Food and Nutrition

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Why Japanese People Are Not Obese Like People In The US?

I assume that it is not just "healthy" food but the quantity of food that people like to eat. Americans love to overeat. I think that eating out is the cause of obesity because it is not only junk food but the large portion sizes.

I wonder if buffets are an American-only phenomenon?

Monday, September 9, 2024

Ask the Expert: Concerns about canola oil

First is the use of a solvent such as hexane to extract the maximum amount of oil from the seed. Hexane is a very volatile solvent (boiling point 69ºC, or 156ºF) with a very low toxicity (LD50 in rats of 49.0 milliliters per kilogram). Hexane has been used to extract oils from plant material since the 1930s, and "there is no evidence to substantiate any risk or danger to consumer health when foods containing trace residual concentrations of hexane are ingested." [1]

It has been estimated that refined vegetable oils extracted with hexane contain approximately 0.8 milligrams of residual hexane per kilogram of oil (0.8 ppm). [2] It is also estimated that the level of ingestion of hexane from all food sources is less than 2% of the daily intake from all other sources, primarily gasoline fumes. There appears to be very little reason for concern about the trace levels of hexane in canola oil.
https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/2015/04/13/ask-the-expert-concerns-about-canola-oil/

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Does the Erucic Acid Level Make Canola Oil Unsafe?

I have looked at many articles. The vast majority say that Canola Oil is safe in moderation.

Most of the oils in Canola Oil are healthy, but Canola Oil also contains Erucic Acid. Erucic Acid is toxic (to heart health) so it seems to me that it would be better not to consume any. However, the exact amount of Erucic Acid in Canola Oil is unclear. Almost all sources claim that the Euric Acid level is 2% or less by law, although the article below says that it is barely detectable, only around 0.01% in Canadian-made Canola Oil.

Although the government classifies Canola Oil as safe, the recommended safe level of Erucic Acid is about 7 mg per kilogram of body weight. For me, that would be about 3/4 of a gram.

"For reference, 1 tablespoon of canola oil can contain a maximum of 280 mg of erucic acid. This means a person who weighs 80 kg can have around 2 tbsp of canola oil per day. "

https://www.goodrx.com/well-being/diet-nutrition/is-rapeseed-oil-healthy

The problem is that we don't know if it actually has that much Erucic Acid.

The same article mentions that Canola Oil has a tiny amount of trans fat.

Two tablespoons isn't that much. I used to cook popcorn with 2 ounces of Canola Oil. That is about 4 tablespoons, so I could have exceeded the recommended level of Erucic Acid.

According to this page, the Erucic Acid level in Canola Oil is not 2% but 0.2%. So that should make Canola Oil safe in moderation.

https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/canola-oil-properties.html

For several months, I have been using Extra Virgin Olive Oil instead. It is at least five times more expensive than Canola Oil, but I only use it 2 or 3 times per week. The cost is not a big issue.

Olive Oil is a key component of the Mediterranean Diet. Many sources claim that Olive Oil does not have any trans fat.

According to at least a couple of sources, you can use Olive Oil for frying if you don't get it too hot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIEamGRnVQ

The smoke point of Canola Oil is 399 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this, it is considered heat resistant and good for frying. The smoke point of Olive Oil varies from 350 to 430 degrees.

If I am being honest, other things in my diet are riskier than Canola Oil. I need to work on those as well.

The actual science of the "industrial seed oil" panic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVLi-YNXFOw&lc=UgwNLpxjcQB2jIaMimZ4AaABAg.A7vxS_k-TCdA7w-DKOA4vZ

@john2001plus

7 hours ago
I heard that during medieval times, around holidays like Christmas, parents would make sweet treats they would leave out for their children. When the children would ask where the treats came from, the parents would respond, "Brownies", which were elves.

12 replies

@atlas4698
6 hours ago
I'm gonna do this if I have kids.

@firstlast1047
6 hours ago
Not a Brownie fan...Too much chocolate. But, thanks for the coherent recipe. I'm not adverse to baking brownies for others.

@user-po3ir2tx5z
5 hours ago (edited)
Interesting... is this the source of Madison Ave's idea for the Keebler Elves?

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

2024-07-24 Message to Con Agra Foods.

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2024-07-24 Message to Con Agra Foods regarding Marie Calendar

15-ounce chicken pot pies.
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When I buy a product I expect it to be fully sealed in the package for food
safety reasons.

I have repeatedly seen a problem where the packaging is so flimsy that the tab
where you would open pot pie is open. Today I saw multiple packages on the
Walmart store freezer shelf with this problem. I then grabbed a cardboard
case with 6 pot pies and took it to self-checkout. At checkout, I discovered
that half the packages had this problem and I told the cashier that I didn't
want to buy those.

I have seen this before when I would order using Walmart curbside pickup.
Maybe the people who bring the order to the car don't handle the packages with
care, but I would discover the same problem with the pot pies after I got home.
For this reason, I stopped ordering the product through curbside pickup.

In the future, I intend to only order the Marie Callendar Pot pies that Sam's
Club sells because they come in a box of 8 which provides extra protection.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com