Are Manchester and Liverpool Restaurants the Best in the Country?

When you have a job that allows you to travel around the country you get to experience a number of counties and the local facilities they have. I have been lucky enough to see a large proportion of the towns, cities and villages in Britain and I'm always asked by my friends and family of good places to go when they are away from home. One thing I have found is that the North of England has some of the greatest places to eat at in the UK and that you can't beat a Liverpool or Manchester restaurant.

Any time I go to the North of England I always try to go out for some thing to eat at a restaurant or bar. The variety of places to eat is amazing, from every day bar food and pizzas to high class nouveau cuisine. Cities like Manchester and Liverpool have a brilliant array of good quality restaurants. I remember my amusement on my first trip to Manchester as I strolled down the Oxford Road and past the University of Manchester to see a vast number of indian restaurants and take aways that must of stretched for a couple of miles.

Manchester restaurants are some of my all time favourites. There are so many fantastic restaurants available. You can get good value food at most pubs and bars but as well as this there are some amazing restaurants to be found in the cities side streets. One time when I was in Manchester I was taken to a fantastic sushi restaurant where the food was great. The only other time I have had food that good was when I was in New York.

Restaurants in Liverpool are usually very stylised and have a real trendy bar feel about them. This is not very hard to believe as Liverpool is the European city of culture. This can be brilliant if you are taking a girlfriend out for a meal and you want to impress because a number of these restaurants have some great features. When you are looking for some where to eat that is a little quainter with more of a personal touch then restaurants in areas like the Wirral and Runcorn are a good choice.

If you are interested in finding out more about a Manchester Restaurant or Liverpool Restaurants then why not visit the Onion Ring for a comprehensive guide to restaurants, venues and more in the North West of England.

Eating Healthy While Eating Out

Probably the most difficult time to eat healthy is when we're going out to eat. Restaurants earn their money by serving the most tempting, tasty, decadent food you ever tasted. Unfortunately for us, that's because they're generous with salts, fats, sugars, creams and butters we should not be eating in large amounts. The good news is, as long as we exercise good choices, we can eat out and still eat healthy.

The Right Restaurant: The fist healthy choice to make is the right restaurant. Sometimes you'll have no choice about this, but when you do, it's important to make the right choice. It's best to choose restaurants that take orders and serve you at the table. Fast food is notoriously unhealthy, you have few good choices and no control over how the food is prepared or served. Buffets offer a wide variety of foods, but you're usually allowed to eat all you want. With good self-control, you may still be able to choose foods for health at a buffet.

Healthy Menu Selection: Even at a buffet, we can choose the vegetable salads, the light dressings, the low fat entrées and avoid the fatty, creamy, fried stuff. This is the same thing we do when reading a menu in a traditional restaurant. We'll want to skip all the beef, pork, cheese, and fried options. Grilled, baked or stir-fried poultry or fish are the most healthy options. Read all the ingredients, though, because some of these dishes are baked in a butter or cream sauce, or are breaded and "oven-fried." Of course, green are a far better choice than those creamy, oily, salty salads (like potato or macaroni). The same with soups...always choose broth over cream.

Ordering For Health: Once we've made our menu selection, the next step is ordering. Ask, "How is that prepared?" and avoid things fried, baked or soaked in oils, butters or creams. Always order salad dressings and sauces "on the side," so you can dip the food into it and enjoy the flavor but still be in control of the amount you're eating. Vinegar and oil are the most healthy salad dressings, but you can choose any kind as long as it's on the side. Water is probably the best thing to drink with your meal, diet soda is probably next best. Milk and juice are high fat or high sugar options. Alcohol should never be consumed while eating because it increases our appetite and capacity for food. Dessert is something best done at home, where you can control the portions and ingredients.

Portion Control: Now, you've got your food...dig in, right? Wrong! Restaurants almost always serve you too much to eat, but we were taught by our Mommies to clean up our plates. So, the first thing to do is figure out a serving size, cut that amount off (usually half) and move the rest to the other side of the plate. Do the same thing with potatoes, rice, noodles, etc. Now we can eat all of the salad, all of the vegetables and a serving each of the meat and starch. Then we have a great meal to take home for later. Even if you don't eat leftovers, it's better those extra portions go to waste than to waist.

