Spinach Back on Shelves

I bought some spinach today. If you never hear from me again, you have the evidence.



I have to say, this is some of the cleanest bagged spinach I've ever seen. That "Prod of Colorado" on the label is something I never noticed before, a welcome enhancement. Improved cleanliness and labeling look to be positive fallouts of a tragic state of agricultural affairs.

How Not to Instill a Love of Good Food

Everyone has something about their work that drives them crazy. Well, everyone except those who start out that way. In which case, hardly anything about their work, no matter how unfortunate or maniacal, causes them to veer from course. Hardly anything causes them to reflect, if it can be said that the insane gainfully reflect, when asked about something as nation-affirming and life-snuffing as, say, a civil war, that such a situation could be more than "just a comma".

Suddenly, I'm comforted by the fact that things drive me crazy. See this chart?¹ It drives me crazy. I've seen lots of these charts. I've been spoon fed these charts and regurgitated them when required. Take a look.


Who in their right mind sends their child to school (in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet) with a brown bag containing a boiled potato? Or lettuce leaves? A hunk of tempeh? I'm a notorious brown-bagger, and many of these suggestions are splendid. But this anti-junk food movement is getting out of hand. I'm afraid it may backfire. I'm afraid that sending little Gareth off to school with a stash of celery sticks will create a little Gareth, the closet chip eater, or a little Gareth, the I'll-trade-you-2-spoonfuls-of-my-dry-bulgur-for-9-of-your-Gummy-Bears. (If little Gareth is triumphant in that last endeavor he has the makings for big Gareth the successful businessman.)

The obesity epidemic is an unfortunate result of a number of social, economic, and political factors. I don't think a baggie of squash sticks is going to have much impact. And it certainly won't instill a love of good food.

Update, April 2011: Times have changed. I've changed. I'm sorry I said this. A bag of boiled potatoes is good.
~~~~~~¹ Source: Giant Food Stores, Healthy Ideas; Nourishing Body and Mind, September/October, 2006.

GM Rice Infects non-GM Rice

Now, how did that happen?

I feel ambivalence about genes that have been unnaturally engineered.

On one hand, I suspect my taste for the original tomato, a "small, hollow/seedy, fuzzy-skinned and barely edible fruit from vines growing along the coast of what today is modern Peru, " would never have developed if not for human-induced hybridization over the centuries. Hear, hear, genetic engineer!

On the other hand, when genes from one species of plant have been spliced into genes of an entirely different species of plant (do they use non-plant species too?) producing some kind of physically indistinguishable proprietary mutant, I get a little jittery. Testing these new organisms quells my jitters somewhat. I mean, who knows what public health or environmental hazards these new organisms with their new proteins might inflict?

On to the case of Bayer Corporation's genetically modified LibertyLink rice (LL601)...

On September 14, 2006, the folks at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a legal petition with the USDA that states "no variety of LibertyLink rice has been adequately tested to detect potentially hazardous side effects of genetic engineering."
- CFS, USDA Urged to Deny Approval of Illegal Genetically Engineered Rice Found in Food Chain

Even more unfortunately...

On August 18, 2006, "it was discovered that Bayer's mutant rice, gene-spliced to survive heavy doses of a powerful herbicide called glufosinate, had contaminated U.S. long grain rice stocks. The USDA admitted it had "no idea" how extensive the contamination was. Meanwhile Japan has banned all U.S. rice imports, while the EU is rejecting U.S. imports that test positive for contamination."
- Organic Bytes, Issue No. 90, September 15, 2006

It appears to be widespread...

"The Secretary of the Arkansas Agriculture Department recently stated that "almost all" tested samples of long-grain rice, grown in the Southern rice belt, were turning up positive for LLRICE601."
- CFS, USDA Urged to Deny Approval of Illegal Genetically Engineered Rice Found in Food Chain

So, we ban the contaminated spinach, but we fast-track the contaminated rice...

"Bayer is now asking USDA to grant retroactive market approval of the illegal rice, even though it remains inadequately tested, and the company gave up plans to market LL601 in 2001."
- CFS, USDA to Rubber-Stamp Contamination of Food with Illegal, Genetically Engineered Rice Banned in Japan and Europe

The USDA is fielding public comments on Bayer's request until October 18, 2006. Who wants to wager that Bayer's request will fly?

Boycotting will be difficult if the USDA and Bayer have their way and contaminated rice ends up in beer, baby-food, Uncle Ben's, and breakfast cereals. Fields of organic rice have not been spared. I'm a fan of buying food produced locally, but in this instance I may shop around for non-contaminated imports.

Hangin'

Pesto Cubes

The leaves of basil on my deck, the only food crop I've ever had consistent success with save for that one ginger sprout¹, are ripe for the picking. In days, almost overnight it seems, these plants will send up seed stalks leaving the now lustrous leaves dull and limp. All is forsaken if we have just one night of frost, which will turn the leaves black. I've got to do something and I've got to do something now.

Freeze them.


Ingredients

Several basil sprigs (I use a Mediterranean sweet basil.)
Several parsley sprigs (I use an Italian flat-leaf parsley.) (Parsley is optional.)
Extra virgin olive oil

