She works in private practice in London and runs groups and workshops on addictions, compulsive behaviour as well as emotional eating.

She is co-author of the Chapter: Eating the Emotion: How we use food to change our mood

WebSite: www.northlondoncounsellingpsychotherapy.co.uk.

Email:  digennaro.s@googlemail.com

Ayse Banbridge is a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist working in private practice in London. Her interest in emotional eating spans some twenty years and originated by her personal struggle with food and emotions.

In particular she is interested in how we use food to change our mood. She works in an integrative way with her clients to re-balance the often complex relationship we have with food; many of the people who consult with food issues often have a vast knowledge of health, diet and food yet they override this knowledge when faced with an emotional problem. Hypnotherapy is a useful tool for looking at the unconscious, at why we sometimes react in ways that we know to be detrimental to our health and emotional wellbeing.

As well as her private practice, she is also a part-time lecturer in counselling skills and runs groups and workshops on anxiety, compulsive behaviours and emotional eating.

She may be contacted on:

www.healingwellhypnotherapy.co.uk

She is co-author of the Chapter: Eating the Emotion: How we use food to change our mood

In the last 30 years or so we have seen a huge rise in food related disorders ranging from anorexia and bulimia to compulsive over-eating. More insidious has been the rise of those who are not considered to be at the ‘disorder’ end of the spectrum but nonetheless spend an inordinate amount of time obsessed by the food they have consumed and the effect this may have on their bodies and more importantly, on their sense of self.

Unlike other substances such as the over-consumption of alcohol or the misuse of drugs, the ridding or curtailing of which enables the individual to lead a healthier life, food is as essential as oxygen and water. Cutting out this substance or replacing it with something else is just not an option. This is one relationship we have to get right.

And of course it is not food per se that is the problem but the associations we make between our emotions and food that cause this natural balance to become disturbed.

• How does this balance, so delicately tuned by nature go wrong?
• How does it manifest in our lives?
• What can we do to restore this balance?

Dr Robert Boyle, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College, London, UK

Robert Boyle trained as a Paediatrician in Nottingham, London and Melbourne, Australia.He then specialised in Paediatric Allergy at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne where his PhD involved the investigation of ways in which probiotic bacteria might prevent allergy. Dr Boyle sees children with food allergy at St. Mary’s Hospital Paddington and the London Allergy Clinic. His research at Imperial College London aims to identify the best way to prevent allergy from developing in young children.

Food Science & Technology, UC Davis

Christopher Gooding is an environmental health practitioner working in food safety at Norwich City Council.

He received a PhD in yeast genetics studying at Hatfield Polytechnic. He then worked in postdoctoral positions at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich and at the University of California, Davis. His research career concentrated on rapid molecular techniques for the detection of bacterial pathogens in foods. In 2001 he qualified in environmental health and now works on the sharp end of food hygiene and safety. He takes a particular interest in methods to achieve improvements in food safety legislative compliance and has made studies of the new premises hygiene rating systems. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

Dr Christopher Gooding is author of the chapter on Food poisoning

Beware - Peanuts!

Allergy to food is a common problem affecting up to 1 in 20 children and 1 in 30 adults. It causes a great deal of anxiety, and interference in daily activities especially shopping and mealtimes.

This Chapter in the ‘Thought for Food’ book will address what food allergy is, which illnesse are caused by food allergy, whether food allergy is more commone than it used and why.  It will also discuss how our body decides whether or not to make an allergic response to a food that we eat then? what sort of things might stop this from working properly? And what should I do to prevent my child from getting food allergy

Author: Dr Robert Boyle,  Clinical Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London

Modern instumentation in molecular biology has made plant breeding more science

Over the past century the global human population has more than trebled and most people now live in cites that are remote from farming areas, both physically and psychologically. This has necessitated a revolution in food production and processing technologies and in consumer attitudes to food. Biotechnologies such as plant breeding have developed alongside new management systems for crop production and novel methods of food transportation, processing and storage.The end result is that in the 21^st century we produce more food per capita that ever before; this food is relatively cheap, especially in richer countries; there is more food choice that at any time in history; and yet we suffer from unprecedentedly high levels of food related diseases from vitamin deficiencies to morbid obesity. We are also probably less well informed about how our food is produced than most previous generations.

The purpose of this chapter is to survey a range of modern advanced technologies for food production including GM, mutagenesis, hybrids, processing, nanotechnology, and transportation. This will be followed by a discussion about how these technologies relate to wider socio-economic, geopolitical  and environmental factors such as climate change, corporate control of the food chain, and the emergence of new agro-industrial powers such as India and China.

Author:  Denis Murphy, Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom

A photomicrograph of Clostridium botulinum bacteria. This is a photomicrograph of Clostridium botulinum stained with Gentian violet. The bacterium C. botulinum produces a nerve toxin, which causes the rare, but serious paralytic illness Botulism

More than ever we rely on people preparing our food for us. From the ready-made meals at the supermarket to the sandwich from the local shop on the corner. Does this make us more at risk from food poisoning? Or are we are we now less aware of how to care for our food and so poisoning ourselves at home? Millions of pounds each year are spent keeping the food we eat safe. This chapter in Thought for Food, explores the current understanding of food pathogens both the traditionally recognised culprits such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and theClostridium perfringins and Clostridium botulinum and the newer bugs on the block Listeria and E.coli O157.

Author:  Dr Christopher Gooding, environmental health practitioner working in food safety at Norwich City Council.

He has taught molecular biology and biotechnology to undergraduate and graduate students since 1980. He received a PhD in plant biochemistry from the University of York in 1977 after which he was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Davis and a Royal

Professor Denis Murphy, Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom

Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research has focused mainly on lipid metabolism in plants and the engineering of novel fatty acid compositions in a variety of crops using biotechnological tools. He has held numerous advisory positions to governments and private organisations including Biotechnology Advisor with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the post of Chair, Biology Advisory Committee with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Denis Murphy has written or edited several books including: People, Plants, and Genes: The Story of Crops and Humanity (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Plant Breeding and Biotechnology: Societal Context and the Future of Agriculture (Cambridge University Press, 2007). One of his major interests is to engage with wider audiences in dialogues about some of the most important and controversial scientific issues facing us today. He is a regular participant in radio and television science programmes and in public debates on topics such as GM crops, agricultural sustainability and biofuels.

Denis Murphys’ chapter in our ‘thought for Food’ book will discuss GM and other advanced technologies for food improvement: scientific and social implications

Schoolchildren eating hot school lunches made up primarily of food from the surplus commodities program. Taken at a school in Penasco, New Mexico, United States. 1941

This Chapter will detail the implementation of statutory school food standards, what the standards are and some of the potential challenges to implementation .

Author: Jo Smith, School Meals Development Officer, UK