Red Raspberry Lactose Free

J. P. Licks is a small chain of seven ice cream stores in the Boston area. They boast that they are "Kosher certified and proudly meets all the high quality standards pertaining to ingredients, production and store cleanliness."

And they're having a February promotion involving night delivery that you can read all about in their press release. Best of all, take a gander of what they're doing for the rest of this month:

Special February flavors include Coconut Crème, Chocolate Orange, Snickers, Cheesecake Brownie, Organic/Fair trade Infused Coffee, Mango Sorbet, Lime Sherbet, Red Raspberry Lactose Free, Black Raspberry Chip Low Fat Yogurt.

Cool. Red Raspberry Lactose Free.

Wait a minute. Red Raspberry Lactose Free what? Ice cream? Maybe. But it isn't listed with the ice creams, but after the sorbet and the sherbet. Red Raspberry Sorbet? But all sorbet should be lactose free. It would only be special if it were ice cream...

What? I should just go to the website and look there? You mean you think they would change the website from January specials to February specials just because it is now February 1? Oh, you crazy dreamer, you.

Can anyone from Boston help me out? I'm so confused...

Worst Case Result if You're Lactose Intolerant...

... you might have to go on reality television.

The horror! The horror!

Before you avert your eyes in sheer mortification, here's some helpful reassurance. It wasn't the lactose intolerance that was the problem. That was a mere trigger for the nutty food intolerances-are-everywhere idiocy that is consuming the U.K.

I take this from the most reliable possible source, Kim Gregory's article on ShowBizSpy.com.



Yasmin Smith was legitimately diagnosed with lactose intolerance. Unfortunately, she assumed that if she felt better by removing one food from her diet, she would feel multiply so by wiping out all dairy. And wheat. And fish. And fast foods. And foods with preservatives and additives.

Her underlying problem was an eating disorder rather than any organic allergies.

Her cure was suitably drastic. She went on the reality show Supersize vs Superskinny and was forced to swap diets with a man who weighed 462 pounds (33 stone).

I have my doubts whether stuffing herself with cockle pizza and blood pudding managed to cure her of anything but a liking for cockle pizza and blood pudding. However, she also spent a week in a clinic and was sent home with a 12-week healthy eating program.

Yasmin gained back seven pounds and four inches around her stomach and hips. She said:

"I’ve learned not to fear food anymore. I feared food because I put all my worries of my intolerances from lactose all in one and combined them unnecessarily.

"It’s brilliant and means I can lead a normal life again."

Please don't fear food. Food intolerances and allergies can be challenging but should never be limiting, not with so many alternatives and substitutes on the market today. Yasmin's diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meat is the basis for a healthy diet but shouldn't be the whole of it as she had it. Moderation in all things except moderation. And reality television. Strict avoidance is the only hope.

Can Friendly Bacteria Be Dangerous?

Can so-called "friendly" bacteria, the type that are added to "functional foods" and known as probiotics, be dangerous? (See my Primer on Probiotics for an introduction to the subject.)

Questions like this make me grumpy. The answer is that anything can be dangerous. Water can be dangerous, even plain, ordinary, non-contaminated water. The question is a bad one.

Here's the correct question: Is the so-called "friendly" bacteria added to products likely to be dangerous to you? And that answer, of course, is no.

Let's take a peek behind the dumb, over-broad question and get to the meat of the issue, taken from an article by Peta Bee in England's Daily Mail.

The bad news is that people who are seriously ill, especially those suffering from inflammation of the pancreas, should not be given probiotics. Doing so occasionally "can induce a potentially fatal condition called lactobacillus septicaemia." Hospitals already know this, however. Probiotics are already prohibited for most such patients. And "the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority has ruled that supplements should not be given to patients in intensive care, those with organ failure or anyone being fed through a drip."

Dangerous? Yes. Something you or I have to worry about? No.

I'd worry more about the rest of the article, which says that most probiotic products don't contain enough of the bacteria to be helpful. Not helpful is not at all the same as harmful, to be sure, but you're probably paying extra for the word "healthy" to be slapped on the label.

I'm not convinced there is enough good science cited in the article to judge the probiotic beverages and foods on the market. Most people probably don't need to pay for probiotics when a container of ordinary yogurt may give as much benefit, though. I've said as much before, as in my posting Answers on Probiotics.

It's an issue I'll keep an eye on in the future.

Answers to Questions from Readers, part 13

Q. a. Is goat milk lactose free?
b. My mom claims to have become lactose intolerant. since a lot of my diet here is milk based, with lots of cheeses naturally, will I be going wrong by substituting goat or sheep cheeses and other milk products in my recipes?

a) Goat's milk contains almost exactly the same amount of lactose as cow's milk. For a listing of the lactose contents of dozens of different animal milks, go to my Lactose Zoo page.

b) Goat's milk cheese will have about the same amount of lactose as cow's milk cheese or sheep's milk cheese: very little. All aged cheeses are low in lactose. Substituting one for the other shouldn't make a bit of difference.

