Diets High In Saturated Fat Linked To Obesity

Diets high in saturated fat increase risk for obesity in those who are genetically predisposed:

High Dietary Saturated Fat Intake Accentuates Obesity Risk Associated With The Fat Mass And Obesity–Associated Gene In Adults, Journal of Nutrition, 28 March 2012

"High dietary SFA intake (≥15.5% energy) and a low dietary PUFA:SFA intake ratio (<0.38) further accentuated the risk of having a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 and being abdominally obese."

For these individuals (1,754 participants studied over 7.5 years), it turns out to be true that "the fat you eat is the fat you wear."

A saturated fat intake of 15.5% for a diet of 1800 calories/day is 279 calories or about 31 grams of saturated fat, 34 grams for 2000 calories/day, etc.

Here are saturated fat amounts in some common foods:

• 1 tablespoon butter ... 7 grams
• 2 tablespoons olive oil ... 4 grams
• 1 ounce cheddar cheese ... 6 grams
• Burger King hamburger ... 6 grams
• 1/2 cup ice cream ... 4 grams
• Half of a turkey leg (meat and skin) ... 8.5 grams
• Krispy Kreme glazed raspberry filled donut ... 5 grams

________

4-7-8 Breath

1. Breathe in through your nose (mouth closed) for a count of 4.
2. Hold your breath for a count of 7.
3. Exhale through your mouth ("whoosh") to a count of 8.

Repeat for 4 breath cycles. The speed of the cycle is not as important as the ratio 4/7/8, with the exhale being the longest.
Takes less than 2 minutes. Do twice a day.

Dr. Weil demonstrates. Skip to 3:14 for the actual breathing:



Benefits:

• Helps you fall asleep.
• Helps you get back to sleep if you wake during the night.
• Lowers blood pressure, over time.
• Helps with cravings.
• Helps with anxiety and panic attacks. (Weil: "You cannot be anxious and breathe deeply and slowly at the same time.")

This absolutely works. ________

Quinoa With Mirepoix

Serves 1:

1. Toast 1/4 cup uncooked quinoa in a dry skillet on low heat until it turns slightly brown and smells like popcorn.
2. Bring 3/4 cup water to a boil, dump toasted quinoa in, reduce to lowest heat, cook for 5 minutes with lid ajar, stir, cook an additional 5 minutes with lid completely covering pot. A 1 or 1.5 quart saucepan is a good size.
3. Stir, make sure all water has boiled off or been absorbed, recover and let sit away from heat for 5 minutes more.
4. Finely dice celery, onions, and carrots, about 1 tablespoon each. Lightly steam mirepoix over a pot of boiling water, about 1 or 2 minutes.
5. Add steamed vegetables to fluffed quinoa. Season with a teaspoon of tamari and salt to taste.

________Photo of my lunch today.
I only know what mirepoix is because a food store near me sold bags of it around Thanksgiving last year. Wikipedia says Mirepoix (pronounced meer-pwah) is a French culinary term for a mixture of diced celery, onions, and carrots.

Breads From Grindstone Bakery

Someone¹ from Google+ posted this photo of breads he purchased from Grindstone Bakery in California:



From Grindstone's site:

"All of our breads and cookies are free of Modern Wheat*, Yeast, and Dairy and many are also GLUTEN FREE. Our Nutrient Dense loaves are made with 100% Organic Whole Grains that are Stone Ground to a coarse flour just before the dough is mixed.

After a long natural fermentation, the loaves are finally baked to a dark golden perfection.

*Spelt is an ancient variety of Wheat."

I'd love to try them. I like the care that was taken to produce them ... sourcing good ingredients, using a course grind, fermenting, slow cooking. ________¹ Looks like the source was +Kevin Bae.

Another Mad Cow

A dairy cow in California tested positive this week for BSE or mad cow disease.

