The many ways everything is going to pot

Things are heating up on the dissertation front, and I am a big ball of stress. What better way to let out some steam than to direct y'all to a bunch of links covering various areas in which we are doomed?

1. The cost of creativity?
2. Mysterious infectious disease is WIND-BORNE, oh god.
3. Remember the arsenic in our apple juice? Well, add chicken to the list of arsenic-contaminated food items.
4. Sitting is really not good for you. Makes me so sad that my job is to sit in one place all day long.
5. Ever wonder what's in your cosmetics and other personal care products? No? Maybe you should.
6. The government fails me yet again, provides fuel to my desire to move to the prairie and live as a farmer.
7. Fast Food makes you depressed?
8. Turns out cola is bad for you for more reasons than sugar/fake sugar (depending on your preferred level of diet-ness). It's full of cancer, too!
9. Is Google turning evil? Maybe.
10. And now for some good news: Booze is good for problem-solving.

Happy Passover and Easter and whatnot.

Honey, McRib, Peak Oil, Earth from space, Surprise link

The title of today's blog entry is not creative, but it is descriptive. With that, let's begin.

1. Oh, Honey: It's like I don't know you anymore.

I've learned some terrible things about honey this week. Let's start with the fact that a lot of stuff that is sold as "honey" in supermarkets (three quarters of it, maybe) can't legally be called honey. This is because the honey has been been ultra-filtered to have the pollen removed from it, and the FDA has ruled that honey must contain pollen to legally be called honey. Now, whether or not honey has pollen in it most likely seems somewhat inconsequential from your perspective (why should you care if your honey has bits of flowers in it?), but don't be lulled into complacency. Without pollen in the honey, there is no way to trace the source of the honey, and this means there's no way to tell where your honey comes from. And you definitely want to know where your honey comes from, because--apparently--the cheapest honey around is from China, which is also where the most dangerous honey is from. Says Food Safety News:

A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.

Yep. Evidently, Chinese honey is very often tainted with chloramphenicol, which can cause fatal reactions in 1 in every 30,000 people. The United States doesn't even let food animals eat the stuff! And then there are the heavy metals in the honey--it seems mom-and-pop beekeping operations in China have a pesky habit of using "small, unlined, lead-soldered drums to collect and store [their] honey." This is no good, people. No good.

But how does contaminated Chinese honey get into the US of A, you ask? Especially if all the pollen has been filtered out of it--and if everybody knows it's poisonous? Simple: via (a) negligence of the FDA, and (b) honey laundering schemes (I kid you not--look, senator Schumer from my home state made a whole stink about it last year). The United States has placed steep tariffs on honey from China to dissuade their import; in response China has adopted the practice of routing its honey through other countries, most recently India. Europe allows neither Chinese nor Indian honey to be imported...but America apparently has no problem with the Indian variety despite the well-known fact that much of it comes from China. America: land of the free and home of the brave honey eaters!

Which is all to say, I think the Food Safety News report on honey laundering, where a lot of the above information comes from, is definitely worth a read.

From now on, I think I'll stick to honey I purchase from local producers.

2. Ribses.

I've never eaten a McRib sandwich, and I have no intention of ever doing so. But I'm gathering from a lot of postings on Facebook, commercials on TV, and various internet articles, that the McRib is/was back on the market--for a limited time only (apparently, you've missed your chance to eat one at this point). Two things I've read about the McRib have stuck with me, so I'm sharing them with you.

(Side question: Why am I reading about the McRib at all? Because it's oddly fascinating, that's why. Also because I am nothing if not good at procrastination...more important things to do? Time to research the McRib on the interwebs!)

Numero Uno. Yesterday I read skimmed a fascinating article about the McRib as arbitrage, in which it is argued that McDonalds only introduces the McRib when pork prices are falling. The author even made a graph to prove it (blue is the price of pork, black is when the McRib has been reintroduced):

Neato, huh?

In addition to being an interesting read--definitely worth a perusal--the McRib arbitrage article also contained a one-sentence summary of the American fast food industry that I liked very much (such nice imagery):

Fast food involves both hideously violent economies of scale and sad, sad end users who volunteer to be taken advantage of.

