrel is very much its own animal, and a terrific one at that. Pick up a bottle and join the legions of disciples. 51.4% ABV

If you enjoy this, lookalikes aren’t thick on the ground. The Nikka Pure Malt range is great though. Or you could just get another bottle of From the Barrel...

And your extra special bonus...

Paul John Edited

There’s no reason the whisky that wins you over shouldn’t be peated. For that matter there’s no reason it shouldn’t be Indian either. This is my favourite of the Paul John flagship range. It’s their light-medium peated expression, so if it floats your boat you can move on to the more intense stuff, but if you end up swiping left you won’t have had your face completely blown off. Plus I’m just a fan of the happy medium when it comes to my smoke. Sue me. Edited is a rather malty, savoury number. A little honey, a little smoked meat. A little lapsang souchong if you’re feeling fancy and know your teas. The peat is clear, but it isn’t all-consuming. I absolutely love the balance of flavours here, which is why I’ve picked it ahead of some more obvious Scottish alternatives. And being slightly off-piste gives you the chance to sound knowing and authoritative when you pass on the tip. Which is an absolute requirement of being a whisk(e)y nerd. 46% ABV

If you enjoy this, have a go at Highland Park 12 year old and Talisker 10 year old. Add a Springbank 10 year old to your basket too. Just for me. And out of respect.

So there you are. My starter pack for those looking to take their first/new whisk(e)y steps. Hundreds of others could easily have made the cut – that’s part of the fun. But do give one or more of these a go; I suspect you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find. And then, of course, you can move in whichever direction takes your fancy.

And if you happen to be a long-in-the-tooth enthusiast and didn’t stop reading after the first paragraph or two, I’d of course love to hear what your own introductory recommendations would be. Comments box is below – the more top tips the better...

Cheers!

  [gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="24077,24078,24079"]

          The post Five pours to get you started as a whisk(e)y drinker appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://ift.tt/2ntPVfY Adam Wells

[quieteating]

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E5 Bakehouse

As the warehouses and railway arches are slowly filling up with more than dusts and cobwebs, I think we may soon run out of them.  I wonder if such an environment is particularly conducive to good things as I can think of quite a few shops that mix such unusual surroundings with great products.  Or perhaps it is the ambience which makes things seem better than they are.  In places which were once dumping grounds for rubbish or refuges (or toilets) for the drunk, sometimes great things can appear.  

In a railway arch near Dalston, sits the E5 Bakehouse.  When arriving, at the front, lies tantalising loaves of bread.

At the counter, other things are on display, if those would tickle your fancy instead. Yet let’s not forget the coffee, a fast becoming staple of more industrial surroundings.  Perhaps the age old dust adds a little extra taste.

Flat white.

Latte.  Both coffees were good.  Deep coffee flavour, with just enough milk.  Although they were to be overshadowed by what came next.

Galettes, buckwheat pancake with ham, cheese and onion.  This was great.  With a more earthy taste than other pancakes I have had, with delicious cheese and meat centre, all served in a crispy shell, I don’t think I’ve had a better galette before.  Then again, I have nothing to compare it against.  Yet in comparison to other pancakes I have had, this was up there with the best.

Bread with jam and butter.  What we had come all this way for.  Delightful bounce inside, crisp exterior, this was moreish bread.  With the loaves sitting temptingly just behind me, I am reminded of times when the chocolate ball almost seems to call my name.  

Apple cake.  Forgive me for the photo as this was packed up in a take away bag.  Let me explain.  On my way to the door, I was assaulted by an alluring fragrance.  The sweet smell of fruits.  Knowing that such natural smells herald healthy foods, I had to turn back to see what it was as I am constantly being badgered to watch my health.  Good thing I did as this was the best apple cake that I have ever had the pleasure of eating.  Crunchy top, soft inside, deep apple flavour with just enough sugar not to overpower things, this was apple in balance. 

Sometimes a glance back reveals something that you shouldn’t miss or an adventurous heart brings unexpected dividends.  Some things are worth sitting under a railway arch for.  Perhaps next time I visit and as the rumble of the trains go by, maybe inspiration might drop from the sky.  In this case, not an apple leading to the discovery of gravity, but an apple cake sign posting to a dangerous place.  As it might make me twice the man I am.

  A quiet eating 8/10.

Lunch (main and coffee) was GBP12 excluding drinks and service.

  E5 bakehouse

[fatbastad]

Update

I’ve not been posting as much as I would like, work has been crazy stressful, and the battle with comfort eating is a daily struggle. But we’re getting there. Since I’ve stopped Slimming World we’ve fallen into the habit of simply evening meals (scrambled egg on toast, pasta and passata etc) which are low calorie but filling. Protein shake for breakfast (where I gain much of mu days nutrition) and a more robust lunch of wholemeal protein cheese sandwiches, fruit and a tiny low fat cheese. I’m finding cheese is actually quite a good snack, pretty high in protein, filling and not moreish like other snacks. I average about 1600 calories a day if I stick to my plan and though I’ve not weighed myself I can see my double chin is almost gone and my jeans are loser.

Reducing sugar has been my main goal. The less sugar I eat, the less I want it. I’m finding I don’t reach for snacks nearly as much.

Drinking more water has also helped. I bought a big bottle which I keep on my desk. My rule is that I must drink two of those before I am allowed fizzy (sugar free) drinks. It means I drink a lot less fizzy and when I do it’s a satisfying treat and replacement for a snack. I have also noticed I have more energy. My reading tells me staying properly hydrated helps boost the metabolism which might be why.

The other thing I’m focusing on is exercise. This is where Slimming World really hurt me. I spent so much time doing food prep and cleaning up after food prep that I didn’t have time for a proper exercise routine. My fitness dropped significantly and my blood pressure increased back into the danger levels. Now I have more time in the evening so I can get in a work out. I’ve also found I just generally have more energy, so getting up on time so I can walk to work has become a regular thing.

I downloaded a new app from the NHS called Active 10. It measures your walking speed. The idea is to do at least 10 minutes of brisk walk every day. I’m hitting my targets and ramping it up a notch each week.

That’s all to report really, I’m feeling good and strong. I’m sure I shall update soon with a weigh in.

[lauriecgarcia]

The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal

Wendyl Nissen’s book Supermarket Companion, how to bring home good food, is a wealth of knowledge for those looking to avoid foods laden with dangerous chemicals, there’s a comprehensive list of food colourings and additives so you can shop smarter and be more aware of what’s in processed supermarket food.

This entertaining and enlightening exert looks at breakfast foods, in particular, Nestlé Milo Oats and Kellogg’s Froot Loops (no fruit there!) and the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast that is not laden with sugar and additives.

Make sure you check out Wendyl’s findings at the end of the chapter.

Just for starters!

“Look at what?” I say, as we both gaze at the bags of shopping.Can I look at that, Grandma?” says our four-year-old grand-daughter, Lila, as I’m putting the shopping in the back of the Prius. We have just made our way around the supermarket and Lila has been a great help.

“That one there,” she says pointing at a brightly coloured box.

“Oh, that’s not for you,” I say reaching in and covering the offending piece of garish marketing with a bag of potatoes.

“Why not?” she says, disappointed.

“That’s for Grandma’s work.” I reply and hastily strap her into her car seat. “When Grandma has done her work on it, maybe you can have one next time you visit.”

Most visits to the supermarket require that I look for products that I can review in my column. This box was for some brightly coloured biscuits called Oki Doki Disco Bits. They looked frightening in terms of artificial colours and so I threw them in the trolley. Lila never said a word when I took them off the shelf, nor to my knowledge even noticed they were in the trolley. But when it comes to kid marketing Lila is a perfect target. She has an innate ability to seek and find any brightly coloured foods within a 10-meter radius.

I’m not sure what she thinks Grandma does when she “works” on these foods but she knows that they generally live on a shelf in my office, lined up and waiting for my magnifying glass to hover critically over their ingredients panel.

I know Lila knows this because it’s her first stop at every visit, once we have all been all been greeted with a cuddle, she’s patted our dog, Shirl, and gone out to check that her white hen, who she has named “Mummy”, is still around.

I had an extremely colourful and enticing box of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops sitting in my office when Lila came to visit recently. She regards my office as our “second” kitchen because on any occasion she might find all sorts of wonderful foods lined up on my shelf ready to be analysed for the column. I was in the “first” kitchen, when she appeared clutching the box of Froot Loops with a look of wonderment on her face.

“Grandma, can I please have these in a bowl with some milk?”

Something about the packaging had managed to (tell her that a) she desperately needed to eat these and b) it was a food you had in a bowl with milk.

“Why do you want them?” I asked.

“They look nice,” was all she said.

I gently pried them off her with promises of other treats and hid them in the pantry.

When I went back to get them to write about, I found that my 26-year-old son, Daniel, had succumbed to the same marketing message, but didn’t need to ask first, and ate them.

I am always astonished at the power of packaging and its ability to transfix a small child or her uncle. Lila lives in a household where her parents are very aware of food additives and eat a very healthy, real-food diet. (Not because I pressured them –they are just intelligent consumers, honestly.)

So Lila’s exposure to junk food and the bright packaging is minimal and she would have had no conditioning to tell her that inside these packets are sweet tasting, moreish foods. She just wouldn’t know. Yet something about the design of the boxes sets off a reaction in her brain which gives her the drive to search for it in bags of shopping or reach up onto a shelf and carry it all the way down the hall to me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that kids as young as Lila are directly targeted by advertising, not just on TV but also techniques such as free gifts, competitions, games and puzzles, website games and movie promotions.

And that marketing is why breakfast becomes a minefield for well meaning parents to negotiate.

Next time you are at the supermarket, wander down the breakfast aisle and take note of the packaging. It all looks fantastic. Aside from the relentless use of every bright colour in the rainbow, you will see three elements competing for your attention: chocolate, punchy bright berries and fruit and fibre.

In my house over the years, we have been through most of the cereal crazes as each of our five children has begged to be allowed a new brand and their busy working mum (former) bought them.

Have you ever noticed Jerry Seinfeld’s cereal shelf in the kitchen on Seinfeld? Next time you watch the show have a look. One internet source sets the number at nine, mostly cornflakes and shredded wheat. His cereal shelf looks exactly how ours looked for years, as every child claimed a new brand as theirs.

While you’re in the breakfast cereal aisle, see if you can find one box which lists the sugar content per 100g at less than 15g, which is what we should aim for when buying our kids cereal.

Consumer magazine conducted a survey of our breakfast cereals in 2008 and found that seven products had more than 40 per cent sugar – over three teaspoons in a 30g serve. I’ve listed them at the end of the chapter for you, in case they’re sitting on your Seinfeld cereal shelf. One of them is the aforementioned Kellogg’s Froot Loops which I prevented Lila from eating.

My focus when first studying this cereal was primarily on the three artificial colours used in it (see my findings below) but then I worked out that, if Lila had been allowed her Froot Loops with milk, she would have consumed 4.3 teaspoons of sugar in her bowl.

