Failsafe around the world
[465] Trip report: food in Ireland (November 2006) (November 2006)
We are just back from a 5
week trip around Ireland with our three children and my
mother. From my experiences there in 2001 and 2003, I must say that it is
getting a lot more difficult to find failsafe food in the supermarkets and
markets in 2006. I found their labelling to be informative, but you must know
the names of the additives as they only print those, not the numbers. My
children often picked something up and, because they are used to scanning for
numbers, thought the product was safe for us. I am glad that I was familiar
with the names for the nasties or we would have been caught out many times.
Fresh food is in glorious abundance, but unfortunately a bit on the expensive
side. We could only find one brand of bread that was acceptable, with no 282 or
whey or vinegar, of course it was the most expensive to buy. There were no
crisps that we could find that were failsafe, or biscuits. Cakes were all
heavily coloured and decorated, with the results that we ended up cooking our
own snacks. Fast food is expensive and very colourful, with virtually no safe
choices available - well, for us anyway. I am very glad that we rented a house
with a great kitchen. If we were not able to self-cater, I don't think we would
have had such great behaviour from the children - can you imagine 5 weeks of
being their only companions and not one single argument!! – Sharon, Melbourne
Sue Dengate summary
In 2002 my family - including two teenagers (named changed to protect
privacy - completed a 15-country, six month "supermarket tour" around
the world. In Australia, all of us suffer from food intolerance, especially our
daughter who has been diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. At
home she controls her symptoms with a very limited diet. I was interested to
compare food additive use in other countries and was surprised at the huge
differences. Eating without adverse effects was much easier in some countries
than others.
In Nepal, India, Bali and Egypt we ate in cafes and restaurants most of
the time. Local traditional foods had no effect on us including Rachel whose
behaviour was perfectly normal except when we made the occasional mistake with
processed treats. In Europe, we mostly catered for ourselves but were surprised
and pleased at the lack of food additives, especially in Italy.
There are many more food additives in the UK than Europe but there is
also a greater awareness of their effects than Australia. My favourite souvenir
is a grocery bag from the Iceland supermarket chain which proclaims "WE
HAVE BANNED ARTIFICIAL COLOURS AND FLAVOURS".
Food in the USA is loaded with additives. We spent the first three weeks
in motels but couldn't eat a single item in the free breakfasts. Two of us
developed rashes from the toxic products the sheets are washed in. We self
catered but had difficulty buying even the most basic foods (rice, rolled oats,
bread) without harmful additives. After three weeks we bought a small tent and
- with a sigh of relief - ended our visit to the most high-tech country in the
world sleeping under giant redwoods and cooking over a campfire.
My conclusion: ADHD, oppositional defiant
disorder and many of the "minor" health problems which affect people
in affluent countries are clearly associated with what we eat and the chemicals
with which we surround ourselves. Europeans are far better protected from
harmful additives than residents in Australia, NZ, the UK and especially the
USA. The Europeans countries demonstrate that It is possible to enjoy a western
lifestyle without all the additives the food industry giants would like us to
swallow. If we consumers want a fair deal for our children, we must send a
clear message to manufacturers that we don't want harmful additives in our
food. How? REFUSE TO BUY!
Country by country
BALI, INDONESIA
The traditional simple peasant diet of Indonesia, based mainly on rice,
fresh vegetables and the occasional chicken, is mostly failsafe. For those who
are gluten-free it is a dream. The difference between food in Bali and
Australia quickly became obvious. We could see where our food came from.
"Fresh" means caught, picked or baked this morning instead of thawed,
taken out of cold store, or full of preservatives. Eggs taste good, we watched
our fish of the day arrive in fishing boats on the beach every morning, and
fresh vegetables picked in the early morning appeared on restaurant tables by
lunchtime. Varieties of fruit such as bananas, pineapples and papayas are
different: traditional, smaller, sweeter, picked ripe, and to be eaten within a
few days. Everything tastes better than its Australian equivalent.
We mostly ate at our hotel, knowing from past experience of their high
hygiene standards and reasonable cost - about $A1or 50 US cents per person per
meal. Within a few days we were puzzled to discover that we could tolerate many
more salicylate-containing foods than at home. Tolerance levels vary depending
on variables like total chemical load, illness and stress. Were we tolerating
more because we were on a low-stress holiday, breathing fresh sea air or
because the food is naturally lower in both man-made chemicals and salicylates?
The answer would seem to be a combination of these.
We avoided any processed foods. This included the coloured jam and fruit
juice provided for breakfast. The latter contained colours and preservatives
not listed on the label, revealed earlier when Howard had visited the juice
factory. Typical meals included fresh grilled fish with rice, boiled potatoes
or chips, chicken satay or deep fried, cap cay (stir-fried vegetables which
were usually cabbage, shallots, carrot, Chinese greens). We ate fruit in between
meals - bananas, papayas and the Balinese tiny sweet roughleaf pineapple as
well as snakeskin fruit, which are so bland they must be low in salicylates.
Gluten-free local snacks made from cooked sticky rice and/or coconut are
available from local shops or tokos.
MISTAKES: We stuck to fresh additive-free food in Bali except for one
plate of vanilla icecream. The next morning Rachel woke like a bear with a sore
head and remained in full oppositional mode until 4 pm - a wasted
day, probably due to 160b annatto colour.