Q. I noticed that I get occasionally get LI symptoms after eating Chinese takeout, especially dishes with thick, starchy sauces. This may be a long shot, but is it possible that they contain lactose?

My guess is probably not. Usually in cooking, sauces are made thick and starchy by adding corn starch rather than milk powder. I can't guarantee this, of course, and recipes are often adapted to local customs. Some people do have corn allergies, by the way, so it may in fact be the corn that is the problem. (I hate to suggest anything so obvious that you've probably already considered it, but just to be thorough, have you tested yourself on dishes with and without MSG?)

You might also want to simply ask the next time you're in a restaurant in which you've had problems whether the dish does indeed contain any milk. Most places will be happy to check for you.

Q. Could LI over a period of time lead to osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis does not a single cause, although inadequate calcium intake, especially while young, is thought to be a major factor. So LI by itself cannot cause osteoporosis. However, since milk is leading source of calcium, someone who does not drink milk (whether because of LI or not) must ensure a substitute calcium source, either though other calcium-containing foods or by taking calcium supplements. This would be true of anyone, regardless or LI status.

Q. My mother is severely lactose intolerant, and she recently came across a new one that she hasn't seen before. It's a chocolate bar ingredient: "milk fat." What part of milk is that? Is it suitable or not for an LI person to consume?

It's the fat that is taken out of milk when lowfat or skim milk is made fat-free. Since fat makes things taste better, milk processors sell off the waste fat to other manufacturers. It should have little or no lactose, however, being pretty close to pure fat.

Raw Food. Vegan Raw Food.

I'm old fashioned enough to believe that cooking food is what separates humans from animals, so the raw food movement baffles me. Veganism is also odd since no human society in history has ever chosen to be vegan.

Vegan raw food, therefore...

Of course, lots and lots of things in our world today baffle me, starting with reality television and extending to dressing pets like circus clowns, so I'm not going to let a little thing like bafflement get in the way of providing information to you, my motley crowd of readers.

Meet Roxanne Klein. She's well-known to the snootiest of snoots as the former owner of "the now-defunct internationally renowned haute cuisine restaurant Roxanne's in Larkspur." (This is a good thing?) And she is the co-author of Raw, a cookbook about guess what.

Leslie Harlib of the Marin Independent Journal tells us that Klein is a lean 43-year-old with miles of butter-and-honey-colored hair and movie-star good looks. (To see the first three feet of her hair, go to her website, Roxannes.com. Fortunately, she looks much less like an Ann Coulter doppelganger there than in the newspaper photo.)

And Klein is a launching a line of vegan raw food products. "Raw" is not necessarily what those outside the lifestyle might think. It means food that has not been "cooked" beyond 118 degrees, the temperature at which raw food can be heated or dehydrated and still retain its healthful enzymes. She says.

Klein's line, Roxanne's Fine Cuisine, includes trail mix, granola, sandwiches, cheeses, hummus, snacks, ice creams and cake. All are vegan, dairy- and wheat-free and sweetened with agave nectar, barley malt, maple syrup or honey.

The seeming contradiction between vegan and cheese and ice cream does get explained with a description of the actual items.

Trail mix of dehydrated carrots and corn as well as Himalayan goji berries and cashews; vanilla almond sprouted grain and nut granola that tastes like crumbled crunchy cookies; velvety Boursin-like nut milk and garlic cheese spread that's packaged with pre-sliced carrot and celery sticks for dipping; chocolate and vanilla nut milk-based ice creams, not quite as creamy as the restaurant versions but still smooth and remarkably like traditional ice cream; and triangles of fudgy chocolate cake layered with coconut.

For now you'll have to go to the high end food stores in the greater San Francisco area to find Roxanne's Fine Cuisine, but she is planning on a national rollout some time in the future.

Almond Milk

If you don't want to go for lactose-free milk as your drink of choice, what are the alternatives?

Soy milk is the most common. Rice milk is second. Oat milk. Rice and Soy blends. Potato starch-based, even. And then there's almond milk.

I list commercial almond milks on the Nondairy Milk Alternatives - Other Beverages page in my Milk-Free Bookstore. They're not the most popular or most widely known.

I was floored, therefore, when I ran across two mentions of them today.

One was in Elizabeth Keyser's article in the New Canaan News-Review on a talk by Susan Rubin.

The holistic nutrition consultant is known as one of the "Two Angry Moms" of the documentary that followed Rubin's efforts to make school lunches healthier. The former dentist is the founder of Better School Food, a coalition that raises awareness about the connection between food and health.

Her position is pretty much against any processed, preservative or hormone-laden, non-natural food. So when asked about lactose-free milk, the answer she gave was mostly because it's standard milk.