I can guarantee you will not find a box of cereal in the supermarket with low sugar until you come to Weet-Bix. Plain old Weet-Bix is the star of the cereal aisle, at just 2.8g per 100g. Admittedly, a lot of people add sugar, but at least you can control that and most kids enjoy eating them.

Lila eats two “bix” for breakfast every morning and won’t be swayed from them even when her grandpa is offering to make her sausages and eggs.

My mother, Elis, however, can’t stand them. Something to do with trying to avoid eating them when she was a child by sneezing into them, thinking her patents would deem that a reasonable enough excuse not to have to eat them. But no. She had to eat every last bit and has never touched them since.

As a guide, when you are out shopping, if sugar appears in the ingredients list directly under the name of the cereal, such as rice, corn or wheat, that means that the second biggest ingredient in there is sugar, and you should put it straight back on the shelf.

The other thing you need to think about is salt levels (fewer than 400mg sodium per 100g of cereal) and fibre.

We all know that we don’t get enough fibre in our diets. It’s good for bowel health and digestion and the things that give you fibre – fresh fruit, veges and wholegrains – tend to be really nutritious and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a trend for food manufacturers to add what I call “faux fibre” to their processed foods, using vegetable gums and inulin, which is a substance that occurs naturally in root vegetables, particularly chicory. Other additions include polydextrose, which is created out of dextrose (glucose), sorbitol, a low-calorie carbohydrate, and citric acid to add to processed foods, usually to provide fibre. It is called a functional fibre because no one knows if it has the same health benefits as fibre found in real foods.

A good guide for children’s fibre requirements is 5g to 15g per 100g, so look out for that on the label, and if you see inulin or vegetable gum in the ingredients panel, reject it in favour of something which uses wholegrains and fruit to provide fibre.

Another problem with most breakfast cereals is the fact that they are extruded. This means perfectly good wholegrains are ground up, made into a slurry with liquid, heated to high temperatures, then pressurised through small holes to create shapes such as rings, flakes or puffs. You have to wonder just how much nutrition gets killed off in the process with those high heats and pressures.

OFTEN WHEN I’M out and about, people like to talk about the food column and what it has taught them.

“Thank goodness Krispies are okay,” said my aunt. “They’re my favourite biscuit.”

“I haven’t touched a raspberry jam slice since the day I read your column,” said a woman I met at a knitting bee.

And, of course, many people have suggestions for foods I should look at. By far the most disturbing conversation along these lines with a woman I was doing some work with.

“I have this friend who basically throws those cartons of Up&Go at her kids from dawn until dusk,” she said. “That’s all they eat. For breakfast they sit there in the car sucking on them on their way to school, they have another one with their lunch and sometimes dinner too. I’ve tried to tell her they need some real food but she believes they are good for them.  Are they?”

Then I got the emails about UP&Go: “My kids have one every day and I’m wondering how healthy they are,” said one mother.

“I really don’t like this product because it has so much sugar and it’s like this giving your child a milkshake for breakfast,” said another.

I was well acquainted with Up&Go. My son Daniel has never been a great breakfast eater, and so for a while he took one of these with him but in the end he didn’t even eat those, claiming the texture was weird.

Up&Go, for those who are not familiar with it, is a drink which is endorsed by the All Blacks in its advertising campaign and claims on the box to have “the protein, energy and dietary fibre of 2 Weet-Bix and milk”.

It is reasonable that parents like myself would read that and presume that in the little box we are handing over to our kids is simply two Weet-Bix and some milk all mashed up. And presumably it would have the same nutritional benefits.

Wrong.

The label should also state that it has 11.7g more sugar and 13 more ingredients than a simple bowl of Weet-Bix and milk. By the time I’d finished writing the column I was quite angry with Sanitarium for the misconception and wrote: “Is it really that hard to get a kid to sit down at the kitchen table and eat solid food these days? Are we raising a nation of astronauts in training who need to develop a taste for liquid food?”

I think if you’ve got a kid who needs something quick to eat in the car you can throw them a banana. And if you’ve got a kid who only likes to drink their meals, whip up a smoothie, put it in a bottle and let them drink that. On the Sanitarium website they even recommend that you throw a Weet-Bix into the smoothies.

I also took a look at Nestlé Milo Oats, mainly because Pearl had picked them up in the super-market and loved them. I’m a big fan of oats, as not only are they a good source of fibre but they also do wonderful soothing things to your digestive system.

Nestlé have a range of breakfast cereals marketed under the Milo name and some are better than others. Milo Oats is a better one.

I found that they weren’t too high in sugar and were a good source of fibre. I saw them as a great food to get kids interested in porridge for breakfast. I also found a study which showed that children who had oats for breakfast had better spatial memory (which means being able to remember geographical details like the interior of your house), better short-term memory and better listening attention than children who ate ready-to-eat cereal or no breakfast at all. Pearl was very relieved.

PUTTING THE CHOICE of cereal for your kids aside, there is a bigger problem emerging on the horizon for families, and that’s the kid who just won’t eat breakfast. This is cause for concern because every study you read emphasises the importance of breakfast for kids to kickstart their brains and give them the energy to see them through a day of learning school.

One University of Sydney study, conveniently commissioned by Kellogg’s, looked at the type of breakfast eaten by 800 New South Wales children aged eight to 16, across 19 different schools. The students who ate breakfast before their tests performed better, and those who ate the most nutritious breakfasts, such as cereal and milk, or eggs on toast, got the highest scores. They also scored higher on literacy and numeracy tests than their classmates who ate only toast.

It is easy to see why many parents faced with a non breakfast-child will be less fussy about the food they consume, reasoning that at least they’re eating something. We let two of our children, Daniel and his step-sister Alex, go to school on a diet of Pop-Tarts (basically jam-filled pastries you heat up in the toaster) for months because we were just so glad they were eating something.

In the end we settled on toasted sandwiches, smoothies and, if all else failed, a banana. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t like the taste and as a food they have a lot going for them. They have lots of carbohydrates for energy, are low in fat, and are potassium-rich, which is great for muscles. They also have some protein and iron.

Instead of throwing an Up&Go at your child on the way to school, swap it for a banana a carton of milk, which will give protein, calcium, zinc, vitamins A and B, and iodine.

I’m very much a toast and a cup of tea girl at breakfast, and it gives me enough energy, even with a gym work out to see me through to lunch. Which is when I go outside to raid the chicken coop and find some delicious, bright yellow-yolked eggs.

MY FINDINGS

Nestlé Milo Oats

I see this as a great transition product to get children who may be used to the a diet of high sugar processed breakfast cereal used to the taste and texture of oats which are a very healthy option for the reasons above. By the time they’ve gone through a packet of these, they might just like a bowl of real porridge with some fresh banana and honey mixed in which is less sweet option than this product and better for them. It also means that your child sets off on a cold winter’s morning with a warm breakfast in their stomach, which is a nice old-fashioned thing to do, and the effect of the oats on their memory and listening skills might be good too.

Summary:

Three teaspoons of sugar in every serving if made with milk, but with water only one and half teaspoons.

20g of oats in every serve which is a great option for good nutrition, and oats have proven benefits for your child’s memory and listening skills.

A great transition food to get your child interested in eating porridge on a winter’s morning.

**Nestle still use palm oil so be sure to read your labels**

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

There is just something irresistible to children about food which comes in fun colours and Froot Loops certainly fulfils that expectation. It even has the sell line “a fun fuel for adventurous kids.”

There is no doubting your kids will love this cereal and hoover it down. But why not teach your children that real food doesn’t come in six fun, mostly artificial colours? Most children are quite happy to eat Weet-Bix which by comparison has only 0.8g of sugar per serve or 6.8g per serve with milk. It also uses wholegrains and has more fibre. Top it with some fresh fruit, like strawberries and peaches, and you have a great breakfast with plenty of natural colour.

And perhaps follow a rule for eating by the author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan, who says “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.’’

Summary:

Contains 38 per cent sugar.

Has three artificial colours which are banned in other countries.

Uses natural flavourings.

Wendyl Nissen

Photos by Fischer Twins  Etienne Girardet  rawpixel  Peter Lewicki

The post The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal appeared first on Wendyls Green Goddess.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.wendyls.co.nz/low-breakfast-cereal/ from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180272183077

[travelworldnetwork]

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A sunset view of Barcelona, one of the world's most vibrant and avant-garde cities. Photo: Alamy

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The last time I stood here, looking up at Barcelona's famous La Sagrada Familia, it was 2006 and my three girlfriends and I were making a pact: let's never return to this city, as long as we all shall live.

Yet here I am. The shards of a broken promise at my feet, as 12 years peel away to reveal the distressing situations that led to our oath. The make-your-own-sangria-fuelled cooking class. The accidental splitting of our group on Las Ramblas. The swiping of my friend's bag at dinner. My other friend and I hiding from some undesirables in a nightclub bathroom.

That our youthful foolhardiness was as much to blame as the city was a fact that took me more than decade to admit. As author Alain de Botton rightly reflects in his philosophical tome The Art of Travel, "a danger of travel is that we see things at the wrong time, before we have had a chance to build up the necessary receptivity and when new information is therefore useless and fugitive as necklace beads without a connection chain".

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A tapas bar with hanging jamon over the counter is part of the city's top drinking and dining scene. Photo: Alamy

Realising that perhaps I wasn't ready for Barcelona back then, I decided it deserved a second chance. This time around, however, I'd do it right, putting myself in the hands of luxury tour experts Abercrombie & Kent, to present Barcelona to me in her most flattering light.

As we enter the neo-classical facade of the El Palace Hotel, and wander through the gilded lobby, I'm visited by the ghost of poor accommodation choices past. Back in 2006, a grande dame hotel with a fancy doorman was something my friends and I could have only dreamt of. In those pre-Airbnb days we'd rented an apartment, sight unseen, off a strange man at the train station. We'd headed to the city's outer limits to find our digs were flea-infested and had cockroaches in the coffee. It hadn't gotten us off to the best start with the Catalonian capital, I realise as I sip tea on the El Palace rooftop pool terrace with 360-degree views over the city.

Soon, my travel compadres and I are wandering old Barcelona's sun-splashed laneways in search of the city's most impressive architecture, something I couldn't have cared less about at 22. Our first stop is the Palau de la Musica Catalana concert hall, one of Barcelona's best examples of Modernista architecture, created by architect Domenech i Montaner in 1908. Studying the stone pillars covered in intricate floral mosaics embellishing the facade, I realise I probably walked right past this extraordinary building 12 years ago. More fool me if I did. Because entering the upstairs auditorium, a kaleidoscope of ceramic roses, chandeliers, sculptures and stained glass, feels like walking inside a life-sized music box. I understand our guide perfectly when she says you can feel that this structure, originally built for the Orfeo Catala musical society, was the love child of people united by music. Some may find the building over the top, but to me it is music in physical form.