FUMES AND AIR POLLUTION The Balinese like to use mothballs as air
fresheners in drawers, cupboards and bathrooms. These are highly toxic. We
removed them immediately with a tissue and avoided touching bare skin.
Twenty-five years ago I explored a quiet and uncrowded Bali on a motorbike. Now
the roads are jammed with trucks in a haze of black smoke and families with
babies on motorbikes, breathing air that must be high in lead. We limited
sightseeing because of the traffic. Our driver on one occasion was a former
schoolteacher who abandoned teaching because 'if you leave the children alone
for five minutes, they fight'. This is the new Bali, city kids exposed to air
pollution and fast food. In a remote Indonesian village, an exchange teacher
described her class of 50, so attentive 'I could have taught in a whisper'.
MORE INFO Families can spend a relaxing mostly failsafe holiday free of
cooking and washing-up in Bali. We stayed at Alit's Beach Bungalows with good
restaurant at the unfashionable end of Sanur beach (beautiful gardens, rundown
tennis, minigolf, pool, spa, Sanur beach walk); Amerta cottages in Toyabungkah
at the foot of active volcano Gunung Batur (stunning lake views, hot springs,
volcano climb) but not restaurant (eat at the cafe with the Lonely Planet
endorsement); and Ananda Cottages with restaurant in Ubud (walks, monkey
forest, Legong dance in palace). Don't drink the water or ice, or eat salads or
fruit which you haven't peeled yourself or in a clean trustworthy restaurant -
'Bali belly' is common. We limited ourselves to fish and chicken and avoided
red meat or pork. The Balinese diet is naturally dairy free and mostly gluten
free.
SINGAPORE
Inflight catering on the Singapore Airlines flight from Denpasar started
with nibbles containing artificial colours 102 (tartrazine), 110 (sunset
yellow) and 133 (brilliant blue) - and airlines complain about the increase in
air rage. The main meal was fresh and plain and decaf was available. We always
carried extra snacks to cover flights, fresh fruit, plain biscuits, and a
six-month supply of raw cashew nuts. In Singapore as in Indonesia, food
additives are a problem. Individual names or numbers are not listed, just vague
information like 'contains permitted preservatives'. At my talk at the Australian
International School, families confirmed that it was difficult to buy
additive-free processed foods. This makes it difficult to keep children
failsafe, as all children need occasional treats.
NEPAL
Nepal has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world but some of
the highest mountains and, until recently, some of the happiest people. Like
most visitors to Nepal, we went trekking in the Himalayas, walking for 5-8
hours nearly every day for 26 days. Highlights included an ancient walled fortress
city in the spectacular high mountainous desert near Tibet, and a high snowy
mountaineer's base-camp. There were no cars, few motors or radios, very little
electricity and processed food only along trekkers' routes. As Rachel said
'this is like travelling in another time, not another country'.
Nepalese food is simple, rice-based, fresh, and largely unprocessed
'real' food. The national dish of dahlbhat is a combination of rice, dahl or
lentil soup with mixed vegetables such as potatoes and Chinese greens
stir-fried in curry type spices, and a vegetable pickle sometimes accompanied
by curd, a type of natural yoghurt made from allowing unpasteurised buffalo
milk to stand for 48 hours. The majority of Nepalese who are still peasant
farmers eat this meal twice a day with meat and chicken curries when available
(usually not). It is a healthy, low-fat, satisfying, cheap meal and with our
newfound tolerance for salicylates, we ate dahlbhat at least once a day, except
for Amon who hates curry.
Gluten-free food included local rice puddings, curd, fruit salad, eggs,
fried potatoes, corn porridge, buckwheat pancakes (faava roti, only available
above 3000 metres, you often have to ask for them, with the superb local
apricot or apple sugar-free paste but called jam). I always carried 'churra',
pounded rice flakes which can be added to tea or any hot drink for an instant
gluten-free breakfast or snack. Other foods included oat porridge, banana or lemon
sugar pancakes, chapattis, Tibetan bread - like fried donuts - mixed vegetable
omelette (usually shallots, chinese greens, carrots), boiled potatoes, chips or
French fries, and the local version of pizza - often a chapatti with yak cheese
and sliced local ripe tomato.
We avoided fried rice and instant noodles, which were likely to contain
MSG. For treats there were occasional chocolate cakes, lemon meringue pie and
baked cheesecake (curd, eggs, sugar, lemon juice) nearly always made with fresh
natural ingredients. Commercial treats for tourists, definitely limited because
they all contain artificial flavours, included Mars bars, Werthers Original
Butter Candy, AlpenLiebe caramels, Callard & Bowser toffees, McVities
Hobnob biscuits. Bananas, mandarins and Red Delicious apples were the fruit in
season at various altitudes. The bananas were small, ripe and ready to eat like
Balinese bananas. The Red Delicious apples were tree-ripened, and, well,
delicious. And it was a real treat for us to eat tiny organic mandarins with no
ill effects.
MISTAKES There were two mistakes during our six weeks in Nepal
- skin rashes for Howard and Amon the day after eating pizza in a very
westernised restaurant in Kathmandu;
and oppositional defiance for Rachel both times after eating chocolate cake
from the Chomrong guest house - unlike others this turned out to contain
commercial biscuits.
