Of Mice and Blueberries

[jamesq]

Good news first, I am now 61.2 pounds down. I've acheived my short term goal of 60 pounds, so I am now actively planning a long weekend trip to Vancouver! It also means I'm less then 10 pounds from my target weight!

The topic of yesterday's meeting was "food labelling" (and how they're full of lies). At one point F, our group leader, showed us a package of blueberry muffins. The blueberry muffins did not, in fact, contain any blueberries. Instead, it had "simulated blueberries".

"Does anyone know what simulated blueberries means?", asked F.
"It means the factory has a serious problem with mice", said I.

F visibly shuddered at the mental image I had given her. Yes, I've managed to squick my group leader. My work here is done.

Comments

[snooness2]

Having started to read labels when I lost the ability to digest wheat, I have found I need a very strong stomach to digest the labels (mmmmm, cellulose...).
It caused me to break down and shop at the organic produce store... even though I despise them ever since I found out a bunch of info about how organic producers are regulated. At least the ingrediants are usually real at the organic stores.

(I would encourage people to grow their own or make friends with farmers directly for produce, and not buy it from a store at all)

[jamesq]

Bah. I drink diet coke - you can't get much worse then that for "artificial".

[snooness2]

yuuuck!
Don't you know aspartame plays havoc with your short term memory?
:)
Artificial sugars bug me (could be because I get bad headaches when I have them). So do artificial fats (humans can't digest them so the run through us, giving us the runs).... bleh.

Exercise, eat moderately but healthy, eat real food not processed food at proper intervals, and cut out the crap food (crap in = crap out).
Now if only I could follow the advice I can quote vebatim from every dietitican, doctor, biochemist, exercise group, and diet group I've ever had contact with.

Ha! Like that's going to happen with my life style. Not. Resigned to my fat-e, I am. F'ed up thyroids are no fun.

Glad your work at loosing weight is working, you've lost lots and it looks good, my bet is that you feel hundreds of times better too.

Actually if you ever want to gross yourself out read the amount of sugar in a regular can of pop and then go home get out the bag of sugar and a kitchen scale...(or a large dish and the bathroom scale) and start pouring.
squick!
We use sugar in plant media recipes so I get to see how much it is on a regular basis... and I still drink the stuff (caffeine is my friend)

[thebrucie.livejournal.com]

SO, what does simulated blueberries mean?

[nikitaa.livejournal.com]

Having developed my own anaphalactic allergy to peanuts/nuts, I've taken to the hobby of label reading as well... it makes for some rather light grocery bags some weeks.

Although, if you want some real entertainment, subscribe to the Alert list for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency - it's is frightening how many problems are announced on a regular basis... Through the mailing list I find out about those little 'oopsies' in manufacturing that make it to the store shelves such as including ingredients not on the label (wheat, milk, anchovies, walnuts...), putting the wrong product in the box, as well as get the notifications of Samonella in Spinach and Clostridium botulinum in Olives... (yes, even olives are now deadly).

Sure, they're pulled from store shelves the moment that the problem is discovered, BUT, the real problem is how many people have purchased the product for consumption in the interim.

What frightens me the most is that frequently I will hear about the alert/problem the day or two BEFORE it hits the news services.... So how many people ate Spinach the night before at dinner?

[snooness2]

Suprisingly we have small amounts of clostridium and Samonella in our guts regularly. The problem is getting to much and killing off your normal flora or in the case of clostidium getting it into an anerobic area where it can start growing... then it's not the bacteria, it's the toxin that the bacteria produces that will kill you. Which is why canned goods are a problem in terms of Clostridium - when you can something you produce an anerobic environment, and if Clostridium is there it will start growing and producing the toxin. All forms of Clostridium produce spores which are inert until they get into the correct environment (aneorobic). The gut is mostly aerobic, so we can stand a small number of the bacteria.
Samonella is a different story... when the cells of samonella start dying the dead cells cause the body to react and possibly go into toxic shcok. (not unlike anaphalactic shock but it doesn't have to do with the airway in particular). Again you can tolerate a small amount of the bacteria. Samonella is in the regular gut flora of birds, reptiles, and amphbians... sort of like humans gut flora is E.coli (which is why the O157H7 strain is so bad).... to cure it you kill of all the good bacteria in your body too.

Both clostridium and samonella are common environmental bugs. If our immune systems are compramized then we have issues or if we get to much (tainted food) then we have issues. Wash hands well, wash veggies well, and be careful with any ground meat.... You aren't going to get away from avoiding them - and it's probably not healthy to try.

Keeping houses or childern ultra clean is bad. For your immune system to work (and develop) properly you need to challenge it on a regular basis with the stuff in your environment - the more you challenge it the stronger it gets. It's a fine line tho - challenge but not overwhelm it.
If you keep a house ultra clean the problem you get is that you can't kill 100% of the germs with anything you do... and that means you leave the 1% of the germs that are the strongest and most resistant to the chemical you are using.... so you effectively create superbugs. Toss out the antibacterial soap or wipes - use normal soap and hot water... if you are really concerned use 10% household bleach in your soapy water (9 parts water 1 part bleach). Bleach is really really bad on the cellular damage level - don't use this for anything you are going to eat.

In anycase I'll stop the rant.
:)

It means...

[http://users.livejournal.com/-grog-/]

that the manufacturer decided it was cheaper to use an assortment of poly-processed "edible oil products", a bit of food dye and some artificial flavour instead of buying actual fruit for their product.

(Like most "bacon bits" you find in the spice section of the supermarket - they typically contain nothing that's ever been part of a pig)

Re: It means...

[nikitaa.livejournal.com]

So, does this mean they're Kosher?