As we continue walking, I wonder how I could have once overlooked the psychedelic mosaiced facade of Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batllo as we pass it, and the wave-like stone balconies of La Pedrera. Perhaps I hadn't matured enough to find these buildings worthy of appreciation. Or maybe I was so cranky at the city by that point that I'd simply had my blinkers on.

The real star of Barcelona's architectural show however, Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, I did see 12 years ago – although only for the three minutes it took to snap a selfie in front of it. I knew nothing about Gaudi the man, or the significance of his avant-garde masterpiece, which attracts 3 million tourists annually. Today, happily, we have Abercrombie & Kent's art expert Maria Teresa Farriols accompanying us, a petite, animated, Gaudi-obsessed blonde. "There are three men in my life," she tells us, "Gaudi, Dali, and my son."

Farriols walks us around the exterior of what will eventually be the world's tallest church, when it finally gets completed in 2026. The first stone was laid in 1882, she says, adding that the Catalan architect believed God had all the time in the world so there was no need to rush it to completion. We marvel at the dizzying spires and botanical and religious sculptures covering the exterior, before heading inside. The soaring vaulted ceilings leave us feeling as though we've entered a gigantic stone forest, while the Murano stained glass throws rainbows across the floor. "Gaudi took inspiration from his dreams," Farriols whispers, "he was connected to a higher force." She explains the intricacies of the debate that has raged for more than a century about whether this mind-bending building is genius or folly. No matter which side of the fence you sit on, it's an undeniably brilliant feat of imaginative construction that it's almost impossible not to be moved by.

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Later, as I wander the boutique-lined laneways of the medieval Born district, I get to thinking about timing in travel. Maybe, instead of lamenting all I missed during my first Barcelona trip, I can appreciate all I've learnt about travel in the 12 years since.

How to properly research and plan for a trip, yes, but also how to give a destination's history and culture the appreciation it deserves.That includes culinary culture, I realise as our small group sits for supper at a trendy, intimate downtown tapas restaurant named Casa Lolea. In 2006, my friends and I had skipped dinner in favour of taking a cooking class.

Which sounds classy. Until you discover the class was run by a company called Smashed. And that other than learning how to make bastardised sangria, all we really learnt to cook was tomato toast.

Tonight, however, we get a taste of Barcelona's world-class drinking and dining scene. We sip organic sangria and nibble lip-smacking morsels of pickled octopus, tuna ceviche, melt-in-the-mouth jamon and creamy patatas bravas. We toast, we chat, we laugh. It's a near-flawless Catalonian food experience, and the perfect prelude to phase two of our night.

Soon, we're picked up in classic red and bottle-green sidecars and, as the day starts to fade, we whiz through the boulevards of the elegant Eixample district and the Gothic Quarter. No wonder Barcelona so inspired artists like Picasso and Miro, I think as the wind whips my hair and the city lights start twinkling all around us.

Arriving at the Montjuic hilltop, we clamber out of our sidecars for a glass of cava, Spain's moreish sparkling wine. As I sip, I gaze out over the sprawling city. How, I wonder, could I have ever used the word ''hate'' in reference to one of the world's most vibrant and avant-garde cities? I raise my glass: to Barcelona, for finally showing herself to me, to growing up, and to second chances.

TRIP NOTES

MORE

traveller.com.au/barcelona

abercrombiekent.com.au

FLY

Cathay Pacific flies from Sydney to Barcelona via Hong Kong.See cathaypacific.com

TOUR

Abercrombie & Kent specialises in private and small group journeys to Spain. An eight-day private journey through the north of Spain, including two nights at Hotel El Palace Barcelona, two nights in San Sebastian, two nights in Bilbao and two nights in Madrid, is from $14,855 per person twin share. See abercrombiekent.com.au

Nina Karnikowski travelled as a guest of Abercrombie & Kent and Cathay Pacific.

from traveller.com.au

The post I vowed never to return to Barcelona. I was wrong appeared first on Travel World Network.

[brieflyteenagetastemaker-blog]

Types Of Beer

Kinds Of Beer

There was a steady line of people all day and shoot if I did not have some down right respectable conversations with a lot of them. So, to that extent, there can be little against what is occurring now can there? Too typically you possibly can inform by that visible and olfactory inspection that things simply aren't going to be nearly as good as you want. Some just like the added style that not eradicating solids from beer gives - and that taste is not all or all the time good - and some consider, me among them - that the flavours develop into imprecise, muddied if you like. Residence brewing might be fun and also you cannot beat the rewards of taking that first sip of beer that you simply made. The most expensive residence beer kits generally provide glass fermentation containers. Whether a custom residential, renovation, spec home, town residence or commercial venture, we stand dedicated in our resolve to offer responsive, dependable and personal service to our clients. My breakfast for R55 was fairly good, two eggs, two sausage, bacon, tomato, toast and espresso and it went down reasonably effectively.

B.R. and I've the same process, and Mike, who's a reasonably new choose, was down with our technique. Session Beer Brewing added the inexperienced beans and the spring onions, and right here I should have added the tomato and onion combine, after which let it simmer some extra whereas I obtained another beer (myself). This is not Completely True, Although . My nostril tickles with itch of pollen. It didn't take long after that for breweries to realize that they could put their names on the glasses and provides them to bars that served their beers. I refused this and was served with an especially indifferent however freshly poured pint of Satisfaction. Doing issues to make CAMRA glad may make them say good things about your pub or brewery. I used to be vastly impressed with what Valter was doing. It had been an pleasurable and a rewarding day spent with good buddies doing one thing that felt good. When they heard I used to be now not going to assist with City Jungle Brewing, they asked if I used to be excited by doing an identical program at Council Brewing.

The brewers had been also visiting, so it was a superb probability to speak to them and get some suggestions for my own fledgling brewing empire. As an alternative, the client space is a small space with beer to go however you can get 2oz. tasters of every beer. The nice success of craft beer around the globe is further testament to this. Off The Shoulder Blouses learners,3 And put him into the nice deep, and he grew thoughtful. Or, technically, Bud Light will have to place its beer the place Eagles fans' mouths are. Have I scientifically examined my beer for proof? The less mess you will have in the beginning, the less you need to try to filter out at the end. Janet prompt "Offal potjie" at "Vlakvarkgat" out on the R27 - perfect! Out of a gallon you will get between eight and ten bottles, relying upon how much beer you might be keen to depart behind to keep away from trub in the bottles and how shut to at least one gallon your publish-boil volume really is. We are on vacation with our household; our daughter, son in legislation and two grandsons who are visiting from the UK so as you'll be able to imagine there isn't much biking occurring.

And, for those who'd relatively move on tequila, there are sangrias, beer-primarily based cocktails and the same old again bar. Effectively, really, beer itself contains no fat and there are plenty of beer diets you can try to get skinny (beer diets aren't primarily based on calorie counting). It is a 6.Eight% beer that is effortlessly drinkable and deliciously, if not dangerously, moreish. Resulting from a scarcity of brown glass in Europe in the course of the 20th century, green glass was used more frequently and it was incorrectly assumed the beer was of a greater high quality. And this could surprise no one: Germans know beer. It was launched in 1982 as Budweiser Light. It is an extremely pale golden beer, with a faint haze, adense white head, and a surprisingly gentle body. Bitters are a sub-class of Pale Ales however it isn't always easy to differentiate between the 2. The majority of Americans live within 10 miles of a craft brewer, based on the Brewers Affiliation.

I can up with a really effective sport style. They are often taught. With the seclusion got here extra eccentricities. Candy maltiness and caramel malt should be evident. It's positively completely different from the taste of crystal malt itself. I continue to make use of sour worting myself but some of these resources may be useful even for these kettle souring with lab-supplied micro organism. I knew that traditionally Kvass was formulated on rye and different darkish breads, however I had to make use of what was accessible. I by no means as soon as paid to use web in Australia. Additionally, be also conscious of the different dangers and different problems which you might encounter. We lately enjoyed a high quality evening of food and drink at Kitty Hoynes, a pub and eatery situated within the Armory Square area of Syracuse, NY. I preferred the two-month-outdated ones made with Rittenhouse Rye about the one-month-outdated made with Buffalo Hint Bourbon. Battle Of The Beers (Triple). You cannot lie about your fee of pay at your final job because that is the one factor the employer appears into.

[spotlightsaga]

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... Snowfall (S01E01) Pilot Airdate: July 5, 2017 @fxnetworks Ratings: 1.361 Million :: 0.58 18-49 Demo Share Score: 7/10 **********SPOILERS BELOW********** The biggest and best thing 'Snowfall' has going on for it right off the bat, is that people really WANT it to succeed. That means no matter what really went down or how they moved the specific puzzle pieces, arranging them to get the series to where it needs to be to move forward, people were always going to embrace it (well, almost anything). Not that 'Snowfall' needs all the blind enthusiasm it's been been getting since the first teaser trailer hit the internet... It seems to be doing just find without all of the overeager fanfare. The series itself isn't exactly breaking the mold, but it is moving right into place where busting through a glass ceiling is totally possible, just by creating the 'real deal', throwback South Central LA. It's simple really, elementary even, and that's all it needs to be... The background is set, Los Angeles 1983. Cocaine has hit an all time high. Shit is so deep, DEA agents are having hookers blow cocaine up their ass through a straw, much like the wild parties I witnessed (and *possibly * was a part of) in the late 90's... Except we used Ecstasy, MDMA... Cocaine is so 'Moreish', fiendish, if you will. Ecstasy is so... 'Let me open that door for you! OMG you're so soft!' While Cocaine is all, "I should buy a boat!" Straight from the hood, Frankie (Damson Idris) hits up high end parties in swanky homes around LA... He's the weed guy, at least for now. When he hits up a friend, or recurring customer's party and they run out of coke, the rich kids are too afraid to hit up the Israeli Gangster Avi Drexler (Alon Aboutboul)... So send the black guy, right? No fear and all. Interesting to think of it in those terms because despite being of color in 1983, Frankie has managed to rise above the nasty head of expectations for a young man like him, coming out of the type of 'closed door' hellhole environment a 'hood' creates. Frankie is savvy, smart, and ultimately likable... But everything he's achieved, he's had to work twice as hard for. Even though technically striking up a deal like the 'front' he made with Drexler isn't exactly legal... It's still incredibly smart, yet at the same time incredibly stupid. I guess it all depends on how you look at it, and I prefer to see Frankie dipping his toes in both pools. It might not be the smartest move considering how much he's achieved and how intelligent the kid truly is, but all good tales take wrong turns... At least the ones worth telling do. Frankie isn't one of the main protagonists in 'Snowfall' because he's a good decision factory. However, it will be a fun and exhilarating trip to see Frankie maneuver and squirm himself out of slippery situations, and judging by the pilot there will be LOTS of close calls and high tension in Frankie's future. Frankie isn't the only set of eyes we are seeing this vivid, sun-drenched, hazy neon world full of mountains of white powder & rocks, aged to perfection with sepia soaked tones. We have a young, 28-year old CIA Agent, Carter Hudson (Teddy McDonald) who's pulled into an inside job via BIG GOV to keep powder flowing like the inside of a baby's rashy crack (a word that will come into play soon enough)... And after his friend dies in the most unfortunate and unconventional manners (keep it classy, guys, dying with a coke full of straw up your ass isn't exactly dying with dignity), he's left to clean up the mess and a whole hot tub full of the finest coke the Westside of Mississippi to distribute. Let us not forget the 1983 version of Rey Mysterio, only not as popular, Gustavo 'El Oso' Zapata (Sergio Peris-Mencheta)... He's working his way up the chain because his real dream is failing. The latter I find one of the most fascinating angles so far, not just because I'm a wrestling fan... But because I know what it feels like to keep kicking at a door and never being fully able to knock it down. Maybe a little money could change that? According to Franklin's Uncle Jerome (Amin Joseph), 'Money ain't nothing but paper with them crackers faces on it'. Doesn't look like Frankie will be getting too much help from his Uncle... Ain't that a shame. All of these men are in unique spaces because they are on their own in one way or another, left with mounds and mounds of cocaine without the faintest as to how to get to get rid of any of it. There's danger around every corner and we have some incredibly compelling characters emerging outside the three main protagonists, who all three sustain convincing, compelling performances both on their own and in various combinations & pairings with their fellow cast members... Connecting them all in some way or another, just begging to be fleshed out. Franklin at least has his Aunt Louie (Angela Lewis), who turns out one of the most provocative performances of the episode. She introduces Frankie to an 'old pal' who takes a bit of convincing to take the deal. Even in 1983, showing up on someone's doorstep you haven't seen in awhile, especially if you have done them dirty in any way shape or form, with a kilo of coke isn't necessarily the idea of the situation... But it certainly hammers home the desperation of the situation, and 'Snowfall' uses that desperation, that intensity to its advantage. This one could be a lot of fun, but it's going to have to grow into itself and prove to be something separate from the rest of the pack. I got money on it.

