NY Proposed Ban On Trans-Fats

The proposed ban on foods that contain trans-fats, in New York, will likely affect the entire country. All restaurant’s, including national chains such as McDonald’s Corp., KFC, and Dunkin’ Donuts would be required to remove most of the trans-fats from their foods and list calories for each item on their menu boards.

Many smaller restaurants and chains have already begun or completed the changes to a more healthy menu. Other large chains continue to “test” alternate cooking oils, but have not yet made changes, chain-wide.

The reason that the proposed ban in New York could affect the rest of the industy is that most restaurants use pre-cooked or partially cooked and prepared foods from suppliers that also contain trans-fats. If suppliers to the largest chains make the switch to accommodate businesses in New York, it would be economicaly beneficial to make the changes for all of the businesses that they supply.

A public hearing will be held on October 30, 2006 in New York.  The proposed deadline to lower trans-fat levels in cooking oils and fats is July 1, 2007. The deadline for all other foods would be one year later. These are very aggressive deadlines. 6 to 7 billion of the 22.2 billion pounds of edible fats and oils shipped domestically in 2005, are hydrogenated to some degree and therefore could be scrutinized, said Robert M. Reeves, president of the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils. “Many people have the erroneous assumption that it would take a few weeks of research and we can turn these products out, but nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

“If it were easy to do, it would have been done already,” he said, calling the proposed bans to speed up the process as misguided. “If the solutions could come rapidly, they would.”

The New York proposal follows an industry effort to voluntarily switch to healthier oils and a similar proposal made earlier this year by Chicago Alderman Ed Burke. That measure has been tabled to give more time for restaurants to work toward their own voluntary measure.

Spinach Might Be Back In Stores Very Soon

Officials have said that it is safe to eat fresh spinach as long as it is not grown in California. Salinas Valley to be exact. However farmers will have to label the products so people will know exactly where they came from.

Unfortunately I think sales will still be down because most people will still be very wary of spinach for a time to come.

Source

Another Confirmed Spinach Death

A 2 year old boy who died is confirmed to have been killed by E. Coli found in his spinach shake. His mother said she thought she was doing the right thing by giving him vegetables. She had no idea it would kill him.

Two-year-old Idaho boy dies after eating spinach

Food Recalls - A Bigger Problem Than You May Think

  

Pictured left to right: salmonella, listeria, E. Coli

Consumers are wary of anything containing spinach and everyone has stopped buying and selling it. However as more news comes out, it has become apparent that this is not a surprise to people in the food, drug and health business. These problems have been going on for some time and we the consumers are only just finding out about it. As it stands now, going to the grocery story can actually turn into a game of Russian Roulette because we never know what food might be tainted with bacteria or foreign objects, lets say metal fragments (what in the world?!). Here is a list of recently recalled items that you may or may not know about.

Carrot Juice - Botulism

Botuslism is a rare food poisoning that happens in over 200 people a year but is considered very rare. It is mostly found in foods that were canned and preserved mostly at home, such as fruits and vegetables. Some symptoms include: difficulty swallowing, speaking and breathing as well as blurred or double vision. 

Raw Oysters - Vibrio

Vibrio is typically found in saltwater, which is why it was found in those raw oysters. If ingested it causes gastrointestinal illness. If it gets into an open wound it can cause infections. The illness is usually gone in 3 days but those will be an unpleasant 3 days. Symptoms include: watery diarrhea often with abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting fever and chills.

Ground Beef - E. Coli 

We are specifically talking about E. coli O157:H7 that is usually found in feces (yuck) and can make its way into our food if people are not carefully washing their hands and taking other precautions. It can also be caused by under cooking certain foods such as meat. You can also recieve it by drinking raw milk or swimming and/or drinking water that was contaminated with sewage (another yuck). If infected you can have bloody stool, kidney failure and even death.

Potato Salad - Listeria 

Listeria is a very tricky bacteria. While most bacteria do not grow in cold temperatures, Listeria does. It can be found in and grow in foods at below zero temperatures and can also be found and grown in regular human body temperatures. It can also be found in a variety of foods. From raw and cooked meats, vegetables and dairy products. This bacteria is usually found in soil and vegetation.

Crab Dip - Listeria 

Alfalfa Sprouts - Salmonella 

Some symptoms of salmonella includes: nausea, abdominal cramping, and bloody diarrhea with mucous and also Reiter’s syndrome, a rare but very debilitating form of arthritis. Salmonella is another bacteria that can be found in under cooked food such as poultry and beef. Doctors also urge people to not consume raw eggs as that is another cause of salmonella poisoning.

Beef Products - E. Coli 

Mushrooms - Listeria

Nacho Tortilla chips - Soy 

Soy is an allergen that can be fatal to individuals who are very allergic to it.

Raw Revolution Organic Live Food Bars are being recalled because they may contain metal fragments. Nice to know you get a little surprise with your food isn’t it?

Monterey Mushrooms of Watsonville, CA is recalling 10,000 cases of fresh sliced white mushrooms and fresh sliced baby bella mushrooms because they might contain Listeria monocytogenes. It has list of consequences that is bad for the young, old, pregnant and anyone in between.

Most people worry about how much the food is going to cost or what food is best for their health and diet. I don’t think that many of us choose food on the basis of will it kill us or not.

New Labels for Spinach?

After the recent E.coli outbreak, which has now possibly killed three people and sickened more than 100, officials are talking about labelling spinach with its area of origin in case of future outbreaks.

That way, the whole store wouldn’t have to be cleared of spinach if it was known the outbreak came from California spinach, for instance.

Food and Drug Administration officials say they don’t want to deny access to spinach for customers who want to eat it, but there’s no alternative right now because no one knows which spinach came from which farms.

This is a wise idea to get people to start eating spinach again once it is safe to do so. This will give people assurance that should a similar outbreak happen, it will be easier to pinpoint the source and not have to eliminate the entire supply, which is good for spinach manufacturers and those who like to eat the green stuff.

FDA Says: I Told You So

The FDA is now saying that they warned California farmers that they need to step up in their care of making sure leafy greens such as spinach and lettuce is clean and healthy. They are now saying that this whole event could have been avoided but that farmers didn’t take enough precautions.

I just love how everyone starts the finger pointing when something goes wrong. They are the FDA, if something is so wrong that they fear for the health of the public aren’t they supposed to fine and/or shut down whoever it is to protect people? But now they want to play the blame game instead of putting all their energy into finding out the cause of the outbreak.

Best of Niner Niner September 06

In Blogging Naked, Britain holds their first masturbate-a-thon and in China they put an end to funeral stripteases

 

 

And in Bookadoodle Nancy Callahan continues her Getting Published series, while Starbucks sells childrens books and publishers contine to make billions

Next up in Boomer 2.0 scientists try to map our neanderthal genes

The unemployed get credit cards in Credit Cardenza

Dealsneak continues to show the latest deal around the web with cheap wine, free products, and discounts.

Jewel thieves, Kiwi casino, and another poker pub strategy article all sweep into Games For Money.

High Heels Blog: Nancy gives us a look at ballet inspired heels and Victoria Secrets peeptoe wedges.

In Hipaa Blog VA data is lost once again.

Over at HyperGadget we see that Ditty is no more, a real universal remote control can really control the universe, and microchipped passports.

In the Medcare Forum Doctor Medicare payments are cut and low income families should apply for medicaid.

On Healthy Living: Learn 5 good and bad cholesterols, answer the question: Which Has More Germs, Cell Phone or Toilet Seat? and try these Delicious Seafood and Fish Recipes

Head over to On Movies and read Leafworks reviews on movies such as Snakes on A Plane, RV, Final Destination 3, The Descent, and John Tucker Must Die

Powersellers Blog shows that Ebayers are still mad at the rate increases, Ebay Pays Attention to Shipping abuse and Nancy tells about selling in Squidoo.

SEO Updates: Google finally updated Blogger, Yahoo gets hit by a worm and Subtle copy changes can make a difference

In The Diet Logs, Nancy shows us how the 10 Slim-Down Strategies and The Antidote for a High-Fat Meal

Look for the dysfunction in The Single Life, perfect your pickup lines and then head over to Fallout

Wander Worlds: Honesty isn’t always best, leafworks reviews The Siren Project, Lipgloss, and Faith and the Muse.

What Could Have Caused the E. Coli Outbreak From Spinach?

The cases of people becoming sick has led the FDA to conclude that the culprit is Earthbound Farm’s (Natural Selection Foods) bagged spinach. Traces of E Coli bacteria were found and so far 1 person is dead (a 77 year old woman) and 109 people so far has been diagnosed with the illness tracing to the leafy greens.

The FDA and other officials are asking people not to eat spinach since other companies spinach could also be infected. People also need to watch out for vegetable mixes which usually have many different vegetables that are shredded and mixed together for convenience and they are also warning that some places might have taken the spinach out of the bags and consumers might assume that the leaves came from whole spinach cloves and were not bagged when in fact they were.

Here’s a disgusting fact. Many types of E. Coli come from feces. Ewwwwww. Wash those hands people.

I had watched a story a few months ago, that talked about E. Coli infected lettuce that were making people sick. I don’t believe they finished solving it, but a few things that could have happened also seems likely in the case of infected spinach.

Factor 1. Animals such as cows could have stepped in their feces and then tracked it through the lettuce/spinach fields.

Factor 2. An employee could have not washed their hands and then handled the veggies.

Factor 3. When the food is going to be shredded and bagged that way, most of the farmers remove the core right there in the fields, which could allow viruses and bacteria to get into the food.

Factor 4. Contaminated water could have rolled into the soil and gone into the plant roots, infecting the vegetables. If this happened, then no amount of washing would help, since the bacteria would be inside the leaves themselves.

The good news is that most restaurants and grocery stores have pulled this product. The bad news is that people are still getting sick from spinach they might already have and also I feel bad for both the victims and the company because when you have a business, this is not something that you ever want to see happen and it will probably be a long time before people trust that brand or even have spinach.

One last note. Police are investigating the death of a 23 month old girl who died from E. Coli and they are trying to determine if she has been the second death victim.

Healthy Beverages

Cola is a very unhealthy beverage that is guzzled by millions of people everday. It is packed with sugar and calories and you can easily go over your recommended daily nutrients with just a few glasses. It’s best when it comes to these drinks to remember that too much is not a good thing. You can swap those sugary bombs with some of these tasty and healthy beverages and also remember to drink plenty of water daily.

Fruit Juices

• Cranberry Cider Punch
• Cranberry Cider Duck
• Banana Pineapple Freeze
• Orange and Cider Sauce
• Cointreau Fruit Punch
• Apple-Berry Punch
• Island Freeze with Guava
• Apple-Berry Punch

Coffee Beverages

• Cinnamon Chocolate Coffee
• Cinnamon Chocolate Coffee with Cream
• Iced Coffee
• Cinnamon Coffee
• Coffee with Cardamom Cream

Tea Beverages

• Icy Fruit Tea
• Spiced Tea
• Tea with Cream
• Tea Punch
• Tea à la Crême
• Iced Zinger Tea
• Iced Orange Tea

Healthy Shakes

• Peanut Butter Pineapple Shake
• Peanut Butter Strawberry Shake
• Creamy Tropical Shakes
• Strawberry Yogurt Shake
• Mango Watermelon Shake
• Banana Breakfast Shake

Milk Beverages

• Honey Almond Milk
• Southern Milk and Molasses
• Milk Tea
• Saffron Milk
• Fortified Milk

These delicious recipes were provided by Chefs.

Skinny Models Banned

The fashion show in Madrid will have a crowd of healthier looking models parading down the runway this year. Officials of the pageant event used the womens BMI (body mass index) to calculate what their weight should be in proportion with their height.

In a turn not so shocking to most of us, over 30 percent were turned away because they had BMI’s that were under 18, which means that they were much too underweight. Model Esther Canadas, pictured below, was one of those women who were turned away with a BMI of only 14. As you can tell from the picture, she looks very underweight, but that is what we are used to seeing in a professional model.

The trend of only hiring healthy models isn’t likely to catch on, at least not anytime soon. Especially since officials at London Fashion Week have said that they don’t plan to do the same.

 

Next Page »