Interesting discussion on the Sweetener Research Group of LinkedIn. It let me to suggest that perhaps sucrose and HFCS should be classed as artificial sweeteners too.

Cherikoff Rare Spices
A food blog focusing on Australian wild foods, Australian cuisine and health and wellness based on foods from the world's oldest living culture. Written by Australian Food expert Vic Cherikoff.
Latest Food Blogs from Cherikoff Rare Spices

Do Prehistoric Taste Drives Still Rule our Lives?
I have often spoken about our instinctive taste drives but recently, while looking for a reference on this topic, I realized that I had not written about it. It appears that we have at least 4 biological taste drives that regulated how we survived in ancient times without food pyramids or dietitians. These drives are determined by our subconscious minds and I discovered an interesting statistic that our conscious mind engages around 2000...

The 12 Tastes in Food - create appealing dishes from the ground up
So many chefs still seem to ignore the basic building blocks of food – the 12 basic tastes or taste-smells. First let me list them and then I’ll discuss how some of them can pair up to balance each other. Some can be disguised and others are to be avoided once you are aware of their existence.

Cant lose weight? Heres Why...
If you’ve tried to lose weight before and failed, it is probably not your fault. The quality of our foods and the way your metabolism reacts are probably the causes. There are so many rubbish diets and food plans, detox programs and celebrity systems that are more designed to sell magazines and spa retreats than help you lose weight. Think about it. If ‘qualified dieticians’ can’t agree on a sensible diet what hope do...

Environmental disaster in the Kimberley
33,000 ha of the pristine Kimberly coast will be obliterated to grow a single species and far more valuable wild plants, let alone whole ecosystems will be wiped out to produce a polluting, unnecessary crop. I have started a petition at avaaz.org and I really hope that you join me in stopping this insane development.

Sugar in the Kimberley - sweet and sour Chinese anyone?
With what I have written about sugar recently, you may understand why this report makes me scratch my head in disbelief: ‘Shanghai Zhongfu Group plans to invest up to A$700m (US$728m) in the next six years in developing land in the far north (of Western Australia) and building a sugar mill that will produce about 4m tonnes of sugar cane and 500,000 tons of sugar crystal for export annually. The company will lease 13,400 hectares (33,100...

Is an Australian Thanksgiving a Fair Dinkum idea?
I thank the readers of my blog. Thanks to those chefs and foodies, manufacturers and marketers who have supported my vision of an authentic Australian food culture based on this country?s wild foods by being my customers. Australians often roll their eyes at the things Americans do. To many of us, their customs can range from kitch to kweer (I know that?s not how it?s spelled).

The Secret Australian Product thats Creating Growth & Prosperity
You?re invited to an exclusive, no risk, no cost, 90min presentation where you?ll discover how to make more money each month than most people earn in a year; create free time for a quality life and wind back the clock on your health and well-being. I discovered a long time ago that busting my back in a job for a boss who didn?t appreciate me was never going to give me the lifestyle I wanted.

Sugar and wheat - are these like drugs to us?
We all tend to carry more fat than we ought even though some of us hold it well either as cushioning for our organs or as fatty deposits in our blood vessels. There is an increasing incidence of non-obese diabetes so the following is relevant to everybody wanting to live a long, healthy life. However, we continue to get fatter as a population …

Cartoon ad from 2004
I just happened to watch a video ad we made back in ’04. Still made me laugh.

Wild fish (barramundi) with the worlds best garnish
Here’s a recipe which might initially set you back but I once prepared it for US Celebrity BBQ Chef, Steven Raichlen when he dropped in for a 9am BBQ at my place. He was a little jet lagged and seafood for breakfast might have been pushing the envelope a little but he did ask me to showcase some Australian wild foods for the BBQ and seafood was my choice.