[lauriecgarcia]

The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal

Wendyl Nissen’s book Supermarket Companion, how to bring home good food, is a wealth of knowledge for those looking to avoid foods laden with dangerous chemicals, there’s a comprehensive list of food colourings and additives so you can shop smarter and be more aware of what’s in processed supermarket food.

This entertaining and enlightening exert looks at breakfast foods, in particular, Nestlé Milo Oats and Kellogg’s Froot Loops (no fruit there!) and the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast that is not laden with sugar and additives.

Make sure you check out Wendyl’s findings at the end of the chapter.

Just for starters!

“Look at what?” I say, as we both gaze at the bags of shopping.Can I look at that, Grandma?” says our four-year-old grand-daughter, Lila, as I’m putting the shopping in the back of the Prius. We have just made our way around the supermarket and Lila has been a great help.

“That one there,” she says pointing at a brightly coloured box.

“Oh, that’s not for you,” I say reaching in and covering the offending piece of garish marketing with a bag of potatoes.

“Why not?” she says, disappointed.

“That’s for Grandma’s work.” I reply and hastily strap her into her car seat. “When Grandma has done her work on it, maybe you can have one next time you visit.”

Most visits to the supermarket require that I look for products that I can review in my column. This box was for some brightly coloured biscuits called Oki Doki Disco Bits. They looked frightening in terms of artificial colours and so I threw them in the trolley. Lila never said a word when I took them off the shelf, nor to my knowledge even noticed they were in the trolley. But when it comes to kid marketing Lila is a perfect target. She has an innate ability to seek and find any brightly coloured foods within a 10-meter radius.

I’m not sure what she thinks Grandma does when she “works” on these foods but she knows that they generally live on a shelf in my office, lined up and waiting for my magnifying glass to hover critically over their ingredients panel.

I know Lila knows this because it’s her first stop at every visit, once we have all been all been greeted with a cuddle, she’s patted our dog, Shirl, and gone out to check that her white hen, who she has named “Mummy”, is still around.

I had an extremely colourful and enticing box of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops sitting in my office when Lila came to visit recently. She regards my office as our “second” kitchen because on any occasion she might find all sorts of wonderful foods lined up on my shelf ready to be analysed for the column. I was in the “first” kitchen, when she appeared clutching the box of Froot Loops with a look of wonderment on her face.

“Grandma, can I please have these in a bowl with some milk?”

Something about the packaging had managed to (tell her that a) she desperately needed to eat these and b) it was a food you had in a bowl with milk.

“Why do you want them?” I asked.

“They look nice,” was all she said.

I gently pried them off her with promises of other treats and hid them in the pantry.

When I went back to get them to write about, I found that my 26-year-old son, Daniel, had succumbed to the same marketing message, but didn’t need to ask first, and ate them.

I am always astonished at the power of packaging and its ability to transfix a small child or her uncle. Lila lives in a household where her parents are very aware of food additives and eat a very healthy, real-food diet. (Not because I pressured them –they are just intelligent consumers, honestly.)

So Lila’s exposure to junk food and the bright packaging is minimal and she would have had no conditioning to tell her that inside these packets are sweet tasting, moreish foods. She just wouldn’t know. Yet something about the design of the boxes sets off a reaction in her brain which gives her the drive to search for it in bags of shopping or reach up onto a shelf and carry it all the way down the hall to me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that kids as young as Lila are directly targeted by advertising, not just on TV but also techniques such as free gifts, competitions, games and puzzles, website games and movie promotions.

And that marketing is why breakfast becomes a minefield for well meaning parents to negotiate.

Next time you are at the supermarket, wander down the breakfast aisle and take note of the packaging. It all looks fantastic. Aside from the relentless use of every bright colour in the rainbow, you will see three elements competing for your attention: chocolate, punchy bright berries and fruit and fibre.

In my house over the years, we have been through most of the cereal crazes as each of our five children has begged to be allowed a new brand and their busy working mum (former) bought them.

Have you ever noticed Jerry Seinfeld’s cereal shelf in the kitchen on Seinfeld? Next time you watch the show have a look. One internet source sets the number at nine, mostly cornflakes and shredded wheat. His cereal shelf looks exactly how ours looked for years, as every child claimed a new brand as theirs.

While you’re in the breakfast cereal aisle, see if you can find one box which lists the sugar content per 100g at less than 15g, which is what we should aim for when buying our kids cereal.

Consumer magazine conducted a survey of our breakfast cereals in 2008 and found that seven products had more than 40 per cent sugar – over three teaspoons in a 30g serve. I’ve listed them at the end of the chapter for you, in case they’re sitting on your Seinfeld cereal shelf. One of them is the aforementioned Kellogg’s Froot Loops which I prevented Lila from eating.

My focus when first studying this cereal was primarily on the three artificial colours used in it (see my findings below) but then I worked out that, if Lila had been allowed her Froot Loops with milk, she would have consumed 4.3 teaspoons of sugar in her bowl.

I can guarantee you will not find a box of cereal in the supermarket with low sugar until you come to Weet-Bix. Plain old Weet-Bix is the star of the cereal aisle, at just 2.8g per 100g. Admittedly, a lot of people add sugar, but at least you can control that and most kids enjoy eating them.

Lila eats two “bix” for breakfast every morning and won’t be swayed from them even when her grandpa is offering to make her sausages and eggs.

My mother, Elis, however, can’t stand them. Something to do with trying to avoid eating them when she was a child by sneezing into them, thinking her patents would deem that a reasonable enough excuse not to have to eat them. But no. She had to eat every last bit and has never touched them since.

As a guide, when you are out shopping, if sugar appears in the ingredients list directly under the name of the cereal, such as rice, corn or wheat, that means that the second biggest ingredient in there is sugar, and you should put it straight back on the shelf.

The other thing you need to think about is salt levels (fewer than 400mg sodium per 100g of cereal) and fibre.

We all know that we don’t get enough fibre in our diets. It’s good for bowel health and digestion and the things that give you fibre – fresh fruit, veges and wholegrains – tend to be really nutritious and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a trend for food manufacturers to add what I call “faux fibre” to their processed foods, using vegetable gums and inulin, which is a substance that occurs naturally in root vegetables, particularly chicory. Other additions include polydextrose, which is created out of dextrose (glucose), sorbitol, a low-calorie carbohydrate, and citric acid to add to processed foods, usually to provide fibre. It is called a functional fibre because no one knows if it has the same health benefits as fibre found in real foods.

A good guide for children’s fibre requirements is 5g to 15g per 100g, so look out for that on the label, and if you see inulin or vegetable gum in the ingredients panel, reject it in favour of something which uses wholegrains and fruit to provide fibre.

Another problem with most breakfast cereals is the fact that they are extruded. This means perfectly good wholegrains are ground up, made into a slurry with liquid, heated to high temperatures, then pressurised through small holes to create shapes such as rings, flakes or puffs. You have to wonder just how much nutrition gets killed off in the process with those high heats and pressures.

OFTEN WHEN I’M out and about, people like to talk about the food column and what it has taught them.

“Thank goodness Krispies are okay,” said my aunt. “They’re my favourite biscuit.”

“I haven’t touched a raspberry jam slice since the day I read your column,” said a woman I met at a knitting bee.

And, of course, many people have suggestions for foods I should look at. By far the most disturbing conversation along these lines with a woman I was doing some work with.

“I have this friend who basically throws those cartons of Up&Go at her kids from dawn until dusk,” she said. “That’s all they eat. For breakfast they sit there in the car sucking on them on their way to school, they have another one with their lunch and sometimes dinner too. I’ve tried to tell her they need some real food but she believes they are good for them.  Are they?”

Then I got the emails about UP&Go: “My kids have one every day and I’m wondering how healthy they are,” said one mother.

“I really don’t like this product because it has so much sugar and it’s like this giving your child a milkshake for breakfast,” said another.

I was well acquainted with Up&Go. My son Daniel has never been a great breakfast eater, and so for a while he took one of these with him but in the end he didn’t even eat those, claiming the texture was weird.

Up&Go, for those who are not familiar with it, is a drink which is endorsed by the All Blacks in its advertising campaign and claims on the box to have “the protein, energy and dietary fibre of 2 Weet-Bix and milk”.

It is reasonable that parents like myself would read that and presume that in the little box we are handing over to our kids is simply two Weet-Bix and some milk all mashed up. And presumably it would have the same nutritional benefits.

Wrong.

The label should also state that it has 11.7g more sugar and 13 more ingredients than a simple bowl of Weet-Bix and milk. By the time I’d finished writing the column I was quite angry with Sanitarium for the misconception and wrote: “Is it really that hard to get a kid to sit down at the kitchen table and eat solid food these days? Are we raising a nation of astronauts in training who need to develop a taste for liquid food?”

I think if you’ve got a kid who needs something quick to eat in the car you can throw them a banana. And if you’ve got a kid who only likes to drink their meals, whip up a smoothie, put it in a bottle and let them drink that. On the Sanitarium website they even recommend that you throw a Weet-Bix into the smoothies.

