Is Eating Personal? The Divide

Lots of talk about this so I thought I'd post a poll. See Sidebar.

Here are opinions I've collected so far:

Yes. Eating is personal. It's my business:

• Al Gore (Former Vice President) in answer to: Have you become vegetarian? "No, I have not. ... I don't plan to. I respect those who do. But it's a personal choice and will remain so."
  
• Jonathan Safran Foer (Author "Eating Animals"): "My decision not to eat animals is necessary for me, but it is also limited -- and personal."
  
• Nicolette Niman (Manages Niman's livestock ranch): "I feel I can personally make a choice to refrain from consuming meat for my own individual reasons."

No. Eating is not personal. It's everyone's business:

• James McWilliams (Author "Just Food"): "It's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me."
  
• Bruce Friedrich (PETA): "The influence our eating choices have on others [is important]. ... The public aspects of eating are critical."
  
• Wendell Berry (Writer): "Eating is an agricultural act."
  
• Michael Pollan (Author "Omnivore's Dilemma"): "Eating is a political act."
  
• Alice Waters (Restaurateur): "Eating is a political act."

See my previous post for a link to McWilliams article which addressed this issue.
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Results of poll:

Is eating personal?

________I believe the illustration is by Patrick McFarlin, an accompaniment to the book "What We Eat When We Eat Alone".

Homemade Yeast

Here's my homemade GMO-free yeast. I'm making it from soaking raisins. The bubbles adhering to the sides of the grapes are, I hope, carbon dioxide gas given off by yeast as they feed on carbohydrates. (Click to enlarge.)

I'd expected something frothier but it's still young, just 2 days. And it's cold here in Philly (in the 20s outside/60s inside at night). I'm not sure how successful this will be yet. I'll give it time.

I'm planning on using this with another experiment of mine: Sprouted Wheat Bread.
________Photo: Bix

Sprouted Wheat Bread - Technology Demonstrator

(This is Part 2 in my effort to make sprouted wheat bread. See my previous post for sprouting the wheat.)

Nowhere did anyone say anything about the grinding part. This isn't funny.

The food processor was fruitless. The wheat kernels remained virtually intact, stuck to the sides of the workbowl, save for their little hairy stems that collected in a gooey mash on top. One appliance into the sink.

The blender did a better job, but only in batches of about 1 cup. It took about 2 to 3 minutes of blending per cup, lowest speed, with lots of stops to wipe down the sides. The motor heated up, as did the dough. This was advantageous since the wheat was still cold from the refrigerator and it will rise better warmed.


Here's what it looked like after a few pulses in the blender. A lot better than the food processor, but still not gloppy enough (I don't think):


Here's what I went with. This is just wheat, no other ingredients, not even water:


The clean up. Not funny.
________Photos: Bix

Sprouted Wheat

For sprouted wheat bread (flourless). A first.

The wheat on the right has been sprouting for 42 hours. (On the left is what I started with - a hard winter wheat.) I think it's ready but I'm not. I'll put it in the fridge to slow growth until tomorrow. I hope it still works.

How To Sprout

Soak - Rinse wheat. Place into a bowl. Cover with tepid water and let soak, at room temperature, for 8 to 12 hours.

Sprout - Drain soaked wheat, rinse, and strain. Cover bowl with a damp towel. Store in a dark place at room temperature. Rinse thoroughly (immerse in tepid water first) every 12 hours, for between 36 and 48 hours, depending on how warm your room is. Keep the towel damp.

See Part 2 for The Grind.
________Photo: Bix

Run, Betsy

Jonathan Foer's book is hard to read.

Here's a story. It begins a chapter where he discusses the acts involved in transforming a living animal into a processed animal.

"Paradise Locker Meats used to be located somewhat closer to Smithville Lake, in northwestern Missouri. The original plant burned down in 2002 when a fire broke out as a result of a ham smoking gone awry. In the new facility is a painting of the old plant, with the image of a cow running from the back. This is a depiction of an actual event.

Four years before the fire, in the summer of '98, a cow escaped the slaughterhouse. She ran for miles -- which, if the story had ended there would have been remarkable enough to justify its telling. But this was some cow. She managed to cross roads, trample or otherwise disregard fences, and elude the farmers who were searching for her.

