Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun29

Jasmine Lime Green Sun-Tea Cooler!

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Finally, it’s time to share the recipe you have all been waiting for.

The one and only …

Jasmine Lime Green Sun-Tea Cooler

It’s absolutely delicious!!! And was inspired by my all time favorite Peet’s tea— the Jasmine Lime Tea Cooler.

First, you’ll need a medium glass container. And depending on how much you LOVE tea will determine how many tea bags you use. I used four loose-leaf jasmine green tea bags from Trader Joe’s.

Fill your glass container with water and add your desired amount of tea bags. Cover the top with a paper towel and some string … making sure to tie the sting around the tea bag strings and around the paper towel.

Place outside directly in the sunlight. Make sure the tea bags are visible and directly in the sunlight for  the ideal brew. And then you wait.

Wait about 3 to 5 hours before taking the tea out of the sun. The longer the tea is in the sun the darker the tea color and the more tea flavor you will get.

Then pour your sun brewed tea into a different larger container and add the following ingredients: 1 limes, 1-2 lemons, and 1 orange. Cut, squeeze, and add the fruit.

Then add limeade. I used my favorite, pomegranate limeade from Trader Joe’s.

This part can be tricky. It’s up to you how much limeade you want to add, it depends on how much you like the taste of tea! Then pour your amazing, refreshing tea into an ice filled cup and enjoy!!

Green tea is amazing! It’s loaded with antioxidants and has little caffeine! So enjoy young grasshoppers!

***************************************************************************************************

Ingredients:

4 loose-leaf jasmine green tea bags

pomegranate limeade

1 lime

1-2 lemons

1 orange

Directions:

1. Fill medium glass container with water. Add tea bags. Cover top with paper towel and string.

2. Place directly in sun and wait until the water is your desired tea color.

3. Pour sun-tea into another larger container. Cut, squeeze, and add the lime, lemons, and orange.

4. Lastly add your desired amount of pomegranate limeade and ENJOY with ice of course!

Jun24

Kentucky Fried Nitrosamines

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Hey guys … sorry for the long delay … but I’m back again! And ready to blog!!!

Here’s your toxic tip of the day!!!

N-Nitrosamines

Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about science, it’s that reading it can be somewhat of a bore. But I wanted to expand on my last post, more specifically about the toxicity of nitrosamines.

Here it goes.

N-Nitrosamines are produced from nitrites and secondary amines (or proteins). There are over 400 different nitrosamines, 90% are carcinogenic. More specifically, cancerous forms of nitrosamines form under acidic conditions similar to those found in the human stomach–meaning human stomach cancer!

Nitrosamines can be found in beer, fish, meat, cheese, and in food preserved with sodium nitrite, like nitrile-cured bacon. In other words, nitrosamines are commonly found in our food!

On a more personal note …

I went to Kentucky this past week to meet my boyfriend’s grandparents for the first time. It was a very interesting experience … especially because I’m terrified of big bugs–more specifically wasps/bees/big flying scary things!!! And let me just tell you … Kentucky wasps are humongous!!!! But besides the bugs, I loved his family and their beautiful farm! His grandparents were amazingly nice and sweet and made me feel right at home! We indulged in tons of fruits and veggies–my fave!!!  And we even made homemade ice cream–which I enjoyed after quite a few lactase pills!  I took a ton of photos, specifically for my blog, and wanted to share a few!

The B-E-A-U-TI-FUL Farm

Tea Of Course!!!

Super Cute Baby Peacock!!

Even Cuter Baby Peacock!

I Wanted To Take Them Home With Me!

Phil Making The Ice Cream!

The Oh-So-Delicious Ice Cream Maker/Freezer!

The Spontaneous Dish I Made For The Fam!

Which Ended Up Being Super Yummy!!!

And last but not least …

The Baby Picture I Found of Phil

What A Lovely Trip!!!

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Jun19

Toxic Tip of the Day!

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So, I know I said I would be posting my green tea cooler recipe on this fine Tuesday, but I’ll be traveling all day today and probably won’t have time! However, I love you all so much and didn’t want to keep you hanging. So, I’m giving you a quick toxic foodie tip while I wait to board my plane!

Here it is lovely people!

I know you have probably heard about the nitrate, nitrite, and nitrosamines carcinogenic scare with cured meats, more specifically with hot dogs. Now, this is true, they are toxic. Nitrates are not toxic but are converted into nitrites, which are toxic, by intestinal bacteria. In addition, nitrites can also be further converted to nitrosamines which are even more toxic and carcinogenic (more on this later!).

But …

There is a lot of talk about hot dogs and their nitrates and nitrites… but I bet you didn’t know about these statistics… take a look!!!