~~~~~~1   Pluck the basil and parsley leaves from their stems. Rinse several times in cool water. Spin, towel, or air dry.

Note: It's best if the leaves are almost completely dry. It will concentrate the paste and reduce formation of ice crystals.

I subdue the strong basil flavor by using about half as much parsley as I do basil. I love the basil-parsley blend. To some, I am a sinner.

2   Mince the basil and parsley together.

Note: If you're working with several cups of leaves, a food processor does a great job of mincing. If you're working with just a few leaves, then a sharp chef's knife, a dishwasher-safe cutting board, and a finely-honed mincing technique will perform better. Even a dull knife, a plate, and a free-for-all chopping motion does a better job than one of these:

3   Transfer the minced herbs to a bowl. Blend in enough oil to make a paste. Spoon pesto paste into compartments of ice cube tray. Cover with plastic wrap, then with aluminum foil. Freeze overnight.

Note: For oil-to-herb proportions: I often end up with about 3/4 cup minced herb to which I add at least 1/4 cup olive oil. I used to scrimp with the oil but I found it protects the pesto in the freezer, keeping it greener and fresher-tasting.

Don't add salt before freezing. It will hasten the breakdown of plant cell walls, another fresh-taste depleter.

I also don't add garlic, cheese, etc. to this mix, but you can. I find it's easy enough to add later, producing a fresher-tasting and more phytonutrient-rich (especially in the case of garlic) pesto sauce.