WEIGHT LOSS Walking for hours every day for a month while eating healthy
low-fat food, surrounded by magnificent scenery and interesting people must be
the easiest way in the world to lost weight. The extra 5 kg I'd been trying to
lose just fell off and we all emerged super fit.
GLUTEN TOLERANCE When we left Australia
I had been gluten intolerant for 3 years following a gastrointestinal infection.
This is an increasingly common way of developing gluten intolerance. Despite
eating a gluten-free diet, I was so sensitive I would react even to toast
crumbs in the butter and had failed my most recent gluten challenge a few
months before leaving Australia. While travelling I followed a strict
gluten-free diet and ate buffalo curd as often as I could, several times a day
if possible, reasoning that unpasteurised curd contains huge amounts more - and
many different types -of the 'friendly' probiotic bacteria which are supposed
to promote intestinal health in western-style yoghurt. After two months in Asia
a gluten challenge showed that I had redeveloped a tolerance to gluten which I
have now maintained for twelve months. Anyone with gluten intolerance will
understand what an amazing relief this is - for me the whole trip has been
worth it just to be able to eat bread, pasta, pizza base and oat porridge
again.
TRAVELLERS' DIARRHOEA In countries with unsafe water like Nepal,
travellers are at great risk of gastrointestinal upsets including loose tools,
watery diarrhoea, nausea and/or vomiting. We carried our own lightweight water
filter (AquaPur, about $200) and followed the instructions under Bali
info. Because I have a history of irritable bowel symptoms I was especially
careful and at the first sign of problems I switched to boiled rice and black
tea (because the water is boiled). (At one restaurant a dish called 'Doctor's
Advice' offered boiled rice, boiled vegetables, black tea and curd.) Perhaps because
of this I had almost no problems compared to the others.
CHANGES Twenty five years ago, processed food was virtually unknown in Nepal.
The first supermarket was just about to open and Coke had just been introduced.
Some processed food is available in Kathmandu
and on major trekking routes. Processed foods most likely to be eaten by locals
are instant noodles with MSG and coloured sweets for children. I saw some
irritable, restless, sleepless children this time, which would have been
unthinkable 25 years ago. I also met a shopkeeper who ate instant noodles and
complained of frequent migraines. Like her counterparts in Australia
she had not considered food additives as a cause yet MSG is strongly associated
with headaches. Trekkers are also at risk especially those drinking large
quantities of Tang orange drink (tartrazine colour, 102) or instant noodles
(MSG).
ALTITUDE AND ADDITIVES It is common for trekkers to blame high altitude
for headaches, irritability, sleeplessness and stomach upsets yet these are all
common reactions to tartrazine and other additives. It is even possible that
altitude increases vulnerability to additive reactions in some people (this has
never been investigated) - Howard and I both suffered severe restless legs
after eating airline food on one flight. These symptoms abruptly improved when
the descent began. Commercial flights are pressurised to about 2500 metres.
MORE INFO There were people aged from 4 to 80 years on the trail, some
in family groups up to 3 generations, or up to three families trekking together
to provide friends for the children. Many had been trekking before. Very young
children can get bored and the danger from illness is greater. Teenagers prefer
a challenge such as reaching a base camp. If you take precautions against
contaminated food and water, trekking can be a healthy, mostly failsafe way to
spend a holiday. See Lonely Planet Guide 'Trekking in Nepal'.
We trekked to Jomsom, Kagbeni, Muktinath and Annapurna Base Camp. Other
highlights: great temple views and banana curd in Sunny restaurant, Bhaktipur;
great lake views and fruit salad curd in the Pumpernickel cafe in Pokhara.
INDIA
January in Northern India,
two weeks before the Bhuj earthquake, was bitterly cold. On the long bus and
train trips from Nepal
to Delhi
we saw villages in fog, landscape in fog and the Taj Mahal in fog. The food in India
is similar to Nepal
but with greater variety. It is often very delicious. A standard meal (thali)
includes several vegetable curries, curd, rice and pickles. Roadside snacks
commonly include a chickpea curry. There are also the marvellous wheat breads
of Northern India, including
chapattis and naan, and from Southern
India, rice pancakes like uppams. Rachel loved the
Indian sweets, based on boiled milk and sugar. Tourist restaurants provide
local versions of western foods as in Nepal.
There is a wide variety of fresh and dried fruit and nuts.
MORE INFO India
is excellent for gluten-free, additive-free, dairy-free and amine-free meals.
If you like curries and can tolerate a certain amount of salicylates (which we
can't normally) this is a great place to eat, as long as you can avoid 'Delhi
belly'. See Lonely Planet Guide to India.
Our highlights: The rooftop restaurant at the Host Hotel in Agra
with excellent views of the Taj and good fruit salad curd. The Magic restaurant
in Agra
for excellent Indian food. In New Delhi,
the Grand Hyatt did a superb brunch, courtesy of Lufthansa and the thick fog
that delayed our flight.
EGYPT
'While there are many wonderful things about Egypt, food is not one of
them ... that said, it is possible to eat well (not to mention cheaply) in
Egypt if you can accept the lack of variety and pack your taste buds off on
holiday' - Lonely Planet Egypt guide book. We don't agree. It is true that food
in Eyptian restaurants is mediocre, but there is a trick to eating in Egypt
- when you want to eat find a street cafe which is so crowded with locals that
the waiters are literally running. Order what the locals are eating and you
will get some of the best, freshest and cheapest food in the world.
