Tag Archives: food

Sep3

Your Very Own Organic Shopping Guide

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Hey all, here’s a quick, organic post that I hope you’ll enjoy! I recently wrote a newsletter for LolaBee’s that is very similar to this post, and I wanted to share. You can see the full version of the article on the LolaBee’s website on their Community Blog.

Here it goes …

The 411 on:

Organic Shopping

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognizes 4 different categories of organic labels, and it’s important to know which is which.

Below is your very own organic label guide!

(click on picture to print)

And there’s more …

Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones.  Organic produce means that the produce was grown without synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified seeds (GMOs), or use of sewage sludge.

And lastly, organic is not a nutritional or health claim. “Organic” refers to agricultural production methods that meet certain criteria.  In general, organic production methods are sustainable, practice ecological-based management that promotes biodiversity, reduce dependence from off-farm inputs, and emphasize soil and water conservation– however, these practices are much more likely when practiced by local, organic, small farms as opposed to conventional, organic, large farms.

Also, something else to add to your organic shopping guide, the clean 15 and dirty dozen!!!!

Visit my old post, How to Shop Pesticide Smart to learn more.

(click picture to print)

So, I leave you with this, support your local farmers! Visit farmers markets and … 

Happy Organic Shopping!

Aug16

LolaBee’s Please

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So, as you may know, this summer, along with my many other jobs, I’ve been interning at LolaBee’s Harvest, a San Francisco based online farmers market and food delivery service. And I’ve been loving every minute of it! So, bear with me, here’s a short paragraph about my amazing job …

LolaBee’s Harvest

LolaBee’s Harvest is a San Francisco based online farmers market and food delivery service that sources local, organic produce and pastured meat, dairy, and eggs from farmers and artisans all over the Bay Area. LolaBee’s stands out from other produce delivery companies because they offer the freshness and quality of a San Francisco CSA while offering custom ordering and the ease of home delivery. LolaBee’s helps San Francisco residents get the farm fresh local, organic products they need to nourish their families … my boss’s motto is: “Eat Thoughtfully.”

And this is why I love my job!!!

The food we pack each week is delicious and nutritious … Oh and did I mention, no pesticides or GMO‘s!!! Perfect for us toxic freaks! ;)

Now the main reason for my short, yet sweet post is … I have some new blog posts for you … but they’re not exactly on my toxic foodie blog. For the past month and a half, I’ve been writing the weekly newsletter for LolaBee’s, which means, most of my articles go up on their fabulous blog. So, you have a lot of reading to do … click on the links below to catch up on your toxic knowledge.

Tofu to the Rescue

Why We Go Nuts Over Olive Oil

Hop on the Kale Train

Dry Farming with Two Dog Farm

New To The Market This Week

Photo Credit: Alyssa Singer (Co-Worker and Friend)

And remember, eat naturally colorfully!

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.

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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May29

Can I Get Another Side of Acrylamide?

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First off, I hope everyone enjoyed their three-day weekend!!!

But now it’s back to school and back to work!

So, let’s get down to business. 

In an earlier post, I told you all about the food processing toxin, acrylamide, in “Large Fries with a Side of Acrylamide.“

(Please click on the link above (orange) if you haven’t read it yet, it’s a very interesting topic. Plus, the rest of this post will make more sense after you have a little more background knowledge on acrylamide!).

I have some very riveting little facts to add.

Acrylamide is most commonly found in heat-treated foods rich in carbohydrates, like potatoes, but I recently learned it is also found in heat-treated nuts! So, although raw almonds may have many great benefits, which I will touch on in a later post, roasted almonds contain acrylamide! This may sound shocking, at least for me it was, I didn’t know roasted almonds had traces of a listed Prop 65 chemical … but they do!

So, once again, if you absolutely love roasted almonds, MODERATION is key!!!!

Also, to add to your ever growing acrylamide knowledge, I posted a table, from one of my food toxicology lectures, that seems to complement this post perfectly! The table below displays the amount of acrylamide in a specific serving for different food products! Take a look!!! It’s super interesting.

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May25

When Life Gives You Lemons …

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Toxic Food Fact of the Day

Let’s talk about a food additive that prevents the wastage of food…

Antioxidants

I’ve talked about antioxidants before in “An Antioxidant a Day, Keeps the Free Radical Away” but now I’m taking a different approach.

I’m going to talk about using antioxidants, natural and synthetic, to prevent the oxidation of food. Our bodies use antioxidants to prevent oxidative stress, similarly, we add antioxidants to food to do the same thing.

Read on young grasshoppers…

Natural Antioxidants:

Fruits and veggies produce antioxidants (carotenoids, polyphenolic, ascorbic acid or vitamin C, and vitamin A) to prevent oxidation. But once the fruit or veggie is not living anymore it will stop producing antioxidants and will be vulnerable to oxidation. Unfortunately, oxidation can decrease the nutritional value of the food by degrading essential fatty acids and vitamins.

Think about it…

You’ve seen oxidation occur … It’s the browning effect! For example, when you cut an apple and let it sit, what happens??? The apple turns brown.

So, what’s the trick…. LEMON JUICE! Lemon juice can prevent the browning of cut apples, thanks to the antioxidant action of vitamin C in the lemon juice. 

click image for source

Synthetic Antioxidants:

Synthetic antioxidants are used for the same reason as natural antioxidants. They are added to food products in order to protect food against oxidative deterioration of vitamins and essential fatty acids, delay and detain unwanted and unusual odors, extend self-life, and lastly, hinder the production of toxic by-products.

Synthetic antioxidants include:

Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT), Propyl Gallate (PG), and Tert-Butylated HydroxyQuinone (TBHQ).

Last thoughts: I hear apples taste even better with a little lemon… maybe you should try it… especially those folks who eat an apple a day to keep the doctor away … give your apple a little spunk … When life gives you lemons, squirt some on your cut apples … that means you gramps!

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May19

A Few Teaspoons of Toxicity!

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A few teaspoons of toxic knowledge can go a long way! Read on for some fun toxic facts to add to your ever growing food toxicology knowledge!

#1. It’s healthier to eat raw broccoli as opposed to cooked broccoli because a naturally occurring compound known as isothiocyanate could be anti-carcinogenic.

#2. Wild mushrooms are typically more flavorful than cultivated, but WAY more dangerous–too risky! Mushrooms are good replacements for meat because they have a very savory flavor. In addition, some mushrooms will pick up flavors from their soil, like wine grapes do. Furthermore, mushrooms are high in protein, high in fiber, 90% water, high in B vitamins and vitamin C, low in carbohydrates, have some essential fatty acids, and may also be high in MSG (more on this later).

#3. Fugu, a japanese delicacy, is a fancy name for prepared puffer fish–the most poisonous fish in the world. Puffer fish produce a deadly toxin, known as tetrodotoxin, which interferes with the nerve conduction by blocking sodium channels which causes a numbness if consumed in very, very tiny amounts… or can cause death within 17 minutes.

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