DadTalk

Another Reason to Avoid Food with Corn Syrup – Mercury

My wife, Anne, is allergic to high fructose corn syrup. This is good, because it means we never buy food with that junk in it.

Interestingly, Anne can eat corn on the cob and popcorn without problem. My theory? She was allergic to the enzymes used to ma ke the stuff.

Perhaps, though, Anne might be allergic to some of the other things found in high fructose corn syrup. Check out this list from Grist:

• Caustic soda
• Hydrochloric acid
• Alpha-amylase
• Gluco-amylase
• Isomerase
• Ilter aid
• Powdered carbon
• Calcium chloride
• Magnesium sulfate

Caustic soda? Hydrochloric acid?

Perhaps food makers are using organic caustic soda? It would seem not. In fact, the caustic soda – and corn syrup – contain something even worse. From Tom Philpott of Grist:

Now comes news that makes even an HFCS cynic like me do a spit-take over my home-brewed morning coffee. Turns out that HFCS is commonly tainted with mercury – a highly toxic substance – according to a peer-reviewed report published by Environmental Health.

Eh? Mercury? I thought that stuff was in thermometers, vaccines and fish.

Check out the products found to contain mercury, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:

Food Recalls Recall of Peanut Butter Products Expands

The Peanut Corporation of America has expanded its recall to include products made since Jan. 1, 2007, reports The New York Times.

Why, you ask? Because the FDA discovered that the Georgia peanut plant knowingly shipped product contaminated with salmonella prior to the first recall, the Times reports:

An FDA inspection team that visited the plant on Jan. 9 discovered that on 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008 tests conducted by the company found salmonella contamination in its products but that it shipped the contaminated products to customers after a retest found no contamination and did nothing to clean the plant.

“The practice of initially obtaining a positive sample and subsequently of getting a negative result and not having” cleaned up the plant is illegal, said Michael C. Rogers, director of the division of field investigations at the food and drug agency.

The recall will likely force other food manufacturers to slog through their records to discover which of their products might have been made with Peanut Corporation of America peanut butter. And that means new recalls will continue for weeks if not months to come.

I’ll do my best to keep updating this file with all the recalls in one place, but jeesh.

Additional:

New Look at Food Safety After Peanut Tainting

Freak Yourself Out By Reading This Story

It’s the Economy, Girlfriend is all about women upset about losing their high-rolling lifestyles as the economy tanks. Example:

Some women in the group said the men in their lives had gone from being aloof and unattainable to unattractively needy and clinging. Others complained of being ignored — one, who called herself A.P., wrote on the blog that three weeks had passed without her boyfriend “asking a single question” about her life. Another wrote, fearfully, that her beau had told her to make a list of their favorite New York restaurants before the bad market forced a move to the Midwest.

I’m sure you noticed the word blog. If you really want to freak yourself out, go read it here, but I thought you might like a sample:

Thanks to the recession, I now have a completely devoted BF, which is exactly what I wanted. So I should be happy, right? Wrong. I’m bored and can’t stop thinking about my perpetually unattainable Euro ex-boyfriend who is recession proof courtesy of an offshore trust account. To be honest, I’m only with my BF because I just don’t have the heart to change my Facebook status from “in a relationship” to “I ain’t saying I’m a gold digger, but I ain’t messin’ with no broke banker.”

Enough said.

Stimulus Plan Will Pump Billions into Education

Odd are, if you live in a state like Arizona, California or Florida, you’ve heard stories that school budgets have been or will be cut soon. In most cases, this is due to falling property and/or sales tax revenues resulting from the housing market meltdown.

While this is an unhappy development in education, President Obama’s economic stimulus plan may pump $150 billion over two years into the nation’s education budget, reports The New York Times. Congress earmarked $79 billion of the money to help states avoid cutting education programs.

“This is going to avert literally hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan tells the Times. The rest of the money would go toward rebuilding schools and better fund No Child Left Behind:

The bill would, for the first time, involve the federal government in a significant fashion in the building and renovation of schools, which has been the responsibility of states and districts. It includes $20 billion for school renovation and modernization, with $14 billion for elementary and secondary schools and $6 billion for higher education. It also includes tax provisions under which the federal government would pay the interest on construction bonds issued by school districts.

Providing states huge amounts of money sets a new precedent for federal involvement in education, one sure to provoke attacks from ideological quarters today and risk heavy-handed policy control in the future. Complaints are already flying: “It’s like an alcoholic at the end of the night when the bars close, and the solution is to open the bar for another hour,” Frederick Hess, an education policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, tells the Times.

But for the time being, the news of money going into education may help some parents exhale. After all, we’ve heard rumors in our own school district that class sizes will go up unless more money is found.

So while I’m unhappy about the huge bailouts on a whole, perhaps there is a silver lining for now.

How Much Privacy Should Parent’s Grant Kids’ Digital Life?

Scenario: Your 13-year-old daughter comes home from school, runs crying up to her bedroom with cell phone in hand.

Do you:

1. Go up and talk to your daughter but don’t ask to see the message on the phone.
2. Demand to see the messages on the phone.
3. Go back to making dinner and pretend nothing happened.