I also took a look at Nestlé Milo Oats, mainly because Pearl had picked them up in the super-market and loved them. I’m a big fan of oats, as not only are they a good source of fibre but they also do wonderful soothing things to your digestive system.

Nestlé have a range of breakfast cereals marketed under the Milo name and some are better than others. Milo Oats is a better one.

I found that they weren’t too high in sugar and were a good source of fibre. I saw them as a great food to get kids interested in porridge for breakfast. I also found a study which showed that children who had oats for breakfast had better spatial memory (which means being able to remember geographical details like the interior of your house), better short-term memory and better listening attention than children who ate ready-to-eat cereal or no breakfast at all. Pearl was very relieved.

PUTTING THE CHOICE of cereal for your kids aside, there is a bigger problem emerging on the horizon for families, and that’s the kid who just won’t eat breakfast. This is cause for concern because every study you read emphasises the importance of breakfast for kids to kickstart their brains and give them the energy to see them through a day of learning school.

One University of Sydney study, conveniently commissioned by Kellogg’s, looked at the type of breakfast eaten by 800 New South Wales children aged eight to 16, across 19 different schools. The students who ate breakfast before their tests performed better, and those who ate the most nutritious breakfasts, such as cereal and milk, or eggs on toast, got the highest scores. They also scored higher on literacy and numeracy tests than their classmates who ate only toast.

It is easy to see why many parents faced with a non breakfast-child will be less fussy about the food they consume, reasoning that at least they’re eating something. We let two of our children, Daniel and his step-sister Alex, go to school on a diet of Pop-Tarts (basically jam-filled pastries you heat up in the toaster) for months because we were just so glad they were eating something.

In the end we settled on toasted sandwiches, smoothies and, if all else failed, a banana. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t like the taste and as a food they have a lot going for them. They have lots of carbohydrates for energy, are low in fat, and are potassium-rich, which is great for muscles. They also have some protein and iron.

Instead of throwing an Up&Go at your child on the way to school, swap it for a banana a carton of milk, which will give protein, calcium, zinc, vitamins A and B, and iodine.

I’m very much a toast and a cup of tea girl at breakfast, and it gives me enough energy, even with a gym work out to see me through to lunch. Which is when I go outside to raid the chicken coop and find some delicious, bright yellow-yolked eggs.

MY FINDINGS

Nestlé Milo Oats

I see this as a great transition product to get children who may be used to the a diet of high sugar processed breakfast cereal used to the taste and texture of oats which are a very healthy option for the reasons above. By the time they’ve gone through a packet of these, they might just like a bowl of real porridge with some fresh banana and honey mixed in which is less sweet option than this product and better for them. It also means that your child sets off on a cold winter’s morning with a warm breakfast in their stomach, which is a nice old-fashioned thing to do, and the effect of the oats on their memory and listening skills might be good too.

Summary:

Three teaspoons of sugar in every serving if made with milk, but with water only one and half teaspoons.

20g of oats in every serve which is a great option for good nutrition, and oats have proven benefits for your child’s memory and listening skills.

A great transition food to get your child interested in eating porridge on a winter’s morning.

**Nestle still use palm oil so be sure to read your labels**

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

There is just something irresistible to children about food which comes in fun colours and Froot Loops certainly fulfils that expectation. It even has the sell line “a fun fuel for adventurous kids.”

There is no doubting your kids will love this cereal and hoover it down. But why not teach your children that real food doesn’t come in six fun, mostly artificial colours? Most children are quite happy to eat Weet-Bix which by comparison has only 0.8g of sugar per serve or 6.8g per serve with milk. It also uses wholegrains and has more fibre. Top it with some fresh fruit, like strawberries and peaches, and you have a great breakfast with plenty of natural colour.

And perhaps follow a rule for eating by the author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan, who says “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.’’

Summary:

Contains 38 per cent sugar.

Has three artificial colours which are banned in other countries.

Uses natural flavourings.

Wendyl Nissen

Photos by Fischer Twins  Etienne Girardet  rawpixel  Peter Lewicki

The post The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal appeared first on Wendyls Green Goddess.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.wendyls.co.nz/low-breakfast-cereal/ from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180270065247

[lauriecgarcia]

The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal

Wendyl Nissen’s book Supermarket Companion, how to bring home good food, is a wealth of knowledge for those looking to avoid foods laden with dangerous chemicals, there’s a comprehensive list of food colourings and additives so you can shop smarter and be more aware of what’s in processed supermarket food.

This entertaining and enlightening exert looks at breakfast foods, in particular, Nestlé Milo Oats and Kellogg’s Froot Loops (no fruit there!) and the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast that is not laden with sugar and additives.

Make sure you check out Wendyl’s findings at the end of the chapter.

Just for starters!

“Look at what?” I say, as we both gaze at the bags of shopping.Can I look at that, Grandma?” says our four-year-old grand-daughter, Lila, as I’m putting the shopping in the back of the Prius. We have just made our way around the supermarket and Lila has been a great help.

“That one there,” she says pointing at a brightly coloured box.

“Oh, that’s not for you,” I say reaching in and covering the offending piece of garish marketing with a bag of potatoes.

“Why not?” she says, disappointed.

“That’s for Grandma’s work.” I reply and hastily strap her into her car seat. “When Grandma has done her work on it, maybe you can have one next time you visit.”

Most visits to the supermarket require that I look for products that I can review in my column. This box was for some brightly coloured biscuits called Oki Doki Disco Bits. They looked frightening in terms of artificial colours and so I threw them in the trolley. Lila never said a word when I took them off the shelf, nor to my knowledge even noticed they were in the trolley. But when it comes to kid marketing Lila is a perfect target. She has an innate ability to seek and find any brightly coloured foods within a 10-meter radius.

I’m not sure what she thinks Grandma does when she “works” on these foods but she knows that they generally live on a shelf in my office, lined up and waiting for my magnifying glass to hover critically over their ingredients panel.

I know Lila knows this because it’s her first stop at every visit, once we have all been all been greeted with a cuddle, she’s patted our dog, Shirl, and gone out to check that her white hen, who she has named “Mummy”, is still around.

I had an extremely colourful and enticing box of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops sitting in my office when Lila came to visit recently. She regards my office as our “second” kitchen because on any occasion she might find all sorts of wonderful foods lined up on my shelf ready to be analysed for the column. I was in the “first” kitchen, when she appeared clutching the box of Froot Loops with a look of wonderment on her face.

“Grandma, can I please have these in a bowl with some milk?”

Something about the packaging had managed to (tell her that a) she desperately needed to eat these and b) it was a food you had in a bowl with milk.

“Why do you want them?” I asked.

“They look nice,” was all she said.

I gently pried them off her with promises of other treats and hid them in the pantry.

When I went back to get them to write about, I found that my 26-year-old son, Daniel, had succumbed to the same marketing message, but didn’t need to ask first, and ate them.

I am always astonished at the power of packaging and its ability to transfix a small child or her uncle. Lila lives in a household where her parents are very aware of food additives and eat a very healthy, real-food diet. (Not because I pressured them –they are just intelligent consumers, honestly.)

So Lila’s exposure to junk food and the bright packaging is minimal and she would have had no conditioning to tell her that inside these packets are sweet tasting, moreish foods. She just wouldn’t know. Yet something about the design of the boxes sets off a reaction in her brain which gives her the drive to search for it in bags of shopping or reach up onto a shelf and carry it all the way down the hall to me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that kids as young as Lila are directly targeted by advertising, not just on TV but also techniques such as free gifts, competitions, games and puzzles, website games and movie promotions.

And that marketing is why breakfast becomes a minefield for well meaning parents to negotiate.

Next time you are at the supermarket, wander down the breakfast aisle and take note of the packaging. It all looks fantastic. Aside from the relentless use of every bright colour in the rainbow, you will see three elements competing for your attention: chocolate, punchy bright berries and fruit and fibre.

In my house over the years, we have been through most of the cereal crazes as each of our five children has begged to be allowed a new brand and their busy working mum (former) bought them.

Have you ever noticed Jerry Seinfeld’s cereal shelf in the kitchen on Seinfeld? Next time you watch the show have a look. One internet source sets the number at nine, mostly cornflakes and shredded wheat. His cereal shelf looks exactly how ours looked for years, as every child claimed a new brand as theirs.

While you’re in the breakfast cereal aisle, see if you can find one box which lists the sugar content per 100g at less than 15g, which is what we should aim for when buying our kids cereal.

Consumer magazine conducted a survey of our breakfast cereals in 2008 and found that seven products had more than 40 per cent sugar – over three teaspoons in a 30g serve. I’ve listed them at the end of the chapter for you, in case they’re sitting on your Seinfeld cereal shelf. One of them is the aforementioned Kellogg’s Froot Loops which I prevented Lila from eating.

My focus when first studying this cereal was primarily on the three artificial colours used in it (see my findings below) but then I worked out that, if Lila had been allowed her Froot Loops with milk, she would have consumed 4.3 teaspoons of sugar in her bowl.

I can guarantee you will not find a box of cereal in the supermarket with low sugar until you come to Weet-Bix. Plain old Weet-Bix is the star of the cereal aisle, at just 2.8g per 100g. Admittedly, a lot of people add sugar, but at least you can control that and most kids enjoy eating them.

Lila eats two “bix” for breakfast every morning and won’t be swayed from them even when her grandpa is offering to make her sausages and eggs.

My mother, Elis, however, can’t stand them. Something to do with trying to avoid eating them when she was a child by sneezing into them, thinking her patents would deem that a reasonable enough excuse not to have to eat them. But no. She had to eat every last bit and has never touched them since.

As a guide, when you are out shopping, if sugar appears in the ingredients list directly under the name of the cereal, such as rice, corn or wheat, that means that the second biggest ingredient in there is sugar, and you should put it straight back on the shelf.

The other thing you need to think about is salt levels (fewer than 400mg sodium per 100g of cereal) and fibre.

We all know that we don’t get enough fibre in our diets. It’s good for bowel health and digestion and the things that give you fibre – fresh fruit, veges and wholegrains – tend to be really nutritious and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a trend for food manufacturers to add what I call “faux fibre” to their processed foods, using vegetable gums and inulin, which is a substance that occurs naturally in root vegetables, particularly chicory. Other additions include polydextrose, which is created out of dextrose (glucose), sorbitol, a low-calorie carbohydrate, and citric acid to add to processed foods, usually to provide fibre. It is called a functional fibre because no one knows if it has the same health benefits as fibre found in real foods.

A good guide for children’s fibre requirements is 5g to 15g per 100g, so look out for that on the label, and if you see inulin or vegetable gum in the ingredients panel, reject it in favour of something which uses wholegrains and fruit to provide fibre.

Another problem with most breakfast cereals is the fact that they are extruded. This means perfectly good wholegrains are ground up, made into a slurry with liquid, heated to high temperatures, then pressurised through small holes to create shapes such as rings, flakes or puffs. You have to wonder just how much nutrition gets killed off in the process with those high heats and pressures.