And when she came to Smithville's shore, she didn't test the water, think twice, or look back. She attempted to swim to safety -- the second leg of her triathlon -- wherever that might be. At the very least, she seemed to know what she was swimming from. Mario Fantasma -- the owner of Paradise Locker Meats -- received a phone call from a friend who saw the cow take the dive. The getaway finally ended when Mario caught up with her on the other side of the lake. Boom, boom, curtain. Whether this is a comedy or a tragedy depends on who you think the hero is."

________¹ From Jonathan Safran Foer's book, Eating Animals. Page 151.
Photo of Smithville Lake in Missouri from US Army Corps of Engineers Lake Photo Album

Folic Acid Supplements May Increase Cancer Risk

This post is going to say much the same as my post about omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) and cancer. I'll recycle the last sentence of that post:

"Like most nutrients, there appears to be an ideal range for omega-3 fatty acids folate in the body, above and below which an individual can experience poor health."

A new study in JAMA this week is reporting an increased cancer risk among those who took folic acid supplements:
Cancer Incidence and Mortality After Treatment With Folic Acid and Vitamin B12, Journal of the American Medical Association, November 2009

The risk was not high (21% increased risk for getting cancer, 38% increased risk of dying from cancer) but it was statistically significant. Lung cancers dominated.

Patients who experienced increased risk were taking 800 micrograms/day (mcg/d) of folic acid.¹ (They also took 400 mcg/d of vitamin B12 and/or 40 mg/d of vitamin B6.)

The recommended allowance (or DRI: Dietary Reference Intake) for folic acid in this country is 400 mcg/d. So they were taking twice the DRI. Yet they fell short of the tolerable upper intake of 1000 mcg/d.

In our body, folate is used in DNA replication - it's needed for cell growth and repair. Cancer cells also use it for growth.

Two items of note:

1. Participants in this combined analysis lived in Norway where there is no fortification of foods with folic acid. The US embarked on a mandatory fortification program in 1998 - flour and grain products here contain added folic acid. That's in addition to the folic acid added to our breakfast cereals, often 400 mcg/serving. (A bowl of cereal and a typical vitamin pill can easily put you at 800 mcg. Eat anything made with folic-acid-fortified-flour and you'll surpass their intake.)
   
   
2. One mechanism put forth for the increased cancer rates was reduced activity of our immune system's natural killer cells in the presence of high levels of folic acid.² Coincidentally, high intakes of omega-3 (about 1 gram/day) were also seen to reduce the amount and activity of natural killer cells.

Taking vitamins is not as innocent as supplement manufacturers lead us to believe.
________¹ Folate found naturally in food hasn't been shown to be harmful. Green leafy vegs are a great source - about 270 mcg folate in 1 cup cooked spinach.
² Unmetabolized Folic Acid in Plasma Is Associated with Reduced Natural Killer Cell Cytotoxicity among Postmenopausal Women, Journal of Nutrition, 2006

Is Eating Personal?

I want to contrast these words from Al Gore who spoke to Jeremy Paxman last week on BBC's Newsnight program ...

Paxman: "Have you become a vegetarian?"
Gore: "No, I have not. ... I don't plan to. I respect those who do. But it's a personal choice and will remain so."

... with these words from James McWilliams, author of the recent "Just Food," writing in The Washington Post yesterday:¹

First he set the scene:

"I gave a talk in South Texas recently on the environmental virtues of a vegetarian diet. As you might imagine, the reception was chilly. In fact, the only applause came during the Q&A period when a member of the audience said that my lecture made him want to go out and eat even more meat. "Plus," he added, "what I eat is my business -- it's personal."

Then argues the opposite of Gore:

"It's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me."

And gives these statistics to argue his claim:

• The livestock industry -- as a result of its reliance on corn and soy-based feed -- accounts for over half the synthetic fertilizer used in the US, contributing more than any other sector to marine dead zones.
  
• Livestock consume 70% of the water in the American West -- water so heavily subsidized that if irrigation supports were removed, ground beef would cost $35 a pound.
  
• Livestock accounts for at least 21% of greenhouse-gas emissions globally -- more than all forms of transportation combined.
  
