Food Preperation and Nutrition - Lecture on 23 Oct 14

Professor Neil Ward

On  Wednesday 23 Oct I attended a Speedwell Trust talk at the Templeton College. Oxford, where Dr Neil Ward, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Surrey University gave an interesting talk entitled "Food Preparation – Impact on nutritional quality and health.”

He commenced by saying food preservastion techniques commenced  thousands of years ago when meat was preserved by salt – but over the last 60 years the preservation  process has changed out of all recognition – mainly originating from  the need to feed soldiers on the battlefields and NASA's  quest for providing food for Astronaughts. 

The lecture progressed to talk about talked about the nutritional value of foods, cooked, and preserved by  a variety of methods.

Preservatives and colour additives  were also discussed in this age of Convenient fast foods. 
Left with a feeling of what are the people of the western world  doing to ourselves and  why is it so difficult to get young people to realise just  how harmful their quest for convenience foods really is  

The importance of Hydation was once more emphasised. (see earlier post dated -----below).  He insists that all student  bring water to the lecture theatre at his presentations

Food contamination was an area of particular intereset to the Professors work.  He has been studying the amount of arsenic appearing in water from volcanic locations-particularly south America- Herec washing food in water is shown to further increase the arsenic content

Lead pollution from fieldfs close to motorways has left a lead risdual in the soil which is still being taken up by plants.

Stephen Ludbrook 01993 898693

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