The audience had a lot of questions for her. Someone asked what she thought about Lactaid, a milk-replacement product for those who are lactose-intolerant.

Rubin suggested trying almond milk instead. "Buy it or make your own in a blender, strain it and use the solids for baking."

Someone asked about soy milk.

"That's a touchy one," she said. She noted that soy is the second most widely grown crop in the United States, and it is a "powerful hormone cocktail." She added, "It pulls the thyroid out of synch."

"If you are on Synthroid," she said, "Rethink your soy consumption."

She feeds her children organic milk from grass-fed cows.

Since most of you are not going to make your own almond milk, what about buying it?

An article on FitSugar.com recommended Pacific Natural Foods' Almond Milk, which is probably the leading brand.

Then there's almond milk, which is by far my favorite. Have you ever tried it? It's made by soaking almonds in water, and then they're ground into a liquid. Since these nuts have a soft texture, mild flavor and light coloring (when skinned), the liquid looks and tastes like sweet milk, making it a great substitute.

Interested in seeing the nutritional info? Then read more

One cup has only 2.5 g of fat and zero saturated fat so it's great if you're watching your cholesterol. It doesn't have a ton of protein, but it does have 30 percent of your daily calcium. Plus it only has 90 calories, which is less than soy milk (110), cow's milk (102), and rice milk (130).

You can check the Pacific Natural Foods Nut & Grain Beverages page, which lists Original and Vanilla Almond Milks; Unsweetened Original and Vanilla Almond Milks; Chocolate and Vanilla Lowfat Almond Milks; and Hazelnut Milk. All are Kosher Parve, Gluten Free, Wheat Free, Casein Free, Low Sodium, Vegan, and Yeast Free.

Lifetime Lactose-Free Cheese Now Mail Orderable

Lifetime Specialty Cheeses is one of the major sources for real-time lactose-free cheese.

Back in July I had to announce that Lifetime was no longer offering its cheeses through the mail because of the cost of shipping.

That's no longer true. Derek Thielke of Northwoods Cheese Co. sent me an email telling me his company has taken over the shipping for Lifetime. He wrote:

I just wanted you to know that the Lactose Free cheeses from Lifetime Cheese are now available through my company. We have taken on the role of shipping cheese to individuals that cannot find this cheese in their local stores. If you go to the Lifetime Cheese web site, you will see this message:

9/24/2007 --- UPDATE!

MAIL, PHONE, FAX ORDERING NOW AVAILABLE!

Thank you for your patience while we have been busy working to find a solution for our Mail/Phone/Fax customers!

We have partnered with a great company called Northwoods Cheese Company based in Verona, Wisconsin to handle mail order for our customers. Northwoods Cheese does an exceptional job and are much better set up to handle customer orders. They also sell a wide range of cheeses and cheese gift packages which are great for the holidays.

They are currently selling our Lifetime Fat Free Cheese for $3.99/each plus shipping. The rest of the Lifetime cheeses should be available through Northwoods Cheese shortly.

To place an order, Please called Derek toll free at:

Toll Free: 888-878-3161
Fax: 608-833-0092

Sincerely,

Lifeline Food Company, Inc.

We are located in WI, which has helped cut the cost of shipping cheese throughout the country. We ship the cheese in a cooler with ice and can reach most areas of the country shipping UPS within 3 days. Shipping costs vary by the location and the amount of cheese ordered-we price each individual shipment so it is fair to everyone that orders from us.

The problem has been cleared up for some months now so I certainly apologize to Lifetime if anybody was dissuaded from their site by my earlier post. As I have to emphasize, however, I can't monitor every site every day and I rely on others to feed me information I've missed. Thanks to Derek for the heads-up.

Huge News! Lactase Drops Return to U.S.

Lactase is the enzyme that digests lactose. Virtually all humans make lactase at birth so that they can digest the lactose in breastmilk. Starting at about three, the age of normal weaning, humans, like almost every other mammal, naturally stop producing lactase. It's just not needed.

Not having lactase results in lactose intolerance, the name for having symptoms when you drink or eat any dairy product that contains lactose, which is most of them.

Wouldn't it be great if scientists could figure out a way to artificially manufacture lactase?

Back in the 1970s, a Dutch company named Gist-Brocades did exactly that. Along the way they discovered something fascinating and important. It all has to do with digestion.

The human stomach is highly acidic. Hydrochloric acid is produced to help digest and break down food. Stomach acid could burn holes in your shirt if it leaked out.

Lactase is made in the small intestine, under conditions that are far less acidic. In fact, if you swallow lactase it won't work. The stomach acid will destroy it.

So the first product that Gist-Brocade made was a lactase that was designed to be put directly into milk. Milk is less acid than the stomach, so if you just let it sit in the refrigerator for a day or two, the lactase would break down all the lactose, making it safe to drink.