Now you know how to enjoy eating out and still be eating healthy. If you eat out as rarely as we do (once a month, or less) you can follow another, simpler rule. The rule is, enjoy yourself by eating the rare treat and make up for it at home. After all, life isn't all about rule-keeping. Either way, I hope to meet you in some nice restaurant in an exotic location. If I do, I promise not to tell if you don't. We can always do more exercise when we get home.

Glen Williams is Webmaster at E-Health-Fitness Nutrition Exercise And Illness Help and Founder of E-Home Fellowship (EHF), Co. He has counseled and helped people on life and health issues since 1987. You can comment on his articles at his Health And Fitness Forums.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles

How Restaurants Are Rated

Mobil's rating system of restaurant consists of five different grades or ratings, each one which has its own set of criteria and expectations. A Mobil One-Star restaurant, for example, is a restaurant which provides an experience which is distinct through local flair, individual atmosphere or culinary specialty. A Mobil Two-Star restaurant is a restaurant which using a clean setting and efficient service to serve fresh food. Both value and family friendliness are considered in this category. A Mobil Three Star Restaurant is a restaurant which has good food, an enjoyable décor, and service which is both warm and skillful. A Mobil Four-Star restaurant is a restaurant which provides the most professional service, along with wonderful food and presentations which are distinctive in some way. Finally, a Mobil Five-Star restaurant is a restaurant which offers a flawless dining experience by providing service which is superlative, décor which is elegant, presentations which are detailed and exquisite, and food which is exceptional.

These criteria and expectations are meant to be a suggestion of what guests can expect to experience when visiting a restaurant of each caliber level. These recommendations are not the only limits set forth by each level, and they are not mandated individually. A restaurant establishment has to either meet or exceed all of the requirements for the previous star rating in order to advance to the next star rating. So for example, a Mobil Five-Star restaurant has to meet the expectations and criteria for a Four-Star restaurant, a Three-Star restaurant, a Two-Star restaurant and a One-Star restaurant before it can be a Five-Star restaurant.

One-star restaurants provide an experience which is distinctive either through individual atmosphere, local flair or culinary specialty. A one star restaurant's service is both efficient and cordial with servers who are attired neatly. The products that are offered by a one star restaurant are fresh and appetizing when displayed.

Two star restaurants serve food that is fresh in a setting which is clean. Service offered by a two-star restaurant is efficient and family friendly. Two-star restaurant guests will be able to find all of the characteristics of a one-star restaurant, in addition to some improved features and more professional décor.

Three-stair restaurants offer great food, service that is both warm and skillful, and décor which is enjoyable and family friendly. Guests at three-star restaurants can expect to find all of the characteristics of both a two-star restaurant and a one-star restaurant, in addition to more specific criteria for a much more professional restaurant.

Four-star restaurants provide service which is professional, presentations which are distinctive, and food which is delicious and wonderful. Guests in four-star restaurants can expect to find all of the criteria and characteristics of a three-star, two-star and one-star restaurant, with some improvements.

Finally, five star restaurants offer what may be considered a flawless dining experience by offering food that is exceptional, service which is superlative, décor and presentations which are exquisite and elegant, and a lot of attention to detail. Five-Star restaurant guests can expect all of the characteristics that mark a four-star restaurant, three star restaurant, two-star restaurant, and a one-star restaurant.

Charlie Morris is a restaurant connoisseur. His passions include his hand picked restaurant directory, eating out and eating in.

The Best Food

Everyone eats so everyone has an opinion about food. But if health is the objective, mere opinion doesn't count nor does fad or majority rule.

Most people think the average cooked diet based upon official food pyramids is just fine. Some eat predominantly fast food. Others advocate veganism (eating only plant foods), or lacto-ova vegetarianism (plants plus milk and eggs). There are also proponents of special foods such as fresh juices, soybean products and macrobiotic cooked grains and rice.

Everyone can make arguments on behalf of their beliefs. They can cite examples of people who have escaped disease and lived long. Some argue morality and ethics, such as those who say sentient animal life should not be sacrificed for food. Others set their eating practices by the standards of holy writ that eschew certain forms of foods and sanctify others. Others just eat what tastes good and that's logic enough for them.

Eating beliefs seem to take on an almost religious character. People feel guarded and pretty zealous about food and don't like others meddling. But since health is intimately linked to what we take into our mouths, thinking, honest reflection and willingness to change are in order.