• Domestic animals -- most of them healthy -- consume about 70% of all the antibiotics produced. Undigested antibiotics leach from manure into freshwater systems and impair the sex organs of fish.
  
• If all the grain fed to animals went to people, you could feed China and India.

He also addressed animal welfare, including the ludicrousness of the term "free-range," the crass disposal of "economically worthless" male chicks, the cutting-off of body parts from live animals without anesthesia, and others.

He wraps it up:

"Now, if someone told you that a particular corporation was trashing the air, water and soil; causing more global warming than the transportation industry; consuming massive amounts of fossil fuel; unleashing the cruelest sort of suffering on innocent and sentient beings; failing to recycle its waste; and clogging our arteries in the process, how would you react? Would you say, "Hey, that's personal?" Probably not. It's more likely that you'd frame the matter as a dire political issue in need of a dire political response.

Vegetarianism is not only the most powerful political response we can make to industrialized food. It's a necessary prerequisite to reforming it."

Lots to chew on.

One last point. He said this about some popular alternatives:

"We've been inundated with ideas: eat local, vote with your fork, buy organic, support fair trade, etc. But these proposals all lack something that every successful environmental movement has always placed at its core: genuine sacrifice."

It's true.

See my follow-up post for more opinions and a poll.
________¹ Bellying Up To Environmentalism, Washington Post, Nov 16, 2009
The livestock picture links to the Food and Agriculture Organization's summary of their landmark 400-page report, "Livestock's Long Shadow," published in 2006.

Irradiation Of Cat Food Causes Paralysis

Well, this is interesting...

Cats fed dry cat food that had been irradiated (Orijen brand from Champion Petfoods Ltd of Canada) suffered forms of paralysis and subsequent death. Many were euthanized.¹

It does appear that irradiation of the food caused the illness:

"Previously published data and strong circumstantial evidence in this outbreak suggest that single-dose gamma irradiation of dry pet food at high levels (>36.3 kGy) is associated with the development of leucoencephalopathy in cats. We suggest that food irradiated at high levels should not be fed to cats as it poses a significant risk of severe neurological disease.

Orijen was subject to a total gamma irradiation dose >50 kGy on entry to Australia."

How consumption of irradiated food may cause neurological damage:

"Irradiation results in the production of ions and free radicals, including high-energy oxygen radicals, that are used to kill or damage pathogenic organisms in food. Irradiation doses of foods for human consumption normally range from less than 1 up to 10 kGy. Larger doses (30 kGy) have been approved for dried herbs, spices and dehydrated vegetables. Oxygen radicals produced by irradiation will also cause the formation of lipid oxides by directly reacting with membrane lipids and other lipids in foods, and some foods such as fatty fish and meat are not considered good candidates for irradiation. Irradiation also induces chemical changes in carbohydrates and proteins by the action of hydroxyl radicals and hydrated electrons generated from water molecules to produce radiolytic products. These products are also generated in cooking or pasteurisation."

So, the dose of radiation was thought to be significant in this case, but the risk from chronic, low-dose exposure wasn't ruled out:

"However, the mechanism by which changes induced in foods then result in damage to the white matter of the spinal cord and brain is not clear. Whether a single insult to the CNS results in on-going damage or whether the damage is the result of cumulative or repeated insult remains speculative."

Maybe this is something just unique to cats? I know the USDA/FSIS is considering (and the American Meat Institute is endorsing) the use of radiation on beef to reduce risk from foodborne pathogens. Some ground beef on the market is already irradiated.

I wonder what happened to all that recalled cat and dog food, in so much as "the fate of salvaged pet food ... it gets turned into feed for pigs, poultry, and farmed fish," according to Marion Nestle.
________¹ Ataxia And Paralysis In Cats In Australia Associated With Exposure To An Imported Gamma-Irradiated Commercial Dry Pet Food, Australian Veterinary Journal, September 2009
Full (pdf)
Rundown from Felipedia: Effect Of Gamma-Irradiated Commercial Dry Pet Food In Cats

Jonathan Safran Foer Defines "Free-Range"

Fighting words from Jonathan Safran Foer:¹

Free-Range:

"Applied to meat, eggs, dairy, and every now and then even fish (tuna on the range?), the free-range label is bullshit. It should provide no more peace of mind than "all-natural," "fresh," or "magical."