The USDA said there is no threat to the food supply because the cow's body never made it to the rendering vat. It does leave a question about the cow's milk. The public consumed that milk. And although it's not known if mad cow disease can be transmitted to humans from cows' milk, it is known that scrapie, the parallel disease in sheep, can be transmitted to lambs via milk:

"Last year researchers demonstrated that the ingestion of as little as 1 to 2 quarts of milk from scrapie-infected sheep stricken with mastitis could cause prion infection in lambs at an attack rate of 86%."

The Reuters article said USDA tests 40,000 of 34 million cattle slaughtered in a year. That's 0.1%. I'm reminded of this post: Mad Cow: "Don't Look, Don't Find" (a quote from Jean Halloran, then Director of the Consumer Policy Institute at Consumer's Union, describing USDA's mad cow policy), where I discovered:

• Japan tests nearly 100% of its slaughtered cattle.
• The European Union tests about 30%.
• The US tests about 0.1%.

Not only doesn't the USDA test adequately for mad cow, it prohibits private companies from testing (and sues if they do):

"Detection of BSE is needlessly hindered by the fact that USDA prohibits private companies from testing their own beef. Private testing could augment USDA testing and provide an extra measure of monitoring and assurance of safety to consumers. USDA only tests cattle that are sent to the renderer and doesn’t test at slaughterhouses. We find it hard to understand why USDA prohibits private companies from testing."
- Consumers Union Statement On BSE Positive Cow, 24 April, 2012

And...

"The Agriculture Department is within bounds to bar meatpackers from testing slaughter cattle for mad cow disease, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1 ruling on Friday."
- Court Bars Meatpacker Tests For Mad Cow, Reuters, August, 2008

Why does USDA prohibit private testing? If BSE is found to be more pervasive than thought, it would be costly for the cattle industry and could damage public trust in the food supply. The USDA exists in part to promote the beef industry and to ensure trust in the food supply.

The Organic Consumers Association says:

"We suspect there are many other USA Mad Cows confined in feedlots and factory scale dairies."

I think so. ________Photo of a "cow carousel" at Clauss Dairy Farms in Hilmar, California from thekitchn.com. Not related to the farm in Hanford, CA where the mad cow was discovered.

Mistreatment Begets Mistreatment

This is the trailer for the movie that convinced Ellen DeGeneres to become a vegan. (Here's DeGeneres discussing why she went vegan.)


Earthlings.com

On his blog, James McWilliams talks about exploitation of animals. Here are 2 recent posts and a few clips from each:

“Vapid”: Animal Ethics And The Mainstream Media

Virtually every aspect of society is structured to prevent rational discussions about animal ethics.

“Speciesism is woven into our mental, social, and economic machinery.”

What’s conspicuously amiss in our contemporary media-saturated environment is an accessible discussion of speciesism and animal rights.

[An educated public discussion] is a necessary step in the long journey to end the exploitation of animals for human wants.

The Animal’s Almanac: “Cherish Them With Warmth”

Attention to the physical comfort of—and contact with—domestic animals was a constant theme in early American agricultural literature.

In a discourse on cows, the author of The Complete English Farmer, published in Boston in 1770, reminded readers that “ill treatment will only disgust them.”

[Animals] should “immediately become the objects of our kind regards.”

We began to treat [animals] like objects created by divine providence for our arbitrary use.

While reading his posts it occurred to me that the neglect and abuse animals experience is similar to that which other groups experience, notably, women, the elderly, certain racial and ethnic groups, and people of lower income. We objectify women, marginalize and ridicule older people, oppress minorities, and exploit the poor. You could replace "speciesism" in his remarks with "sexism," "ageism," or "racism" and they would still apply.

The lack of care we show for animals is a symptom of a larger problem in our culture.
________

"People Do Have Choices, But They Exercise Them Mainly Under Social Influences"

Dr. Lester Breslow, a pioneer in the field of public health, recently passed away. He was 97. Here's an interview with him from 2003:

An Interview with Dr. Lester Breslow, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2003

Here he discusses individual responsibility vs. societal responsiblity:

Throughout much of his work, an emphasis on individual initiative in health behavior change is evident. Breslow believes that an overemphasis on individual responsibility instead of societal responsibility leads to “victim blaming.”