It took several years and much tinkering to come up with a form of lactase that could withstand the acid in stomachs and several more before a lactase pill entered the American market. Lactaid introduced the lactase pill in 1984 and the lactose intolerance rejoiced. (I sure did.)

For many years, Lactaid, its competitor Dairy Ease, and other firms made both lactase pills and a liquid lactase that could be dropped into milk or other liquid or soft dairy products. Lactase drops never took off in the marketplace. Americans love convenience and immediate gratification. I eventually had to break the bad news to Americans that the only way to get lactase drops was to import them from Canada. Gelda Scientific, the firm that made the lactase for the Canadian brand Lacteeze, graciously worked with me to make contact information available. See my Lactase Drops page (now revised, obviously) to order them

And that was it.

Until this week, when I received an email from Brian C. He gave me the amazing news that he could get liquid lactase drops from the online store of
IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, Washington or The Center for Food Allergies, same address.

Liquid Lactase is the only liquid source of lactase available and is appropriate for anyone with lactose intolerance, including infants. This dropper bottle is the perfect solution at home and on the go for alleviating digestive problems associated with lactose intolerance. Lactase is an enzyme that hydrolyses (breaks down) the lactose in milk and milk products into glucose and galactose, two forms of simple sugars that can be digested and tolerated by lactose intolerant individuals. Liquid Lactase can be taken directly or added to dairy products prior to consumption.

Liquid Lactase Drops contains: 15 milliliters of lactase in solution. Non-active ingredients: purified water and glycerol.

Suggested Dosage: General guideline: Add five drops of Liquid Lactase to one pint (568 ml) of milk and refrigerate for 24 hours. Use as ordinary milk. Each 15 ml bottle is able to convert approximately 75 pints of milk. Alternatively, five drops can be taken directly in water or juice prior to consumption of dairy products.

Liquid Lactase Drops: $14.95

Do they work? Brian said:

We have used them to successfully treat milk (it tastes better to me than Lactaid milk), buttermilk, yogurt, and even cream cheese. ... My fiancée is extremely sensitive to lactose, and we have found this stuff to be amazing. She doesn't have any problem eating or drinking foods treated properly.

Some investigation found that these drops are made by Pharmax LLC.

Pharmax LLC, a privately owned company, was established in 1998 as a strategic alliance between highly experienced American healthcare professionals and Cultech Limited, the prime nutritional supplement development and manufacturing company in the U.K. Cultech is the market-leading provider of research-driven nutraceuticals to healthcare professionals in U.K and within Europe as a whole.

Pharmax Liquid Lactase is not limited to Seattle. I found it on Amazon.com for $11.30 a bottle.

Other outlets may exist that I haven't found yet. As always, I am not endorsing either the product or the sellers, just passing along information.

While I was searching, though, I found lactase drops in other countries as well so I'll list several here for completeness.



Canada.


Lactaid Drops for Milk.






Australia.


Lacteeze Drops





United Kingdom.


BioCare Lactase Enzyme.

New GFCF Resources on About.com

While we're waiting for the results of a huge five-year study of a gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet to come out of The University of Rochester Medical School (possibly as soon as May, but I can't be sure), parents will want to check into the resources currently available.

Lisa Jo Rudy's Autism blog on About.com announced New Resources on GFCF (Wheat and Dairy-Free) Diets on the Autism.About.Com Website.

A brand new section of the site, Wheat and Dairy Free Recipes and Tips for Children with Autism, includes articles from around About.com focusing on what's, where's and how's of shopping and cooking for kids who can't eat wheat or dairy.

More Reactions to Allergy Reaction Reactions

On Sunday I wrote about the contentiousness of allergy issues in Our Reactions to Allergy Reaction Reactions. I noted that parents of children with serious food allergies have a legitimate sensitivity to the frequently disparaging comments made by those who have no stake in the issue while at the same time unnecessary fears have been generated by those who appear to feel that everything is a risk.

If I had waited one more day, The New York Times would have dropped a magnificent example into my lap.

Last week science writer John Tierney expounded on our culture of fear and what it is doing to our health in Living in Fear and Paying a High Cost in Heart Risk. His point is that worrying about fear may be costlier to our collective health than the actual risks posed by what we fear.

He started with what I would consider to be a perfectly innocuous sentence:

Although it’s impossible to calculate the pain that terrorist attacks inflict on victims and society, when statisticians look at cold numbers, they have variously estimated the chances of the average person dying in America at the hands of international terrorists to be comparable to the risk of dying from eating peanuts, being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet.

He's quoting actual comments by statisticians concerning small risks rather than making these comments himself, note.

Yet Ellen Urich wrote a letter of complaint to the Times:

As the mother of a child with a life-threatening food allergy, I was greatly disheartened by John Tierney’s grouping the chances of dying from eating peanuts with being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet. Public awareness and understanding of anaphylaxis and food allergies has grown enormously in the past decade, but it is my fear that this type of analogy trivializes a growing health condition that requires a serious attitude in order to save lives.