It is easy to be deceived because wrong food choices may not manifest their full impact until late in life. Nutrition can even pass through genetically to affect later generations. In this regard, food ideas are also like religion in that hundreds of different sects can each claim to have the truth. But none of them needs to fear disproof since adjudication will not occur until everyone is dead and gone to the afterlife.

The body is extremely adaptable and will attempt to survive on whatever it is given. If the food is incorrect there is usually no immediate harm. But the body will eventually be stressed beyond its ability to adapt, resulting in disease, degeneration and loss of vitality. Unfortunately, such consequences are so far removed in time from the eating regimen that caused them that few understand the relationship.

So be careful before subscribing to bold claims about what is or is not good to eat. The true test of any health idea lies too far out into the future. Our best hope then is to be well grounded philosophically before we slide our legs under the dinner table.

How do we develop a healthy eating philosophy and sort through all of the competing eating ideas? I am going to explain here a very simple principle that is so reasonable you need not even look for proofs. Follow along with me and see if you don't agree.

Consider the following three premises:

1. Just like a tree is genetically adapted to absorb certain nutrients from soil, and a lion is genetically adapted to thrive on prey, and a deer is genetically adapted to browse on vegetation, so too, are humans genetically adapted to certain kinds of food.

2. The majority of foods we are presently exposed to are a product of the Agricultural/Industrial Revolution and occupy a small part of the genetic history of humans. (Refer back to the 276-mile time-line in which only a few inches represent industrial-type eating practices.)

3. The natural, genetically adapted to food for humans must predate them. In other words, how could humans exist before the food they needed to survive existed? We were completely developed biologically prior to agriculture and any method of food processing. That means whatever diet archetypal humans ate was the perfect diet because that was the diet responsible for the existence and development of the incredibly complex human organism. That diet was the milieu, the environmental nutritional womb, if you will, from which we sprung.

If you consider these three premises, the logical conclusion derived from them is that the best food for humans is that food which they would be able to eat as is, as it is found in nature.

Our tissues were designed to be bathed in food nutrients derived from natural living foods, not with dyes, preservatives, synthetics, nutritiously barren starches and refined sugars and oils. Make no mistake; if we are not eating according to this principle, our bodies are in constant deficiency, imbalance and toxin exposure. The result of generations ignoring this principle is an epidemic of obesity, chronic degenerative diseases and the exhaustion of our digestive processes.

A feature of all natural food is that it is raw - alive if you will. This is consistent with the Law of Biogenesis that says life can only come from preexisting life. Life begets life. In spite of scientists' dreams to the contrary, we have never observed life springing from non-life, nor have we ever even been able to create life from non-life in a laboratory. If we eat living foods, we enhance our own life. If we eat dead, devitalized foods we become devitalized and dead. Granted, this will not happen all at once, but as the adaptive reserves are exhausted we become just like the dead food we eat.

So a fundamental feature of our natural diet was that it was raw. Yes, even the meats, organs, eggs and insects - raw. Remember, we're far back in time, even before the use of fire (much less the microwave, stove, oven, grill, deep fryer or extruder). Studies of the diets of past cultures and today's still-primitive societies reveals that they ate exactly as their genes and the environment dictated.

We were not suddenly dropped from outer space onto Earth with fry pans, matches and rotisseries. We began on the forest floor, not in a line to a fast food counter. We had only our natural bodies in a natural world, exactly like every other creature. Every other organism on Earth eats raw foods exactly like they are found in nature. Do you think nature doesn't notice our decision to change all that?

Would tofu qualify? No, because tofu is found nowhere in nature. Would oatmeal porridge qualify? No, because oatmeal porridge is found nowhere in nature. Would hamburgers, French fries, pop, breakfast cereals, granola, canned foods, candy, sports drinks, muscle building powders, vitamins and minerals, mashed potatoes, carrot cake, croissants, bagels, Jolly Ranchers, Ding Dongs, Cocoa Krispies, Good 'n Plentys or Fig Newtons qualify? No. None of these are found as such in nature.

For those of you who are by now panicking (if not gagging) at the thought of eating raw foods, yes, there is danger of food-borne pathogens. But if you are careful and clean, the danger is far less than the danger of a lifetime eating devitalized processed foods. Raw natural foods must be safe or our ancestors would have not survived and we would not exist!