And what a nice segue that is to McRib thing Numero Dos: What's the McRib made of? It's certainly not made of actual ribs. If you've digested one of these things, you probably don't want to know the ingredients...but I'm going to tell you anyway: The patty is comprised of chopped up pig innards and "plenty of salt." The bun? Well, that contains 34 ingredients, among which is azodicarbonamide, something also found in gym mats, and a banned ingredient in European and Australian food.

I'm sure there's a joke in here about "chewing on that" next time you chew on a McRib, but it's not coming easily to me so I'll just move on.

3. We're so screwed.

This is a really, really interesting article about public/scholarly debate, popular perception, and the reality of overpopulation, over-consumption of resources, and the future of the world (if you can't view the full article, a summary is here). Rather than abstracting the article in my own words, I'll just quote a large bit of text from the conclusion--the authors write much more eloquently on the subject than I could. I know the following quote is long, but it's a nice reminder of the bind the world is in and I encourage you to read it all.

The world today faces enormous problems related to population and resources. These ideas were discussed intelligently and, for the most part, accurately in many papers from the middle of the last century, but then they largely disappeared from scientific and public discussion….Most environmental science textbooks focus far more on the adverse impacts of fossil fuels than on the implications of our overwhelming economic and even nutritional dependence on them. The failure today to bring the potential reality and implications of peak oil, indeed of peak everything, into scientific discourse and teaching is a grave threat to industrial society. The concept of the possibility of a huge, multifaceted failure of some substantial part of industrial civilization is so completely outside the understanding of our leaders that we are almost totally unprepared for it.

There are virtually no extant forms of transportation, beyond shoe leather and bicycles, that are not based on oil, and even our shoes are now often made of oil. Food production is very energy intensive, clothes and furniture and most pharmaceuticals are made from and with petroleum, and most jobs would cease to exist without petroleum. But on our university campuses one would be hard pressed to have any sense of that beyond complaints about the increasing price of gasoline, even though a situation similar to the 1970s gas shortages seemed to be unfolding in the summer and fall of 2008 in response to three years of flat oil production, assuaged only when the financial collapse decreased demand for oil.

No substitutes for oil have been developed on anything like the scale required, and most are very poor net energy performers….Our new sources of “green” energy are simply increasing along with (rather than displacing) all of the traditional ones.

If we are to resolve these issues, including the important one of climate change, in any meaningful way, we need to make them again central to education at all levels of our universities, and to debate and even stand up to those who negate their importance, for we have few great intellectual leaders on these issues today. We must teach economics from a biophysical as well as a social perspective. Only then do we have any chance of understanding or solving these problems.

4. Now some fun. Look at the Earth from space!

5. Finally, the surprise link. What the...

Halt your eating!

People, I have news: It might not be safe to eat anymore.

Surely by now you've heard of the listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupes grown at Jensen Farms in Colorado? It's one of the most deadly food-related outbreaks of all time (read: in the history of keeping such statistics), with somewhere from 13 to 16 people (depending on where you get your numbers) already dead and many more sickened. Although listeria is not commonly found in fruit (but rather animal products like meat and cheese), it is a rather scary pathogen because it doesn't slow its growth in low temperatures--meaning that if you put a tainted product in your refrigerator, the bacteria just keep reproducing. Listeria is also scary because once in your body, it is "aggressive in escaping the gastrointestinal tract" and can rapidly spread to places you really don't want it to go--like your spinal cord. (Typing that, I am reminded of this gem, which is completely unrelated except in its spinal reference and in its reference to deli meats, which are commonly contaminated with listeria.)

So far, the burden of death from listeria infections has primarily been borne by an elderly population, prompting a rather hilarious (to me) comment in the New York Times from some Seattle lawyer who "represents victims of food-borne illness" (what a happy job, btw):

This outbreak [of listeria linked to cantaloupes] might turn out to be especially deadly simply because cantaloupe is a food eaten by many older people.

"Sometimes in outbreaks, it’s the population that’s consuming the food that drives the numbers...In this instance, you’ve got a lot of people 60 and older who are consuming cantaloupe."