This may be taking a parent's concern way too far. Tierney trivializes nothing in his article. He properly quotes others as pointing out that the risks of death by terrorism is real by highly unlikely, as highly unlikely and as small in number as some other risks.

The statisticians are numerically right. The Center for Disease Control recorded only 12 deaths from food allergies in 2004. The Consumer Product Safety Commission warns parents that:

Toilets are often overlooked as a drowning hazard in the home. The typical scenario involves a child under 3-years-old falling headfirst into the toilet.

Yet that same page indicates the number of drowning victims is probably in the same range as the 14 that the CDC estimates for food allergy deaths.

The number of deaths from terrorism in the U.S. in recent years. Zero.

Any such avoidable death, especially the death of a child, is tragic and should never be trivialized. Everything reasonable that can be done to prevent such tragedies should be.

We've gone far beyond reasonable over the past six years. The world today is exactly as dangerous as it was on Sept 10, 2001, probably neither more so or less than. Nothing new there. The world has always been dangerous, from events both large and small. As Tierney notes, both public figures and the media have created a climate of fear. I'd go further, and accuse the Administration and its partisan toadys and the bootlickers in the media of doing so deliberately to further their aims and concentrate their power.

For all their crimes - and they are legion - even the Administration did not create a fear of peanuts. On that issue, both the fearmongers and the trivializers run rampant across the media and the internet. In a culture of fear fears will multiply and reason will flee.

The best thing we can collectively do is to break out of the culture of fear. In the next 10 months of a presidential race, you'll hear fear as a constant: fear of strangers, fear of change, fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of uncertainty, fear of "Them." Don't allow the fearmongers to triumph. More than that: don't allow their fearmongering to go unchallenged. Reason must triumph.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his first inaugural speech, fighting against a climate of fear as deep and pervasive if not as deliberately created as the one today, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." If you've ever wondered what he meant by that, just look around you.

Divvies Founder on Martha Stewart

Divvies makes Martha Stewart!

Let me rephrase that. I've mentioned Divvies, makers of kosher, vegan, dairy-free and several other frees cupcakes and "fun foods" several times here. You might remember Divvies Dairy-Free Halloween and the later post when they began shipping, Divvies Delivers.

Whatever they're doing, they're doing big league. Lori Sanders, along with Benjamin, the son for whom she started baking the specialty goods, will appear on Martha Stewart's intragalactically-broadcast television show.

Do I hear the words press release?

On Tuesday, the 29th, Lori Sandler, creator of Divvies (the nut- and dairy-free treats that are “made to share”), and her son Benjamin, will join Martha Stewart on her show to make their notoriously moist and delicious cupcakes without using the traditional ingredients; milk and eggs.


Lori Sandler started Divvies with her husband Mark as a sweet solution for the millions who have serious food allergies and can’t share in the fun of party treats or even the simplest playdate snacks. Sandler was determined to bring the yummy, safe confections she’d perfected for her son, Benjamin, who has life-threatening food allergies, to the rescue of other parents who were struggling to find delicious treats for their children with food allergies.

...

About Divvies
Divvies is a dedicated peanut-, tree nut-, milk- and egg-free bakery headquartered in South Salem, NY. and is committed to raising awareness and identifying new ways to help parents and children cope with food allergies. Divvies donates a portion of the proceeds of the sales on their gift boxes to the Food Allergy Initiative, an organization dedicated to food allergy research. Divvies is continually expanding their product line. For a press kit, or to place an order, visit www.divvies.com. Thanks to Divvies, life’s little pleasures of delicious desserts are now available to share!

Check local listings.

Our Reactions to Allergy Reaction Reactions

I see stories in newspapers, magazines, and blogs every week that mock lactose intolerance and food allergies. Some people seem to find the very term lactose intolerance funny, and the fact that lactose intolerance causes people to fart sends them into gales of hysterics. Other mock the allergy culture in which people - *gasp* - have the temerity to ask hosts not to serve them food which might make them ill. Schools banning peanut butter because of the risks of anaphylactic shock are a special cause of derision. How dare they! Nobody ever died when they were children!

So when I came across Leslea Harmon's Guerrilla Mothering column on the NewsandTribune.com website, I was primed to agree with her intelligent and thoughtful take on the subject.

Someone is attacking my kid, saying his food allergies are exaggerated. ... The author of the article, Meredith Broussard, is a semi-humorist with a history of failed relationships. I’m not saying that to be mean — she has actually built a writing career on the topic of failed relationships, even publishing a presumably witty book on their unique lexicon. I’m sure it’s hilarious, just the kind of thing I would have loved back when I was a single chick who valued a snark above all else. Since I’ve become a mom, I feel differently about that kind of thing, but that’s just me going soft, I’m sure.

