With the Hayfever season rapidly approaching, allergies seem like the perfect topic for this week’s blog post. 

 

Turn the clock back 10 or 15 years and allergies were rarely mentioned. Yet in the last decade or so, they’ve become increasingly common. It’s estimated that one in four people in the UK will suffer from an allergy at some time in their lives. And the number affected seems to be rising every year. 

 

Do an internet search and you’ll find a truly bizarre list of allergies. Some are well known. Pollen and Hayfever. Dust and Asthma. Peanuts. Yeast. Milk – or more accurately, lactose. Others less so. False nails. Adhesive tape. Avocados. And our favourite, squirrel fur, which begs the question of how on earth researchers discovered this one! 

If this sounds like a rather odd question, it isn’t meant to be. Nor is there a “right” answer. As always, all we want to do is get you thinking! 

 

If you still suspect that it may be a trick question, let’s put it a different way. Have you noticed how the modern world focuses on stuff?  

 

On all the things you MUST HAVE to be able to function in this high tech – and image conscious – world of ours. If you’re in any doubt, just look at the adverts on the television or in the papers. 

 

Whether it be the latest clothes, car or mobile phone, the message is the same. If you’re not keeping up with it all, then somehow there’s something wrong with you. 

 

Sadly, it’s easiest to see in children, with countless stories of bullying of those who don’t keep up with the latest fashions. Peer pressure at its worst. 

In the first part of this occasional series, we focussed on antibiotics and the most common – but least recognised – source of them. The food we eat. 

 

Today we keep the spotlight on food, but from a slightly different perspective. The chemicals conventional farmers rely on to produce it. 

 

The farming we’re familiar with today – large fields of identikit crops – is a very recent phenomenon, dating back to the 1940’s and 1950’s. It relies heavily on chemicals – generically known as pesticides – to address every threat a crop may to face. Weeds competing for space and resources. Insects damaging or eating it. Plant diseases affecting yield or making the crop unsaleable. 

Over recent years, sugar has been portrayed as public enemy number one. More addictive than cocaine. Linked to many health problems, particularly the increase in diabetes and insulin resistance in children and young adults. To be avoided at all costs. 

 

But is it really that simple? If you‘re a regular reader of this blog, you won’t be surprised to hear that the answer is no (!); so let’s take a closer look at sugar. 

 

We love asking people questions about things they take for granted. Watching their faces as they think about something for the first time.