It is a choice. When faced with a choice, why not opt for the wisdom of nature? Is it not strange we are the only creatures on the planet to cook our foods? Is it a wonder, given this, that we succumb with every imaginable chronic degenerative disease virtually unknown in creatures eating the raw natural diet?

Simply think of yourself placed in nature in the total absence of modern technology. Ask yourself the question, what would I eat... and what could I eat? You could eat and digest fruits, nuts, insects, a few plants, honey, worms, grubs, eggs, milk and animal flesh. These are about the only food substances in nature humans are capable of digesting without technological (including fire) intervention. These are, in fact, the very foods that are the mainstay of nomadic primitive societies. Only when these foods become scarce do unpalatable, inedible foods such as most grains and vegetables become cooked and processed to change their palatability, neutralize toxins and increase digestibility.

So that is where we have been. But does this have anything to do with us here today in the 21st century microwave age? It has everything to do with us because it is this expansive historical context that served as the womb that shaped and defined us. It is this natural wild setting that occupies the vast majority of our history and predominates our genetics. It is the incubator within which life on planet Earth has developed.

What would have been the predominant food in the wild? Likely prey. Envision yourself placed back in time in that setting with a family to feed. You would be looking for the most calorie- and nutrient-dense foods you could find. That would not be a few wheat seeds, some grass or a root. You would let the herbivores do all the grazing and digestion with their specialized stomachs that are capable of converting essentially any plant material into edible protein and fat. Then you would eat them. I don't like that either, but that is the way it is.

Pretty simple isn't it? We should eat what nature provides that we can digest. Yet this is not explained in nutrition textbooks, and PhD nutritionists graduate without even grasping it. It cuts through all the theory, belief, and guesswork. It matches our natural bodies with our natural food.

Our immersion in modern cookery and food processing has misled us. Foods such as granola, tofu, cauliflower and lettuce, which are marketed as the ultimate health foods, are in fact not natural human foods at all. These products either do not exist in nature, are so scarce as to never possibly be a sustaining food, or in their raw precooked form are unpalatable and even toxic.

For example, raw soybeans contain a variety of chemicals that can stunt growth and interfere with the body's digestive enzymes. Eat enough of them and you'll die. Modern grain products are a result of agriculture and in their raw form are unpalatable, indigestible and also toxic. In nature one would never find enough kernels of rice, wheat or barley to even make up a meal, even if they were edible in their raw form. (Sprouted seeds and grains are an exception to this since they are digestible, raw and nutritious.)

Who, if they were really, really hungry - and options were available - would eat raw broccoli, cauliflower or lettuce? These foods are only now made palatable by cooking or doctoring with manufactured dressings.

Now this creates somewhat of a dilemma. Knowing what our natural diet is and consuming it are two different things. We are so acclimated to the modern diet that the notion of eating raw meat, for example, is nauseating to most. Nevertheless, as evidenced by primitive (but nutritionally advanced) peoples, raw meat and organs can be eaten with great nutritional benefit to humans, and they are totally digestible and nontoxic. Some cultures even bury raw meats and let them rot (ferment) and then consume them with gusto. These societies are robustly healthy until modern foods encroach. Then, like a dirty bathtub ring, modern degenerative diseases decimate those people at the periphery in contact with modern foods.

It would be very difficult today to achieve the ideal raw, natural diet. But if the basic principle is kept in mind it helps remind us of our origins and points us to the appropriate, genetically adapted-to foods.

This does not mean no processed or cooked foods should be eaten. It simply means that consistently doing so will stress the body's genetic capabilities and will ultimately result in less than optimal health.

Look around the grocery store (usually the outside aisles) and consider what it is that could be eaten in its natural state. Increase the proportion of those foods. Processed foods should be chosen that compromise natural principles the least and are as close to nature as possible. They should be whole foods, packaged carefully to protect nutrient value and be free of synthetics, refined oils and sugars.

For example, whole milk yogurt that has not been homogenized or pasteurized is ideal. The same thing pasteurized would be next best. The same thing pasteurized and homogenized next. Worst would be non-fat, pasteurized, homogenized, artificially flavored and sugared yogurt (which is, of course, what the majority eat because it tastes most like what they are used to - candy).

Eat the best foods you can find in variety and moderation and you will be doing the best that can be done.

There, you have in a nutshell what has taken me decades of research, study and thinking to discover. It is simple and obvious, but that is the way of all great truths.

