Tag Archives: Cancer

Feb21

Aflatoxin Anyone?

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Hey guys, here’s a much needed …

Toxic Tip!

Keep grains, nuts, and cereal in a cool and dry place. Widespread mold, known as Aspergillus flavus, can grow in many grains, nuts, and cereals–especially in warm and damp conditions. This mold produces a toxin known as aflatoxin before and after harvest. Thankfully, you need to ingest high concentrations of this toxin to get aflatoxin poisoning. However, this poisoning has been linked to causing liver damage and tumors. It’s the most potent natural carcinogen because it intercalates into DNA. In addition, this toxin is highly heat stable and low doses of it over many years may lead to cancer. Eeeek … we have to be careful peanut butter lovers!

That’s it for today!

Photo Credit: Flickr user mrsdkrebs

Photo Credit: Flickr user mrsdkrebs

And remember … eat naturally colorfully! 

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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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!!!
May6

Banned Additives, Take a Look!

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The Center For Science In The Public Interest has great information on legal and banned food additives. I just recently came across this brilliant list of banned food additives on their website and had to share it!!

The list is quite long, so I’m giving you a little snippet below, for the full list click on the picture above!!!

Additive

Function

Natural or Synthetic

Year Banned

Problem
Orange B artificial coloring synthetic 1978 (ban never finalized) Contained low levels of a cancer-causing contaminant. Orange B was used only in sausage casings to color sausages, but is no longer used in the United States.
Red 1, 2 artificial coloring synthetic 1961, 1976 Liver cancer, possible carcinogen
Red 4 artificial coloring synthetic 1976 High levels damaged adrenal cortex of dog; after 1965 it was used only in maraschino cherries and certain pills; it is still allowed in externally applied drugs and cosmetics.
Red 32 artificial coloring synthetic 1956 Damages internal organs and may be a weak carcinogen; since 1956 it continues to be used under the name Citrus Red 2 only to color oranges (2 ppm).
Yellow 1 & 2 artificial coloring synthetic 1959 Intestinal lesions at high dosages.
cobalt salts stabilize beer foam synthetic 1966 Toxic effects on heart
diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC) preservative (beverages) synthetic 1972 Combines with ammonia to form urethane, a carcinogen
ethylene glycol solvent synthetic 1998 Kidney damage
oil of calamus flavoring root of calamus 1968 Intestinal cancer

safrole

 flavoring (root beer) sassafras 1960

Liver cancer
So, when people say that all food additives are tested and safe… take that advice with a grain of salt!!!
May5

Large Fries with a side of Acrylamide

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Last Friday night, I went to a San Francisco Giants game with my family and sorority… unfortunately, they lost!

But luckily I was able to enjoy a nice and delicious ball park meal, which consisted of a veggie burger, garlic fries, and an extra large diet coke. Don’t worry I shared the coke… well some of it anyway!

However, when I was munching on my fries all I could think about was … acrylamide!

Acrylamide is a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm (listed on the Prop 65 chemical list).

Acrylamide comes from the “browning” process of starchy carbohydrates and forms when these carbs are heated; such as, baking bread or frying potatoes. Acrylamide can be found in the highest concentrations when overcooked or fried; more specifically, in french fries and fried potato chips.

Surprisingly, an uncooked french fry has NO acrylamide at all … however, a french fry cooked for 15 minutes has acrylamide levels of 11 parts per billion (ppb), 30 minutes has levels of 1326 ppb, and 45 minutes has levels of 4885 ppb. So, basically, STAY AWAY from the brown, burnt french fries!!!

 

The browner the fry the worse it is!!!

Potatoes have yet another toxic chemical known as solanine! We have fortunately bred potatoes to have very low solanine levels; however, beware of the green parts of potatoes… In other words, DO NOT EAT THE GREEN!!! Instead, cut off the green parts and cook the rest of the potato! Solanine is not degraded by cooking and is known as a cholinesterase inhibitor! Toxicity of this chemical could cause tremors, convulsions, paralysis, and ultimately a coma.

So what I’m trying to say is… do not eat brown or green potatoes! That’s all the toxic advice I have for today! Until next time …
May2

Soys of our Lives

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Senior year of high school I unfortunately became lactose intolerant and took up the joys of drinking soy milk. Lately, however, I’ve been hearing a lot of gossip about how soy milk and other soy products mimic and/or contain hormonal estrogen, which in turn adversely affects the estrogen levels in the body. Ergo, about a month ago I switched to lactose free dairy milk, instead of soy milk! Which to me isn’t as delicious, but it will have to do if I want to continue binge eating on cereal! Ironically however, when I was at the gym today, watching Dr. Oz, I heard that soy milk is a great sources of protein and can help guard against hormonally driven cancers.

Why is everything so contradicting??? I was on the search for answers!

When reading my food tox lecture notes I stumbled on a slide that reassured me of Dr. Oz’s answer. “Dietary Cancer Protectors. Soy: Epidemiologic data are inconsistent however, 30-60 mg a day are associated with decreased risk of prostate, lung, breast, and colon cancer.”

Here’s the deal. Soy does not contain estrogen, it does, however, contain isoflavones, better known as phytoestrogens or “plant estrogens.” Phytoestrogens are weaker versions of estrogen and prevent the effects of your natural estrogen levels from being too high or too low. High consumption of isoflavones causes the body to think it’s producing too much estrogen, in turn your body slows down the production of estrogen and increases its breakdown.Thus, isoflavones have been studied for many beneficial effects; including supporting heart and bone health, minimizing menopausal symptoms, and reducing the risk of some cancers including prostate, lung, breast, and colon cancer. In addition, replacing dairy milk with soy milk lowers your saturated fat and cholesterol intake!

The recommended soybean product serving size is 1-2 servings a day. Remember, everything is toxic, it all depends on the dose! Thus, I’ll be switching back to soy milk!

So, enjoy your glass of soy milk tomorrow morning! Whether it’s with cereal or  coupled with a toasted bagel!

P.S. here’s some last-minute food safety tips! According livestrong.com, if you have or have had breast, prostate, endometrial, or other hormonal cancers, you should consult with your doctor before increasing your soy consumption. Furthermore, high soy consumption may interfere with certain blood thinners or thyroid medications.