"In the report on Health Needs of the Nation for Truman in 1952,” he said, “we delineated the issue quite clearly. People make choices. You and I can decide each day on positive health behavior or negative [health behavior], though most [behaviors] become ingrained in us as habits. Such decisions are not made nor habits developed in a vacuum, but in a social context in which we live. If people live with smokers, smoking is more likely; if people live with exercisers, they tend to exercise. Social factors, advertising, availability, are all determinants of each individual’s choices. As public health workers, we should make it clear that people do have choices, but they exercise them mainly under social influences.”

At the end of his book Health and Ways of Living, Breslow specifies that social action is necessary to influence health-related behavior decisions — social interventions will be more practical and efficient than individual ones. “An example of that,” he said in the interview, “is the successful tobacco smoking control program in California. A great effort of volunteers, public health, and medical people was instrumental in passing legislation as an initiative. A tax of 25 cents per pack is for specific hospital, medical, and other services, with 20% for interventions encouraging people not to smoke. The program involved a very broad network: school, work, health department, state, community organizations, [and] media. Projects spreading the word in neighborhoods, as well as use of mass media, were quite effective. The whole milieu about smoking was being changed, reversing the general tolerance of it. In government offices, smoking was prohibited, in workplaces and in restaurants and bars smoking was also prohibited. So there is progress to making smoking unacceptable.”

Here he addressed whether laws that limit individual freedoms are justified:

In conducting social interventions, there is the potential for conflict between personal autonomy and the common good. Is it right to make laws on personal health choices when such decisions can improve the health of the whole society? Some have referred to this as “health fascism,” an observation that drew laughter from Breslow. “Such laws can appropriately be passed when individual behavior is a hazard to someone else,” he said. “For example, secondhand smoke kills people and causes disease. Laws may be passed to protect people who may be exposed in the workplace, such as flight attendants. Yes, it is appropriate when one’s individual behavior imposes a risk on other people.”

I liked the secondhand smoke example. Can you think of another?
________

Dr. Lester Breslow ("Mr. Public Health") Who Famously Linked Healthy Behaviors To Long Life, Died. He Was 97.

A man who lived what he preached about healthy lifestyle passed away, according to the Dean of UCLA School of Public Health who publicized his death, "peacefully in the early hours of Monday, April 9."

Why is Lester Breslow known as "Mr. Public Health?" Because he was one of the first to document the relationship between healthy behaviors and physical health and longevity:

Relationship of Physical Health Status and Health Practices, Preventative Medicine, 1972

The New York Times says 3 of his studies from the 1950s on the harmful effects of smoking "were cited in the United States surgeon general’s landmark report in 1964 linking cigarettes to lung diseases, particularly cancer."

The same article said Breslow was still writing and publishing in 2010 when he was 95! A quick scan of PubMed reveals he was an active researcher until that time:

2008: Lifestyle and reduced mortality among active California Mormons, 1980-2004.
2007: Can health promotion programs save Medicare money?
2007: Health promotion in later life: it's never too late.
2007: Creating a robust public health infrastructure for physical activity promotion.
2006: Public health aspects of weight control.
2006: Health measurement in the third era of health.
2005: The organization of personal health services.
2005: Origins and development of the International Epidemiological Association.

That was just half of the first page! I'm tempted to think that research/writing/publishing should be included in Breslow's notable 7. But maybe if you adhere to his 7 healthy habits, it frees you to follow other ambitions.

Here are Breslow's 7 healthy habits from his 1972 study above:

1. Don't smoke, at all.
2. Drink only in moderation. "Those who “never drink” did not differ significantly from those who drank moderately."
3. Sleep 7 to 8 hours, not more and not less.
4. Be physically active, on a regular basis.
5. Eat meals regularly. Don't eat between meals.
6. Maintain a moderate weight. "Men with the best physical health were those less than 5% underweight up to 19.99% overweight; among women, those who were underweight or less than 10% overweight were slightly more healthy than the average."
7. Eat breakfast.