Human Exposure to nitrite/nitrate:

80% from vegetables (spinach, beets, radishes, celery, and cabbages)

10-15% from the one and only … water (tap)

and about 5% or less from cured meats

WHAT???

Have a happy Tuesday!!!

Handbook of Food Toxicology, S. S. Deshpande

Jun18

Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines … Oh My!

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I hope everyone had a nice Father’s Day!

I know I did!

* I enjoyed some nice family time paired with delicious pizza from Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria.

* I introduced my mom to their vegan “Asante” pizza, which she became absolutely obsessed with!

* And I made a very refreshing “fruit-infused-jasmine-green-sun-tea-cooler” with my dad. A recipe I will share with you all tomorrow!!

But as promised, today, I will be sharing my knowledge on the toxicity of …

Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines (HAs)

Brace yourselves… this is a long one!

As I mentioned before, HAs are toxins (potent mutagens) generated in muscle (not organ) meats when cooked at normal “home-cooking” temperatures. What I mean by “home-cooking” temperatures, is that HA exposure is most prevalent in home cooked meats. On average we intake about 26 ng/kg body weight/day … which is a lot considering that 17 different HAs may pose a human cancer risk.

There are four main factors that influence HA formation.

1. Cooking Temperature

2. Cooking Time

3. Cooking Method

4. The Food Being Cooked

The food toxicology lecture slide below displays how different cooking temperatures and cooking times can make a great difference in the formation of HAs.

Furthermore, as you can see by the other food toxicology lecture slide (below) cooking methods also make a difference in the formation of HAs.

Frying, broiling, and barbequeing produce that largest amounts of HAs (see the food toxicology lecture slide below).

There are also two types of HAs.

1. 2-Aminoimidazole type (IQ-Type)– formed in muscle meat when amino acids react with creatine (a protein found in muscle meats) at high temperatures.

2. 2-Aminopryridine type (Non-IQ-Type)– formed from the decomposition of protein at high temperatures.

Long story short, the IQ-Types seem to be more carcinogenic because California Prop 65 lists IQ, MeIQ, MeIQx, and PhIP (all IQ-Type HAs) as carcinogens.

Hang in there, I’m almost done with all this science talk …

Toxicity

HAs are mutagenic. They tend to be potent liver carcinogens in rats and mice and are thought to be responsible for a great deal of the intestinal cancer in humans.

HAs are activated in our bodies by cytochrome P450 enzymes and are detoxified by our glucuronoyltrasferase and sulfotransferase enzymes.

And thankfully, we have these detoxifying enzymes to help us metabolize daily dietary toxins! But remember, MODERATION and COMBINATION is key! Moderate your intake of these dietary toxins and combine them with antioxidant rich fruit to help induce your detox enzymes!

And lastly, just as a recap from my previous post, if you microwave your meat for 2 minutes, before cooking, you can remove HA precursors and sequentially get rid of 90% of HA content.

Have a great day!!! And happy summer!!!!

Stay tuned for the delicious and refreshing jasmine-green-sun-tea recipe!!!
Jun15

I’m Back!

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I’m back!

My finals are finally over!

Which means …

It’s SUMMER time and WATERMELON season!!

And more importantly, BLOGGING time!!!

Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines (HAs)

HAs are toxins (potent mutagens) generated in muscle meats when cooked at normal “home-cooking” temperatures. But I’ll tell you more about that later!

So, for now, here’s a quick toxic tip:

If you microwave your meat for 2 minutes, prior to cooking, you can remove HA precursors and sequentially get rid of 90% of HA content.

Jun7

Tis the Season for Grilling

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In the 1930s, when Hostess Twinkies were invented (more on this later), Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were identified as potent carcinogens.

Let’s talk about how these carcinogens are formed, shall we …

#1. Deposition and uptake of PAHs can come from polluted air on food crops, which is why it may not be the best idea to have farms right next to freeways.

#2. Formation of PAHs occur during roasting, grilling, smoking, broiling, etc. at temperatures of 400-1000 degrees Celsius. In other words, high temperatures lead to PAH formation on the surface of the food. PAHs are formed from the melting fat that drips on the heat source (of say a BBQ) and then gets deposited on the surface of the meat or vegetable. So, you know those cute little lines that meat and veggies get from the BBQ … they’re bad!!! Also, you know those charred yummy parts of BBQ’ed meat that everyone loves to eat … DON’T!

*Quick fun fact, the most toxic PAH found in food is benzo(a)pyrene.

image from food tox lecture

Now, I know it’s BBQ season … so let’s talk how to intake less benzo(a)pyrene:

#1. The higher the fat content of the food, the more PAHs are produced. For example, grilling regular hamburger meat can have 43 parts per billion (ppb) PAH, while grilling lean hamburger meat only has 2.8 ppb PAH. Grilling chicken has 3.7 ppb benzo(a)pyrene, while T-bone steak has 57.4 ppb benzo(a)pyrene. Source: Concon (1988) and Howard and Fazio (1983).