The fertile Nile
delta grows memorably delicious fruit and vegetables especially tiny juicy
strawberries, oranges, and sweet ripe red tomatoes which haven't been seen in
the West since the old varieties were superceded by supermarket packable types
- and which we haven't eaten at home since going failsafe 8 years ago. Meals
are usually served with the wonderful Egyptian bread, a dip such as hummus and
salad. We loved the falafels, shwarma (with lamb) and 'fool' (the Egyptian
equivalent of baked beans on a French roll). Takeaway rice puddings were a big
favourite with Amon and Rachel. Vegetable and lentil soups were failsafe and
delicious.
The standard tourist breakfast is tea or coffee with rolls, cream
cheese, jam and maybe an egg. When she tasted a Bedouin meal while camel
trekking, Rachel exclaimed 'this is just like Irish Stew!' (from Fed Up). The
best meal award goes to a cafe next door to a fish market for a plate of
exceedingly fresh grilled fish with rice, salad, bread and hummus. It was easy
to self-cater for lunches from fresh produce markets and bakeries.
MISTAKES The jam is all preserved with sodium benzoate even the - yes! -
pear jam. Rachel managed a tiny serve every day for about ten days until a
double serve took her over the top. Gluten-free in Egypt
would be extremely difficult unless you were self-catering.
MORE INFORMATION Lonely Planet guide to Egypt; Highlights - Acker Saa
cafe soups, meals and rice puddings in Cairo, Al Mina cafe in Sigala (port of
Hurgada on the Red Sea), Sinai desert camel trek from Dahab, temple of Queen
Hatshepsut in Luxor and other Pharoanic sights.
THE MAXOLON DISASTER At the end of our time in Egypt Amon suddenly
developed severe diarrhoea and nausea. During a ten-hour bus trip, he took the
usual travellers'medicines: Lomotil for diarrhoea and Maxolon (metaclopramide)
for nausea. As we reached Cairo
he began to display a variety of alarming symptoms. Painful muscle spasms of
the face and neck, upturned eyes, locked jaw and sudden stiffness of the back
and neck became progressively worse. With Amon unable to see, walk or breathe
properly, we crawled through traffic to the Anglo American hospital. 'Our intelligent
Amon - he looked so retarded - I thought he would be in a wheelchair for the
rest of his life. I couldn't believe anything that bad could be reversed', Rachel
confessed later. After thorough assessment, sympathetic Egyptian doctors
suggested 'side effects of a drug'. Amon recovered within four hours. On the
plane to Germany
the next day, Rachel developed similar nausea. Believing Lomotil to be the
culprit. We allowed her to be treated with Maxalon on the plane and at the
airport. A few days later she was also given Maxolon in a drip we were told was
glucose and vitamins. By the time she got home she had developed the same
alarming symptoms as Amon. The doctor refused to believe our reports of a drug
side effect and prescribed extra medication. (When we finally obtained a
Maxolon leaflet in English, it was all there - the side effects clearly
described with the instructions 'tell your doctor' These side effects are quite
common with both psychotropic and gastrointestinal medications and called tardive
dyskinesia (or movement disorders).
EUROPE
After Egypt,
Europe seemed like
another world, a place where fruit and vegetables come from the supermarket and
varieties chosen for transport and lasting not eating qualities ('These aren't
real bananas', said Amon). We also noticed just how many more salicylates
(concentrated in alcoholic drinks, juices, dried fruits, sauces and
flavourings) and amines (in expensive animal foods) are consumed per day in our
highly processed, high protein western diet. We had to cut down on our
salicylate and amine intake considerably but could still manage many more
treats than at home.
The biggest surprise, though, was the lack of harmful additives in
European food. I can recommend a European holiday! It was wonderful to be able
to walk into gelateria - icecream shops - and bakeries for foods such as
Berliners (jam-filled buns - not like the fatty, stale additive-laden
Australian version) to buy a wide range of foods knowing that they would be
additive free. Products which would contain annatto colouring (160b) at home
are either colour-free or contain the harmless betacarotene (160a) instead. The
European version of Magnum icecreams (and all the other vanilla icecreams I
have seen) are safe. Even Lays chips which in Australia
contain so many harmful antioxidants (319 and 320) we use them as a challenge,
are safe in Europe
- unless they are failing to declare their ingredients which seems unlikely.
Unlike in Australia,
fish fingers do not contain added colour. Croissants are likely to be made with
pure butter.
The only bread in Europe I found containing calcium propionate (282) was
a highly processed white sliced loaf in a supermarket in Pompeii - although,
alarmingly, the ingredients listed only calcio propionato - no E number,
no indication that it is a preservative and the English translation said only
'calcium'.
Italy,
especially Tuscany
and the two-day Cinque Terre walk, was among the highlights of our world trip
for all of us. In Tuscany
we stayed with a friend in a farmhouse and enjoyed real Tuscan cooking, mostly
failsafe for us. Rachel commented that she finally understood what real, fresh
food is all about. We ate eggs straight from the henhouse, vegetables from the
garden, hand-made pasta, home-made Tuscan bean soup, and our favourite - a
round sheep's cheese called pecorino, white and seemingly failsafe, which we
collected from the shop the same day it arrived and ate on the beautiful Tuscan
bread, no preservatives there.