The effect of these habits are additive:

"Of those with four or more good health habits, 12.2% were likely to be disabled 10 years after the study began; those with two or three, 14.1%; and those with only one or no positive health habits at all, 18.7%."

Notably, he found that a healthy lifestyle can counter the effects of aging:

"Dr. Breslow found that a 60-year-old who followed the seven recommended behaviors would be as healthy as a 30-year-old who followed fewer than three.

Which is evident from the study's graph. (The higher the ridit, the healthier. Example: a ridit of .60 means that 60% of the population ranks higher, has better physical health.):


Another thing evident from this graph is that young people, in their 20s, enjoy good health whether they follow healthy habits or not.

From the NYTs: "Dr. Breslow himself did not smoke or drink. He walked regularly, practiced moderation in all things and enjoyed tending his vegetable garden." There's that vegetable garden again.
________

Have You Heard Of Tavi Gevinson?

She is 15 and a sophomore in high school.^{1, 2}
Here she describes what she thinks makes a "strong female character":



So, a strong female character is...

• Flawed.
• "Maybe not immediately likeable but eventually relateable."
• Not always strong.

This was one of her slides:



You could replace the word feminism with just about anything ... nutrition, government, relationships, making grits ... and it works. Go with the best you have today, but consider it a process, think about how it can be improved. As Tavi says, keep figuring it out.
________¹ Tavi Gevinson is the editor-in-chief and founder of RookieMag.com and writes thestylerookie.com.
² I heard of her from Adele.

Leftover Onions Are Poisonous?

There are claims that leftover onions are poisonous because they are "magnets for bacteria." There are also claims that "leaving onions around a room can absorb the flu virus along with bacteria that cause other illnesses thereby preventing people from becoming sick".

So, onions are magnets for bacteria. That doesn't make sense. Magnets? For just bacteria? Just bad bacteria? How does that work? Even if bacteria, just bad bacteria, could somehow travel to an onion, I'd think the sulfur compounds would do them in.

Looks like Dr. Joe Schwarcz of McGill University Office for Science and Society wondered the same thing.¹

"The terminology that onions are "bacterial magnets" makes no sense. No food attracts bacteria, although of course some are more likely to support bacterial multiplication once infected."

And...

"Onions are not especially prone to bacterial contamination. In fact, quite the opposite. Onions feature a variety of sulphur compounds that have antibacterial activity. Furthermore, cutting an onion triggers the release of enzymes that initiate a chemical reaction producing propenesulfenic acid, which in turn decomposes to yield sulphuric acid. It is the sulphuric acid that makes you cry by irritating the eyes! But sulphuric acid also inhibits the growth of bacteria. Also, a cut onion's surface dries out quickly, reducing the moisture that is needed for bacteria to multiply."

He gives these reasons for consuming onions:

"That’s because onions contain a variety of compounds that have health benefits. Fructo-oligosaccharides, for example, stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria which suppress the growth of potentially harmful bacteria in the colon. Eating onions has also been linked with a reduced risk of stomach cancer and flavonoids in onions can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of blood clots forming. Some studies have even shown improved lung function in asthmatics who consume lots of onions."

This Dr. Joe is an interesting person. I wish he had a blog. ________¹Is It True That Onions Are “Magnets For Bacteria?”
Photo of an onion I had leftover in the refrigerator.

Going Vegan

Tara Parker-Pope tackles "The Challenge Of Going Vegan" in her New York Times' Well Blog. She doesn't go into the whys, just the hows. If your why is solid, I think your how is less difficult.

Here's a clip of Ellen DeGeneres being interviewed by Katie Couric. She talks about why she went vegan.


________

The Myth Of Sustainable Meat

James McWilliams (who took NYTs columnist Nicholas Kristof to task for implying that chickens elicited less empathy because they had small eyes) recently took a turn at what he called...

The Myth Of Sustainable Meat, New York Times (sorry, I know there's a 10-free-stories-a-month limit), 12 April 2012

He says that what some consider sustainable alternatives to factory farmed meat aren't so sustainable:

"Grass-grazing cows emit considerably more methane than grain-fed cows.