4   Pop frozen cubes from tray and store in a freezer-safe bag or container in the freezer until ready to use.

Note: Cubes may be thawed in the refrigerator overnight. Or, my favorite, toss a couple frozen cubes into the microwave and heat for 2, 10-second intervals (no more, you don't want to cook the paste or it will lose its green color).

~~~~~~These cubes are actually the raw material for a homemade pesto sauce. Of course, nothing beats fresh herbs, but under the demands of time and a full harvest, I've found frozen pesto cubes aren't a bad alternative. Once the cube(s) are thawed, whisk together the following ingredients for a mouth-watering pesto:

• 1 thawed pesto cube
  
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or very finely minced
  
• 2 tablespoons finely grated cheese (I use Locatelli, a hard sheep's milk cheese. Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, both from cow's milk, are also good.)
  
• 1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts or walnuts, finely minced (optional)
  
• Pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
  
• Couple pinches black pepper
  
• Salt to taste

Note: Multiply recipe as needed. One pesto cube makes a little more than a tablespoon - about what you see in the picture, which is sans nuts.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~¹ Here's a picture of my basil plant, taken on a beautiful clear sunny afternoon. Can you guess why (one reason at least) I don't have success as a grower?

"National Uniformity for Food Act" - Just Say No

I can't imagine what's holding up development of acrylamide-reduced foods in this country - or at least distribution of acrylamide warning labels, display signs, public service announcements, and discount coupons.

Maybe if you're going to expend resources to fix a problem, you'll want to first come to a consensus that there is a problem. It's easy for me to think that since the FDA hasn't said anything in the last 4 years about the average American consuming almost twice their stated "acceptable daily intake of acrylamide" that it isn't a problem. If that's true, why does the EPA still regulate its presence in drinking water? And why has the state of California added acrylamide to its Proposition 65 "list of substances that are known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm"?

Somebody should have told them acrylamide wasn't a problem before they took legal action against some supersized corporations:

"California filed suit in August, 2005 against McDonald's; Burger King; Frito-Lay, owned by PepsiCo; and six other food companies, saying that they should be forced to put labels on all fries and potato chips sold in California."
- California Wants to Serve a Warning With Fries

I do wonder if federal foot-dragging regarding warning labels is related to the "National Uniformity for Food Act" which passed on March 9th, 2006 in the House (HR 4167) and is sitting in a Senate committee waiting for a vote, which may be imminent now that the Senate's August recess is caput.

This bill, supported by the powerful Grocery Manufacturers of America, and some other large supermarket chains and food industry groups, would negate states' ability to regulate acrylamide and other chemicals differently than the federal government does.

It would overturn California's Proposition 65. It would bring to a halt California's legal proceedings against McDonald's, Burger King, Frito-Lay, etc. Do big lobbies have big pull in big government?

The non-profit, independent publisher of Consumer Reports, Consumers Union, has written in opposition to the bill:

"The bill is not a simple food-safety uniformity bill, as its proponents claim. Under the guise of national "uniformity," this bill would eliminate critical state laws that protect consumer health while leaving in place an inadequate federal system based on the lowest common denominator of protection."
- Oppose H.R. 4167, "Food Uniformity" Bill is Uniformly Bad for Consumers

I guess it's easy to defend states' right if the rights you're defending happen to mesh with your beliefs. I would be supporting this bill if the feds were more conscientious than the states in protecting consumer health. Given the FDA's foot-dragging on acrylamide, against a backdrop of California's Proposition 65, it doesn't look like they are.

If you'd like to take a small step against passage of this bill, tell your Senators how you feel. The Organic Consumers Association via Democracy in Action have made it easy with this form (Click it and it will send you to the form submittal site - scroll down to the bottom.):


~~~~~~"How Democracy Works", a John Ditchburn cartoon.

Have Some Chips with that Acrylamide, Sir?

(See my earlier post for background on what this chemical is and why it's causing a fuss.)

I can't find an agency that has stepped up to the plate and declared an amount of acrylamide that's safe to consume on a regular basis - especially since its outing as a pretty common component in baked and fried foods - we're talking toast now. That doesn't mean there isn't someone, somewhere who has enough knowledge of the toxicity of this chemical to feel comfortable committing to a number. It just means I haven't found them. What I have found is the following:

• In 1990, California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) established a "safe harbor number" or "no significant risk level (NSRL)" for acrylamide of 0.2 mcg/day.¹
  
  
• In 2005, CA's OEHHA considered (and is still considering) raising this safe level to 1.0 mcg/day to "reflect more recent studies of acrylamide", and to 10 mcg/day for just breads and cereals.^{1, 2} (i.e. A warning would then not be required on breads and cereals that came in under this level. It seems to be protecting manufacturers of these foods, some of which offer other health benefits: fiber, vitamins, etc.)
  
  
• In 2005, Michael Jacobson, PhD, director of the food-advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), sent a letter to CA's OEHHA which argued against raising the level to 10.0 mcg/day for breads and cereals.³ "There should be no special treatment of all breads and cereals because some breads and cereals are not healthy foods," says he. It does seem unfair to create different bars for different industries.

