Do companies trick us into eating more Junk?

http://theday.co.uk/health/how-companies-trick-us-into-eating-more-junk

This morning in school I came across an article that immediately interested me. The article was all about how Companies "trick" us into purchasing products that are supposedly good for us or better for us than their first product. An example of this I would give would be Coca-Cola. Quite obviously Coca Cola is a very old brand of soft drinks but they have launched many new products over the past few years.

 For example the first after Coca Cola was Diet Coke. although their was nothing to specify that this was good for you people became to buy it as they knew it was better. Soon after Coke Zero came into the shops. Coke Zero supposedly has Zero calories unlike the Original which has 139. Many people may think it is "healthy" and can therefore drink as much of it as they please. However, although it may not make you put on weight, it could actually be worse for you than normal Coke. If there is no sugar in Coke Zero then what is in it. It tastes no different and therefore could have very harmful replacements.

Above is the article I read this morning. If you have any opinions of this then please comment below. It would be much appreciated.

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Energy Drinks

Since the start of the 21th century energy drinks have become commonly drank by many people across the globe. Most regularly in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Many of these drinks contain a high amount of Caffeine some have the equivalent of 6 shots of espresso. This is bad enough as it is but what makes it worse is the fact that there are Children in the UK as young as 4 or 5 drinking these products almost every day.

Energy drinks can cause harm to your body in many ways as when drinking one, a person is also taking in a great deal of caffeine. This is bad for many reasons, regarding one’s health, which include:

•          Insomnia
•          Nervousness
•          Rapid heartbeats
•          Spark of energy followed by tiredness
•          And even muscle tremors

These symptoms occur because Caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulant. When it reaches your brain, the most noticeable effect caused is alertness. One would feel more awake, so it's a common ingredient in medications to treat or manage drowsiness.

After watching a frequently watched program in my house, Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, I became instantly astounded by how many children are consuming these drinks. During the program, when visiting a secondary school in England they found out that there are many children consuming energy drinks such as monster or red bull for breakfast. The children said that this is done for three reasons. The first is that they never have time to make a substantial breakfast in the morning; the second is that many families in the country cannot afford to feed their children suitable breakfast and the third is many children get tired in school and therefore need energy drinks to keep them awake so they can do their best. In this post I am going to attempt to tackle these problems by trying to find other alternatives regarding the positives about energy drinks but also have in mind the problems they can cause you.

The first reason stated in why many children have energy drinks is because many children never have time before school to make a substantial breakfast and the second is many children cannot afford to buy breakfast. However a box of muesli bars can cost on £1.19 for a packet of 8. This is only about 15p per bar. A can of Monster from the same store could cost you 79p for a 500ml can. If you were buying five for a school week it would cost you £3.95. A packet of 5 breakfast bars could cost you only 75p which is almost a 1/5 of the price.  The breakfast bars also do not require any preparation and are supposed to last you a whole school day without going tired therefore one can still achieve without the help of the caffeine normally being used.

The last problem stated was that Children rely on energy drinks to keep them awake during the school day much like many adults rely on Coffee to keep them awake. However, caffeine works like sugar in a child, you will suddenly have loads of energy and be wide awake bouncing off wall, whereas the next minute you would start to nod off again and would therefore start to drink another energy drink. This would continue throughout the day and you could be consuming up to 5 cans of the product which is about 2.5 litres. The NHS recommends you to drink only 1.2 litres of water in a day so 2 and a half litres of monster or red bull is way too much to be drinking alone.

The last thing I wanted to write about is what you can have which is similar to an energy drink. It would not cost much and would be healthy, full of energy and most importantly, DELICIOUS!

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Lottie’s leftover fruity smoothies:

Ingredients: makes 5

·         Any leftover fruit you can find

·         Milk/water

Method:

·         Pour the fruit, (in my case strawberries, bananas, raspberries and chopped apples,) into a blender

·         Blend with the amount of water you would want based on how smooth you want your smoothie

·         Pour into a jug and leave in the fridge for up to 3 days.

This could be made on Sunday and could then last you until the middle of the week and would fill you up with only a glass or two. Most fruits such as apples are cheap therefore you would still be saving money.

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What you can do:

As you may have seen there is a hash-tag going round looking like this. 

#not for children. This can be posted on Instagram, facebook twitter and many other social media sites and is aimed at the government so that energy drinks cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 16 much like alcohol. So get posting and spread the word that children should not be downing this much caffeine.

Instagram- follow @Eat.Teen

product statistics stated in this post are all the prices of Tesco

Back to School Muffins

going back to school is so hard after you have had such a fun past few weeks of summer. That is why I decided to make some muffins so that after school I can just sit with these lovely treats before getting on with my work. The cakes turned out a delight and below is the recipe for my twist on Chocolate chip muffins.