Pastured organic chickens have a 20 percent greater impact on global warming.

If we raised all the cows in the United States on grass (all 100 million of them), cattle would require (using the figure of 10 acres per cow) almost half the country’s land (and this figure excludes space needed for pastured chicken and pigs)."

Aren't so "natural":

"Many farmers who raise chickens on pasture use industrial breeds that have been bred to do one thing well: fatten quickly in confinement. As a result, they can suffer painful leg injuries after several weeks of living a “natural” life pecking around a large pasture.

Free-range pigs are routinely affixed with nose rings to prevent them from rooting, which is one of their most basic instincts."

Aren't so economical:

"[Small, decentralized, free-range operations] would gradually seek a larger market share, cutting corners, increasing stocking density and aiming to fatten animals faster than competitors could. ... It wouldn’t take long for production systems to scale back up to where they started."

Don't fully engage in "nutrient cycling":

"Consider Joel Salatin [of Polyface Farm, pictured], the guru of nutrient cycling, who employs chickens to enrich his cows’ grazing lands with nutrients. His plan appears to be impressively eco-correct, until we learn that he feeds his chickens with tens of thousands of pounds a year of imported corn and soy feed."

________

Decorated Nest

I'd heard that birds will weave plastic Easter basket grass and other colorful items into their nests but I never saw it in action until now:





I found the nest on the ground and propped it back into the bush but it had already been abandoned. I can't tell what bird made it. I think it's too small for a robin's nest (but the blue would have went with the eggs). I don't think it's a dove's or cardinal's nest, too small and tightly woven. Any ideas? ________

Chickens Have Smaller Eyes Than Cows, Does That Make Them Less Worthy Of Empathy?

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist with the New York Times, appeared to make that claim in a recent Op-Ed:
Is An Egg For Breakfast Worth This?, Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 11 April 2012

"Like many readers, I don’t particularly empathize with chickens. It’s their misfortune that they lack big eyes.

As a farmboy from Yamhill, Ore., I found our pigs to be razor smart, while our geese mated for life and our sheep and cattle had distinct personalities. The chickens were the least individualistic of the animals we raised."

The article was making a good case for the abolishment of hen cages, not just on food safety grounds but on cruelty-to-animal grounds. That's why his statement about eye size stood out for me. Is it true that humans show empathy based on eye size? Or eye contact?

Then I saw James McWilliams' (another New York Times contributor, and author of "Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly") blog post:
Small Eyes And Big Claims: Kristof On Animal Empathy, James McWilliams, Eating Plants, 12 April 2012

He picked up on the same thing:

"So let me get this straight. Kristof’s ability to empathize with an animal hinges on the animal’s ability to make eye-contact? Yes, Nick Kristof appears to rely on the categorical determining power of eye diameter to do something rather morally acrobatic: justify the decision to exploit chickens while denoting concern for their ultimate welfare. Eye size."

It pains me to say this but I think Kristof is on to something regarding eyes. After all, there are more pet dogs and cats than there are pet chickens.
________

Canned Whole Chicken

Tracy at I Hate My Message Board bought a canned whole chicken and chronicled her experience with these photos. (There are more on her site.)











This last one was her final product after 15 minutes in a 475 degree oven, which were the cooking instructions. Is it supposed to look like the chicken on the label?

Thank you, Tracy. In all my days I've never seen anything like this. ________

Facebook As Self-Presentation

Interesting article:
Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?, by Stephen Marche, The Atlantic, May 2012

Excerpt:

"Jaron Lanier, the author of You Are Not a Gadget, was one of the inventors of virtual-reality technology. His view of where social media are taking us reads like dystopian science fiction: “I fear that we are beginning to design ourselves to suit digital models of us, and I worry about a leaching of empathy and humanity in that process.”

Lanier argues that Facebook imprisons us in the business of self-presenting, and this, to his mind, is the site’s crucial and fatally unacceptable downside.