(Imagine a shed containing thirty thousand chickens, with a small door at one end that opens to a five-by-five dirt patch -- and the door is closed all but occasionally.)

Very often, the eggs of factory-farmed chickens -- chickens packed against one another in vast barren barns -- are labeled free-range.

One can reliably assume that most "free-range" (or "cage-free") laying hens are debeaked, drugged, and cruelly slaughtered once "spent."

I could keep a flock of hens under my sink and call them free-range."

________¹ Foer in his book "Eating Animals."

Banana Squash

It resembles a banana, a big banana, except when it's green:


I'd been wanting to try one but most I'd seen, if I saw any, were 2 feet or longer. Too unwieldy. And since I bake it whole, not oven-friendly. When I spotted this one, a little under 2ft., I snatched it.


Into a 310ºF oven for about 1.5 hours, or until soft.


The slightly warm and moist squash was heavy and handled, with all due respect to aquatic animals, like a dead fish. (I bake it whole to avoid the life-in-your-hands task of cutting raw squash rind. You could use a butter knife to slice this open and a teaspoon to scoop seeds.)



All that work ... for around 1.13 cups of squash meat.


The taste and texture? More on the savory side, that is, not very sweet. And very wet. It's unlike the drier and sweeter kabocha or buttercup (not butternut) squashes. I'll probably make a soup with this, something like:

Apple Squash Soup

1 or 2 cups cooked squash (Butternut squash makes a good substitute.)
1 or 2 cups sautéed apples (Here's a very old post on making sautéed apples.)
1 cup apple cider or juice
Dash cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
Dash salt
Few squeezes lemon juice

Purée squash and apples in a food processor or blender. If necessary, add some apple cider to help purée. Reserve a few nicely browned apples for garnish.

Transfer purée to a soup pot. Thin with cider to desired consistency. Season with spices, salt, lemon juice or as desired. Heat.

Garnish with dried cranberries or dried cherries, toasted almond slivers or walnut pieces, and reserved apples slices. A swirl of cranberry sauce looks nice too.
________Photos: Bix

The Uniqueness Of Humans

Stanford professor of neurology, Dr. Robert Sopolsky, spoke to Stanford's 2009 graduating class about the uniqueness, and the not-so-uniqueness, of humans. Topics included aggression, theory of mind, the golden rule (tit-for-tat), and pleasure. His speech begins at 4:55 minutes:


An excerpt:

"You have two humans, and they are taking part in some human ritual. They are sitting there silently at a table. They make no eye contact; they’re still, except every now and then one of them does nothing more taxing than lifting an arm and pushing a little piece of wood. And if it’s the right wood and the right chess grand masters in the middle of a tournament, they are going through 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day thinking, turning on a massive physiological stress response simply with thought and doing the same thing with their bodies as if they were some baboon who has just ripped open the stomach of their worst rival, and it’s all with thought, and memories and emotions. And suddenly we’re in the realm of taking just plain old nuts and bolts physiology and using it in ways that are unrecognizable."

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Olive Oil Vs. Walnuts: Guess Which Won

This is one of the studies from my previous post about walnuts:

A Walnut Diet Improves Endothelial Function In Hypercholesterolemic Subjects, Circulation, 2004

It compared two diets. Both were a Mediterranean diet - emphasizing vegetables and fish, and limiting red and processed meats, whole-fat dairy foods, and eggs. There was one difference: one diet replaced some olive oil and other sources of monounsaturated fat (olives, avocados) with walnuts.

The walnut diet was better:

"Compared with the Mediterranean diet, the walnut diet improved endothelium-dependent vasodilation and reduced levels of vascular cell adhesion molecule."

"Compared with the Mediterranean diet, the walnut diet produced significant reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol."

The benefit of walnuts may go beyond (or act synergistically to) its fatty acid profile. For example, walnuts contain good amounts of the amino acid L-arginine, certainly compared to almost-all-fat olive oil, and L-arginine can lower blood pressure, that is...

L-arginine is used to make nitric oxide, a compound that helps dilate blood vessels, lowering blood pressure. (L-arginine is good for erectile dysfunction too, for the same blood-vessel-dilating reason). An aside - dark chocolate also increases nitric oxide, and may be partly responsible for its heart benefits.

