The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
Nestlé promotes ‘nutritious’ product that is a quarter sugar
And this is the caption for the picture.
With 24.7g of sugar per 100g, a bowl of Kit Kat cereal accounts for a third of a seven-year-old’s suggested intake
This is the first two paragraphs.
The launch of a Kit Kat breakfast cereal shows the government strategy of relying on food companies to help fight obesity has failed, campaigners have claimed.
Charities such as the British Heart Foundation have accused Nestlé of “irresponsible” promotion of a product which is a quarter sugar, arguing that it makes the case for state intervention to make food healthier.
After this start, I thought I’d better check the ingredients on the product page on Nestlé’s web site!
Under a heading of Our Carefully Selected Ingredients, this is said.
Whole grain WHEAT (31.4%), maize semolina, sugar, dextrose, palm oil, WHEAT flour, cocoa powder* (5.4%), glucose syrup, WHEAT starch, skimmed MILK powder, calcium carbonate, BARLEY malt extract, fat-reduced cocoa powder*, flavourings, cocoa butter*, salt, cocoa mass*, emulsifier: lecithin, whey powder (MILK), MILK fat, antioxidant: tocopherols, iron, vitamin B3, B5, B6, B2, B9.
May contain NUTS.
*Rainforest Alliance Certified. Find out more at ra.org.
This product on their own admission contains over thirty per cent wheat.
Now let’s add a very large dollop of peer-reviewed science.
Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India? is the title as that of this peer-reviewed paper on the Indian Journal Of Research Medicine.
This is an extract.
The time of first exposure to wheat influences the development of celiac disease. In countries such as Finland, Estonia, and Denmark, characterized by low gluten consumption in infancy, celiac disease prevalence is much lower than in Sweden where gluten consumption is high in infancy. A natural experiment occurred in Sweden about two decades ago when national recommendations were made to introduce wheat into the diet after cessation of breast feeding at six months. This change was coupled with increased wheat gluten consumption through infant feeds. Together these measures resulted in a two-fold increase in incidence of celiac disease in Sweden, which was attributed to introduction of wheat into the diet after cessation of breast feeding.
In 1996 this recommendation was changed to introduce gluten in gradually increasing amounts while the infant was still being breast fed. This led to a dramatic decrease in celiac disease incidence.
Should we be following the route of these Scandinavian countries and eat wheat sensibly and reduce the amount we give our children or should we follow what Nestlé’s marketeers want us to do?
As a coeliac, who is allergic to the gluten in wheat, I wouldn’t touch this product with a spoon certified by my cardiologist.
The author also says this about wheat.
The other dimension to this problem is that not all wheat is alike when it comes to inducing celiac disease. The ancient or diploid wheats (e.g. Triticum monococcum) are poorly antigenic, while the modern hexaploid wheats (e.g. Triticum aestivum) have highly antigenic glutens, more capable of inducing celiac disease. India, for centuries, grew diploid and later tetraploid wheat which is less antigenic, while hexaploid wheat used in making bread is recently introduced. Thus a change back to older varieties of wheat may have public health consequences. Public health authorities may well want to examine both these avenues, i.e. infant feeding recommendations and wheat varieties cultivated in the country, for opportunities to avert the epidemic of celiac disease which is impending in our country.
The author may be talking about India, but as he says modern wheats have highly antigenic glutens and will cause an epidemic of coeliac disease.
I may not have had any medical training, but I spent a miserable first fifty years of my life as an undiagnosed coeliac.
Conclusion
KitKat Cereal should be labelled that it may cause coeliac disease.
May 14, 2023
Posted by AnonW |
Food | Breakfast, Coeliac/Gluten-Free, Nestlé |
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Most Monday mornings, I go to LEON on Moorgate for breakfast.
I go to that branch, mainly because I can get a proper china mug for my tea and also because a cheery member of staff usually has what I want ready within a minute of my entering the store.
One day, I’ll confuse them by having something different! But then she looks the sort, who enjoys a joke!
To get to Moorgate station, I can take a bus, but I usually go via the Northern City Line from Essex Road station, as it’s quicker in the Peak and drops me in the right side of Moorgate for LEON.
Today, the train was very full and it looked like you’d have had trouble squeezing in any more.