OFTEN WHEN I’M out and about, people like to talk about the food column and what it has taught them.

“Thank goodness Krispies are okay,” said my aunt. “They’re my favourite biscuit.”

“I haven’t touched a raspberry jam slice since the day I read your column,” said a woman I met at a knitting bee.

And, of course, many people have suggestions for foods I should look at. By far the most disturbing conversation along these lines with a woman I was doing some work with.

“I have this friend who basically throws those cartons of Up&Go at her kids from dawn until dusk,” she said. “That’s all they eat. For breakfast they sit there in the car sucking on them on their way to school, they have another one with their lunch and sometimes dinner too. I’ve tried to tell her they need some real food but she believes they are good for them.  Are they?”

Then I got the emails about UP&Go: “My kids have one every day and I’m wondering how healthy they are,” said one mother.

“I really don’t like this product because it has so much sugar and it’s like this giving your child a milkshake for breakfast,” said another.

I was well acquainted with Up&Go. My son Daniel has never been a great breakfast eater, and so for a while he took one of these with him but in the end he didn’t even eat those, claiming the texture was weird.

Up&Go, for those who are not familiar with it, is a drink which is endorsed by the All Blacks in its advertising campaign and claims on the box to have “the protein, energy and dietary fibre of 2 Weet-Bix and milk”.

It is reasonable that parents like myself would read that and presume that in the little box we are handing over to our kids is simply two Weet-Bix and some milk all mashed up. And presumably it would have the same nutritional benefits.

Wrong.

The label should also state that it has 11.7g more sugar and 13 more ingredients than a simple bowl of Weet-Bix and milk. By the time I’d finished writing the column I was quite angry with Sanitarium for the misconception and wrote: “Is it really that hard to get a kid to sit down at the kitchen table and eat solid food these days? Are we raising a nation of astronauts in training who need to develop a taste for liquid food?”

I think if you’ve got a kid who needs something quick to eat in the car you can throw them a banana. And if you’ve got a kid who only likes to drink their meals, whip up a smoothie, put it in a bottle and let them drink that. On the Sanitarium website they even recommend that you throw a Weet-Bix into the smoothies.

I also took a look at Nestlé Milo Oats, mainly because Pearl had picked them up in the super-market and loved them. I’m a big fan of oats, as not only are they a good source of fibre but they also do wonderful soothing things to your digestive system.

Nestlé have a range of breakfast cereals marketed under the Milo name and some are better than others. Milo Oats is a better one.

I found that they weren’t too high in sugar and were a good source of fibre. I saw them as a great food to get kids interested in porridge for breakfast. I also found a study which showed that children who had oats for breakfast had better spatial memory (which means being able to remember geographical details like the interior of your house), better short-term memory and better listening attention than children who ate ready-to-eat cereal or no breakfast at all. Pearl was very relieved.

PUTTING THE CHOICE of cereal for your kids aside, there is a bigger problem emerging on the horizon for families, and that’s the kid who just won’t eat breakfast. This is cause for concern because every study you read emphasises the importance of breakfast for kids to kickstart their brains and give them the energy to see them through a day of learning school.

One University of Sydney study, conveniently commissioned by Kellogg’s, looked at the type of breakfast eaten by 800 New South Wales children aged eight to 16, across 19 different schools. The students who ate breakfast before their tests performed better, and those who ate the most nutritious breakfasts, such as cereal and milk, or eggs on toast, got the highest scores. They also scored higher on literacy and numeracy tests than their classmates who ate only toast.

It is easy to see why many parents faced with a non breakfast-child will be less fussy about the food they consume, reasoning that at least they’re eating something. We let two of our children, Daniel and his step-sister Alex, go to school on a diet of Pop-Tarts (basically jam-filled pastries you heat up in the toaster) for months because we were just so glad they were eating something.

In the end we settled on toasted sandwiches, smoothies and, if all else failed, a banana. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t like the taste and as a food they have a lot going for them. They have lots of carbohydrates for energy, are low in fat, and are potassium-rich, which is great for muscles. They also have some protein and iron.

Instead of throwing an Up&Go at your child on the way to school, swap it for a banana a carton of milk, which will give protein, calcium, zinc, vitamins A and B, and iodine.

I’m very much a toast and a cup of tea girl at breakfast, and it gives me enough energy, even with a gym work out to see me through to lunch. Which is when I go outside to raid the chicken coop and find some delicious, bright yellow-yolked eggs.

MY FINDINGS

Nestlé Milo Oats

I see this as a great transition product to get children who may be used to the a diet of high sugar processed breakfast cereal used to the taste and texture of oats which are a very healthy option for the reasons above. By the time they’ve gone through a packet of these, they might just like a bowl of real porridge with some fresh banana and honey mixed in which is less sweet option than this product and better for them. It also means that your child sets off on a cold winter’s morning with a warm breakfast in their stomach, which is a nice old-fashioned thing to do, and the effect of the oats on their memory and listening skills might be good too.

Summary:

Three teaspoons of sugar in every serving if made with milk, but with water only one and half teaspoons.

20g of oats in every serve which is a great option for good nutrition, and oats have proven benefits for your child’s memory and listening skills.

A great transition food to get your child interested in eating porridge on a winter’s morning.

**Nestle still use palm oil so be sure to read your labels**

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

There is just something irresistible to children about food which comes in fun colours and Froot Loops certainly fulfils that expectation. It even has the sell line “a fun fuel for adventurous kids.”

There is no doubting your kids will love this cereal and hoover it down. But why not teach your children that real food doesn’t come in six fun, mostly artificial colours? Most children are quite happy to eat Weet-Bix which by comparison has only 0.8g of sugar per serve or 6.8g per serve with milk. It also uses wholegrains and has more fibre. Top it with some fresh fruit, like strawberries and peaches, and you have a great breakfast with plenty of natural colour.

And perhaps follow a rule for eating by the author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan, who says “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.’’

Summary:

Contains 38 per cent sugar.

Has three artificial colours which are banned in other countries.

Uses natural flavourings.

Wendyl Nissen

Photos by Fischer Twins  Etienne Girardet  rawpixel  Peter Lewicki

The post The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal appeared first on Wendyls Green Goddess.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.wendyls.co.nz/low-breakfast-cereal/ from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180257617102

[lauriecgarcia]

The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal

Wendyl Nissen’s book Supermarket Companion, how to bring home good food, is a wealth of knowledge for those looking to avoid foods laden with dangerous chemicals, there’s a comprehensive list of food colourings and additives so you can shop smarter and be more aware of what’s in processed supermarket food.

This entertaining and enlightening exert looks at breakfast foods, in particular, Nestlé Milo Oats and Kellogg’s Froot Loops (no fruit there!) and the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast that is not laden with sugar and additives.

Make sure you check out Wendyl’s findings at the end of the chapter.

Just for starters!

“Look at what?” I say, as we both gaze at the bags of shopping.Can I look at that, Grandma?” says our four-year-old grand-daughter, Lila, as I’m putting the shopping in the back of the Prius. We have just made our way around the supermarket and Lila has been a great help.

“That one there,” she says pointing at a brightly coloured box.

“Oh, that’s not for you,” I say reaching in and covering the offending piece of garish marketing with a bag of potatoes.

“Why not?” she says, disappointed.

“That’s for Grandma’s work.” I reply and hastily strap her into her car seat. “When Grandma has done her work on it, maybe you can have one next time you visit.”

Most visits to the supermarket require that I look for products that I can review in my column. This box was for some brightly coloured biscuits called Oki Doki Disco Bits. They looked frightening in terms of artificial colours and so I threw them in the trolley. Lila never said a word when I took them off the shelf, nor to my knowledge even noticed they were in the trolley. But when it comes to kid marketing Lila is a perfect target. She has an innate ability to seek and find any brightly coloured foods within a 10-meter radius.

I’m not sure what she thinks Grandma does when she “works” on these foods but she knows that they generally live on a shelf in my office, lined up and waiting for my magnifying glass to hover critically over their ingredients panel.

I know Lila knows this because it’s her first stop at every visit, once we have all been all been greeted with a cuddle, she’s patted our dog, Shirl, and gone out to check that her white hen, who she has named “Mummy”, is still around.

I had an extremely colourful and enticing box of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops sitting in my office when Lila came to visit recently. She regards my office as our “second” kitchen because on any occasion she might find all sorts of wonderful foods lined up on my shelf ready to be analysed for the column. I was in the “first” kitchen, when she appeared clutching the box of Froot Loops with a look of wonderment on her face.

“Grandma, can I please have these in a bowl with some milk?”

Something about the packaging had managed to (tell her that a) she desperately needed to eat these and b) it was a food you had in a bowl with milk.

“Why do you want them?” I asked.

“They look nice,” was all she said.

I gently pried them off her with promises of other treats and hid them in the pantry.

When I went back to get them to write about, I found that my 26-year-old son, Daniel, had succumbed to the same marketing message, but didn’t need to ask first, and ate them.

I am always astonished at the power of packaging and its ability to transfix a small child or her uncle. Lila lives in a household where her parents are very aware of food additives and eat a very healthy, real-food diet. (Not because I pressured them –they are just intelligent consumers, honestly.)

So Lila’s exposure to junk food and the bright packaging is minimal and she would have had no conditioning to tell her that inside these packets are sweet tasting, moreish foods. She just wouldn’t know. Yet something about the design of the boxes sets off a reaction in her brain which gives her the drive to search for it in bags of shopping or reach up onto a shelf and carry it all the way down the hall to me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that kids as young as Lila are directly targeted by advertising, not just on TV but also techniques such as free gifts, competitions, games and puzzles, website games and movie promotions.

And that marketing is why breakfast becomes a minefield for well meaning parents to negotiate.

Next time you are at the supermarket, wander down the breakfast aisle and take note of the packaging. It all looks fantastic. Aside from the relentless use of every bright colour in the rainbow, you will see three elements competing for your attention: chocolate, punchy bright berries and fruit and fibre.

In my house over the years, we have been through most of the cereal crazes as each of our five children has begged to be allowed a new brand and their busy working mum (former) bought them.

Have you ever noticed Jerry Seinfeld’s cereal shelf in the kitchen on Seinfeld? Next time you watch the show have a look. One internet source sets the number at nine, mostly cornflakes and shredded wheat. His cereal shelf looks exactly how ours looked for years, as every child claimed a new brand as theirs.

While you’re in the breakfast cereal aisle, see if you can find one box which lists the sugar content per 100g at less than 15g, which is what we should aim for when buying our kids cereal.

Consumer magazine conducted a survey of our breakfast cereals in 2008 and found that seven products had more than 40 per cent sugar – over three teaspoons in a 30g serve. I’ve listed them at the end of the chapter for you, in case they’re sitting on your Seinfeld cereal shelf. One of them is the aforementioned Kellogg’s Froot Loops which I prevented Lila from eating.

