10 Things the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

I was referring to the manure in previous post.

I seem to recall your kids are young, Linkat. I would suggest as they get older they learn to start and even fully cook dinner. I think it was one of the best things my mother did with my brothers and I. She started working again when I was about 12 and would leave list of things for my brothers and I to do - chop veggies, thaw chicken, bread cutlets etc. It made both my brothers and I very food independent and we all enjoy cooking for our families today. My oldest brother is the main cook in his house because his wife was brought up on boxed mac&cheese and microwaved Stouffers. I think cooking is a great life skill and a teenage cook is a big help to mom and dad.

Ooops. Sorry about that.

Yeah - good thoughts - they have already surprised me with breakfast in bed! And it wasn't any special sort of day.

<although they did make a mess - it was a nice thought>

perfectly fine - I was trying to be amusing.

Interesting discussion. We eat organic as much as possible, which means that the soil has to be free of pesticides, etc for, I think, 5 years? We also buy organic meat, mostly chicken, and avoid redmeat. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer recently it's been interesting to find out that there is so much estrogen/hormones in meat that no one should eat it, not just breast cancer folks. Eggs and milk, butter, cheese can all have hormones added unless the package states otherwise. I think all of these extra hormones have made cancers of all types nearly an epidemic in N. America.

Interestingly enough, talking recently to a friend who has been living in Europe for a few years-- they shop differently in Europe for food. Most Europeans shop daily for their groceries, they get it fresher and have access to organic much more than N. Americans do. They go to a meat shop for meat, veggie stand for fruit/veggies, and a bakery for fresh baked stuff. Giant supermarkets don't exist in Europe.

I find it curious as well that a lot of organic products are sold in unrecyclable plastic containers. Seems counterproductive.......
Bathsheba

Have you ever tested your theory about microwaving the water? LOL!!! The reason California almonds are irradiated or pasteurized is to prevent the spread of any bad bugs like salmonella (I don't agree with that sillyness either but...). Cheezits....

One thing they likely don't want anybody to know is that there actually is exactly one diet soft drink which is believably good, which is the diet NesTea.

The stupidest group of people in the American business world is the RIAA, beyond any doubt; the second stupidest is the people who make diet soft drinks. They've had a perfectly good diet sweetener (Splenda/Sucralose) sitting there for 15 years now and for most of that time they've refused to use it and when they finally do start using it in all but the one case I notice, they add other stuff into the mix so that it goes on tasting like battery acid.

Do you think Splenda is superior to nutrasweet? I know that Splenda can be used in cooking while nutrasweet, but is their any other difference? They all seem to taste the same to me. I know that fountain drinks contain saccharin, which tastes terrible and is unacceptable to me.

I don't eat beef any more, and I wouldn't eat corn-fed beef from feedlots in any case. Check out this website for the story on corn-fed beef : http://www.foodrevolution.org/grassfedbeef.htm

Has anybody out there eaten grass-fed beef? I've seen it in natual food stores, and, aside from the higher price, I wondered how it compares in taste to corn-fed beef.

We eat grass-fed beef and there is a difference. It costs a bit more, and much of it is frozen, not fresh, due to distribution issues. But it's the real deal.

Yeah, you're right, most grass-fed beef is more expensive and that's another ripoff. Meat markets and supermarkets get away with charging more for what actually costs them less by being able to tag an "organically grown" label on the meat. Btw, I don't know what the situation is today but I do know that 20 and 30 years ago most commercial hamburgers (think McDonald's, think Burger King) were made with grass-fed beef. The chains would import it mostly from New Zealand and Australia where free-range cattle are the norm, not the exception. It was cheap as hell compared to American-grown corn-fed beef. When it was proposed by the Nixon administration to levy higher import duties on foreign-grown beef, the lobbyists of the National Restaurant Association were up in arms. They testified before congressional committees and enlisted their members to write letters and, at the time, the proposal was dumped. I don't know what the situation re: import duties is today, however.

It's probably about the same I should think. Going up against organised labour in the form of the National Restaurant Association is a bit daunting. Especially when they are "up in arms".

I once witnessed a cook stir up a large vat of soup with the stiff brush I had been sweeping the floor with. To serve about 600.

I didn't like telling anybody before but I suppose the bastard's either carked it or is a doddering old fool by now and thus unlikely to be on A2K.