Preserving Your Health - from an article on the Quality Health website
Food Additives
Many of the foods we eat regularly are made with additives, which can act as preservatives, as
coloring agents, or to maintain the food’s consistency. Most of the additives are safe, but here
are five you should watch out for:
1. Potassium Bromate: This dough conditioner and bleaching agent, which was once widely
used in bread baking, is considered “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer. It has been banned in many countries but is still permitted in
the United States and Japan.
2. Sodium Nitrite: Nearly all processed meats are made with sodium nitrite: breakfast sausage,
hot dogs, bacon, lunch meat, and even meats in canned soup products. One study found that
participants who consumed the most processed meats showed a 67 percent increased risk of
pancreatic cancer over those who consumed little or no meat products. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) tried to ban sodium nitrite in the 1970s, but was preempted by the meat
processing industry, which relies on the ingredient to make foods look more visually appealing.
3. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA): This preservative, used to prevent fats from going bad, can
be found in butter, meats, chewing gum, dehydrated potatoes, and beer. According to the
International Agency for Research on Cancer, it may act as a precursor to cancer.
4. Olestra: A fat substitute used in crackers and potato chips, olestra is marketed under the
brand name Olean. This synthetic fat is not absorbed by the body and can contribute to
abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Furthermore, olestra may inhibit the body's ability to absorb
beneficial fat-soluble nutrients, including lycopene, lutein, and beta-carotene.
5. Monosodium glutamate (MSG): Used as a flavor enhancer in many packaged foods
including soups, salad dressings, sausages, hot dogs, canned tuna, and potato chips, MSG
pay pose some serious health risks. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified a
condition dubbed “MSG Symptom Complex,” which can cause headaches, numbness, and
drowsiness.
How to Tell if an Egg is Bad
Food poisoning is one of the worst experiences a person can go through, and it can even be
lethal. Eggs can be the source of some superb meals, but they can also be the source of food
poisoning if they are eaten when they've gone bad. How do you tell when an egg is fresh or if it
has gone off, without cracking it open to find out?
Steps:
1. Place the egg into a bowl of water. The water level should be deeper than the egg is long.
Observe what the egg does. Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of the bowl and lie on their
sides. Slightly older eggs (about one week) will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.
If the egg balances on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky, it's probably
around three weeks old. Eggs that float at the surface are bad and should not be consumed.
2. Crack the egg open and look carefully. Blood spots (also referred to as "meat" spots) don't
signify a bad or fertilized egg. It's caused by a ruptured blood vessel during the formation of
the egg. Since blood spots are diluted as the egg ages, their presence actually means you
have a fresh egg. You can eat it safely, or remove the blood spot with the tip of a knife, if it
makes you feel better. Stringy, rope-like strands of egg white are chalazae, which are present
in every egg to keep the yolk centered. They're not a sign that the egg is bad or fertilized, and
they can be consumed safely or removed. An egg white that is cloudy or has a yellow or
greenish cast to it is caused by carbon dioxide not having had enough time to escape from the
shell and is especially common in fresh eggs.
3. Smell the egg. With time, bacteria break down the proteins in the whites of the egg and
create a gas. This gas is hydrogen sulphide, better known as "rotten egg gas."
Tips: The floating test works because the air pocket inside the egg gets bigger with time as
the egg contents lose both moisture and carbon dioxide. As the air pocket gets bigger, the egg
is more likely to float.
When a recipe calls for a lot of yolks or whites, separate the eggs in a different bowl, then
dump the contents with the rest of the egg yolks (or whites). There's nothing more wasteful
than cracking open egg number 14 in a 15 yolk recipe and finding out that it is a bad egg. You
could also test all the eggs for freshness using the floating technique.
If you're worried about the egg being fertilized, keep in mind that most eggs come from large-
scale operations where laying hens are never exposed to a rooster. If the eggs come from a
smaller farm where roosters are present, there is a chance they might be fertilized, but the only
way to tell is by candling (holding a light up to the egg in a dark room and looking for blood
vessels, movement, and chick development). That being said, fertilized eggs are no more or
less nutritious than unfertilized eggs and both are safe to eat.