Since the new Class 717 trains have been introduced ridership has grown and the trains are getting more crowded in the Peak. This is despite an 11% increase in capacity, compared to the older Class 313 trains.
Currently, there are the following Off Peak services into Moorgate station.
- Four trains per hour (tph) – Welwyn Garden City
- Four tph – Hertford North, Watton-at-Stone and Stevenage.
There are also extra services in the Peak.
Various improvements and developments will affect the number of passengers going to and from Moorgate.
Improvements To Stevenage Station
Stevenage station is a bottleneck on one leg of the services of the Northern City Line to and from Moorgate station.
An additional platform with full step-free access, is being added to the station and should open this year, to terminate services from Moorgate station.
Currently, services that stop at Stevenage station, that are going North include.
- One tph – LNER to Leeds or Harrogate.
- One tph – LNER to Lincoln or York
- Four tph – Thameslink to Cambridge.
- Two tph – Thameslink to Peterborough.
These will be joined in Autumn 2021 by East Coast Trains to Edinburgh at a frequency of five trains per day.
I suspect a lot of passengers going between the North and Hertfordshire and Cambridge will change at Stevenage, rather than Kings Cross.
The works at Stevenage also give the impression, that they could handle more than the four tph, that run on the route.
Improvements To Highbury & Islington Station
Highbury & Islington station is going to get more escalators and step-free access to the four deep-level platforms at some point and this will surely attract more passengers to use both the Victoria and the Northern City Lines.
Frequency increases are also planned for the North and East London Lines, in the next year.
Will the Northern City Line be able to handle the extra passengers?
A Second Entrance At Walthamstow Central Station
Walthamstow Central station is one of the constraints on even more trains on the ever-welcoming Dear Old Vicky and may have had money allocated for a second entrance with more escalators and much-needed lifts.
As I said with Highbury & Islington station, will the Northern City Line be able to handle the extra passengers?
Rebuilding Of Essex Road Station
I think that Essex Road station could be a good investment for a creative property developer.
- The building has little if any architectural merit.
- The location is convenient on a busy road Junction.
- Large numbers of buses pass the station, but the positioning of bus stops could be improved.
- The station needs step-free access.
- A large number of flats could be built on the site, with good access to the station.
- Car parking is terrible locally.
I could see this station being transformed.
But if it were to be improved with much better access, it would further increase the number of passengers using the services into Moorgate.
The Gospel Oak And Barking Line
If you are going between Barking and the West End, lots of passengers in the Peak seem to change to the Victoria Line at Blackhorse Road station and numbers doing this seems to have increased since the Gospel Oak and Barking Line was electrified and now, the route has double the capacity it had before.
Also are more passengers needing the City walking across at Highbury & Islington station.
It should not be forgotten, that the Gospel Oak and Barking Line is being extended to Barking Riverside with a same platform interchange to c2c’s services to and from Grays.
An increase in frequency between Barking and Gospel Oak is also planned.
Developments on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line will increase the number of passengers going to and from Moorgate station.
Crossrail
Consider.
- The route between Moorgate and Highbury & Islington stations will become an important link between the Victoria Line and Crossrail, as there is no direct connection between the two lines.
- The short route will also link the North London Line to Crossrail.
- I suspect too,that passengers from Hertfordshire will go all the way to Moorgate for Crossrail.
In addition, when Crossrail opens, Moorgate station will be fully step-free with umpteen escalators and lifts.
Will there be enough capacity and services on the Northern City Line?
Conclusion
Rough calculations and my instinct suggest that there will need to be an increase of services into Moorgate station.
Currently, in the morning Peak, twelve tph or a train every five minutes run into Moorgate station.
- This frequency is easily handled in a two platform station.
- Lines with modern signalling on the London Underground can handle up to thirty-six tph in a two-platform station.
- The route is double-track between Moorgate and Alexandra Palace stations, where the route splits into two.
Twenty or more tph could be run on this simple route, with modern signalling.
January 13, 2020
Posted by AnonW |
Food, Transport/Travel | Breakfast, Class 717 Train, Crossrail, Essex Road Station, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Highbury And Islington Station, Leon Restaurants, Moorgate Station, Northern City Line, Stevenage Station, Victoria Line, Walthamstow Central Station |
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The Anonymous Widower 