Food Safety

Thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than in Flint (Reuters)

Flint is famous for failing to keep lead out of its drinking water, but in December 2016, Reuters found nearly 3,000 areas with recently recorded lead poisoning rates at least double those in Flint during the peak of that city’s contamination crisis. And more than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher. http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-lead-testing/

Reuters attributed this to the decay of American water-delivery infrastructure. Yet many of these lead hotspots are receiving little attention or funding.

No amount of lead is safe; tiny doses hurt your brain less, but they still hurt. Whether you use bottled water, Brita filters, water distillers, or other means of purifying your water, make sure you keep your water pure somehow.

What’s the healthiest cooking oil?

Confused about which cooking oil is best to use? You’re not alone!

If you just want the short answer, scroll down. Else keep reading.

Manufacturers will claim all sorts of things, but when you get right down to it, all cooking oils may be categorized as polyunsaturated (PUFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), and saturated fatty acids (SFA). You can think of a fatty acid as a snake:

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Eat Poop or Wash Your Hands

I took this photo while riding in a balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey

Years ago, we traveled through Turkey on a bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia (the Turkish equivalent to Yellowstone National Park).¹ Along the way, the bus made lots of stops at the Turkish equivalent of truck stops and 7-11 convenience stores. The bathrooms were often short of warm water and soap and had faucet handles you needed to touch to use. I declined to wash my hands under such conditions and used alcohol wipes instead. Ann did wash her hands–with the dubious faucet handles and all. Later in the trip, she got the worst bout of diarrhea that she had ever experienced. For two days she had to stay within fifteen minutes of a toilet at all times and missed the balloon ride (above).

Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But most people don’t wash their hands well enough. Normally, not washing your hands properly might only give you diarrhea or something you’ll probably survive, but occasionally you get stories about how people get tapeworms in the brain or hepatitis or norovirus. In any case, even if you “only” get a stomach virus, that’s more than enough incentive to wash your hands better. And as the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) puts it:

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Does cooking food create toxins and carcinogens?

Does cooking food release toxins and carcinogens?

The short answer is “yes,” based on numerous government studies around the world (including the U.S. CDC, NIH, EPA, etc.), but only if you cook at higher-than-steaming/boiling temperatures. Studies indicate probable links between cancer rates and food fried/grilled at high temperatures (see below).

Thus if you’re serious about maintaining good health, you may want to reduce high-temperature cooked foods in your diet. It doesn’t mean you have to avoid such foods entirely, because your body can detoxify itself to some extent, via organs like the liver. But the less you abuse your body, the greater your chance of having a healthy life and old age.

There are four common ways to get carcinogens in your diet:

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Nutrition: Avoiding Palm Olein in Baby Formula

As baby formula labels continually admonish mothers, breastfeeding is better than formula. But if you can’t breastfeed or don’t produce enough milk–as in our case–formula can be a lifesaver.

Infant formula is a highly regulated food and contains the same minimum nutritional content.¹² However, be aware that formulas differ in quality.

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Are store brands as good as name brand foods? (Or even better?)

Q: Are store brands as good as name brand foods? (Or even better?)

A: The answer is basically yes.

There are three different ways to look at store brands:

Commodities. These foods will be very similar or the same no matter who makes them. Examples are butter, milk, orange juice, fruits, vegetables and similar items.
Foods where you don’t have a strong preference. If you would not mind brand switching between name brands, throw the store brands into your rotation. Whether you are buying corn chips, cereal, frozen foods, jam, bread, frosting or anything else out there on the store shelves, go for it. The taste of food will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer whether it’s a store brand or a name brand.
Foods that you love the taste of and won’t compromise on. These, you should buy from your favorite manufacturer whether it is a name brand or store brand. But if you notice that a brand suddenly tastes different, it’s because manufacturers sometimes quietly reformulate their products to make them more competitive (though inevitably some people don’t like the new taste), so there is no guarantee that store brand or name brand products will stay exactly the same over time. In fact, even people who regularly buy a specific name brand may eventually like the store brand better. [1]

There are a few exceptions where a manufacturer has a patent on a specific process or product, so you can’t get the item anywhere else (e.g., Dreyer patented slow-churn ice cream or probiotics in tea and coffee). Otherwise, even though the recipes are different, there is not much difference between name brand and store brand food.

What isn’t on my list? Safety or quality. The USDA and FDA have rules about food manufacturing and safety where everyone has to meet the same basic criteria. And regardless of whether a product is a store brand or name brand, all food products are subject to the same labeling requirements when it comes to claiming health/nutrition benefits:

Health Claims: All health claims involve a component and a disease and may be a qualified health claim, NLEA authorized claims, or claims based on authoritative statements (government research). If you try to imply a claim by putting a heart on the package or saying a food is healthy that counts too.[2][3]
- Qualified health claims: These claims tend to be very wordy and are very specific. For example, here is the claim for nuts and heart health: “Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts [such as name of specific nut] as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease. [See nutrition information for fat content.]” [4]
- Authorized Claims: These are more common since there are more approved claims and a list is available on the FDA site, but they are still very wordy. [5]
- NLEA claim: These let you make a claim about a food component and a disease. For example, consuming calcium is necessary for healthy bones. [3]
- Structure/Function Claims: This is the easiest type of health claim. If a food component is known to have an effect on the human body you can put a structure / function claim on the package. These claims can be as simple as “fiber maintains bowel regularity,” or “antioxidants maintain cell integrity.” [3]

Nutrient Content Claims: Rather than going through the work of proving a health claim, it’s easier to put a nutrient content claim on the package like “low ___.” These claims are limited to the required or voluntary nutrients on the nutrition facts panel and include all of the “free,” “low,” and “good source of” claims you see on packages. [6]

Other Claims: There are a number of other claims you may see, such as:
- Organic: This is strictly regulated by the USDA. [7]
- Gluten Free: The food must contain 20 ppm or less of gluten [8]
- Natural: This is not strictly defined in the US. As long as the “natural” food does not contain synthetic ingredients and isn’t colored, it meets the FDA’s definition:

“From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is ‘natural’ because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances.” [9]

In conclusion: Because all food is regulated and meets basic safety criteria you are left buying based on the taste, price, and marketing. Often the best value will be the store brands and they are just as good as the name brands. Some stores have multiple tiers of store brands: a low-budget brand, a brand intended to compete with national brands, and a premium brand that may be better than the leading national brand. So the next time you have a choice between a store brand and name brand, you might want to try them both out side-by-side. The results may surprise you!

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