On her blog (entitled “The Blog of Failed Relationships,” naturally), Broussard mentions the torture of growing up with food allergies, and the diet of strict avoidance her mother put her on. In her own words “no sugar, no white flour, no peanut butter, no artificial coloring of any kind, no chocolate, no fish, no shellfish, no dairy.” Ouch. Strict avoidance. The diet evidently worked — Broussard outgrew her food allergies — but she still sounds so angry about it.

I hate it, but it’s the same kind of diet we have our kid on, though admittedly Broussard had it worse. Sam doesn’t have to avoid such a long list of things, but he really has trouble with what he has to manage. And now I feel sorry for her. I can’t help but see her as having so much in common with our own witty, impudent, wacky kid. How hard her life must have been, and at the same tender age our child is now.

I wonder if I can do any better than this woman’s mother did — not just in making my child avoid his allergic foods, but in communicating that I am doing so in hopes that he will outgrow his food allergies. Can I somehow impart kindness and caring to my son, who is denied so many treats and experiences that his friends and classmates get to have? Is it part of life for allergic children to be resentful of their parents? Must this baseline frustration hinder him for life?

Being me, I couldn't let it go at that. I had to check Broussard's blog and find the original article.

What I found surprised me. Broussard's blog, The Blog of Failed Relationships, wasn't snarky or satirical or anti-allergy. Broussard was as thoughtful as Harmon and featured several postings sensitive to the community.

Her original article, moreover, was a piece in Harper's Magazine critically analyzing an advertisement run by FAAN, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

I've mentioned FAAN numerous times on this blog. I think it does good work and plays a crucial role in disseminating information about allergies.

Broussard, however, criticizes FAAN for scaring parents about the prevalence and seriousness of allergies, for creating the impression that large numbers of children are at risk of death through anaphylactic shock, and for overclose ties to the adrenalin injector industry.

Ironically, these accusations exactly parallel the ones normally hurled against the pharmaceutical industry or the dairy industry or any industry on the other side of the food advocacy groups.

Broussard does give FAAN some praise; it's not a general attack. She says that food allergies are real, just that the dangers are exaggerated and the press is complicit in making the dangers seem worse than they are.

That's a position near and dear to my heart, since it's one that I've been promulgating since I began this blog.

Both Harmon and Broussard are right in their approaches, their attacks, and their defenses. Too much exaggeration is a commonplace in the allergy world, just as too much derision is an everyday scourge that needs to be fought. More information, more balance, more understanding is needed on all sides.

Let's meet in the middle and make sure everyone gets what's at stake. Allergies are rising in number, in seriousness, and in the length of time they stay with children. Few allergies are deadly. Most require some vigilance in diet but little more and a relapse causes only discomfort. (Ditto for those with lactose intolerance.) The tiny minority who do have to screen the world for every speck of an allergen truly have a serious ailment, though, and should be afforded every respect and courtesy.

Let's keep the arguments on both sides as thoughtful as these and save the scorn for the silly and dangerous quackery, like homeopathy.

Nightmare Advice on Allergies

I write fantasy and science fiction professionally. Even so I swear I could never make anything up as wild as homeopathy.

Homeopathy is based on the ancient folklore of "like cures like." Practitioners take herbs that create symptoms superficially similar to those produced by a disease or ailment and then dilute them until nothing but water and a "memory" of the herb is left. This magically creates a cure.

You can therefore use homeopathy to cure just about anything that creates symptoms. Ricky Hussey in The American Chronicle want to cure eczema this way.

Treatment

Homeopathy Apis, Graphites, Pulsatilla, Rhus tox., and Sulfur may be helpful. Herbal Medicine Marigold tea, calendula ointment, or aloe vera gel are all helpful. Aromatherapy Add 12 drops of fennel, geranium, or sandalwood to 2fl oz/60ml of carrier oil.

Pulsatilla? It's "the weather cock among remedies." What? Huh? Even after reading this site I can't figure out what that's supposed to mean.

The disposition and mental state are the chief guiding symptoms to the selection of Pulsatilla. It is pre-eminently a female remedy, especially for mild, gentle, yielding disposition. Sad, crying readily; weeps when talking; Changeable, contradictory. The patient seeks the open air; always feels better there, even though he is chilly. Mucous membranes are all affected. Discharges thick, bland, and yellowish-green. Often indicated after abuse of Iron tonics, and after badly-managed measles. Symptoms ever changing. thirstless, peevish, and chilly. When first serious impairment of health is referred to age of puberty. Great sensitiveness. Wants the head high. Feels uncomfortable with only one pillow. Lies with hands above head.[bolding and punctuation as in original]

Wow. If this were the 60s, everybody would know what this guy was on, and they wouldn't think homeopathy.