Lanier and Turkle are right, at least in their diagnoses. Self-presentation on Facebook is continuous, intensely mediated, and possessed of a phony nonchalance that eliminates even the potential for spontaneity. (“Look how casually I threw up these three photos from the party at which I took 300 photos!”)

Curating the exhibition of the self has become a 24/7 occupation. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, the Australian study “Who Uses Facebook?” found a significant correlation between Facebook use and narcissism: “Facebook users have higher levels of total narcissism, exhibitionism, and leadership than Facebook nonusers,” the study’s authors wrote. “In fact, it could be argued that Facebook specifically gratifies the narcissistic individual’s need to engage in self-promoting and superficial behavior.”

It wasn't Marche's lonliness argument that interested me so much as his point that "Facebook imprisons us in the business of self-presenting." Facebook does seem to foster, and to reward, exhibitionism.
________Photo from a CNNMoney article, We All Want To Be Liked: Facebook's Narcissist Effect.

What Does Music Do To Our Brain?

Source: MusicAndMemory.org
________

Deadly Herbs

Herbs can be safe, effective, and inexpensive alternatives to synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. They can also be deadly.

The herb birthwort (Aristolochia), also called pipevines or Dutchman's pipes, contains a substance known as aristolochic acid which, the NIH's National Toxicology Program tells us, is a potent human carcinogen. It causes kidney disease, kidney failure, and urinary tract cancer.¹

Aristolochia is now thought to be responsible for "Balkan endemic nephropathy" or BEN, and "Chinese herbs nephropathy" or CHN.² (Nephropathy is kidney disease.)

In BEN, farmers along tributaries of the Danube were unknowingly grinding birthwort seeds along with wheat and making bread. Their exposure was low-dose but chronic. They were slowly poisoning themselves. In CHN, young women in Belgium who attended a "slimming" clinic received acute doses of Aristolochia in the Chinese herbs they took as therapy.

It looks like the epidemic of urinary tract cancer in Taiwan (the highest incidence of this cancer anywhere in the world) can also be blamed on aristolochic acid.³ (Nearly "1 in 3 patients are prescribed Aristolochia as part of traditional medical treatments delivered at doctor's offices.")

In 2001 the FDA issued an alert:
Aristolochic Acid: FDA Warns Consumers to Discontinue Use of Botanical Products that Contain Aristolochic Acid

In 2003, despite FDA warnings, aristolochic acid was found in 19 products and suspected to be present in an additional 95 products:
Aristolochic Acid, an Herbal Carcinogen, Sold on the Web after FDA Alert, New England Journal of Medicine, 2003

Arthur Grollman, one of the researchers in the PNAS study³, and lead author of a prior study that tied aristolochic acid to the Balkan tragedy said:

"An important message for Americans is that Congress is inviting similar problems in our country by not holding dietary supplements — which includes herbs — to reasonable standards of safety and efficacy. ... We simply don't know whether other herbal supplements like Aristolochia are being marketed right now."
Herbal 'Remedy' May Trigger Widespread Kidney Failure, USAToday, 8 April 2012

________¹Aristolactam-DNA Adducts Are A Biomarker Of Environmental Exposure To Aristolochic Acid, Kidney International, April 2011
²Chinese Herbs Nephropathy And Balkan Endemic Nephropathy: Toward A Single Entity, Aristolochic Acid Nephropathy, Kidney International, April 2012
³Aristolochic Acid-Associated Urothelial Cancer In Taiwan, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2012
Photo of Aristolochia elegans/Dutchman's Pipevine from OnlinePlantGuide

Blood Glucose And Insulin Higher After Meal High In Saturated Fat

One more study finds meals high in saturated fat are not good for insulin resistance and diabetes:
PUFAs Acutely Affect Triacylglycerol-Derived Skeletal Muscle Fatty Acid Uptake And Increase Postprandial Insulin Sensitivity, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2012

It was a small study in men who were obese and already insulin resistant. It compared 3 diets - high in either saturated fat (SFA), monounsaturated fat (MUFA), or polyunsaturated fat (PUFA). Blood glucose and insulin were significantly higher after the saturated fat meal than the PUFA meal.

