Do you know what you are eating?

[grammafreddy]

That's probably one of the wisest pieces of advice I have ever read on Castanet. Good for you, Glacier! It really is a shame more people don't think (and act) the same. There would be a whole lot more healthier people in the world.

My policy is no packaged or processed food and make just about everything from scratch from fresh FOOD.

[Captain Awesome]

How do you make breakfast cereal from scratch with fresh products?

[grammafreddy]

How do you make breakfast cereal from scratch with fresh products?

oatmeal??? Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Glacier]

Gramma, did you know that the average person gets more sugar from breakfast than they get from the pop they drink.

[grammafreddy]

Gramma, did you know that the average person gets more sugar from breakfast than the the pop they drink.

Ummmm ... doesn't that depend on what they have for breakfast? But if they have some sugar-coated cereal, it wouldn't surprise me. The only cereal in my house is Kellogg's Corn Flakes, corn meal, All Bran, Bran Flakes, bran meal and Oats. Sometimes I eat the Corn Flakes as cereal but I mostly use it as a coating for chicken and fish (and fried green tomatoes, too, right now ). All the bran stuff is for bran muffins.

Right now I am in the middle of making Green Tomato, Carrot and Leek Muffins. They have corn meal in them. Wish I had some cheddar to grate into them, too, but I don't. Such is life.

[Glacier]

Mmm, canned food. A while ago I was discussing this with my mother and we wondered why canned foods are coated with plastic (BPA) when they never used to be. Is this the result?

BPA spikes 1,200 percent after eating canned soup: study

The randomized study, described as "one of the first to quantify BPA levels in humans after ingestion of canned foods," was done by Harvard University researchers and appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association's November 23 issue.

[...]

Seventy-five people took part in the study, eating a 12-ounce serving of either fresh or canned soup for five days in a row. They were advised not to otherwise alter their regular eating habits.
After a two-day break, the groups switched and ate the opposite type of canned soup.
A urine analysis showed the canned soup eaters had 1,221 percent higher levels of BPA than those who ate the fresh soup.

eta: Here is the link: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-b ... -soup.html

[Queen K]

I knew there was a reason we are eating more and more homemade soups, chilis, and stews.

Got vegetarian chili bubbling now.

Is it all one big social experiment? A plot to get rid of the world's populations? What is it?

[Glacier]

Well, what a surprise, coke contains carcinogens.

Pepsi, Coke make changes to avoid cancer warning

Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. are changing the way they make the caramel colouring used in their sodas as a result of a California law that mandates drinks containing a certain level of carcinogens come with a cancer warning label.

The companies said the changes will be expanded nationally to streamline their manufacturing processes. They've already been made for drinks sold in California.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for almost 90 per cent of the soda market, according to industry tracker Beverage Digest. A representative for Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. said all its caramel colouring now meet the new California standard.

The American Beverage Association, which represents the broader industry, said its member companies will continue to use caramel colouring in certain products but that adjustments were made to meet California's new standard.

"Consumers will notice no difference in our products and have no reason at all for any health concerns," the association said in a statement.

[Queen K]

Thanks Glacier for adding yet another reason why we cut our soda consumption in the last few years. Now I have to ask, will the new standard for creating caramel cross borders internationally? Will Coke being made in say, India or Canada or Brazil also have the new formulas? Or is this change JUST for the American markets?

[grammafreddy]

From Glacier's link ...

A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said the petition is being reviewed. But he noted that a consumer would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered that have shown links to cancer in rodents.

The American Beverage Association also noted that California added the colouring to its list of carcinogens with no studies showing that it causes cancer in humans. It noted that the listing was based on a single study in lab mice and rats.

Freakin' bleedin' radicals. Stupid governments and government agencies for even listening to them in the first place.

[Queen K]

I blame the lawyers, not the researchers.

[WeatherWoman]

I wonder if all carmel colour is made the same as old formula's the pop companies use? It is in a great deal of food and beverages not just pop. My son has an intolerance to food colouring and carmel colour is one he doesn't react to along with some other natural ones.

[Glacier]

[Glacier]

The latest study done out of Kelowna of all places says that eating fish oil and omega-3 fatty acids does more harm than good. This fits in with my theory that vitamin supplements do more harm than good.

There are some cases where taking an iron pill or a vitimin-D pill might be a good idea, but what this study shows, and what common sense screams at us is that too much of a good thing is worse than a little bit of a good thing. Fish oil is put in everything these days, but really it's a gimmick.

Eating fructose in the form of an apple is good for you because you get balance with the fibre. Drinking fructose is very bad for you. Eating fish is good for you because nature has a way of doing things such that it's very hard to eat so much fish that you get too much omega-3s, but put it in a pill or in your milk, and it's not hard to do more harm than good.

Stay away from fish oil, folks.

[underscore]

A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said the petition is being reviewed. But he noted that a consumer would have to drink more than 1,000 cans of soda a day to reach the doses administered that have shown links to cancer in rodents.

The American Beverage Association also noted that California added the colouring to its list of carcinogens with no studies showing that it causes cancer in humans. It noted that the listing was based on a single study in lab mice and rats.

From Glacier's link ...

Freakin' bleedin' radicals. Stupid governments and government agencies for even listening to them in the first place.

This is a good point, I've seen many a statement claiming that everything contains all these horrible chemicals that also happen to be used in nasty chemical processes, but they always exist in the food in such a tiny amount that it's insignificant.