Dr. Wysong is a former veterinary clinician and surgeon, college instructor in human anatomy, physiology and the origin of life, inventor of numerous medical, surgical, nutritional, athletic and fitness products and devices, research director for the present company by his name and founder of the philanthropic Wysong Institute. He is author of The Creation-Evolution Controversy now in its eleventh printing, a new two volume set on philosophy for living entitled Thinking Matters: 1-Living Life... As If Thinking Matters; 2-The Big Questions...As If Thinking Matters, several books on nutrition, prevention and health for people and animals and over 18 years of monthly health newsletters. He may be contacted at Wysong@Wysong.net and a free subscription to his e-Health Letter is available at http://www.wysong.net. Also check out [http://www.cerealwysong.com]

Sushi Master

Homemade Sushi

Food Intolerance

Many people experience unpleasant reactions to foods they have eaten and suspect they have a "food allergy". However, only 2-5% of adults and 2-8% of children are truly "allergic" to certain foods.
The remainder of people may be experiencing food intolerance, or food sensitivity, rather than true food allergy.

I think a quick lesson is in order...
A food allergy occurs when an individual ingests a food (usually containing a protein) that the body sees as a "foreign" or threatening substance - known as an ANTIGEN or ALLERGEN.
The person's immune system responds by mounting an attack, producing large amounts of IgE antibodies, which attach themselves to specialised white blood cells. These cells release histamine and other inflammatory substances, producing "classic" allergic symptoms of swelling and inflammation. Conditions and symptoms such as rhinitis, asthma, wheezing, lip swelling, itchy skin, hives, and eczema involve this type of "allergic" reaction. The allergens involved could be anything from a food protein, pollen from flowers or grasses, house-dust mite or animal dander.

A food "intolerant" reaction also occurs when the body "reacts" to the ingestion of a food. This reaction however may or may not involve the immune system, and may be caused by a food protein, a starch or sugar molecule, other food component, or by a contaminant found in the food (e.g. food colouring, preservative etc.). If the immune system IS involved, it is usually a different class of antibody that is produced, which is why standard food allergy tests can produce negative results, yet noticeable food-related symptoms persist. Many symptoms related to food intolerance are caused by a local inflammatory response in the gut, and a sign of underlying "inflammation".

With food "intolerance", it is worth understanding, that it's rarely the food that is the problem - it is the person's response to it!
Foods containing wheat or milk for example are getting reputations as "bad foods" due to the reactions they can produce in some people. While they can very well be "problem foods" for some, they can also be very healthy foods for others. Food intolerance could be re-named as "poor digestion", as reactions to food are often the result of poor or compromised digestion!

So what can cause food intolerance?
Food intolerances are often caused by stress! Food-intolerant people often have low levels of secretory IgA, a class of protective antibodies found in the gut. IgA antibodies protect the body against the entry of foreign substances. Stress leads to a decrease in secretory IgA... a bit of vicious cycle really, but it certainly explains the relationship between stress and food intolerance!

Underlying digestive problems (e.g. low stomach acidity, gut bacterial overgrowth, a "leaky" or damaged gut lining, yeast infection or poor digestive enzyme production) are common "causes" of food intolerance and must be addressed before avoiding foods unnecessarily.
Gallbladder disease, gallstones, and pancreatitis may also be underlying causes of reactions to foods, but these will produce other symptoms too.

It is usually large food particles that cause allergic reactions, so proper breakdown of food (especially protein) via cooking and chewing is vitally important. Digestive enzymes or probiotics can often help too to ensure complete digestion, and once digestion is corrected, things can improve quite dramatically.

Signs and symptoms of food intolerance can be quite diverse, depending on how long the person has been ingesting food allergens and how the body has "adapted". Common symptoms include bloating, stomach cramping, diarrhoea or constipation - yes commonly known as "IBS"!
Long term food intolerance may produce symptoms totally unrelated to the digestive system and may include fatigue, joint and muscle aching, depression, headaches and migraine, hyperactivity in children, and even certain autoimmune disorders.

Diagnosing a food intolerance rather than an allergy (via IgE antibody blood testing) is not easy, simply because reactions to foods can occur from anywhere between 12-36 hours after eating... coupled with the fact that an individual may be reacting to more than one food!
Exclusion/reintroduction diets are the "gold standard" of tests and the most useful when done properly. They do need to be adhered to for at least 2-4 weeks initially, and are always best done under the guidance of a registered nutritionist or dietician with experience in food allergy and intolerance.