Interesting that the PUFA meal led to higher circulating fatty acids. Resistant starch does this too, except by a different mechanism - colonic bacteria eat undigested (resistant) starch, producing fatty acids that we absorb. These fatty acids are linked to improvement in sensitivity to insulin.

The evidence for the role of fat - not just quantity of fat, but also type of fat - in the diet is growing. The more total fat and the more saturated fat one eats, the greater the risk for developing insulin resistance and diabetes, as I've seen. It's not an intuitive relationship. I first wrote about it in 2008:
Type Of Fat Eaten Affects Insulin Levels

The KANWU study found that insulin resistance worsened on a high saturated fat diet (but improved on a MUFA diet). And I summarized 3 large epidemiological studies that implicated saturated fat in the development of diabetes.

The best sources of saturated fat in our diets are dairy products (cheese, butter, cream and the like) and animal foods. The fat in plants tends to be more unsaturated, PUFA and MUFA.
________

Birds Must Live In Another Dimension

Birds must live in another dimension, because I don't see this when I watch them:




From:
Expressive Scenes From The Life Of Sparrow

He has some others there, mid-air tussles and a few feeding photos. Amazing what there is to see when we slow down their lives. It makes me wonder how they perceive us. We must be slow movers, like how we see whales.
________

Monsanto Threatens To Sue Vermont Over GMO Labeling Bill

Monsanto Threatens To Sue Vermont Over GMO Labeling Bill, Organic Consumers Association, April 4, 2012

"Despite overwhelming public support and support from a clear majority of Vermont's Agriculture Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened to sue the state if the bill passes."

It looks like Vermont, one of the more progressive states, and:

"... the first state in the nation in 1994 to require mandatory labels on milk and dairy products derived from cows injected with the controversial genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone. ... Monsanto's minions sued in Federal Court and won on a judge's decision that dairy corporations have the first amendment "right" to remain silent on whether or not they are injecting their cows with rBGH - even though rBGH has been linked to severe health damage in cows and increased cancer risk for humans, and is banned in much of the industrialized world, including Europe and Canada."

... doesn't want to "go it alone" against Monsanto in court. Can you blame them? States are hurting right now. Why not make this a federal mandate? Mr. Obama?



________GMO facts list from Vermont Right To Know Campaign site.

Adulteration And Corruption In The Olive Oil Trade

This article attracted a lot of attention in 2007 when it was first published. Aside from the bad news it delivers about the provenance and quality of olive oil, it's actually an enjoyable read:

Slippery Business, The Trade In Adulterated Olive Oil, by Tom Mueller, The New Yorker Magazine, August 13, 2007

Mueller begins with a tale of traveling oil:

"On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship’s official documents, Greek olive oil."

That "Greek olive oil" (really hazelnut oil, sometimes sunflower seed oil) was eventually sold "to some of the largest producers of Italian olive oil, among them Nestlé, Unilever, Bertolli, and Oleifici Fasanesi." It ended up in the hands of consumers worldwide as premium Italian olive oil. This practice is lucrative for traders because they don't have to pay import duties on oil that appears to originate from within the EU, plus they receive millions in EU subsidies for supporting the olive oil industry!

"In 1997 and 1998, olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in the European Union."
...
"Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks."

You might think chemists could tell what kind of oil they had on their hands; they can, for the less sophisticated switches. But high-tech adulteration produces effective camouflage. When "oil is doctored with substances like hazelnut oil and deodorized lampante [lower grade] olive oil, [it is] extremely difficult to detect by chemical analysis."

Humans, however, can differentiate high-grade oil from low-grade:

"The E.U., recognizing that laboratory tests fail to expose many acts of adulteration, instituted strict taste and aroma requirements for each grade of olive oil and established tasting panels, certified by the International Olive Oil Council, an office created by the United Nations, to enforce them.

According to the E.U. regulations, extra-virgin oil must have appreciable levels of pepperiness, bitterness, and fruitiness, and must be free of sixteen official taste flaws, which include “musty,” “fusty,” “cucumber,” and “grubby.”

