Fats - the good, the bad and the downright ugly

Two posts in one day!  Scary, huh?

I know my blog is daily reading for thousands  a few of you, so here's my latest health warning.  (Or rather, my only one apart from be safe in the sun).  There was an article in The Times on Saturday, in their Weekend supplement (I can't link to it as they expect you to pay these days), concerning trans-fats and their closely related cousins hydrogenated fats.  Apparently these are the seriously bad boys of the fat family, being blamed for the dramatic increase in levels of heart disease, certain cancers, strokes and diabetes.  These are only the things we know about at the moment; this list may well grow over the next few years.

Now I'm normally quite sceptical about government advice on what is bad for me to eat, but if you could read this article you would see that our government, unlike the US, aren't saying much about banning these fats.  In fact, the UK Food Standards Agency thinks that legislation would be "unlikely to deliver any significant health benefit" as our intake levels are "approximately half that of recommended levels".  Hmmm, the government want us all to eat healthily, lose weight, get more exercise, reduce type 2 diabetes and heart disease, yet there's no reason to bring in legislation to ban the stuff.

Over in the States, whole areas have outlawed these fats in restaurants, whilst in California (ever the extremist on the health front) has intoduced a state-wide ban.  Any food manufacturer who wants to keep their market share over there has removed it from their products.  Are you outraged yet?

Trans-fats are made by processing polyunsaturated fats.  These types of fat are runny at room temperature and quickly go rancid.  By adding hydrogen to them - no you're not getting a complicated chemistry lesson on how this happens, it just does OK - their structure is altered and they become partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.  This gunk can be found in many processed foods including, but not limited to, popcorn, chips, cakes, biscuits.  If you want to avoid it, and who wouldn't, look for products that are labelled 'all butter', or are made with a different fat.  You should avoid anything that has 'vegetable fat', 'shortening', 'margarine' or 'partially hydrogenated vegetable oil/fat' in the list of ingredients.

So that's the ugly out the way.  The bad could be attached to saturated fats, and until recently it was.  Although it still shouldn't be consumed in great quantity it is less harmful than trans-fats.  Saturated fats can be found in goods such as milk, butter, meat, some nuts and cocoa butter.

The good fats are the unsaturated fats, both poly- and mono-.  Poly-unsaturated fats are the omega-3s and omega-6s.  The ideal balance is 3 x 3s to 1 x 6s.  Polys can be found in seeds, nuts and oily fish.  If these aren't prominent in your diet it might make sense to take a supplement.  Monos can be found in avocado, olive oil, eggs and lamb, amongst other things.  Here at Dark Corner we do all our stir-fries in olive oil.

I've already discussed it with he who thinks he's boss (unless it's Sunday when it IS his turn) and I've bought some butter today, along with a butter dish - a proper pot one.  All I need now is to work out if I can fry chips in olive oil, or whether sunflower oil is ok.  Don't anyone mention oven chips, not unless you can recommend ones that taste like the real thing instead of cardboard/sawdust sweepings.

I hope you all find this of some use.

Hi there

I've been very busy living life - again.  Sorry, but it keeps getting in the way of the blogging.

Anyway, I have news on the job front.  I have lowered my hours to 3 days per week.  Now the balance feels right; I can get my housework done, see friends, not feel guilty for vegging on the sofa for a few hours if the mood takes me, etc.  This has made me much happier in myself, though I still get stroppy at the others if they don't pull their weight.  (It took me a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get them this far.  I'm not letting it slide now).

I also have news on the studying front.  After much discussion with my nearest and dearest (and his dad) I have decided to go back to college in September to do AAT Level 3.  I'm even going back to Fareham College!  Some of my friends from this year's course are going back so I decided to join them.

Oh and my dad turned 70 on the 18th.  I'll put up some photos when I get a chance.

New Blog

Hi all

I have started a new blog for my annual skin problems.  You can find it here.

Thank goodness for that!

I shall probably get lynched for this but can I be the only one who thinks that the standard of play by England at the World Cup was abyssmal.  Everyone seems to be calling for the coach's head.  Yes, it was his tactics and strategy planning, as well as some questionable squad selections, that didn't help but, at the end of the day, there were 11 men on that pitch, wearing the England colours, who are supposed to be the best this country has to offer.

Don't make me laugh!  I've seen more enthusiasm at a Saturday afternoon kick-around on the local park.  They all looked as though they had better places to be.  I suppose when you earn tens of thousands of pounds each week no matter what the result is there's not much incentive to put heart and soul into it.  I wonder what sort of win bonus would get their attention.

The people I feel most sorry for are those fans who spent thousands of pounds, possibly that could have been better spent elsewhere, to travel to watch the squad.  I bet some of them spent as much as one of our 'footballers' earn in a week, PLUS these fans had to make their own travel arrangements - none of this first-class all the way malarky our boys expect and receive.

The media have their part to play.  Not, though, for criticsing the team - because that was right and proper given the display - but for whipping up the public (like they do with every British sports man/woman/team who show even a hint of ability) into believing that the World Cup is ours for the taking.  England were very good during their qualifiers so maybe this hype was deserved this time.  The only criticism the media made that I think was out of order was their castigation of our poor goalie who fumbled the save against the USA.  We all make mistakes.  Do you hear them making the same hoo-haa about Wayne Rooney, who can't find the back of the net (his primary role in the team) with a map?  No, of course not.