Read: Old people love cantaloupe. Really? I thought it was a favorite among people of all ages...or maybe I'm just old at heart, because I love the stuff.

Anywho, it's scary enough that cantaloupes are contaminated and that people are dying simply because they wanted to include some fresh fruit in their diet....but what's even more terrifying is what comes to light after some innocent googling for "listeria cantaloupes." For instance, this morning I learned almost by happenstance about the following pathogens lurking in foods that could be in your house right now (she says ominously):

• Organic grape tomatoes contaminated with salmonella (September 28, 2011) (more info here)
• Ground turkey contaminated with salmonella (September 11, 2011)
• Ground beef contaminated with E. coli (Sep 27, 2011) (more info here)
• And if you're reading this from Canada, beware of your ham - it could be contaminated with listeria!

Those are just a few of the stories I stumbled upon as I was "researching" the cantaloupe-listeria thing. I could probably find many more if I tried (the FDA keeps a running list!), but I think I'm plenty terrified already. I don't want to eat anything, ever again. Hence my blanket statement declaring it unsafe to eat.

(Brief aside: here's the best recall I've read about this morning: Pepperidge Farm has recalled a batch of their Baked Naturals Sesame Sticks because of the "possible presence of small, thin pieces of wire" in the sticks. Apparently "a small number of consumers have reported minor scrapes in and around the mouth." What...the...how does that even happen?)

Food pathogens are probably the number one reason why I'm so mistrustful of the industrial food system in this country (although now I'm worried about wires in my crackers as well!). Perhaps it is time to set in motion the plan that a friend and I concocted a few years ago for an organic farm off the grid in Montana. We haven't yet resolved our issues about whether or not we will eat the animals we tend on the farm (I say yes, she says no), but we could definitely get started with the veggies. No listeria for us!

Picasa's online photo editor is suuuper fun to play with.

Interesting Tidbit: Food Dyes

Here's a neat little article about food dyes that I came across a while back. It should probably be called "Why I shop at Whole Foods almost exclusively," or "Why I often wish I lived in Europe." I mean...why would anyone put DYE in peas? Or orange peels? What is this world coming to! (Oh.)

Food recalls and knee-jerk reactions

An interesting perspective on how food-disease outbreaks and food recalls can cause knee-jerk reactions, yet have little lasting impact on consumer behavior, can be found here. (via)

In other news, I'm moving in less than two weeks and I haven't even begun to pack. At all. Oh god, I'm going to die. Why am I just sitting on the couch reading about E. coli?!

Friday! Links and random thoughts

1. Oh hai, Germany. I'm in ur food killin ur peeple.  E. ColiLOL. (Oh god, and I just ate raw cucumbers, raw tomatoes, and raw lettuces yesterday. I hope they weren't secretly imported from Europe!)

2.  For the record, this all-natural deodorant from Tom's of Maine DOES NOT WORK.  I really gave it a go, but I'm back to the poisonous kind for now...it's just so blissfully effective.

3. Why help the environment? Polluting is so cheap!

4. DYSTOPIA HERE WE COME.

And finally, the piece de resistance:

5. Everything you ever wanted to know about accidentally setting someone covered in gas on fire. Short of the story: you can't do it. Long of the story: Some scientists did an experiment proving it. From the abstract:

Thirty nine (39) ignition attempts that involved exposing lit commercial cigarettes, hand-rolled cigarettes and cannabis resin joints to petrol vapour were undertaken; ignition was not achieved in any of the scenarios. In addition, a single attempt to ignite petrol vapour emanating from a pool of liquid fuel was effected with a smouldering piece of cannabis resin; no ignition occurred.

And there's a visual aid!

Happy Friday.

I might need to change my middle name to "Prescient"

I wasn't even looking for blog fodder today, but while reading a book review on the NPR website a link on the side of the page caught my eye. Just look what NPR is reporting today:

1 in 4 Supermarket Meat Samples Tainted with Drug-Resistant Bacteria

I kid you not.  To quote a Google Chat buddy and work colleague, "your blog is coming true sooner than we all thought." Indeed. Readers, I won't protest if you start calling me prescient.