And the pièce de résistance:

• In 2002, the FDA "using an uncertainty factor of 1,000 (equivalent to a safety factor), determined the acceptable daily intake of acrylamide with respect to neurotoxicity to be 12 [mgr]g/p/d [12 mcg/day]." ⁴ In all fairness, they made this claim before acrylamide's outing in food. I can't see why this still wouldn't apply.

Given the above, something between 0.2 mcg/day and 12 mcg/day may be a reasonable upper limit for intake of acrylamide to avoid damage to nerve cells and risk for cancer. That's my guess.

Here's a possible reason why I'm finding it so difficult to track down an upper limit for intake:

The FDA recently calculated the mean daily acrylamide intake in the US diet as 0.4 micrograms per kilogram body weight (0.4 mcg/kg-bw).⁵ (Their estimate for children between the ages of 2 and 5 is more than double that: 1.06 mcg/kg-bw. Some European countries also clock in with high intakes.⁶) That would mean a woman who weighs 120 pounds (54.4 kg) is getting about 21.8 mcg/day, a 200 pound man is getting 36.3 mcg/day.

Let's review...
The FDA's "acceptable daily intake of acrylamide" is 12 times the level that California is proposing as a "safe harbor number", yet most Americans are routinely consuming about double that And anyone can blow through these levels by eating just 1 oz potato chips (about 10 chips):

Acrylamide in a few popular foods:⁵

2.5 oz. (70 g) oven-baked French fries - 48.8 mcg
5 oz. (140 g) of prune juice - 30.0 mcg
1 oz. (30 g) potato chips - 17.9 mcg
2 oz. (55 g) breakfast cereal - 6.6 mcg
0.5 oz. (15 g) canned black olives (about 4 medium) - 3.6 mcg

Since the above list (which I adapted from an FDA PowerPoint presentation) speaks in generalities, I decided to go to the brand-name source and convert a few foods' parts-per-billion (ppb) measurements into something my more work-a-day mind could grasp - also, something I could compare to that conservative 12 mcg upper limit.

Boy, do generalities really do a disservice to French fries. Here are how some randomly selected* non-potato foods ranked:

• Health Valley Original Oat Bran Graham Crackers, 37 g (8 crackers) - 57.0 mcg
  
• Wheatena Toasted Wheat Cereal, 41 g (1/3 cup) - 43.3 mcg
  
• Fat Free Natural Ry-Krisp, 45 g (2 triple crackers) - 27.9 mcg
  
• Nabisco Grahams, 28 g (4 squares) - 26.4 mcg

Fries and chips still clock in with a hearty acrylamide dose:

• Ore Ida Golden Fries (baked), 70 g (2.5 oz.) - 76.9 mcg
  
• Pringles Sweet Mesquite BBQ Flavored Potato Crisps, 28 g (1 oz., 14 crisps) - 70.3 mcg
  
• Pringles Ridges Original Potato Crisps, 28 g (1 oz., 14 crisps) - 36.0 mcg
  
• Baked! Lay's Original Naturally Baked Potato Crisps, 28 g (1 oz.) - 30.7 mcg

Click chart for larger.
I know people who can finish off a whole sleeve of Pringles chips in a sitting - for the BBQ, that's 422 mcg acrylamide! And that doesn't include the bowls of cereal they ate for breakfast. Tell me, someone please tell me. Are we risking numbness and tingling in our extremities? Mental fog? ... Tumors? Were you just kidding, FDA, when you said "the acceptable daily intake of acrylamide with respect to neurotoxicity [was] 12 mcg/day"? Is California more on the mark with a limit of 1 mcg? If there are remedies for this, what's the hold-up on their employment? If no one is interested in reducing acrylamide levels, couldn't we at least require a warning on some of the most affected foods (see above) so people could make their own health decisions?

Why is everyone being so silent on this?