Phil’s burger at Burger Saloon in Woodland, CA

#2. The same study found that distance from the heat source also makes a great difference. Cooking your food closer to the stove (heat source) produces 107.0 ppb benzo(a)pyrene, while cooking your food relatively farther from the stove produces about 21.0 ppb benzo(a)pyrene. Source: Concon (1988) and Howard and Fazio (1983).

#3. Cooking temperature and cooking time also make a difference … take a look at the graph below.

image from food tox lecture

#4. As for veggies, Kale is the worst veggie to grill … even though it is absolutely delicious! Source: Concon (1988) and Howard and Fazio (1983).

PAHs are reactive electrophiles that when activated in the body could bind to DNA and RNA and ultimately cause cancer. We intake on average about 6 gm/year which is 1,000 times the dose needed to produce cancer in rats.

So, why don’t we all have cancer?

Well, the 6 gm/year is an average intake over a whole year, not all at once. Remember, moderation is key, dose makes the poison.

We also have epoxide hydrolase (enzyme) detoxification, oxidized glutathione and glutathione-S-transferase (enzymes) detoxification, and DNA/RNA repair mechanisms! These enzymes and mechanisms help us detoxify the carcinogens we are putting in our body!

Also, don’t forget

fruitful combinations

COMBINATION is Key … eat some antioxidant rich fruit with your grilled meats and veggies in order to help activate your detoxifying enzymes!

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Jun6

It’s Official …

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It’s official …

Toxic Foodie is now on Facebook and Twitter!!! 

And I would be super delighted if you would all LIKE and FOLLOW me!

Also …

Here’s a little sneak peek for tomorrow’s post:

We are constantly being told two very contradictory things:

#1. Cook foods at high temperatures to kill microorganisms, like E. coli. Undercooked meats = E. coli scare!

#2. But, cooking foods at high temperatures can also produce toxic compounds, such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

And lastly, DO NOT EAT CHARRED ANYTHING!!! WHEN GRILLING, SMOKING, BROILING, ETC. DO NOT EAT THE BURNT, BLACK PARTS!!!!

I hope you come back tomorrow, when I expose the truth about PAHs!


I love you all!!

Jun5

Great News! Disney Ditches Junk Food Ads!

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I’m super excited to share that …


The Walt Disney Company has become the very first major media company to ban all junk-food ads on their programming that targets children by 2015! This means that they will be banning all ads for fast food, sugar cereals, high calorie snacks, or any food that doesn’t meet Federal nutrition standards for fat, sugar, and sodium, from their television, radio airwaves, and websites intended for kids.

click image for source

This includes Oscar Mayer Lunchables meat-and-cracker snacks (high in sodium) and Capri Sun (too much sugar), any cereal with more than 10 grams of sugar per serving, and any full meal over 600 calories.

Disney also introduced the “Mickey Check” seal of approval for nutritious foods sold in stores, online, and in Disney parks and resorts.

This is an amazing step in defeating America’s Obesity Epidemic!!!!!

“Our kids are constantly bombarded with sophisticated messages designed to sell them foods that simply aren’t good for them,” Michelle Obama said. “And let me tell you, we know it works, right?”

“With this new initiative, Disney is doing what no major media company has ever done before in the U.S. — and what I hope every company will do going forward,” The First Lady said.

click image for source

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Jun3

Fruitful Combinations

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If you’ve been reading my blog, you know my motto:

MODERATION is Key!

But I’d like to introduce you to a new key concept, a concept known as …

Combination

Photo By Allan Calamoneri

Last Wednesday, my food toxicology professor went over the different toxins, including carcinogens, that appear after grilling meats and veggies. She also shared what she does when she’s around grilled food, and of course, I wanted to share her brilliant knowledge with all of you! She explained to the class that the combination of certain foods can make a great difference in the way our bodies metabolize and detoxify toxins. For instance, if you want or have to eat a grilled burger or a nitrate/nitrite filled hot dog, pair it with an orange, rich in vitamin C, or some other antioxidant rich fruit.

How does this work you ask …

Photo By Allan Calamoneri

The short truth about antioxidant rich fruit is that the antioxidants will induce some of your detoxifying enzymes, which in turn could help metabolize and detoxify the toxins you are putting in your body.

So, I decided to change my food toxicology motto:

MODERATION and COMBINATION is Key! 

P.S. Don’t forget to stop by later this week, I’ll be discussing the toxins that appear after grilling meats and veggies!

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