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Broccoli is your friend: Another tasty side dish
November 24, 2009
I came across this recipe on SuperVegan the other day, and it sounded like a good scientific experiment for a side dish. Go ahead – give it a whirl.
Preheat your Broiler. Cut heads of broccoli in half and blanch in boiling water for 4 minutes. Dry on Paper towels and place on a greased cookie sheet (Figure A.) Rub each floret with Veganaise and sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutritional yeast (Figure B). Place under Broiler for 10 minutes or until blackened.(Figure C) Serve as a delicious side dish to your meal (Figure D).
Who Knew: Raw Cookie Dough Will Kill You
October 13, 2009CDC is collaborating with public health officials in many states, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to investigate an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections.
As of Friday, July 31, 2009, 80 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 31 states. Of these, 70 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Arizona (2), California (5), Colorado (6), Connecticut (1), Delaware (1), Georgia (2), Iowa (2), Idaho (1), Illinois (7), Kentucky (2), Massachusetts (4), Maryland (2), Maine (3), Minnesota (8), Missouri (1), Montana (1), North Carolina (2), New Hampshire (2), New Jersey (1), Nevada (2), New York (1), Ohio (3), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (1), Texas (3), Utah (4), Virginia (2), Washington (6), and Wisconsin (1).
Most persons became ill during May and June. Ill persons range in age from 2 to 65 years; however, 66% are less than 19 years old; 69% are female. Thirty-five persons have been hospitalized, 10 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS); none have died.
Investigation of the Outbreak
In an epidemiologic study, ill persons answered questions about foods consumed during the days before becoming ill and investigators compared their responses to those of persons of similar age and gender previously reported to State Health Departments with other illnesses. Preliminary results of this investigation indicate a strong association with eating raw prepackaged cookie dough. Most patients reported eating refrigerated prepackaged Nestle Toll House cookie dough products raw.
On June 29, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that a culture of a sample of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough currently under recall yielded E. coli O157:H7. The contaminated sample was collected at the firm on June 25, 2009. Further laboratory testing showed that the strain in the sample was not the outbreak strain.
E. coli O157:H7 has not been previously associated with eating raw cookie dough. CDC, the state health departments, and federal regulatory partners are working together in this ongoing investigation.
Clinical Features
Most people infected with E. coli O157:H7 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps 2-8 days (average of 3-4 days) after swallowing the organism, but some illnesses last longer and are more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by culture of a stool sample. Most people recover within a week, but some develop a severe infection. A type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can begin as the diarrhea is improving; this can occur in people of any age but is most common in children under 5 years old and the elderly.
Advice to Consumers
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to warn consumers not to eat any varieties of the recalled Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. This includes Nestlé Toll House cookie dough that does not say “new batch” on the labeling. Consumers who have the recalled prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their homes should throw it away. Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands or on surfaces. The recall does not include Nestle Toll House morsels, which are used as an ingredient in many home-made baked goods and other baked cookie products. The recall also does not include newly made Nestle refrigerated cookie dough products; these products can be identified by labels with shields that say “new batch” on them.
Individuals who have recently eaten recalled prepackaged, refrigerated Toll House cookie dough and have experienced any of these symptoms should contact their doctor or health care provider immediately. Any such illnesses should be reported to state or local public health authorities.
Consumers should be reminded they should not eat raw food products that are intended for cooking or baking before consumption. Consumers should use safe food-handling practices when preparing such products, including following package directions for cooking at proper temperatures; washing hands, surfaces, and utensils after contact with these types of products; avoiding cross contamination; and refrigerating products properly.
Advice to Retailers, Restaurateurs, and Food-service Operators
Retailers, restaurateurs, and personnel at other food-service operations should not sell or serve any Nestle Toll House prepackaged, refrigerated cookie dough products subject to the recall.
Reprinted from CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2009/0807.html
Food, Inc. is about Animal Torture
October 12, 2009
When you become a vegetarian, it’s easy to say you’re doing it for a particular cause, whether it be a healthier you, animals, or even the environment. But as I sat and watched Food, Inc. the other night, I realized that the driving factor should be the appalling behavior of our nation’s food industry.
If there’s any indication that the government has forgotten about regular people, it’s with the food industry. It’s obvious that in our rapid plunge from the top country in the world, we’ve created a lot of issues to pay for. We need to make money. But doing so at the expense of the American people is not the answer.
When I was a kid, I was always told in school that our government and all its’ regulatory agencies cared about us–that they were the watchdogs for our well-being, and I believed it. Maybe it was an antiquated notion, but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Everything goes to the highest bidder now–it’s all about making money, above everything else.
To say that we consumers have been in the dark about the food in our supermarkets is a vast understatement: we’re basically clueless. We have absolutely no idea what our food goes through or how far it travels before it lands on our plates. And it’s our blind faith in the USDA and FDA that needs a rude awakening.
In Food Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner shows us just how much the food industry has been hiding from us in the last 20-30 years. As an industry that was once controlled by numerous companies, the food industry is now controlled by a handful of corporations (4 to be exact) that continuously put money ahead of consumer health and well-being. They destroy the livelihood of American farmers, expose employees to all kinds of antibiotics and contaminants, and damage the environment. They’ve remade our food in their image by making everything bigger: chickens, cows and pigs are all injected with hormones so they’ll grow faster. Corn is broken down and remade into thousands of different ingredients. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find one ingredient in the 47,000 products at a supermarket that doesn’t contain some variant of corn.
Food, Inc. gives viewers an appalling but true window into the mass production of our food. It makes insightful points about what we eat and how it’s produced. It’s also not afraid to put a spotlight on who’ve we become as a nation and where we’re going from here. I recommend this movie to anyone curious or that cares about where our food comes from. And trust me–we should care.
In Entertainment Weekly’s review of the film, Owen Gleiberman gave a striking last thought to sum up the film: “A big-picture vision of conglomerate duplicity and control, Food, Inc. is hard to shake, because days after you’ve seen it, you may find yourself eating something — a cookie, a piece of poultry, cereal out of the box, a perfectly round waxen tomato — and you’ll realize that you have virtually no idea what it actually is.”
Embedding for the Food, Inc. trailer has been disabled by request, but you can watch it here.
Technology is Screwing With Your Food
October 9, 2009Reprinted from http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/20029/how-technology-affects-your-food/
By Dr. Maoshing Ni – Posted on Tue, Oct 06, 2009, 5:13 pm PDT
When it comes to food, there is no shortage of questions about how to get the most nutrients out of the food we eat. In this modern world, even more questions arise as we contemplate the effect of brand new technology on the quality of our food. Read on to find out how processing and technology is affecting what you eat.
1. Microwave: Destroys nutrients
Microwaves use super-fast particles to radiate the water inside food to bring it to a boil. Convenient? Yes. A good way to heat up food? Studies say No.
In fact, one study by the Spanish scientific research council, CEBAS-CSIC published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, found that microwave cooking destroys some important nutrients in vegetables. Broccoli, when microwaved, lost 97 percent, 74 percent and 87 percent of three cancer-protecting antioxidants (flavonoids, sinapics and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives) compared to steamed broccoli, which lost 11 percent, 0 percent and 8 percent of these compounds respectively.
If you must, use the lowest setting just to heat the foods. Better yet, use a small toaster oven to warm your foods. It might take more time, but it is much healthier.
2. Freezing food may preserve nutrients
Water is the main element of fresh food, usually making up between 50 to 90% of the food’s weight. Freezing is a way of maintaining these water levels and temporarily stopping the growth of microorganisms and bacteria. In general, freezing food doesn’t lessen nutritional value if you freeze the food when it is at peak quality. For example, if berries are flash frozen right at picking, there’s very little loss of nutrients. In fact, nutrients are better retained in frozen fruits and vegetables than in those that are transported long distances to their destination. Produce actually begins to lose valuable vitamins and minerals soon after picking, especially at room temperature and above. Freezing for a few hours after harvesting can help prevent this. It is only when food is stored and sits for a long period of time that it starts to lose nutritional values of the vitamins, especially the B and C Vitamins.
3. Dried Fruit vs. fresh fruit
In general, when you dry a food, you are taking the water content out and dehydrating it. You don’t necessarily destroy the nutrients, although in fruits, certain vitamins can be easily destroyed. Vitamin C, for instance, is fragile, so it may be destroyed in the process. That is why fruits are generally better fresh. Dried foods are nearly as beneficial, though you end up eating a higher quantity of dried foods than you would the actual fresh food. For example, you might eat five to seven dried apricot pieces in one sitting, but you most likely wouldn’t be eating the same amount of fresh apricots.
4. Organic for nutrients and safety
One of the biggest complaints about organic foods is that it is so much more expensive than commercially grown produce. So why spend more? What you may be saving in money now on commercial produce you are surely losing in health later. Many scientific studies have shown that organic foods have a much higher percentage of antioxidants. And studies regularly emerge about the negative effects of pesticides and herbicides used on commercial crops: cancer risk, inflammation, and reproductive imbalance in humans and animals.
The primary reason for buying organic is that you get wholesome, nutrient-rich foods that aren’t covered in dangerous chemicals. Even the foods that are grown below ground or have peels are not always safe from pesticides.
If you have to make a choice between the two, make an informed decision.
• These fruits and vegetables tested the worst for chemicals, so buy organic: apples, bell peppers, carrots, celery, cherries, grapes (imported), kale, lettuce, nectarines, peaches, pears, and strawberries.
• When tested, these have the least amount of chemicals: avocados, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples, sweet corn, sweet peas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and watermelon.