Various blood tests are now available (most useful are IgG antibody tests - available now via pin-prick blood sample) which may prove useful in many cases - but only when there are noticeable symptoms.
Vega testing (measuring energy flow) and kinesiology (muscle strength testing) are entirely reliant on the skill of the practitioner, so how effective they actually are is very difficult to measure. Whatever the test, none are 100% accurate, and changes to a person's diet based purely on the results of a test cause more confusion than clarity, and very often lead to unbalanced eating, unnecessary food phobias, and possible nutrient deficiencies.

What to do if you suspect you have a food intolerance

1) Keep a food diary and note when symptoms occur

2) Try and identify the possible problem foods

3) Seek advice on how to adapt the diet to improve digestion

4) Eat a varied, fresh and nutritious diet

The most commonly allergic foods...
Cow's milk, cheese, soya, eggs, peanuts, wheat, gluten, yeast, corn, rye, chocolate (often the milk in chocolate!), coffee, tea, alcohol (it is the chemicals and preservatives in alcohol, not the alcohol per say), citrus fruit (lemons, oranges), white potato, beef, various spices, tomato, malt, pork, chemical additives, colourings and preservatives in food (especially tartrazine, sodium benzoate, aspartame).

Food intolerances are best dealt with by avoidance of the offending food for a prescribed period of time, followed by a "rotation" diet, in which problem foods are only eaten every three to four days, instead of daily.
Young children can often re-introduce foods after three months of avoidance, whereas adults may require six to twelve months of avoidance.

Much food intolerance and even some food allergy problems settle down after long-term avoidance, and especially when digestion is improved.
When a problem food is only eaten sparingly, symptoms are less likely to return. The importance of rotating foods varies from person to person and may be related to the severity of the allergies.

The following foods are the least likely to provoke allergic reactions:

Beverages:

Almond milk, Quinoa milk, herb teas, apple juice and other pure or freshly squeezed fruit juices without sugar or additives (dilute 50:50 with water).

Roasted grain beverages may be used as coffee substitutes. If you like fresh coffee, Dandelion root which you can grind in a coffee grinder.

Soya milk is fine UNLESS you have an allergy to soya!

Cereals:

Oats (unless you have diagnosed Coeliac disease or are known to be "sensitive" to gluten)

Oatmeal and Oatbran

Quinoa porridge

Puffed rice and millet cereal

Homemade mueslis

Grains and flours:

Chick pea flour

Potato flour

Buckwheat flour

Rice flour

Cooked whole gains:

Oats, millet, pearl or pot barley, buckwheat groats (also known as Kashi), brown rice, basmati rice, amaranth, quinoa, 100% buckwheat soba noodles, rice noodles.

Breads:

Sprouted grain breads, rice bread, 100% rye or spelt bread (often fine with wheat-sensitive individuals), other wheat and yeast-free breads

100% rice cakes

100% rye crackers

Legumes:

Haricot beans

Chickpeas

Black-eye beans

Kidney beans

Lentils

Navy beans

Pinto beans

Peas

String beans

Tofu (soya bean curd)

Dried beans should be soaked overnight. Pour off the water and rinse before cooking for allotted time. Canned beans often contain added sugar or other potential allergens, so if used they must be rinsed well.

Nuts and seeds
Almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds - eat raw with no salt etc.
Nut butters are highly nutritious spreads to use in place of butter or margarine, e.g. Tahini, almond butter, hazelnut or cashew butter.

Oils:

Use cold-pressed or expeller-pressed oils (available from health food stores), as they are safer. Do not use corn oil or "vegetable oil" from an unspecified source, as this is usually corn oil.

Rapeseed oil

Linseed (edible linseed or flaxseed) oil

Olive oil

Safflower oil

Sesame oil

Soya oil

Sunflower oil

Protein:

Fresh white fish, salmon, mackerel and tuna and most canned fish, lamb, poultry and fowl.

Vegetables and fruit

All vegetables except corn are generally acceptable on a low-allergen diet, as is all fruits with the exception of citrus fruits. Tomatoes can often cause problems and should be avoided by susceptible individuals. Other food members of the nightshade family (potatoes, aubergine, peppers) may prove problematic with arthritis sufferers.

Lucy-Ann Prideaux MSc BSc RNutr Registered Nutritionist