One reader asked "Didn't you feel awful going to Italy
and not being able to eat pizza?" Italian pizzas are very different from
those in Australia.
They have much milder toppings and do not necessarily have tomato on them,
especially not a highly concentrated tomato paste. We were there in winter, and
as toppings are fresh and depend on what is in season (not a lot) mostly our
pizzas were cheese, sometimes with pickled artichokes or a smear of mild stewed
tomato and once pesto. There was even a gluten free pizza made from chickpea
flour. Often there were several types of cheese, much milder than Australian.
The mozzarella was white and I would say completely failsafe, compared to ours,
which is moderate to high. There was a whole range of fresh, white and probably
failsafe cheeses that we have not encountered here. We also ate gelati (Italian
all natural low fat fruit or nut flavoured icecream, my favourite was hazelnut,
everyone else went for chocolate and strawberry).
MISTAKES. Italian food is naturally very high in salicylates and amines.
We did have to be careful and at least twice during our three weeks there we
crossed our threshold, following up with some totally failsafe days, but we
still had an excellent time.
With only a few days left of our European holiday, suggestions that the
new Foot and Mouth outbreak in Britain
was out of control increased. At an internet café in Venice we watched as Youth
Hostels, B&Bs, campgrounds and ALL the walking trails in Scotland - where
we had intended to spend two weeks - closed under our astonished eyes. We
cancelled most of our trip in the UK
and stayed the extra time in Europe.
AUSTRIA
After a scenic stay in Venice
and some snowy hikes in the Italian Dolomites, we crossed the border into Austria.
Home of the famous Sacher Torte (rather like a chocolate sponge cake covered in
chocolate, but flatter, not as sweet and much better presented than we would do
it), Austria was also excellent for other continental cakes. I generally chose
the baked cheesecake, Amon a plain sponge with fruit topping and the others
went for the chocolate tortes. Amon's account of Vienna:
"We also visited the Museum of Something. They have a museum of everything
here...The history of tobacco, lacemaking through the ages, anything. Anyway,
the one we saw was about paintings. We had some cakes (Austria
being legendary for its cakes and coffee) and then saw the paintings... I was
impressed by the decor - it beat the Vatican
and that lot, in fact. Not as big, but more tasteful... It went downhill with
the paintings, but the rest of the visit was great." Another highlight of Austria
was the salt mine tour near Salzburg
(literally, salt mountain) which emphasised the importance of salt as a
preservative. It was this factor which enabled the Salzburg
fortress to survive a long siege during the middle ages without running out of
food.
GERMANY
Back into Germany
and the wonderful German bakeries. It felt like total freedom to order anything
we wanted without having to worry about additives. We visited Freiberg
in the heart of the Black Forest.
Here McDonalds have actually placed their establishment inside the tower of the
medieval city gates. This outlet wins my prize for the most in-your-face
example of American cultural imperialism. The locals are furious. After a 3.5
kilometre cable car ride to the top of a mountain we ate Black
Forest cake - what else? - before setting off in the
lightly falling snow for a five hour walk through pine forest back to our camp.
Amon wrote: "Probably the oddest walk I've done, and the views were
great... All downhill, too. Six days in Europe
left, then to England.
It'll be nice to get back to an English speaking country, and no mistake."
MORE INFO EUROPE
- Lonely Planet 'Europe
on a Shoestring', Rick Steves 'Italy'.
Highlights: Hoge
Veluwe National
Park - ride free white bicycles
through beautiful forests to a top art gallery; Hill 62 in Flanders,
original WWI trenches; Paris Tour of the Sewers, Italy Cinque Terre overnight
walk, farmhouse in Tuscany;
skiing in Germany
and Austria
http://www.kleinwalsertal.de/ ; motorhome rental in Germany,
much cheaper than England,
Europcar.
BRITAIN
Amon's impressions of London:
"The weather is cold and stormy … we went to Greenwich,
where GMT starts. It was pretty good, despite the rain … The underground's
falling apart. A lot of slowdowns, broken tracks, even a track fire … We went
to Kew gardens on
Sunday. Since it was sunny (probably the first time here since 1995), and this
sun fell on a weekend, thousands of people decided to go. We had to queue for
everything from the entrance to the toilets. Please don't make a pun. You've no
idea how many times I heard that one today (What, Queue
Gardens?)
Inside, it was good - 300 acres of trees, grass, and strange birds. We spent
most of the day walking round with the parents saying things like "My
word, a Japanese maple!" … We took the ferry back. There's a lot of
flooding. People cycling in two inches of water, someone launching a boat from
a suburban street... It made the journey back more interesting, that's for
sure. With the raised river level, we cleared the lowest bridge by only two
inches
…We went to Buckingham
Palace.
The guards look pretty weird, let me tell you ...Anyway, there was a wishing
well thing and someone had chucked in a credit card. LOL? We nearly ROTFLed! … London's
starting to feel almost like home. You wouldn't believe the British accents -
they sound right out of the movies. It's oddly nice to listen to. Place names
are still strange, though. When I first saw the digital display on the train
say "This train is for COCKFOSTERS" I thought it had been hacked into
or something..."