My focus when first studying this cereal was primarily on the three artificial colours used in it (see my findings below) but then I worked out that, if Lila had been allowed her Froot Loops with milk, she would have consumed 4.3 teaspoons of sugar in her bowl.

I can guarantee you will not find a box of cereal in the supermarket with low sugar until you come to Weet-Bix. Plain old Weet-Bix is the star of the cereal aisle, at just 2.8g per 100g. Admittedly, a lot of people add sugar, but at least you can control that and most kids enjoy eating them.

Lila eats two “bix” for breakfast every morning and won’t be swayed from them even when her grandpa is offering to make her sausages and eggs.

My mother, Elis, however, can’t stand them. Something to do with trying to avoid eating them when she was a child by sneezing into them, thinking her patents would deem that a reasonable enough excuse not to have to eat them. But no. She had to eat every last bit and has never touched them since.

As a guide, when you are out shopping, if sugar appears in the ingredients list directly under the name of the cereal, such as rice, corn or wheat, that means that the second biggest ingredient in there is sugar, and you should put it straight back on the shelf.

The other thing you need to think about is salt levels (fewer than 400mg sodium per 100g of cereal) and fibre.

We all know that we don’t get enough fibre in our diets. It’s good for bowel health and digestion and the things that give you fibre – fresh fruit, veges and wholegrains – tend to be really nutritious and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a trend for food manufacturers to add what I call “faux fibre” to their processed foods, using vegetable gums and inulin, which is a substance that occurs naturally in root vegetables, particularly chicory. Other additions include polydextrose, which is created out of dextrose (glucose), sorbitol, a low-calorie carbohydrate, and citric acid to add to processed foods, usually to provide fibre. It is called a functional fibre because no one knows if it has the same health benefits as fibre found in real foods.

A good guide for children’s fibre requirements is 5g to 15g per 100g, so look out for that on the label, and if you see inulin or vegetable gum in the ingredients panel, reject it in favour of something which uses wholegrains and fruit to provide fibre.

Another problem with most breakfast cereals is the fact that they are extruded. This means perfectly good wholegrains are ground up, made into a slurry with liquid, heated to high temperatures, then pressurised through small holes to create shapes such as rings, flakes or puffs. You have to wonder just how much nutrition gets killed off in the process with those high heats and pressures.

OFTEN WHEN I’M out and about, people like to talk about the food column and what it has taught them.

“Thank goodness Krispies are okay,” said my aunt. “They’re my favourite biscuit.”

“I haven’t touched a raspberry jam slice since the day I read your column,” said a woman I met at a knitting bee.

And, of course, many people have suggestions for foods I should look at. By far the most disturbing conversation along these lines with a woman I was doing some work with.

“I have this friend who basically throws those cartons of Up&Go at her kids from dawn until dusk,” she said. “That’s all they eat. For breakfast they sit there in the car sucking on them on their way to school, they have another one with their lunch and sometimes dinner too. I’ve tried to tell her they need some real food but she believes they are good for them.  Are they?”

Then I got the emails about UP&Go: “My kids have one every day and I’m wondering how healthy they are,�� said one mother.

“I really don’t like this product because it has so much sugar and it’s like this giving your child a milkshake for breakfast,” said another.

I was well acquainted with Up&Go. My son Daniel has never been a great breakfast eater, and so for a while he took one of these with him but in the end he didn’t even eat those, claiming the texture was weird.

Up&Go, for those who are not familiar with it, is a drink which is endorsed by the All Blacks in its advertising campaign and claims on the box to have “the protein, energy and dietary fibre of 2 Weet-Bix and milk”.

It is reasonable that parents like myself would read that and presume that in the little box we are handing over to our kids is simply two Weet-Bix and some milk all mashed up. And presumably it would have the same nutritional benefits.

Wrong.

The label should also state that it has 11.7g more sugar and 13 more ingredients than a simple bowl of Weet-Bix and milk. By the time I’d finished writing the column I was quite angry with Sanitarium for the misconception and wrote: “Is it really that hard to get a kid to sit down at the kitchen table and eat solid food these days? Are we raising a nation of astronauts in training who need to develop a taste for liquid food?”

I think if you’ve got a kid who needs something quick to eat in the car you can throw them a banana. And if you’ve got a kid who only likes to drink their meals, whip up a smoothie, put it in a bottle and let them drink that. On the Sanitarium website they even recommend that you throw a Weet-Bix into the smoothies.

I also took a look at Nestlé Milo Oats, mainly because Pearl had picked them up in the super-market and loved them. I’m a big fan of oats, as not only are they a good source of fibre but they also do wonderful soothing things to your digestive system.

Nestlé have a range of breakfast cereals marketed under the Milo name and some are better than others. Milo Oats is a better one.

I found that they weren’t too high in sugar and were a good source of fibre. I saw them as a great food to get kids interested in porridge for breakfast. I also found a study which showed that children who had oats for breakfast had better spatial memory (which means being able to remember geographical details like the interior of your house), better short-term memory and better listening attention than children who ate ready-to-eat cereal or no breakfast at all. Pearl was very relieved.

PUTTING THE CHOICE of cereal for your kids aside, there is a bigger problem emerging on the horizon for families, and that’s the kid who just won’t eat breakfast. This is cause for concern because every study you read emphasises the importance of breakfast for kids to kickstart their brains and give them the energy to see them through a day of learning school.

One University of Sydney study, conveniently commissioned by Kellogg’s, looked at the type of breakfast eaten by 800 New South Wales children aged eight to 16, across 19 different schools. The students who ate breakfast before their tests performed better, and those who ate the most nutritious breakfasts, such as cereal and milk, or eggs on toast, got the highest scores. They also scored higher on literacy and numeracy tests than their classmates who ate only toast.

It is easy to see why many parents faced with a non breakfast-child will be less fussy about the food they consume, reasoning that at least they’re eating something. We let two of our children, Daniel and his step-sister Alex, go to school on a diet of Pop-Tarts (basically jam-filled pastries you heat up in the toaster) for months because we were just so glad they were eating something.

In the end we settled on toasted sandwiches, smoothies and, if all else failed, a banana. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t like the taste and as a food they have a lot going for them. They have lots of carbohydrates for energy, are low in fat, and are potassium-rich, which is great for muscles. They also have some protein and iron.

Instead of throwing an Up&Go at your child on the way to school, swap it for a banana a carton of milk, which will give protein, calcium, zinc, vitamins A and B, and iodine.

I’m very much a toast and a cup of tea girl at breakfast, and it gives me enough energy, even with a gym work out to see me through to lunch. Which is when I go outside to raid the chicken coop and find some delicious, bright yellow-yolked eggs.

MY FINDINGS

Nestlé Milo Oats

I see this as a great transition product to get children who may be used to the a diet of high sugar processed breakfast cereal used to the taste and texture of oats which are a very healthy option for the reasons above. By the time they’ve gone through a packet of these, they might just like a bowl of real porridge with some fresh banana and honey mixed in which is less sweet option than this product and better for them. It also means that your child sets off on a cold winter’s morning with a warm breakfast in their stomach, which is a nice old-fashioned thing to do, and the effect of the oats on their memory and listening skills might be good too.

Summary:

Three teaspoons of sugar in every serving if made with milk, but with water only one and half teaspoons.

20g of oats in every serve which is a great option for good nutrition, and oats have proven benefits for your child’s memory and listening skills.

A great transition food to get your child interested in eating porridge on a winter’s morning.

**Nestle still use palm oil so be sure to read your labels**

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

There is just something irresistible to children about food which comes in fun colours and Froot Loops certainly fulfils that expectation. It even has the sell line “a fun fuel for adventurous kids.”

There is no doubting your kids will love this cereal and hoover it down. But why not teach your children that real food doesn’t come in six fun, mostly artificial colours? Most children are quite happy to eat Weet-Bix which by comparison has only 0.8g of sugar per serve or 6.8g per serve with milk. It also uses wholegrains and has more fibre. Top it with some fresh fruit, like strawberries and peaches, and you have a great breakfast with plenty of natural colour.

And perhaps follow a rule for eating by the author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan, who says “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.’’

Summary:

Contains 38 per cent sugar.

Has three artificial colours which are banned in other countries.

Uses natural flavourings.

Wendyl Nissen

Photos by Fischer Twins  Etienne Girardet  rawpixel  Peter Lewicki

The post The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal appeared first on Wendyls Green Goddess.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.wendyls.co.nz/low-breakfast-cereal/ from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180238926847

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The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal

Wendyl Nissen’s book Supermarket Companion, how to bring home good food, is a wealth of knowledge for those looking to avoid foods laden with dangerous chemicals, there’s a comprehensive list of food colourings and additives so you can shop smarter and be more aware of what’s in processed supermarket food.

This entertaining and enlightening exert looks at breakfast foods, in particular, Nestlé Milo Oats and Kellogg’s Froot Loops (no fruit there!) and the importance of eating a nutritious breakfast that is not laden with sugar and additives.

Make sure you check out Wendyl’s findings at the end of the chapter.

Just for starters!

“Look at what?” I say, as we both gaze at the bags of shopping.Can I look at that, Grandma?” says our four-year-old grand-daughter, Lila, as I’m putting the shopping in the back of the Prius. We have just made our way around the supermarket and Lila has been a great help.

“That one there,” she says pointing at a brightly coloured box.

“Oh, that’s not for you,” I say reaching in and covering the offending piece of garish marketing with a bag of potatoes.

“Why not?” she says, disappointed.

“That’s for Grandma’s work.” I reply and hastily strap her into her car seat. “When Grandma has done her work on it, maybe you can have one next time you visit.”

Most visits to the supermarket require that I look for products that I can review in my column. This box was for some brightly coloured biscuits called Oki Doki Disco Bits. They looked frightening in terms of artificial colours and so I threw them in the trolley. Lila never said a word when I took them off the shelf, nor to my knowledge even noticed they were in the trolley. But when it comes to kid marketing Lila is a perfect target. She has an innate ability to seek and find any brightly coloured foods within a 10-meter radius.

I’m not sure what she thinks Grandma does when she “works” on these foods but she knows that they generally live on a shelf in my office, lined up and waiting for my magnifying glass to hover critically over their ingredients panel.

I know Lila knows this because it’s her first stop at every visit, once we have all been all been greeted with a cuddle, she’s patted our dog, Shirl, and gone out to check that her white hen, who she has named “Mummy”, is still around.

I had an extremely colourful and enticing box of Kellogg’s Fruit Loops sitting in my office when Lila came to visit recently. She regards my office as our “second” kitchen because on any occasion she might find all sorts of wonderful foods lined up on my shelf ready to be analysed for the column. I was in the “first” kitchen, when she appeared clutching the box of Froot Loops with a look of wonderment on her face.

“Grandma, can I please have these in a bowl with some milk?”

Something about the packaging had managed to (tell her that a) she desperately needed to eat these and b) it was a food you had in a bowl with milk.

“Why do you want them?” I asked.

“They look nice,” was all she said.

I gently pried them off her with promises of other treats and hid them in the pantry.

When I went back to get them to write about, I found that my 26-year-old son, Daniel, had succumbed to the same marketing message, but didn’t need to ask first, and ate them.

I am always astonished at the power of packaging and its ability to transfix a small child or her uncle. Lila lives in a household where her parents are very aware of food additives and eat a very healthy, real-food diet. (Not because I pressured them –they are just intelligent consumers, honestly.)

So Lila’s exposure to junk food and the bright packaging is minimal and she would have had no conditioning to tell her that inside these packets are sweet tasting, moreish foods. She just wouldn’t know. Yet something about the design of the boxes sets off a reaction in her brain which gives her the drive to search for it in bags of shopping or reach up onto a shelf and carry it all the way down the hall to me in the kitchen.

It is no secret that kids as young as Lila are directly targeted by advertising, not just on TV but also techniques such as free gifts, competitions, games and puzzles, website games and movie promotions.

And that marketing is why breakfast becomes a minefield for well meaning parents to negotiate.

Next time you are at the supermarket, wander down the breakfast aisle and take note of the packaging. It all looks fantastic. Aside from the relentless use of every bright colour in the rainbow, you will see three elements competing for your attention: chocolate, punchy bright berries and fruit and fibre.

In my house over the years, we have been through most of the cereal crazes as each of our five children has begged to be allowed a new brand and their busy working mum (former) bought them.

Have you ever noticed Jerry Seinfeld’s cereal shelf in the kitchen on Seinfeld? Next time you watch the show have a look. One internet source sets the number at nine, mostly cornflakes and shredded wheat. His cereal shelf looks exactly how ours looked for years, as every child claimed a new brand as theirs.

While you’re in the breakfast cereal aisle, see if you can find one box which lists the sugar content per 100g at less than 15g, which is what we should aim for when buying our kids cereal.

Consumer magazine conducted a survey of our breakfast cereals in 2008 and found that seven products had more than 40 per cent sugar – over three teaspoons in a 30g serve. I’ve listed them at the end of the chapter for you, in case they’re sitting on your Seinfeld cereal shelf. One of them is the aforementioned Kellogg’s Froot Loops which I prevented Lila from eating.

My focus when first studying this cereal was primarily on the three artificial colours used in it (see my findings below) but then I worked out that, if Lila had been allowed her Froot Loops with milk, she would have consumed 4.3 teaspoons of sugar in her bowl.

I can guarantee you will not find a box of cereal in the supermarket with low sugar until you come to Weet-Bix. Plain old Weet-Bix is the star of the cereal aisle, at just 2.8g per 100g. Admittedly, a lot of people add sugar, but at least you can control that and most kids enjoy eating them.

Lila eats two “bix” for breakfast every morning and won’t be swayed from them even when her grandpa is offering to make her sausages and eggs.

My mother, Elis, however, can’t stand them. Something to do with trying to avoid eating them when she was a child by sneezing into them, thinking her patents would deem that a reasonable enough excuse not to have to eat them. But no. She had to eat every last bit and has never touched them since.

As a guide, when you are out shopping, if sugar appears in the ingredients list directly under the name of the cereal, such as rice, corn or wheat, that means that the second biggest ingredient in there is sugar, and you should put it straight back on the shelf.

The other thing you need to think about is salt levels (fewer than 400mg sodium per 100g of cereal) and fibre.

We all know that we don’t get enough fibre in our diets. It’s good for bowel health and digestion and the things that give you fibre – fresh fruit, veges and wholegrains – tend to be really nutritious and good for you. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a trend for food manufacturers to add what I call “faux fibre” to their processed foods, using vegetable gums and inulin, which is a substance that occurs naturally in root vegetables, particularly chicory. Other additions include polydextrose, which is created out of dextrose (glucose), sorbitol, a low-calorie carbohydrate, and citric acid to add to processed foods, usually to provide fibre. It is called a functional fibre because no one knows if it has the same health benefits as fibre found in real foods.

A good guide for children’s fibre requirements is 5g to 15g per 100g, so look out for that on the label, and if you see inulin or vegetable gum in the ingredients panel, reject it in favour of something which uses wholegrains and fruit to provide fibre.

Another problem with most breakfast cereals is the fact that they are extruded. This means perfectly good wholegrains are ground up, made into a slurry with liquid, heated to high temperatures, then pressurised through small holes to create shapes such as rings, flakes or puffs. You have to wonder just how much nutrition gets killed off in the process with those high heats and pressures.

OFTEN WHEN I’M out and about, people like to talk about the food column and what it has taught them.

“Thank goodness Krispies are okay,” said my aunt. “They’re my favourite biscuit.”

“I haven’t touched a raspberry jam slice since the day I read your column,” said a woman I met at a knitting bee.

And, of course, many people have suggestions for foods I should look at. By far the most disturbing conversation along these lines with a woman I was doing some work with.

“I have this friend who basically throws those cartons of Up&Go at her kids from dawn until dusk,” she said. “That’s all they eat. For breakfast they sit there in the car sucking on them on their way to school, they have another one with their lunch and sometimes dinner too. I’ve tried to tell her they need some real food but she believes they are good for them.  Are they?”

Then I got the emails about UP&Go: “My kids have one every day and I’m wondering how healthy they are,” said one mother.

“I really don’t like this product because it has so much sugar and it’s like this giving your child a milkshake for breakfast,” said another.

I was well acquainted with Up&Go. My son Daniel has never been a great breakfast eater, and so for a while he took one of these with him but in the end he didn’t even eat those, claiming the texture was weird.

Up&Go, for those who are not familiar with it, is a drink which is endorsed by the All Blacks in its advertising campaign and claims on the box to have “the protein, energy and dietary fibre of 2 Weet-Bix and milk”.

It is reasonable that parents like myself would read that and presume that in the little box we are handing over to our kids is simply two Weet-Bix and some milk all mashed up. And presumably it would have the same nutritional benefits.

Wrong.

The label should also state that it has 11.7g more sugar and 13 more ingredients than a simple bowl of Weet-Bix and milk. By the time I’d finished writing the column I was quite angry with Sanitarium for the misconception and wrote: “Is it really that hard to get a kid to sit down at the kitchen table and eat solid food these days? Are we raising a nation of astronauts in training who need to develop a taste for liquid food?”

I think if you’ve got a kid who needs something quick to eat in the car you can throw them a banana. And if you’ve got a kid who only likes to drink their meals, whip up a smoothie, put it in a bottle and let them drink that. On the Sanitarium website they even recommend that you throw a Weet-Bix into the smoothies.

I also took a look at Nestlé Milo Oats, mainly because Pearl had picked them up in the super-market and loved them. I’m a big fan of oats, as not only are they a good source of fibre but they also do wonderful soothing things to your digestive system.

Nestlé have a range of breakfast cereals marketed under the Milo name and some are better than others. Milo Oats is a better one.

I found that they weren’t too high in sugar and were a good source of fibre. I saw them as a great food to get kids interested in porridge for breakfast. I also found a study which showed that children who had oats for breakfast had better spatial memory (which means being able to remember geographical details like the interior of your house), better short-term memory and better listening attention than children who ate ready-to-eat cereal or no breakfast at all. Pearl was very relieved.

PUTTING THE CHOICE of cereal for your kids aside, there is a bigger problem emerging on the horizon for families, and that’s the kid who just won’t eat breakfast. This is cause for concern because every study you read emphasises the importance of breakfast for kids to kickstart their brains and give them the energy to see them through a day of learning school.

One University of Sydney study, conveniently commissioned by Kellogg’s, looked at the type of breakfast eaten by 800 New South Wales children aged eight to 16, across 19 different schools. The students who ate breakfast before their tests performed better, and those who ate the most nutritious breakfasts, such as cereal and milk, or eggs on toast, got the highest scores. They also scored higher on literacy and numeracy tests than their classmates who ate only toast.

It is easy to see why many parents faced with a non breakfast-child will be less fussy about the food they consume, reasoning that at least they’re eating something. We let two of our children, Daniel and his step-sister Alex, go to school on a diet of Pop-Tarts (basically jam-filled pastries you heat up in the toaster) for months because we were just so glad they were eating something.

In the end we settled on toasted sandwiches, smoothies and, if all else failed, a banana. I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t like the taste and as a food they have a lot going for them. They have lots of carbohydrates for energy, are low in fat, and are potassium-rich, which is great for muscles. They also have some protein and iron.

Instead of throwing an Up&Go at your child on the way to school, swap it for a banana a carton of milk, which will give protein, calcium, zinc, vitamins A and B, and iodine.

I’m very much a toast and a cup of tea girl at breakfast, and it gives me enough energy, even with a gym work out to see me through to lunch. Which is when I go outside to raid the chicken coop and find some delicious, bright yellow-yolked eggs.

MY FINDINGS

Nestlé Milo Oats

I see this as a great transition product to get children who may be used to the a diet of high sugar processed breakfast cereal used to the taste and texture of oats which are a very healthy option for the reasons above. By the time they’ve gone through a packet of these, they might just like a bowl of real porridge with some fresh banana and honey mixed in which is less sweet option than this product and better for them. It also means that your child sets off on a cold winter’s morning with a warm breakfast in their stomach, which is a nice old-fashioned thing to do, and the effect of the oats on their memory and listening skills might be good too.

Summary:

Three teaspoons of sugar in every serving if made with milk, but with water only one and half teaspoons.

20g of oats in every serve which is a great option for good nutrition, and oats have proven benefits for your child’s memory and listening skills.

A great transition food to get your child interested in eating porridge on a winter’s morning.

**Nestle still use palm oil so be sure to read your labels**

Kellogg’s Froot Loops

There is just something irresistible to children about food which comes in fun colours and Froot Loops certainly fulfils that expectation. It even has the sell line “a fun fuel for adventurous kids.”

There is no doubting your kids will love this cereal and hoover it down. But why not teach your children that real food doesn’t come in six fun, mostly artificial colours? Most children are quite happy to eat Weet-Bix which by comparison has only 0.8g of sugar per serve or 6.8g per serve with milk. It also uses wholegrains and has more fibre. Top it with some fresh fruit, like strawberries and peaches, and you have a great breakfast with plenty of natural colour.

And perhaps follow a rule for eating by the author of Food Rules, Michael Pollan, who says “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the colour of the milk.’’

Summary:

Contains 38 per cent sugar.

Has three artificial colours which are banned in other countries.

Uses natural flavourings.

Wendyl Nissen

Photos by Fischer Twins  Etienne Girardet  rawpixel  Peter Lewicki

The post The Low Down On Breakfast Cereal appeared first on Wendyls Green Goddess.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8302119 https://www.wendyls.co.nz/low-breakfast-cereal/ from The Top Cleaner https://thetopcleaner.tumblr.com/post/180172629972