What's even worse is that many, if not most, homeopathic pills are made out of lactose. The Organic Pharmacy dips its toe into the world of science.

Homeopathic products are very clean-meaning they have no binders, fillers or coatings. The soft molded lactose tablets are made to dissolve almost instantly when placed in the mouth. Because the remedies dissolve in the mouth, they are absorbed by the mucous membranes in the mouth and carried directly into your system. For this reason, the remedies work faster than conventional medicines because conventional medicines are usually coated and don't get absorbed into the system until the coating is dissolved by the stomach acid, and that generally takes about twenty minutes.

In standard, or allopathic, medicine, this is called sublingual administration. It can be very effective, but doctors and pharmacists will note that not every chemical works well this way, with some not mixing well with saliva or containing chemicals too large to be absorbed.

Besides, if lactose isn't a binder or filler, then what conceivable role does it play?

For even more evidence that homeopathists understand nothing of chemistry, here is another mind-busting statement from the pulsatilla site:

[Q.]Does anyone know if there can be a problem using the homeopathic tablets which are lactose tablets when a person is lactose intolerant?

[A.]Probably no problem. But if you wish you can disolve them in water further diluting any lactose content.

Dilution solves everything! Yay!

Lactose is lactose. The amount you take in counts. It doesn't matter if the amount is concentrated in a pill or spread through a glass of water. That same amount will enter your intestines.

This is absolutely the most basic chemistry of digestion. If the homeopaths don't know this, you shouldn't allow them or any of their products within a thousand feet of your intestines.

And I shouldn't have to tell you that people with serious dairy allergies will avoid any product that contains lactose in the first place.

Homeopathy is a nightmare of pseudoscience and its most ignorant peddlers are dangerous.

Read the Label. Read the Label. Always Read the Label.

I've spent countless hours in supermarket aisles reading the ingredients lists on products. It's tedious. It's bothersome. It's time-consuming. It's a pain.

Sure, it's so much easier to just pick up a familiar package, the one you've bought so many times before, and just put it in the cart. Why check again? Why bother?

Why bother putting on your seat belt every single time you get in the car?

Here's why you need to bother.

The UK firm Trufree makes biscuits - cookies to us in the U.S. - called custard creams. Despite the name, the custard creams used to be free of wheat, gluten, egg - and dairy.

But they changed the recipe to add milk. They said this on the package. Clearly. Contains milk is part of the ingredients list now.

People are people. They didn't check the ingredients. And some had allergic reactions.

Trufree will now put a separate "contains milk" sticker on the package, presumably on the front so it will hit customers between the eyeballs.

Read the label. Always. Please.

More about the problem along with contact information on the Trufree site.

Cloned Foods and Milk Safe, says FDA

"It is beyond our imagination to even find a theory that would cause the food to be unsafe."

With that statement summarizing the science on the issue, Stephen Sundlof, the chief food-safety expert at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) threw down the gauntlet to activists who are sure to find it within their imaginations to denounce the FDA. It is abandoning its "voluntary" moratorium on food and milk from the offspring of cloned cows, pigs and goats and allowing them to go to market as safe for human consumption.

A clone, no matter how many bad science fiction movies you've seen, is merely an identical twin. They are created by in vitro fertilization in the same way as many other animals these days. You won't even be eating clones, by the way. Only the offspring of clones will be entered into the food chain for consumption. The food will not need any special labels that call attention to its origination in a cloned ancestor.

You're sure to hear endless debate about the subject in the future, so let's start out with the actual science.




The Washington Post ran Selected Excerpts from Animal Cloning: A Risk Assessment January 2008

Center for Veterinary Medicine
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Conclusions Regarding Food Consumption Risks from Bovine Clones and their Progeny.

The simple summary is that the risks and problems are equivalent to those from any other form of breeding animals. (You might say that this is a reason not to eat animal-based foods, but that logic would also exclude plant material because of the known deaths from E. coli outbreaks in spinach and lettuce over the past year. And it would exclude raw milk because of similar problems.)

Here's the text for one item of specific interest: cloned milk:

Summary Statement on Composition of Milk from Clones

Several peer-reviewed studies describe the composition of milk from bovine clones. In addition to gross composition (percent solids, fat, protein, and lactose), some reports include a detailed analysis of fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, and in some cases, comparisons are made with previously published reference values for milk composition. These studies indicate that milk from cow clones is not significantly different in composition from milk from non-clones. Some minor differences have been identified in the composition of milk from clones compared to non-clones or reference values, but in each of these reports, the authors attribute the minor differences to diet, environmental conditions, small numbers of animals, and limited numbers of genotypes, rather than to cloning per se. None of these differences, however, indicate the presence of hazards that could pose food consumption risks, as they all fall within published historical values for milk. We therefore that milk derived from bovine clones does is not materially different from milk from milk from conventionally bred cattle.