Foot and Mouth dominated the countryside and the news. On our one trip
out of London
we were told we could walk only on busy roads. Newspapers were full of little
else. Head of forestry, David Cox, blaming farmers and farm subsidies for the
swine fever, BSE and F&M progression, suggested "the farmers have
ruined our countryside - now we have a chance to take it back". A timely
book by well-known broadcaster John Humphreys reflects the cynicism sweeping Britain.
Called "The Great Food Gamble", it explains exactly what agriculture
is for: swelling the profits of major corporations in the chemical and
pharmaceutical industries; spicing fresh foods with an assortment of pesticide
residues; helping breed new races of superbugs through profligate use of
antibiotics; and increasing demands on the health service by creating a near
epidemic of degenerative conditions.
It doesn't even produce cheap food, it produces devalued food.
ADDITIVES IN BRITAIN I had expected additive use in Britain
to be the same as Australia,
but no. Although much worse than Europe,
and definitely not good enough, it is nevertheless much better than Australia.
Yet again I felt betrayed by ANZFA. We are told repeatedly that food additives
are necessary. If they're so necessary, how can other countries do without
them? Some of my favourite souvenirs from England: a supermarket carrybag from
Iceland which proudly proclaims in large letters "We have BANNED
artificial colours and flavours"; from Sainsbury's, the Coles equivalent,
a Blue Parrot Café brand label (the brand is committed to "restricted
colours and/or preservatives, only natural flavours, no flavour
enhancers", (although many products are unfortunately very high in
salicylates) which proclaims "Sainsbury's policy of reducing additives is
welcomed by the Hyperactive Children's Support Group". Well done, HACSG!
Sainsbury's also have available, in some outlets at least, more organic food
than I've seen in Australia.
I saw frozen organic preservative-free sausages, and we regularly ate
Sainsbury's plain (no stuffing, no flavouring) rotisseried chicken. Bottles of
Fanta in the UK
contain failsafe betacarotene colouring (160a), instead of harmful orange
colour, sunset yellow (110) used in Australia.
Likewise, Magnum icecreams are coloured with beta-carotene instead of the
harmful annatto (160b) used in Australia.
The ugliest of all additives - bread preservative - isn't established yet.
About 75% of the loaves in Sainsbury's were preservative-free, although a
corner shop opposite Kew
Gardens
had no preservative-free bread, except Indian Naan. While in London
I gave a talk to HACSG. Excellent on additives, they are not so strong on
salicylates - which makes for a less effective diet in our experience.
USA
We flew into New York (Amon: "a bunch of dark skyscrapers huddled
together on the horizon, very dramatic looking"), hired a car and headed
north on the first of three loops which would take us through 5,000 miles, 2
countries, 16 states, 7 national parks and about 40 supermarkets. Everything is
bigger in the USA - skyscrapers, cars, parking lots, kid's behaviour problems
(I saw - in a lift - the most hyperactive kid I have ever seen, and that's
saying something), trees, canyons, waterfalls and hospitality. In New
Hampshire I gave a very successful
talk hosted by the local PTA. More than 100 people attended, one child improved
dramatically within 24 hours (by avoiding the bread preservative) and others
have contacted me later to say "I did what you said and my son is a
different child". Trip highlights: Kev and Pat Little's wonderful
hospitality and failsafe cooking in New Hampshire (Pat is our USA network
contact); Statue of Liberty, Trump Towers; New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont
scenery; Boston museum of science; Niagara Falls; University of Illinois
virtual reality site; the Painted Desert and Navajo country, Colorado; giant
Redwoods; camping and hiking in national parks, especially Mesa Verde, Grand
Canyon and Yosemite; and American libraries - all with free internet access,
cheap books for sale, and superb facilities.
THE SCENERY Amon (re Colorado,
Arizona
and Utah):
"We've seen some amazing scenery - I can now say, with some authority,
that this area of America
holds some of The Best Views In The World. It's odd stuff - has to be seen to
be believed, really … We went walking into the Grand
Canyon, which is much bigger than I'd thought, just
for a day trip. We even dumped all of our warm clothes - it's quite hot in the
GC. Who needs warm clothes, anyway - it's a desert, right? The weather helped
us get down there - during the hottest parts, a convenient cloud cover would
pass over. We reached Indian
Gardens,
the small oasis style jungle, feeling we were blessed. The bottom of the
canyon's actually quite nice - I always thought it was really barren, but there
are flowering cacti and good trees near the streams, too. The journey back up
was tiring, but the views spectacular. Only as we approached the top did we
feel apprehension, for the storm overhead darkened with every minute lost. (Do
I sound like Lord of the Rings here?) We traveled on, for we had neither
raincoats nor jumpers, and nowhere could we stay but the top (maybe Yoda?). As
we approached the top, tired and hungry, a cold wind blew, and... bugger it...
it started to snow. Snow!! To make a long story short, we staggered back to the
car (in T-shirts) and drove to our campsite. A true Dengate saga. I'm thinking
about making a book about this. I could call it "Indiana Dengate and the
Last Holiday". Or "The Dengate Holiday: A Comedy of
Errors"."
