The consumer watchdog group CSPI published [PDF] a provocative list of 10 healthy foods that have been involved in large scale contamination in the past few years:

1. LEAFY GREENS: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness
2. EGGS: 352 outbreaks , 11,163 illness
3. TUNA: 268 outbreaks , 2341 illness
4. OYSTERS: 132 outbreaks , 3409 illness
5. POTATOES: 108 outbreaks , 3659 illness
6. CHEESE: 83 outbreaks , 2761 illness
7. ICE CREAM: 74 outbreaks , 2594 illness
8. TOMATOES: 31 outbreaks , 3292 illness
9. SPROUTS: 31 outbreaks , 2022 illness
10. BERRIES: 25 outbreaks , 3397 illness

The group is not trying to scare us away from these foods, it is simply pointing out a fact that the FDA must do a better job of enforcing safety regulations on growers, shippers, and manufacturers. The FDA should be given the tools by law:

the United States Senate should follow the House and pass legislation that reforms our fossilized food safety laws

What you need to know:

Food Safety is something we take for granted when everything is OK. But a rushed trip to the emergency room, fevers, cramps, bloody stools, or worse remind us how fragile we are vs tiny contaminants that find their way into our food. And the grave responsibility of the entire supply chain in providing us safe food.

While we believe that most companies try to maintain high standards of safety, there is always room for improvement. Unfortunately, many times the pressure to cut costs is at odds with additional safety measures.

Just this past January the great peanut butter recall exposed how easy it is for one bad apple (or in this case peanut) to infiltrate hundreds of food items.

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As if we don’t have enough to worry about with respect to nutrition, a set of new studies has shown that children are receiving way below their required amount of vitamin D.

What is vitamin D? Why is it important? Why aren’t kids getting enough? And what are its best food sources?

Read more…

The creative marketers at Nestle have been pushing various flavors of Juicy Juice liquid candy at parents for several years with great success. But it wasn’t enough.

Always under pressure to sell more and grow (hey it’s the American way!), they now present us with a new line of juice that will turn our tiny tots into little Einsteins. From the Washington Post Blog:

A big blue banner across the front of the package screams, “Brain Development,” while the smaller type just above the banner says, “DHA — A Building Block for”…

Imagine the eager moms and dads who’ll grab that Juicy Juice in hopes of making their kids just that much smarter. DHA, derived from fatty fish and other omega-3 fatty-acid-rich food sources, is indeed credited with promoting neurological health among babies, and it’s been added to many infant formulas for nearly a decade, though there’s no real science showing that DHA makes anyone smarter.

We decided to take a look under the hood… Read more…

Fish are healthy for you right?

High in omega-3, plenty of protein, not to mention absolutely delicious when prepared right.

Unfortunately, not all is rosy in the octopus’s garden in the sea.

Due to industrial contamination of lakes, rivers, and oceans, the world fish population has been contaminated by mercury, a lethal poison especially dangerous to young children and pregnant women.

A European coalition of consumer groups is now pressing for mercury warning on labels of fish products:

A coalition of different environmental organizations, the Zero Mercury Working Group, claims that there are risks associated with eating fish due to its mercury content, and consumers need to be made aware of these through fish and seafood product labeling.

The group maintains that the proposed European Union regulation for labeling foodstuffs, currently being considered in the European parliament, should include advice for vulnerable groups about the mercury content of fish and seafood.

read more…

What you need to know:

For the past 15 years, pregnant women and young children have been advised by the US government to limit consumption of certain types of fish that have been shown to contain high quantities of mercury. These are usually large predator fish such as tuna and swordfish who accumulate the poison in their bodies over a time span of years before they are caught.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the European food labeling discussions, and what elements our FDA and USDA would be interested in adopting.

Don’t hold your breath though. Just a few months ago the FDA urged the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat. The reason – the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury. Was there any lobbying on behalf of the fishing industry behind this decision? Naaaah…

What to do at the supermarket:

The bigger the fish, the more mercury it has deposited in its flesh. So stay away from shark meat, swordfish, king mackerel, and albacore tuna. Small fry, such as sardines and anchovies, are an excellent source of protein and omega-3, without the bonus toxins. This is because they live for a short period of time before being harvested, so their body does not have time to accumulate mercury.

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Image by Thai Jasmine via Flickr

Happy Friday everyone. Today, a quick overview of Vitamin D.

What you need to know:
What Vitamin D does:
1. Bone builder – helps our body absorb and retain calcium and phosphorus (bone building blocks).
2. Cancer fighter – keeps cancer cells from growing and dividing.
3. Infection fighter – functions in controlling infections.

Sources of Vitamin D:
1. Sunlight – 15 minutes a day is considered a good amount of time. The sun’s ultra-violet rays help our body manufacture vitamin D.
2. Naturally in foods – fatty fish (like salmon, sardines, herring, catfish, tuna, and mackerel), egg yolks, liver
3. Added to certain foods – fortified milk and cereals. Some other dairy products may be fortified as well.
4. Supplements – for example in a multivitamin.

Recent News:
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended doubling the daily amount of Vitamin D for kids. The amount suggested is 400 IUs (international units) which is the equivalent of drinking 4 cups of milk a day.

What to do at the supermarket:

Look at the nutrition labels of your usual dairy milk, soy milk, cereals and take note of the vitamin content. Add fish to your family’s diet. Canned sardines and tuna are a good and quick source of vitamin D as well – 1 ounce of canned tuna will provide 75 IU; sardines – double that.

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