Happily for me, I’m still years away from having to make that decision. My oldest is only 6, and he does not have cell phone or even Internet connectivity.

But eventually, I, like many parents, will face unhappy technology scenarios and subsequent “values” decisions. The key question in my mind: how intrusive of privacy should parents be when it comes to technology?

Consider the latest social/legal conundrum facing authorities and parents in Greensburg, Pa. There, three teenage girls sent nude photos of themselves via cell phone to teenage boys, reports The New York Times.

I’m not Berry Smart

Most mornings, I pour a quarter cup of cereal, half cup of frozen blueberries and a quarter cup of walnuts into my cereal bowl. I drown the concoction in vanilla soy milk.

This has been my approximate breakfast for the last five or six years. At times, I’ll vary the ingredients, but the overall balance remains the same.

I switched to this diet for health, but also because of flavor. There is something about the way all four ingredients mix together that I love.

Although blueberries are regularly touted as a power food, when it comes to fighting certain cancers, I might be better off with blackberries, reports Tara Parker-Pope of The New York Times. Studies show that black raspberries help “inhibit the development of oral, esophageal and colon cancers in rats.”

The problem? Humans must eat about a pound of berries a day to get enough of the cancer-fighting compounds. Lets see, that would be about $4-$8 a day for frozen, or $10-$12 a day for fresh. Ouch.

The high prices for the food will probably mean a supplement will be expanding on the market soon – anthocyanin powder – which is the main ingredient studies show to have cancer-fighting properties.

So, will I switch to blackberries? Probably not. I love my blueberry-based breakfast. Besides, most of the blackberries sold at the store – frozen or fresh – are too often unpalatably sour.

Food Recalls Almost 130 Peanut Butter Products Recalled so Far

Overshadowed by the recent inauguration of President Obama, a massive recall of peanut-based food products, prompted by possible Salmonella contamination, has been underway since January 10th. And the Food and Drug Administration expects the list of almost 130 recalled products – mostly cookies, candy, health bars, pastries and ice cream – to continue growing, reports The New York Times.

What’s taking so long? It seems many food manufacturers lose track of where their ingredients originate. In this case, the suspect peanut butter came from the now closed Peanut Corporation of America’s factory in Blakely, Ga. The recall includes all peanut butter made since July 1, which probably complicates matters for manufacturers.

Six people have died, 107 have been hospitalized and 486 have reported becoming sick, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Odds are, the number of illnesses are higher, because many people don’t report being sick.

In the meantime, I’ve been compiling a master list of peanut-butter product recalls on my earlier post and will continue to do so. I’ve cut and pasted then coded almost 3,000 words so far.

Perhaps the FDA should invest in a searchable database? Maybe our new president can help.

Share Your Housing or Money Stories

I’m curious. Does anyone have personal stories of losing or nearly losing their homes? How about friends or family members? Are you struggling with layoffs or reduced hours? If so, post your story in my comments section.

Food Recalls (I Cry Uncle) Keep Up to Date on Recalls of Peanut Butter Products

NO LONGER UPDATING: The recall of peanut-products continues to expand at such a rate I can no longer keep up. Go here to see all the recalls, as posted by the FDA. Or go here for a searchable database.

At first, the recall of peanut butter contaminated by salmonella was contained to big institutions like hospitals. But the recall has been steadily expanding as companies such as Kellogg, Hy-Vee and Perry’s are worried about the peanut butter used in cookies, ice cream and crackers.

Gee, you think with more than 400 illnesses nationwide as of Monday that maybe the Food and Drug Administration should be moving a wee bit faster? (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports at least 5 deaths and 450 sickened.) A week after the outbreak, the FDA now says Americans should hold off eating foods containing peanut butter, reports USA Today.

While the investigation has centered around a Georgia Peanut Corporation of American plant, it seems the agency that is supposed to safeguard our food supply was unaware that King Nut peanut butter, which can come in containers ranging from 5 pounds to 1,700 pounds, might be used by food makers. (Recall expanded on Jan. 28 to include peanut products produced since Jan. 1, 2007.)

Instead, the FDA worked hard to assure Americans that major national brands of peanut butter do not contain the salmonella. For the record, I had Trader Joe’s peanut butter for dinner, but I’m feeling fine.

Doctors’ Attacks on Parents Worried About Vaccines Are not Helpful

Last week I asked whether states should require flu shots. Out of six comments, only one reader supported the mandatory shots.

This week, The New York Times discusses Paul Offit’s book “Autism’s False Prophets,” which defends vaccines. Not surprisingly, the doctor has quickly become a lightning rod among parents who blame vaccines with causing autism and other health problems among children.

Both sides are so inflamed that Dr. Offit refuses to go into a bookstore for signings because he allegedly received death threats.

“When Jonas Salk invented polio vaccine, he was a hero – and I’m a terrorist?” he jokes, referring to a placard denouncing him at a recent demonstration by antivaccine activists outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

At the same time, the way vaccine supporters dismiss parents with autistic children is equally counterproductive: