Register

Yet another foodscare :-(

Chill out and chat with the foodie community or swap top tips.
NOTE: THE CURRENT CHATTERBOX IS IN THIS FORUM
Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 4191
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:53 pm

Strapline to a TV programme on in a few minutes, "Rice: ow safe is our food?":

"Leading scientists are warning that some types of rice contain worrying amounts of naturally occurring arsenic"

I keep meaning to create a couple of lists, one of foods which have been in scares and the other of foods which are supposedly bad for you which have ended up being shown to be beneficial. Maybe I'll get around to it one day!

User avatar
Posts: 1662
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Wuppertal, Germany

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:48 pm

In Germany you used to die a grizzly death if you warmed up spinach again. The cyanide in it would surely strike you dead. ;)
This has been disproved and since then the death rate from warmed up spinach has markedly fallen. :D :D :D

User avatar
Posts: 4357
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:58 pm
Location: Clayton-le-Woods

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Renée » Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:58 pm

Well, potatoes caused cancer many years ago, but they seem to have forgotten about that, unless it was the green part.

User avatar
Posts: 250
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:55 am

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby pcdennis » Tue Nov 04, 2014 11:36 am

Doesn't nutmeg contain a poison? I'm sure I read somewhere that eating a whole nutmeg (presumably grated) in one go would kill you.

We thought about watching it just for interest but knew we'd take no notice of it. OH used to love Chinese takeaways, particularly when the kids were at home as it was worth getting a decent range of dishes. The next day everything would be reheated including the rice and I've known her reheat what's left on the third day. And that is supposed to be very bad for you.

Your list Sakks would be very interesting, particularly if you went back to the war years where the percentage of fat consumed must've been quite high compared to other food, let alone red meat. Thank goodness we didn't have the calorie busting red wine available. :?

User avatar
Posts: 4139
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Nov 04, 2014 12:00 pm

pcdennis wrote:Doesn't nutmeg contain a poison? I'm sure I read somewhere that eating a whole nutmeg (presumably grated) in one go would kill you.


it certainly can; nutmeg contains myristin, and young persons who eat a couple of whole nutmegs for a "natural high" have been known to kill themselves (very, very, rarely - but it is on record)- that's not a food scare, just a sensible warning, only eat in normal amounts

The rice thing is greatly misunderstood

Nobody (except a few obsessives) suggests that reheating all rice is dangerous

Reheating rice that is contaminated with bacillus cereus is always risky, it give a nasty form of D&V; I've no idea what the contamination rate is but there's no obvious way of knowing if the rice in front of you is affected or not. You can vastly reduce the risk by cooling quickly and reheating quickly - it's holding rice warm (rather than hot or cold) that gets old b. cereus going - one reason why it's more of a risk in warm countries. If you refrigerate your leftover rice sharpish and reheat in microwave or stir fry you are unlikely to have a problem
Last edited by Stokey Sue on Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Posts: 1662
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Wuppertal, Germany

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Tue Nov 04, 2014 12:33 pm

In keeping with the season we had a food scare about a certain type of very popular Christmas biscuit , the humble cinnamon star. If they weren't made with real cinnamon, but cassia bark they could contain higher levels of something that I can't think of. In any case, if you ate the wrong cinnamon stars in great numbers daily there was a cancer risk.

As it is, people eat Christmas biscuits for a short while and then are glad to see the back of them for another year. :roll:

User avatar
Posts: 3832
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby jeral » Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:17 pm

Sakkarin wrote:...[clip]...
I keep meaning to create a couple of lists, one of foods which have been in scares and the other of foods which are supposedly bad for you which have ended up being shown to be beneficial. Maybe I'll get around to it one day!

A great idea, in fact so good that I wonder if someone's already compiled such a list. I assume so, even if several need to be combined. The winning prize would be to find one in calendar sequence.

Maybe we forum members should build our own list, allowing it will be more from memory to some extent. What'd yer think?

Eggs and butter are perhaps two with a complete U turn. Wine's a constant yo-yo. They're different from contamination like mercury in tuna, or fish (e.g. pangasius, shrimps) farmed in dirty water.

In principle, the new arsenic regulations for rice are probably a good idea as some people do eat it daily and I think arsenic's one of those that builds up.

----

I didn't see the programme, but I will as it's being repeated overnight Thur Ch.4. 02.35am (so Fri am really).

User avatar
Posts: 4139
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:02 pm
Location: Stoke Newington, London

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:08 pm

This article in the Independent on arsenic in rice does make sense - and is pro-regulation

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/high-levels-of-arsenic-in-rice-why-isnt-it-regulated-in-our-food-9836900.html

Apparently Basmati (all that pure Himalayan water the ads mention) is much the lowest in arsenic

User avatar
Posts: 3832
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby jeral » Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:34 pm

Interesting, and worrying particularly about the baby aspects. Thanks for the link Stokey Sue.

I feel a Delia effect coming on re basmati...

User avatar
Posts: 1773
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:40 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby karadekoolaid » Tue Nov 04, 2014 2:52 pm

Many spices are potentially poisonous, but only if consumed in outrageous quantities. Nutmeg, cinnamon, Tonka bean ( very popular here for it`s highly aromatic vanilla-like taste, but banned in the US!) and a few others.
Garlic - deadly stuff. :vomit
Peanuts? Your cancer will develop in weeks. :o
Rice? Get your e-coli here.
Sugar? Guarantees cáncer, heart attack, stroke and diabetes. :shock:
Fried food? carcinogenic to extremes.
Eggs? FULL of salmonella. :vomit
RED meat? Straight to the Emergency Ward with blocked arteries.
I have no doubt the researchers have our best interests at heart, but I`m getting a Little tired of being nannied. I think,providing one doesn`t go overboard , modest consumption and a properly balanced diet will probably save the world. 8-) 8-)

User avatar
Posts: 181
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:45 pm
Location: Western Australia

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby denada » Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:03 pm

I tend to treat most health scares with a pinch of salt!

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 4191
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:03 pm

KK, that is pretty much a running list of most of the ingredients that went into the pork and noodles dish I had yesterday. It was basically as this piccy, except with finely sliced belly pork and leeks, and a teaspoonful of sweet bean paste.

Image

User avatar
Posts: 3832
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby jeral » Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:59 pm

karadekoolaid wrote:...[clip]...
I have no doubt the researchers have our best interests at heart, but I`m getting a Little tired of being nannied. I think,providing one doesn`t go overboard , modest consumption and a properly balanced diet will probably save the world. 8-) 8-)

Well, yes, except that rice is a daily staple for many so genuinely needs to be as safe as it can be methinks.

Charred things, e.g. bbq'd meat, burnt toast, being carcinogenic seems to be an "avoid" that people ignore daily.

The nanny state in the UK at least isn't that bothered about keeping us healthy except that our NHS has run out of money to treat us when we get sick. Whether nanny state will be a creeper towards an authoritarian state of telling us what we can/can't eat, time will tell. Maybe we should be worrying about 2084 now...

User avatar
Posts: 250
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:55 am

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby pcdennis » Tue Nov 04, 2014 5:09 pm

Thanks Stokey Sue for that link, though the article doesn't appear in today's Independent. Perhaps the on-line version is part of tomorrow's edition.

In the past we never thought about left overs going into the fridge quickly, nor the process of heating up, but then that would be true of most of the so-called food scares. We've survived so far and apart from being careful with things like raw chicken we reckon we've got things about right.

For interest, had lunch today with a few ex-colleagues, the three ladies present were adamant about the dangers of re-heating rice. And one of them always washes rice thoroughly before cooking it.

User avatar
Posts: 916
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:33 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Pampy » Tue Nov 04, 2014 8:49 pm

I wash rice thoroughly before cooking - to get rid of as much starch as possible, nothing to do with any contaminants.

User avatar
Posts: 2873
Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 12:28 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Dena » Tue Nov 04, 2014 8:58 pm

A friend of mine who lived for years in Thailand - back in the UK now - bought me a rice cooker and swore by them. We were talking about the dangers of rice being warmed up, etc. and he said that his cook used a rice cooker and left rice in it overnight and it was eaten the next day quite often.

User avatar
Posts: 1773
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:40 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:01 am

Well, yes, except that rice is a daily staple for many so genuinely needs to be as safe as it can be methinks.


That`s a wonderfully Western Civilization sentiment, jeral, but unfortunately nowhere even vaguely near the cruel reality of a 3rd world economy - many of which have rice as a staple. Rice is probably,more often than not, stored in a plastic tupperware on top of the kitchen table - if the folks actually HAVE a table, that is. We don`t get mass epidemics of food poisoning (which is not to say they don`t exist and are not reported) but we do develop "strong stomachs".

Posts: 84
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:36 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby miss-mouse » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:17 am

Uschi wrote:This has been disproved and since then the death rate from warmed up spinach has markedly fallen. :D :D :D


Oh Uschi, what a wonderful story and such a success for Public Health :lol:

I can't remember what today's health scare was...eek perhaps it was the perils of being forgetful.

User avatar
Posts: 3832
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:28 pm

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby jeral » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:05 pm

karadekoolaid wrote:
Well, yes, except that rice is a daily staple for many so genuinely needs to be as safe as it can be methinks.


That`s a wonderfully Western Civilization sentiment, jeral, but unfortunately nowhere even vaguely near the cruel reality of a 3rd world economy - many of which have rice as a staple. Rice is probably,more often than not, stored in a plastic tupperware on top of the kitchen table - if the folks actually HAVE a table, that is. We don`t get mass epidemics of food poisoning (which is not to say they don`t exist and are not reported) but we do develop "strong stomachs".


Yes it is and I felt guilty even whilst writing it, as historically, if agricultural practices and screening are indeed improved, the chances are that the "good stuff" will be reserved for sale abroad, the wealth=power equation standing firm. I've no idea of course what's practically involved in preventing arsenic in rice but hopefully any steps will filter down in the long term, or the balance of wealth/power could change (as it has US/China).

My dad used to have a cast iron stomach, but it definitely didn't apply to out of date processed things. Arsenic poisoning isn't just a temporary dicky tummy though...

Site Admin
User avatar
Posts: 4191
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:56 pm
Location: Bushey

Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Sakkarin » Wed May 18, 2016 10:24 am

Oh dear, now it's potatoes that are going to wipe us out, and not just the green bits...

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016 ... be-harmful

The list of suspect foods is now one closer to everything.

Next

Return to Food Chat & Chatterbox

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 20 guests