fighting obesity

Stop Fighting Obesity – The War on Weightloss is Useless

Gavin Wren Food Education, Food Opinion Pieces, Writing

The bathroom scales have petrified me for weeks. I feel fear in the depths of my stomach when I see them, because I’m worried that I’ve eaten too much food recently. Adamant that my slender figure was consigned to history, I felt doomed to life in the third circle of hell with the gluttons. If you need me before I die, I’ll be in a branch of Chicken Cottage.

What’s the big problem? The problem is being overweight. 10 years ago my jeans required nearly eight inches more fabric around the waist and I nudged my trusty bathroom scales to nearly thirty kilograms more than this morning’s reading. I’m proud of having fought hard to remove that excess weight and I’ll be damned if it’s going to creep back into my life.

Losing that mass uncovered neurosis around food, which endures today in paranoia and hypervigilance about my weight. It… come and read more…

Open Farm Sunday sheep

Open Farm Sunday 2017 – JC Farm, Little Kingshill

Gavin Wren Food Education, Writing

Animals make people happy, it’s a proven fact of life.

People who have dogs are proven to be healthier, happier people. In America, a care home introduced cats, dogs and 100 birds for the elderly residents to look after and it possibly saved some of their lives. A man who had given up on life was drawn back into the world by a pair of parakeets. Animals are also a cornerstone of the food system, helping to provide eggs, milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat, leather and lots more besides, something the little people of the world need to learn if they’re going to understand where their food comes from in the future.

Scape Goat.

A few months ago I saw an advert on Twitter for Open Farm Sunday, an annual event run by LEAF, when farms around the country open their doors to the public, to meet the furry, fluffy… come and read more…

Here's a food photography lightroom tutorial along with how to make the perfect sourdough cheese toastie with homemade red onion chutney.

Food Photography Lightroom Tutorial and Sourdough Cheese Toastie

Gavin Wren Food Education, Recipes, Sandwiches & Wraps, Writing

Today’s post is a bumper double edition where I’m giving you quick food photography lightroom tutorial demonstrating how to select images, colour adjust them and edit them, alongside a lovely simple recipe for a sourdough cheese toastie with my own lovely, homemade red onion chutney.

I’m going to keep it short today and let the video do all the talking. But first, here are the images before and after Lightroom, you’ll find the video below them… come and read more…

weight loss secrets why diets don't work

Weight Loss Secrets – Why Diets Don’t Work

Gavin Wren Food Education, Food Opinion Pieces, Writing

“I’m going on a diet”

Really? (yawn) Again?

We’ve all been there. And we’ve all heard it before.

Diets Don’t Work.

Eating too much food is a big global issue. The amount of diet-related illness in the world due to over consumption is increasing massively and the UK is charging ahead with this.

63.4% of the UK population is overweight or obese. Sixty three point four percent. That’s a lot.

Almost no-one decides to become overweight or obese. I doubt that many people in the world start each day by planning to extend their burgeoning waistline, or become giddy with excitement about a shopping trip to buy trousers with an extra 2 inches on the waistline.

Despite this upward trend in body size, dieting and wellness is a national obsession. Millions of people bow at the alter of the latest weight loss… come and read more…

21 things about eggs lots of organic eggs

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Eggs

Gavin Wren Food Education, Writing

Eggs, beautiful eggs. We love eating them, we buy billions of them every year and all have an opinion on the best way to cook them. I’ve recently become an egg-spert on these fascinating storecupboard staples, having spent a few months researching far and wide into how the UK egg market operates on my Food Policy MSc course.

To celebrate the beautiful occasion of submitting this year’s final coursework, I want to share 21 things I discovered whilst writing my research. If you want to know more, just get in touch, there’s about 1001 things I know about eggs now.

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Eggs

1. The UK consumed nearly 12 billion eggs in 2014 and that’s increasing.
2. That’s 185 per person, per year.
3. In the 1960s, it was 250 per person, per year, but that figure slumped by the eighties.
4. 85% of UK egg consumption is produced

Free Range Eggs Box with little blue barn raised stickers

What Free Range Means and Little Blue Stickers

Gavin Wren Food Education, Writing

Have you seen those little blue stickers on the packs of eggs recently? The ones telling you that hens have been temporarily housed in barns? It’s because there’s been a bout of Avian Influenza (AI), a disease that’s bad news for the chicken population of the UK so they’re all being kept indoors to prevent it spreading and these stickers are part of that process.

A few weeks ago somebody on Twitter was questioning whether it’s right to carry on buying these eggs, if the hens are no longer free range. It’s a good question, and not a very easy one to answer. I also realised that many people might not know the difference between barn eggs and free range eggs, so I’ve written this post to spill the beans on how the 35 million UK laying hens spend their lives. After reading this, you can make a decision on