* They aren't exactly random - admittedly I was scanning for high values. I don't mean to pick on any of these brands. I just plucked them from the FDA's data as examples. It's important to note that acrylamide content varies among brands, within brands, and even within different packages of the same food product.

~~~~~~¹Acrylamide and Proposition 65, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
²Initial Statement of Reasons, Title 22, California Code of Regulations, Section 12705(b). Specific Regulatory Levels Posing No Significant Risk.
³Correspondence from Michael Jacobson (CSPI) to Ms. Susan Luong (OEHHA), June 14, 2005.
⁴"Secondary Direct Food Additives Permitted for Direct Addition to Food for Human Consumption", Federal Register, June 25, 2002, Volume 67, Number 122, page 42714.
⁵ FDA: The 2006 Exposure Assessment for Acrylamide
⁶ Human Exposure and Internal Dose Assessments of Acrylamide in Food

Toast! poster via AllPosters.com

The Worst Culprit: Fried Potatoes, aka Chips

But, sshhhh, we're not supposed to talk about it.

This isn't a post about fats: trans, hydrogenated, saturated, girth-adorning, or otherwise. Really.

You would think, wouldn't you, that if a food contained chemicals that were harmful to the food's target audience (dog chow, swine chow, fish chow, elk chow, people chow, etc.), regulatory agencies in charge of assuring the safety of that food would prompt the food's makers to issue public disclosures. At least that, no? Better would be to ban those substances outright, but I guess we get what our tax dollar, via our political climate, will pay for.

Granted, one needs to know if a harmful chemical is there, and if it's there to any great degree - say, an amount that might result in 3 more cancer cases in 10,000 humans¹ when consumption of a "normal" amount of said defiled food occurs.

Specifying an amount is important because an unbelievable motherload of apparently benign foods contain toxins. The FRE likes to mention this when I push the broccoli and cauliflower, foods that even in the raw, fresh, unprocessed state contain cyanide compounds. But no normal person with normal faculties and even above-normal appetites would probably ever consume enough raw broccoli to bring about cyanide asphyxiation. (That statement doesn't hold for raw cassava/manioc or apricot pits, which are indeed a cyanide-related health hazard.)

Thus, governing bodies don't mandate warnings the like of which we see on cigarette packages:

The Surgeon General Has Determined That Eating Broccoli Is Dangerous To Your Health.
or
Eating Broccoli Kills.

Enter the case of the chemical acrylamide.

First, we didn't know it was there. Then when we knew it was there (and boy, was it there), we, rather, top government health dogs in the US decide to ... study it. In the meantime, while they're studying it, top dogs in Congress are proposing legislation that would prevent individual states from enacting their own regulations or public disclosure guidelines (more on that later).

What in blazes is ah-krill-ah-mide?

It's a chemical used in "grouts and cements, pulp and paper production, ore processing, permanent-press fabrics, and dye manufacture." ² It's also used in waste water treatment. That was industrial use. Its most ubiquitous presence (it was thought until 2002) was in tobacco smoke.

In 1990, the state of California listed acrylamide as a chemical known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.² It's a known neurotoxin in humans. At the time, deleterious health effects were feared mostly in workers who handled the chemical.

Why the sudden spike in interest?

In 2002, Swedish researchers reported finding the chemical in foods, especially starchy food that had been fried or baked. The worst culprit: fried potatoes, aka, chips.

Population exposure rates for acrylamide hit 100% overnight.

Now what?

Since 2002, the FDA has spent time designing acrylamide detection schemes and measuring acrylamide content in foods. They've actually done a fine job; you can explore the fruits of their labors here.

While the FDA is consumed by generation of data, and keeping a lid on dissemination of warnings³, scientists in Europe have come up with a few methods for reducing acrylamide in food:

• Add a little citric acid and glycine:
  Effect of Citric Acid and Glycine Addition on Acrylamide and Flavor in a Potato Model System
  
  
• Toss a pinch of asparaginase enzyme into the dough:
  Enzyme Cuts Out Acrylamide

Humans have probably been consuming this odious chemical for as long as they've been heating their food. This is so because acrylamide is not an additive or environmental contaminant but a natural byproduct of a normal reaction between carbohydrates and proteins (Malliard reaction). Some foods, notably olives and prunes, don't even need to be heated to manufacture acrylamide.

The good news (sadly, this is news not discussed in thrill-seeking media) is that our bodies can detoxify some amount* of acrylamide given good raw materials, e.g. glutathione found in our cells⁴, and a vigorous constitution. Just because something can cause cancer doesn't mean it will. Why, I say a prayer of thanks for my liver every day - especially right before I eat mercury-laden fish.

* I'll talk numbers in my next post.

~~~~~~¹ Statistic cited by Michael Jacobson PhD of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) using California's OEHHA risk estimates on acrylamide.
² Acrylamide and California's Proposition 65, CA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
³ CSPI: FDA Pressuring Calif. Health Agency on Acrylamide
⁴ Glutathione is an endogenous antioxidant produced by our cells. Certain dietary antioxidants like those found in curcumin/turmeric or the mineral selenium encourage glutathione activity.

This post was spurred from an email I received recently from a faithful expatriate reader (T) and from Catherine's comment in my previous post where she questioned the prudence of roasting nuts.
To T: This isn't the last of my acrylamide diatribes.
To Catherine: Roasting nuts does oxidize some of their fats, and it will increase arcrylamide content. For those 2 reasons, at least, raw is better. But for taste? Well, life is short :)

Cashew Milk

It's delicious. I have no ulterior motive for that claim. The International Nut and Dried Fruit Council does not count me on their payroll. They should, however, incorporate this recipe into their website. It could have a positive effect on their revenues.

Thank you, Melinda,¹ for the recipe.


Ingredients

1 cup (137g) roasted cashews²
4 cups water
Salt, about 1/4 tsp. or to taste (if not using salted cashews)

~~~~~~1   Soak cashews in water "at least 8 hours or overnight."


2   "Whip it all up in a blender [including salt/vanilla/honey/etc.] till it's as smooth as it's gonna get. That's it! You can strain out tiny chunks of nut left after blending, or leave them in if you don't mind them (they're a little weird in tea, but fine on cereal)."

Note: Melinda recommends shaking well before using. I'm sure she means the milk. She also suggests freezing some if you don't intend to use it soon.

Ruby adds that some vanilla and a bit of honey can round out the flavor, "it's GOOD."

My actual soak time was about 20 hours: 17 hours in the refrigerator overnight and 3 hours out on the counter to let it return to room temperature (so it would blend better).

Since this was my first time making it, I was not in the position of being able to anticipate the palatability of cashew-infused water. So, just in case it wasn't a goer, I cut the recipe in half (1/2 cup cashews to 2 cups water). The final taste and consistency were exceptional. I predict repeat performances.

A nutritional analysis:

~~~~~~¹ Quoted text ascribed to Melinda unless noted.
² I used the cashews from this post. Since they were raw, I roasted them in a 280ºF oven for about 30 minutes (or until golden) before soaking.

Hope They Make It

A small Indian grocery store opened near us. I hope they make it - I like exploring new foods and supporting earnest entrepreneurs.

As I was exploring the bags of beans, dal?, I overheard from the next aisle (there are only 2 aisles in the whole store, still I couldn't walk there fast enough to see what was being discussed):

"Does this come in fat-free?"
"I'm sorry, Sir, they don't get the concept of fat-free yet."

I hope this store makes it.

Here's my purchase:¹



I went for the cashews. The "Whole Moong" was unplanned. I can't say I know what moong is or what to do with it, but I liked that they were whole, and "BOLD". (I have no idea, do I soak them before cooking?)

So, $4.99 for 14 oz. raw cashews, and $2.99 for 2 lbs. of "Whole Moong". What a deal. I hope this place makes it.
________