FOOD IN THE USA - THE BEST Maine lobster, Ben and Jerry's triple caramel
chunk icecream (the fudge is not failsafe, but good enough for a treat), Wild
Oats natural vanilla crème sandwich cookies, Stoneyfarm (I think) organic
yoghurt with six different types of probiotic bacteria, natural maple candy,
San Francisco sourdough bread, and Magnum icecreams - with no added colours at
all (which means Australia's Magnums are the only Magnums in the world
containing a harmful additive) There are some excellent foods in the USA if you
know where to find them. But for ordinary people we saw in average supermarkets
all over the country then the choices are appalling.
… AND THE REST Here is a country in denial about food additives. How can
the people who put man on the moon be so ignorant about the effects of what
they feed their kids? Artificial colours are used like water even in some
so-called healthy foods like bagels, yoghurt and especially in breakfast
cereals. BHT, banned except for three products in Australia,
is in nearly everything, including weaning food for babies - I nearly cried at
that, those poor children. It is very, very difficult to buy real,
untampered-with food in the average supermarket. As a food technologist, Howard
was even more outraged than I. The American food industry has gone way past the
original intention of food processing, which was to provide a wider range of
nutritious food to consumers. Howard was particularly angry about the lack of
safe basics like bread (most supermarkets had no preservative-free sliced white
bread at all. We had to look for Italian or French speciality breads, not
always successfully) and rolled oats. We only found one supermarket in the
approximately 40 visited which sold real rolled oats, the rest were flavoured,
except for the regular (guar gum, sugar and colour 150, failsafe but why do
it?). It was even difficult to buy rice except in little packets with flavour
sachets. And the fruit - well, no wonder Americans have to eat everything with
added flavours. On our trip we had encountered many third world countries with
delicious fruit. The best were the tiny tree-ripened red delicious apples in Nepal.
Now we tried the worst - although large and glossy looking, the red delicious
apples were so revolting that we threw away most of those we bought.
WEIGHT LOSS How does anyone stay slim in the USA?
(Of course, the majority don't.) Portions are huge and fat contents are over
the top. By cooking for ourselves and walking a lot, we managed to avoid too
much damage, but walking is hard to do because - except in national parks - the
US
is designed for cars not pedestrians.
HOW TO SURVIVE FOOD IN THE USA
Ignore the brainwashing and cook for yourself. For $10 extra some budget motel
chains offer a room with a microwave and fridge but mostly we used a tiny
Camping Gaz or Coleman hikers' stove (some people carry small electric frypans
for motel cooking) and a tin opener. When cooking was not permitted, we cooked
on the verandah or in parks. Our standard US day: breakfast (we abandoned the
free motel breakfasts after a few days) - rolled oats in boiling water, cooked
rice, Rice Krispies, Weetabix, milk or soymilk, tinned fruit, decaf; lunch
(many states have really good rest and picnic areas) - preservative-free bread,
Philly cheese, shallots (called green onions), cucumber, lettuce, carrots,
spring water; dinner - pot of home-cooked potatoes (or bought jacket potatoes)
with butter or Philly cheese, and tins of corn, peas and plain tuna. Amine reactors
limited the tuna, salicylate reactors limited the corn, carrots and cucumbers
(still more salicylates than we could ever eat at home - must have been the
holiday). When camping, instead of tuna we had wonderful campfire grilled
steaks, and finished off with toasted marshmallows under the stars. Snacks were
more difficult. A big supply of Kev and Pat's apple amaranth muffins kept us
happy for the first week followed by a packet of wonderful Wild Oat all natural
vanilla sandwich cremes (www.wildoats.com), Haagen Dazs Dulce de Leche caramel
icecream, Sam's Choice Butter Oatmeal cookies from Wal-Mart, failsafe but a
whopping 50% fat, Boulder Potato Company totally natural chips, Poore brothers
original potato chips, Lays Classic Potato chips (with "no preservatives"
in the USA ); Health Valley fat-free old-fashioned Marshmallow bars (failsafe
but not popular); Nature Valley Maple Brown Sugar Crunchy Granola bars (very
sweet, not failsafe but close); natural yoghurt, many excellent organic brands.
After that we started compromising.
BEST-OF-A-BAD-LOT SNACKS Crown pilot chowder crackers (molasses might be
a problem); Keebler (a reasonable brand, meant to be "uncommonly
good" so why do they use artificial flavours. And is there unlisted
antioxidant in the oil?) Crème Filled Vienna Fingers (artificial flavour, high
fructose corn syrup - contains some salicylates - but only 30% fat); Keebler
Club crackers (possible unlisted preservatives in the oil - and 30% fat content
is high for a cracker); Lorna Doone shortbread cookies by Nabisco (artificial
flavour and 45% fat); Keebler Chips Deluxe choc chip cookies (not too bad if
you don't react to amines but 50% fat); Eskimo pie (chocolate coating not
failsafe but it's so thin there's not much in it); Kellogg's Nutri-Grain
Chocolate Chip Muffin Squares (not failsafe because they contain applesauce and
chocolate, but we could manage them as holiday food); Sunbelt chocolate chip
chewy granola bars (definitely not failsafe because they contain salicylates,
amines and sulphites in coconut, honey and chocolate, but better than
competitors which contain BHT and heaps of fruit).
AIRLINE FOOD A United flight from London
and three subsequent flights within the USA
suggested that it is not the airline but the point of departure that determines
the quality of in-flight food. The meals from London
were very good, unlike the next three flights, especially from Newark
which would have been fine (steak, green beans, rice) if it hadn't been cooked
in a sauce of what tasted like pure MSG. Just a few mouthfuls and I had a
migraine the next day.