Ingredients:(makes 12)

-250g of self raising flour

-a pinch of salt

-1 teaspoon of baking powder

-50g of butter

-75g of caster sugar (brown sugar also works)

-100g of butterscotch drops (can be bought from most big supermarkets)

-2 eggs

-2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

-250ml of milk

-12 muffin cases

Method:

1. Put a paper case into each hole of a cupcake tin

2. Sift the self raising flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl

3. Turn the oven to 200'c (gas mark 6)

4.Cut the butter into chunks and ad it to the mixture (DON'T MELT THE BUTTER)

5. Rub the butter into the flour so it looks like breadcrumbs

6. Add the sugar and 3/4 of the butterscotch drops

7. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon

8. Break the eggs into a SEPARATE bowl and stir them hard with a fork

9. Add the vanilla and milk and stir everything well

10. Pour the egg mixture into the flour

11. Mix everything together, ( the mixture may be a little lumpy)

12. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases to the top and sprinkle the rest of the butterscotch on top

13. Bake the muffins for 20 minutes until they have risen

14. Leave them to cool for about 5 minutes and then eat them fresh or put them in a tin for later. (they must be eaten within 3 days unless frozen)

If you have any recipes that put you in the back to school mood then don't hesitate to comment below.

Naked Dough- A new idea to society

One thing I love more than anything is a pop-up shop selling a new idea or a unique kind of food that I have rarely tried before. 

My experience today was just that. When I was a young child my favourite thing to do after helping my mum with the baking was to lick the bowl. However my mum always warned me that I would get an upset tummy if I ate too much cookie dough or cake batter. 

However, this new pop up shop in Old Street station makes raw cookie dough with no raw egg therefore, the dough is perfectly safe to eat as much as you want.This place, Naked Dough is simply raw dough served in a cup, cone or milkshake with a range of flavours that you would usually bake up and serve as a cookie.

The flavours include:

• Unicorn food- sprinkles and marshmallows
• Emoji poo- chocolate chips
• Mud baths- chocolate dough
• Hazel's nut- nutella and kinder bueno
• Ed Sheeran- salted caramel and honeycomb
• Nutting better- crunchy peanut butter

Although very filling this new idea is a great idea if you want a sweet snack whilst walking through the station. Not only did I have an enjoyable time sitting in their very lively restaurant but also loved the unique idea of serving cookie dough, like ice cream, in a cup of cone.

 This idea to serve cookie dough in a tub or cone, not just a bowl about to be washed up is any young child's dream and both me and my friend had an enjoyable time as well.

https://www.naked-dough.co.uk/

summer treats

Summer is one of the best times of year for baking. In all newspapers and magazines there is always a recipe or two for something summery like a smoothie or a fruity cake or some kind. Therefore I decide to write my own list of amazing recipe for the summer. Lottie’s top 3 treats for the sun.

3. Berry smoothies:

Throughout the summer there are many farms that offer you to pick your own fruit and vegetables from a selection they have grown over the previous year. Me and my dad have a joyous time will going to these farms and come back with peas, spinach and once even carrots. However, we always come back with boxes of two things. Strawberries and raspberries. In the UK both of these products are expensive so when we go to these farms, as there produce is cheaper, we make sure to pick as many as possible. However, both strawberries and raspberries go off quite quickly so we need a few recipes to use them up. My favourite is probable the easiest and here it is.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

·       ½ a cup of raspberries

·       ½ a cup of strawberries

·       ½ a banana

·       ¼ of a cup of plain/Greek yoghurt

·       ½ a cup of milk

·       ½ a tablespoon of sugar/honey

Method:

1.    Pour the milk and yoghurt into the blender.

2.    Cut up the strawberries and banana and put them in the blender along with the raspberries and sugar/honey.

3.    Blend until smooth

The recipe is a simple as that, not only is it tasty but it also contains calcium and is full of vitamin C so is healthy as well

2.Shortbread:

Another recipe I love during summer is biscuits and one thing I find particularly easy to make is shortbread. This recipe is from one of my favourite recipe books and is a fun and easy bake for families of all ages.

Ingredients: (20-30 biscuits)

·       200g unsalted butter

·       100g golden caster sugar

·       300g plain flour

·       Pinch of salt

Method:

1.    Preheat the oven to 180’c (gas mark 4)

2.    Cream together the butter and sugar in a big mixing bowl. Keep mixing until it is light, pale and fluffy

3.    Sift in the flour and salt beat the mixture until it is a dough, then bring together to form a ball.

4.    Put in the fridge for 45mins to an hour

5.    Dust the workshop with flour and roll out the dough

6.    Cut out your biscuits in any shape you wish and put them on a tray lined with no stick baking parchment

7.    Put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes

8.    Leave them to cool and then enjoy

This recipe was from the book let’s bake by Cathryn Dresser who was a former contestant on the Great British Bake off.

1   Chocolate bananas:

My favourite thing during summer is a barbecue. However although there are sausages, burgers and kebabs, there is also something else. Chocolate bananas. Here is a recipe for the simple but tasty, sweet but rich, delicious chocolate bananas.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

·       4 bananas

·       24 ounces of milk chocolate

·       100s and 1000s sprinkles

Method:

1.    Cut each banana lengthways no further than the bottom layer of skin.

2.    Place 6 squares of chocolate in the bottom of each banana

3.    Wrap in foil and cook over hot coals for ten minutes turning once.

4.    Remove the foil and sprinkle the bananas with whatever toppings you wish.

So there you have it. Lottie’s top 3 summer recipes. If you have any summer recipe ideas then I would love to hear them so please comment below

HAPPY BAKING!

Lottie X