Previous Health Tips
Food Additives
Many of the foods we eat regularly are made with additives, which can act as preservatives, as
coloring agents, or to maintain the food’s consistency. Most of the additives are safe, but here
are five you should watch out for:
1. Potassium Bromate: This dough conditioner and bleaching agent, which was once widely
used in bread baking, is considered “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the International
Agency for Research on Cancer. It has been banned in many countries but is still permitted in
the United States and Japan.
2. Sodium Nitrite: Nearly all processed meats are made with sodium nitrite: breakfast sausage,
hot dogs, bacon, lunch meat, and even meats in canned soup products. One study found that
participants who consumed the most processed meats showed a 67 percent increased risk of
pancreatic cancer over those who consumed little or no meat products. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) tried to ban sodium nitrite in the 1970s, but was preempted by the meat
processing industry, which relies on the ingredient to make foods look more visually appealing.
3. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA): This preservative, used to prevent fats from going bad, can
be found in butter, meats, chewing gum, dehydrated potatoes, and beer. According to the
International Agency for Research on Cancer, it may act as a precursor to cancer.
4. Olestra: A fat substitute used in crackers and potato chips, olestra is marketed under the
brand name Olean. This synthetic fat is not absorbed by the body and can contribute to
abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Furthermore, olestra may inhibit the body's ability to absorb
beneficial fat-soluble nutrients, including lycopene, lutein, and beta-carotene.
5. Monosodium glutamate (MSG): Used as a flavor enhancer in many packaged foods
including soups, salad dressings, sausages, hot dogs, canned tuna, and potato chips, MSG
pay pose some serious health risks. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified a
condition dubbed “MSG Symptom Complex,” which can cause headaches, numbness, and
drowsiness.
How to Tell if an Egg is Bad
Food poisoning is one of the worst experiences a person can go through, and it can even be
lethal. Eggs can be the source of some superb meals, but they can also be the source of food
poisoning if they are eaten when they've gone bad. How do you tell when an egg is fresh or if it
has gone off, without cracking it open to find out?
Steps:
1. Place the egg into a bowl of water. The water level should be deeper than the egg is long.
Observe what the egg does. Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of the bowl and lie on their
sides. Slightly older eggs (about one week) will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.
If the egg balances on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky, it's probably
around three weeks old. Eggs that float at the surface are bad and should not be consumed.
2. Crack the egg open and look carefully. Blood spots (also referred to as "meat" spots) don't
signify a bad or fertilized egg. It's caused by a ruptured blood vessel during the formation of
the egg. Since blood spots are diluted as the egg ages, their presence actually means you
have a fresh egg. You can eat it safely, or remove the blood spot with the tip of a knife, if it
makes you feel better. Stringy, rope-like strands of egg white are chalazae, which are present
in every egg to keep the yolk centered. They're not a sign that the egg is bad or fertilized, and
they can be consumed safely or removed. An egg white that is cloudy or has a yellow or
greenish cast to it is caused by carbon dioxide not having had enough time to escape from the
shell and is especially common in fresh eggs.
3. Smell the egg. With time, bacteria break down the proteins in the whites of the egg and
create a gas. This gas is hydrogen sulphide, better known as "rotten egg gas."
Tips: The floating test works because the air pocket inside the egg gets bigger with time as
the egg contents lose both moisture and carbon dioxide. As the air pocket gets bigger, the egg
is more likely to float.
When a recipe calls for a lot of yolks or whites, separate the eggs in a different bowl, then
dump the contents with the rest of the egg yolks (or whites). There's nothing more wasteful
than cracking open egg number 14 in a 15 yolk recipe and finding out that it is a bad egg. You
could also test all the eggs for freshness using the floating technique.
If you're worried about the egg being fertilized, keep in mind that most eggs come from large-
scale operations where laying hens are never exposed to a rooster. If the eggs come from a
smaller farm where roosters are present, there is a chance they might be fertilized, but the only
way to tell is by candling (holding a light up to the egg in a dark room and looking for blood
vessels, movement, and chick development). That being said, fertilized eggs are no more or
less nutritious than unfertilized eggs and both are safe to eat.
Previous Health Tips
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| "May you be blessed with all things good." |