Just one study.
________Photo: Bix

Walnuts, The Harvest Is In

Walnuts - a food that's been shown to improve blood flow, lower insulin levels, and nudge lipids in a desirable direction. Crack on.
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Effects Of Walnut Consumption On Endothelial Function In Type 2 Diabetics: A Randomized, Controlled, Cross-Over Trial, Diabetes Care, Oct 2009

Intake: 56 grams (about 2 ounces, 28 halves or 14 whole nuts/day) for 8 weeks.

"Endothelial function (measured by flow-mediated dilation) significantly improved."

(The California Walnut Commission co-sponsored this study. What are you going to do.)
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A Walnut Diet Improves Endothelial Function In Hypercholesterolemic Subjects, Circulation, 2004

Intake: 40 to 65 grams (about 8 to 13 whole walnuts/day) for 4 weeks.

"[The walnut diet] improved endothelium-dependent vasodilation. ... Significantly reduced total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol."

________
Long-Term Effects Of Increased Dietary Polyunsaturated Fat From Walnuts On Metabolic Parameters In Type II Diabetes, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Aug 2009

Intake: 30 grams (about 1 ounce, 14 halves or 7 whole nuts/day) for 1 year.

"Significantly greater reductions in fasting insulin levels."

(When insulin goes up, the ability of the body to burn fat (a.k.a. fat oxidation or beta oxidation) goes down. Usually. The obese tend not to conform to this tenet, and will continue to burn fat at higher levels of insulin. Insulin resistance affects not only glucose metabolism but fat metabolism.)
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Including Walnuts In A Low-Fat/Modified-Fat Diet Improves HDL Cholesterol-To-Total Cholesterol Ratios In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, 2004

Intake: 30 grams (about 1 ounce, 14 halves or 7 whole nuts/day) for 6 months.

"The walnut group achieved a significantly greater increase in HDL cholesterol–to–total cholesterol ratio, and HDL. ... A 10% reduction in LDL cholesterol was also achieved in the walnut group."

(HDL is the "good cholesterol." Increases in HDL are a good thing.)
________Photo: Bix

Al Gore Tackles The Meat Issue

Looks like former vice president and environmentalist Al Gore has finally addressed meat-eating:¹

Can't find the embed yet. You can see the whole 2-minute video by clicking the link above or visiting BBC's Newsnight site.
BBC's Jeremy Paxman asked Gore: "Have you become a vegetarian."

Gore: "No, I have not. Although, for health reasons along with climate reasons, have reduced the amount of meat in my diet. And of course, as we all know, it's much healthier to have more vegetables and fruits instead of meat, and actually the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is a legitimate issue where climate is concerned."

Paxman: "And we all should become vegetarians, shouldn't we?

Gore: "I don't plan to. I respect those who do. But it's a personal choice and will remain so."

________
Results of CAFO poll:

If all you have access to is meat from a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), will you:



________¹ Al Gore's book, An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming, came out in 2006. I read it. I don't recall him discussing the major contribution of livestock production to global warming and environmental degradation. I always wondered why he didn't.

What Do People Opposed to Factory Farming Feed Their Pets?

As I'm reading Jonathan Safran Foer's various essays¹ which question the practice of factory farming, I'm wondering what he feeds his dog. What do people who oppose Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) feed their pets? Or do they opt out of pet ownership?

Marion Nestle, in her book Pet Food Politics, says:

"Pet foods have always been made from the leftover parts of slaughtered farm animals that are not going to be used for human food—the bones, organs, ears, and other nutritious by-products. The need for an outlet for the leftovers of animal slaughter is one of the reasons commercial pet food exists."

Where do those animals that get made into dog and cat food come from? Foer says:

"Upwards of 99 percent of the animals that are raised for meat in this country come from factory farms."

________¹ CNN: Food Industry Dictates Nutrition Policy, CNN: Eating Animals Is Making Us Sick, New York Mag: 76 Minutes With Jonathan Safran Foer, Huffington Post: Jonathan Safran Foer's Controversial New Book, Eating Animals, New York Times: Against Meat