According to a new study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), the meat you buy at the supermarket has a significant chance of being contaminated by bacteria, and a slightly lower but not insignificant chance of being contaminated by multiple drug-resistant bacteria.

How did the researchers discover this? Simple. They went out, bought some meat, and tested it, as this press report describes. Specifically, researchers at TGen collected 136 samples of beef, chicken, poultry and turkey (covering 80 brands) from 26 retail grocery stores in Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff, and Washington, DC. (Side note: how did they pick these five cities? They seem kind of random...maybe they had friends there?) (Second side note: in case you were wondering about what specific cuts of meat, the (open access!) article published on this study in Clinical Infections Diseases specifies that the beef was ground, the chicken in the form of breasts and thighs, the pork both in chops and ground form, and the turkey ground and in cutlets).

Anywho, they bought this meat and then they did some fancy scientist stuff and looked for bacteria (specifically staphylococcus aureus).  And oh, did they find it!  (Third side note: I do NOT recommend Google-imaging "staphylococcus aureus." Cannot. Unsee.) (Fourth side note: Staph infections kill more people than AIDS in the US). (Fifth and final side note: the large portion of killer staph infections are picked up in hospitals, not from meat.)

Back to the point. As NPR reports, of the samples tested "47 percent had evidence of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) contamination. More than half of the bacteria they found were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics."

I actually read through the four-page source study in Clinical Infections Diseases and it gives the breakdown of S. aureus contamination by meat type. First comes turkey (77% of samples were contaminated), followed by pork (42%), chicken (41%), and beef (37%). NINETY-SIX PERCENT of the S. aureus bits discovered were "resistant to at least 1 antimicrobial," including most commonly tetracycline, ampicillin, penicillin, and erythromycin, but also quinupristin/dalfopristin, fluoroquinolones, oxacillin, daptomycin, and vancomycin.

Multi-drug resistant strains of S. aureus--defined as "intermediate or complete resistance to 3 or more antimicrobial classes"--were "common," and was most prevalent among turkey, followed by pork, beef, and chicken.  In total, 52% of the S. aureus isolates they found were multi-drug resistant.

Because there were distinct strands of the bacteria on each different kind of meat, it suggests that food animals are the predominant source of contamination, not human handling after the fact. This is not particularly surprising. To quote the authors of the study, "Conventional concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) provide all the necessary components for the emergence and proliferation of multidrug-resistant zoonotic pathogens."

Now, before you panic and stop eating meat, the authors concede that "the public health relevance" of their study is "unclear," and as NPR notes, "most Staph found in meat can be eliminated by cooking food thoroughly." Nevertheless, "it can still pose a risk to consumers if handled unsafely or if it cross-contaminates with other things in the kitchen." And we in America should all be a at least a little bit worried, because we eat a ton of meat. And our meat eats a ton of antibiotics, as this chart demonstrates (chart taken from here, data from the FDA):

More thoughts about the way we make meat, a topic I am sure I will come back to, can be found here and here. More about antibiotic resistance here.

Until the next dispatch, be sure to cook your meat just a little more than you think is necessary.

Stop feeding your children crap.

You might be giving your kid ADD just by feeding him or her.

A recent study published in the Lancet has demonstrated that a not insignificant proportion of ADHD cases might be induced by food. A summary of the article and associated press coverage can be found over at Civil Eats.

The part that scared me the most about the Civil Eats article was this:

There are a multitude of credible scientific studies to indicate that diet plays a large role in the development of ADHD. One study found that the depletion of zinc and copper in children was more prevalent in children with ADHD. Another study found that one particular dye acts as a “central excitatory agent able to induce hyperkinetic behavior.” And yet another study suggests that the combination of various common food additives appears to have a neurotoxic effect—pointing to the important fact that while low levels of individual food additives may be regarded as safe for human consumption, we must also consider the combined effects of the vast array of food additives that are now prevalent in our food supply.

Nobody knows the cumulative effect of the "safe" crap that food manufacturers add to food! The cynic in me says they don't want to find out, either...it's not good for business.

This is why I shop at Whole Foods. It might be taking me to the poorhouse, but at least I can pronounce and understand the ingredients in the food I'm eating.

Plus, they have a kickass selection of gluten free food.