And who in their right mind picks players who are still recovering from injury, or are injury-prone?  It's hardly rocket science, is it, to pick people who are on top of their game.  You have to wonder what was going through Capello's mind:- let's pick strikers who haven't scored in 3 months; let's pick a goalie whose team has just been relegated - and as the last man before the net must have had a part to play in their losing so much; let's pick players who haven't played for their country in a while - because they have loads of international experience.  If those sort of decisions are the 'right' ones then here's a quick note to the FA - if you would like to save a shedful of money AND allow the coach to make howlers like this, then pick ME.  I promise not to ask for more than £50,000 per year plus expenses.  I also promise to drop the big names if they play like they did in the World Cup, I don't care who they are.  You'll find that this will give them an incentive to do the job they are paid to do. 

Out here in the real world we get sacked or demoted if we apply ourselves to our jobs in that way.  Maybe there should be a (very) basic salary with the rest of the pay made up of performance bonuses.  That would also provide an incentive to 'get on with it', and would make the vast majority of the rest of us feel a little less aggrieved when, once again, our team is made to look less than ordinary.

The things you see

This week hubby and I took a walk along the sea front at Hill Head.  We parked near Titchfield Haven and walked right round to the main carpark and back.  On the way back hubby spotted a hawk hovering just behind some beach huts.  By the time I'd got the camera switched on, zoomed in and the focus on the hawk it had dived.  Muttering naughty things under my breath I put the camera away only to have the hawk fly not 10 feet from me, with its prey, and land about 50 feet behind me on the stump of a breakwater.

Being the brave soul that I am I got the camera out again, switched it on and started snapping, moving forwards 5 feet or so after a few shots.  Eventually the bird spotted me and shot me a nasty look so I stayed still and took a few more shots.  Here's the best one - if you don't like to see half-eaten corpses don't look.

This image has been much fiddled with, using Paint Shop Pro, to bring out the clarity and sharpness as my camera lens isn't powerful enough to get up close. 

I'm beginning to pine for a camera with changeable lenses, so that I can get really close to nature.  At the moment the blue tit parents are feeding their fledged babies in the trees around my garden.  Those birds NEVER keep still for more than a second or two, barely long enough to focus in.  And it's a pain trying to get close enough to get a close-up without them seeing you and flying off.  Anyway, here are my best efforts.

The top image was taken just as the parent bird took off.  The bottom image is of a baby.  Amazingly, the babies can fly but still need their parents to feed them.

Then to cap it all, yesterday I saw this.

They flew right past me, far too busy playing at piggy-backs to notice my presence.  The one on top was really buzzing his wings.  The pitch kept changing and got quite high at one point before stopping completely for a few seconds before starting again.  All I can say is, lucky them!

Doing too much, and other interesting insights

Maybe I was trying to do exactly that.  Needless to say, thanks to a good chat with hubby, things are a-changing.  I am reducing my hours at work down to 3 days and, once the exam is done (this coming Tuesday), 2 weekdays at home.  This gives me a 4 day 'weekend' to get caught up on all the chores.  It also means a return to some lovely home-cooked-from-scratch dinners.  And I'll have more time to catch up with friends.  And I might be able to find the time to keep this blog up, instead of letting it drift like I have for the past few months. 

You see, there was a rumour at work that my services would be required up to September and there's no way I can let my outstanding 'big' chores list (total spring clean, decorating, etc) go on till then.  So tomorrow, for the first time in many months, I will NOT be going shopping tomorrow (Saturday).  I've never liked doing that - too many people.  So I'll start going on Mondays (or Tuesdays).  I might even stop feeling guilty for having a lie in at the weekends.

I've also decided to stop job-hunting.  It's soul-destroying to get no joy.  I've had 2 interviews this year out of nearly 50 job applications.  Once the economy picks up, and there's not so much competition, I'll try again.

I have enjoyed my time at college and I'd like to do the Level 3 course at some point in the future.  However, I think I'd like a job in that field so that I can have some experience of what I'll be learning.  Plus the distance learning version will set me back about £800, once you've allowed for things like books, exam fees, AAT annual fees, etc, etc, etc.  Makes you wonder what you're paying the course fee of £670 for, doesn't it?! (Yes, the £800 includes this £670).  For a mere £650 I can go back to the Open University and do the next course on my list - M208 Pure Maths.  No extra fees (apart from posting some tutor-marked-assignments back).  Plus I LOVE pure maths. 

Right now I want to spend the next 6 years or so finishing my Maths degree.  The only issue is, what do I do with it?  Most people assume I'll go into teaching.  Not a hope!  I'd rather go into a research role - being left alone to discover new and wonderful things in the world of numbers.  Not much money in that, though, but a heck of a lot of job satisfaction, not to mention the absolute delight at going to work each day.

Anyone want a middle-aged, enthusiastic, willing to learn, number cruncher?