THE CHAINS Good food is very expensive in the USA,
bad food is cheap. We bought the occasional grilled steak, jacket potato and
salad meal, but $A140 for the whole family was way too much for our budget.
Occasional desperation led us to food chains. At Burger King, we survived the
chips. Thanks for the detailed ingredient list, guys, but nothing is failsafe.
A meal at Taco Bell - who knows what's in it, but with that colour, the bright
orange cheese doesn't look OK - led to reactions all round. Thinking of Vienna
in bitter cold and sleet one day we tried Denny's decaf with cheesecake and
Hershey chocolate mousse (the chocolate bar you can eat with a spoon) and spent
the next 24 hours worrying about death by fat overload. At Dunkin Donuts, I
recommend nothing but the decaf.
AIR POLLUTION Although reputed to be improving, air pollution was much
worse in the USA
than I expected, not just in industrial centres like Detroit
but also San Francisco,
Denver
Colorado
and the Grand Canyon.
Locals from Pennsylvania
to California
expressed their feeling that their country had become too overcrowded, and it
did feel like that. On the plus side, Americans definitely have the best
control of secondhand cigarette smoke in the world, with nonsmoking hotel
rooms, restaurants and public transport - unlike European trains in which
smokers and nonsmokers sit at either end of the same open carriage.
VISUAL POLLUTION Driving in some of the USA
brings to mind a poem by Ogden Nash:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.
In amongst all the industry, strip development and commercial
establishments clamouring for customers with ever-higher signs, McDonalds
outlets - which look so offensive in other settings - fitted right in.
WATER POLLUTION The Niagara River above the Falls on a still afternoon
was a stunning sight with low sunlight gleaming on arrays of ice floes like a
scene from Antarctica.
It's hard to realise that this is one of the most polluted waterways in the
world. Over the last 25 years, scientists have been measuring the level of more
than 75 different toxic substances found in the eggs of Herring Gulls that feed
and nest along the Niagara River
and the Great Lakes. All the
toxins measured in the gull's eggs have declined, especially levels of highly
toxic hexachlorobenzene, dieldrin and PCBs which have dropped 90% or more, so
cleanup efforts are succeeding. They would want to!
CHEMICALS This must be the Chemical Capital of the world. By day two, Amon
had abandoned motel sheets because of mild itching, and slept in his silk
sleeping bag liner. I was OK until I used Tide laundry powder twice in
laundromats. After that, the combination of bleach, laundry powder and fabric
conditioner in motels plus the Tide in my clothes led to nasty rashes which
came and went - it took a while to figure out the cause. When I switched to
Woolite and my sleeping bag liner, the rashes slowly cleared up. Judging by
ubiquitous advertising for allergy and migraine drugs, we're not the only ones
affected. On reaching more-or-less the end of the snow, we bought a $99
Wal-Mart dome tent and four sleeping mats ($2.99 each).
Camping in beautiful national parks and forest sites for the next two
weeks was low-chemical, cheap and MUCH more scenic. So that is how we ended our
trip to the most powerful and high-tech country in the world: quietly sleeping
in a small tent under huge trees, and cooking over a wood fire.
Some Australian-American terms
biscuits - crackers or cookies
cordial - a drink base similar to Kool-Aid but sold as a liquid
cornflour - corn starch
cold pressed - expeller pressed
fairy floss - cotton candy
fruit and vegetables
choko - chayote,
vegetable pear
marrow - squash
pawpaw - papaya
rockmelon - cantaloupe
shallots - green onions
sultanas - golden raisins
swedes - rutabaga
grilled - broiled
icypoles - popsicles
icing sugar - confectionary sugar
icing - frosting
lamingtons - cubes of sponge cake, normally covered in chocolate and
coconut
lamington tin, baking tray, swiss roll tin - similar in size to the
American standard 13" x 9" pan
muesli - granola
paracetamol (eg Panadol) - acetominophen (egTylenol)
Rice Bubbles - Rice Krispies
rissoles - beef or lamb patties
sports drinks - thirst quenchers
soft drinks - sodas
soda water - club soda
scones - biscuits
sweets, lollies, confectionery - candies
Nuttelex is a dairy free margarine made from safflower, sunflower and
cottonseed oils, water, salt, emsulifiers 322, 471, flavour (vegetable),
vitamins A and D, no added colour. It is very well tolerated by most food
sensitive people. While in the USA
I found a similar product, if you can tolerate soy. Shedd's Willow Run dairy
free soybean margarine contains liquid soybean oil and partially hydrogenated
soybean oil, water, salt, soybean flour, lecithin, betacarotene, vitamin A. For
distributors, phone toll free 1800 735 3554.
Golden syrup is not available in the USA.
You can make your own, see failsafe syrup, p.00
Some failsafe food in the USA
not available in Australia
natural maple candy
Wild Oats natural
vanilla crème sandwich cookies (www.wildoats.com)
many brands of
uncoloured vanilla icecreams
many brands of plain
potato chips with no antioxidants (unlike Australia,
these are always listed in the US)
POSTSCRIPT
We arrived home a few months before September 11. The countries we
enjoyed most - Nepal,
India
and Egypt
- are now not recommended for tourists.