“If there’s one defect, it’s not extra-virgin olive oil — basta, end of story,” Flavio Zaramella, the president of the Corporazione Mastri Oleari, in Milan, one of the most respected private olive-oil associations, told [Mueller]."

Fusty?

The description of a panel tasting is delightful:

"Cradling the glasses containing the first sample in their palms to keep the oil warm, they removed the lids, inserted their noses, and snuffled loudly, some closing their eyes. They sipped the oil, and began sucking in air violently, a technique known as strippaggio, which coats the taste buds with oil and helps its aromas ascend to the nasal passages. After the first volcanic slurps, the strippaggi grew softer and more meditative, and took on personal notes, the marquess’s wheezy and almost wistful, Zaramella’s deep and wet, as if he were gargling Epsom salts.
...
The Mastri Oleari panelists were remarkably consistent, agreeing not only on the subtle flavors — artichoke, fresh-cut grass, green tomato, kiwi — suggested by the oils but also on their intensity.
...
Even the most creative criminals have difficulty outwitting a properly trained tasting panel."

Unfortunately, discovering an oil is adulterated doesn't necessarily lead to its recall or relabeling. With players this big, and officials sometimes turning a blind eye (and pocketing a greased palm), finger-pointing could land the pointer in hot water, and in debt, since the company seeks damages from him!

So, is olive oil still being adulterated? David Firestone, an FDA chemist who was the agency’s olive-oil specialist from the mid-sixties to 1999 told Mueller:

“My experience over a period of some fifty years suggests that we can always expect adulteration and mislabelling of olive-oil products in the absence of surveillance by official sources."

The article noted that some official task forces and tasting panels have ceased operation, and this was before the economic strain of the last 5 years. I thought it was telling that a number of oils sold as extra virgin didn't live up to that designation in the UCDavis analysis (e.g. Berio, Bertolli, Colavita, Carapelli), as recently as 2010.

I'm now wondering if I've ever tasted real extra virgin olive oil. ________Photo of the Mazal II, taken in 1994, from Shipspotting.com.

Most Imported Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is Probably Not "Extra Virgin"

According to researchers at University of California, Davis (UCDavis), much imported "extra virgin" olive oil would be more accurately labeled "virgin" olive oil.¹

"69% of imported olive oil samples and 10% of California olive oil samples labeled as extra virgin olive oil failed to meet the IOC/USDA sensory (organoleptic) standards for extra virgin olive oil.
...
Our chemical testing indicated that the samples failed extra virgin standards for reasons that include one or more of the following:

• Oxidation by exposure to elevated temperatures, light, and/or aging
• Adulteration with cheaper refined olive oil
• Poor quality oil made from damaged and overripe olives, processing flaws, and/or improper oil storage"

The researchers at UCDavis Olive Center who conducted this analysis are probably happy to see California olive oils fare so well in comparison to imported oils. Indeed, makers of 2 domestic brands, Corto Olive and California Olive Ranch, not only helped fund the analysis but achieved high scores for their oils. At least the possible bias here is transparent.

Still, there's some revealing compare/contrast data among the imported brands they (and blinded researchers in Australia) tested:


Some of these oils run over $20 for a 16 ounce bottle. These aren't rank-and-file olive oils. Unfortunately, spending less can result in a bottle of olive oil that's really hazelnut or canola oil with, if the buyer is lucky, a splash of olive, as I've read. Corruption in the global olive oil trade is rampant.

Related post: Adulteration And Corruption In The Olive Oil Trade
________¹Report: Tests Indicate That Imported “Extra Virgin” Olive Oil Often Fails International And USDA Standards, University of California, Davis, 2010.
The photo is mine, of what I thought was an "extra virgin" olive oil, but what UCDavis says is, in many respects, just "virgin." It's Colavita.

Whole Foods Almond Butter

Whole Foods store brand organic almond butter, a value at $18/pound:

"Our 365 Everyday Value® products can fill your pantry without emptying your pocketbook."

________Photo: I took it today at Whole Foods.