For more information about the debate, the politics, and the sure-to-come reaction:

FDA to Back Food From Cloned Animals, by Rick Weiss, Washington Post Staff Writer.

Son of Frankenfood?, from The Economist magazine.

A cloned cheeseburger? Don't fire up the coals yet, by Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer.

Even though it looks like the U.S. will be the first nation to give official approval, Europe may not be far behind. An article by Dominique Patton on FoodProductionDaily.com says that:

Meat and dairy products from cloned animals are probably safe for human consumption, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in a draft opinion released on Friday.

"Based on current knowledge, there is no expectation that clones or their progeny would introduce any new food safety risks compared with conventionally bred animals," the preliminary report said.

It said that meat and milk obtained from healthy cattle and pig clones and their offspring are "within the normal range with respect to the composition and nutritional value of similar products obtained from conventionally bred animals".

Bunches of Dairy-Free Recipes

OK, I admit that at first glance, Cancer Center Recipes Just for You is not the most appealing come on I've ever seen.

Even so, click on "Recipe Search" when you get to that page. That'll bring up a screen that will allow you to search for only specific recipes in their database - only dairy-free or only vegan or only both, just for example.

The bunches pun in my title is there because the site is heavy on recipes containing fruits and vegetables. From that same search page, you can select which fruits and/or vegetables you want to make sure are in the recipes that are offered. When I ask it to give me vegan dairy-free recipes that contain cucumbers, I get five results.

You can play with the site for hours because hundreds of recipes are in the database.

With every sensible nutritionist (and even some of the crazy non-nutritionist diet gurus) recommending increased numbers of fruits and vegetables in our diets, a fruit and vegetable-based recipe resource is a great idea. Thanks to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center for the work they did in putting the site together.

More Soy Yogurt, English Style

Just a week ago I wrote that Turtle Mountain was launching a line of soy yogurts.

Now comes word that the UK firm Alpro is, guess what, launching a line of soy yogurts.

It's officially a trend! There'll be a cover story in Time within a week!

TalkingRetail.com is the enabler for Alpro's press release:

Alpro soya is launching the UK's first reduced calorie soya alternative to yogurt. The launch of Light yogurt follows the successful 2006 launch of Alpro soya Light reduced calorie soya milk.

Alpro is once again driving the dairy free category. “Dieting is still important to consumers, but their outlook has changed quite dramatically in recent years,” commented John Allaway, Alpro’s commercial director.

“Consumers no longer want faddy and extreme, ‘get thin quick’ diets but rather want to achieve good health through the consumption of products which have wider health benefits such as soya.”

“Alpro soya Light milk has been extremely popular. We want to expand on the success of it and give consumers what they want in terms of yogurt: the health benefits of soya, with less fat, sugar and calories, combined with great taste.

“We are confident that the Light yogurts will be a success and believe they will, like Alpro soya Light milk, help attract new consumers and grow the dairy free category.”

As well as being reduced in calories, the new Light yogurts are naturally low in saturated fat and are free from artificial colours, preservatives or sweeteners. Available in 4 x 125g packs containing 2xRaspberry/Blackberry and 2x Pineapple/Passionfruit varieties.

The Light yogurts will be available initially in Tesco and Waitrose, RRP is £1.59 and the launch will be supported by a high profile marketing campaign.

Chrysalis Dairy-Free Wheat-Free Cookies

Biochemist Linda Hardin, like many other mothers, needed to learn how to make wheat-free and dairy-free cookies for her children who had food allergies.

Unlike most she's trying to turn them into a business. She's just started an online store at www.doughgirlskitchen.com/, although www.chrysaliscookie.com redirects you to the same place.

To be precise, she doesn't sell cookies, she sells frozen cookie dough that you bake yourself. This allows her to use a commercial supplier to cut costs.


She's selling five varieties of cookies - Unbelievable Chocolate Chip, Old Fashioned Molasses, Very Vanilla Sugar, Granny's Chocolate Crinkles, and Chewy Cranberry Oatmeal - in batches of 3 dozen pre-portioned frozen dough pieces. The site doesn't technically go live until Jan. 28, but you get $3.00 off the normal $25.99 cost.

You can read more about Hardin in this article by Meg Dedolph in the Naperville Sun.

Caution Needed When Changing Child's Diet

Here's the kind of anecdotal story I run across or have emailed to me on a regular basis.

Everyone kept reassuring Nikki Sharp that her daughter had merely entered the terrible 2s a bit early.

Kylee was Sharp's first baby, but Sharp had been around toddlers before, and the fits she was seeing from the 18-month-old were out of the normal range.

"She'd wake up from naps and scream uncontrollably for an hour," said Sharp, 29.

And that's not all. "She couldn't focus," Sharp said. "Other toddlers could sit and watch at least half of 'Sesame Street,' but she was all over the place. I couldn't even sit her down to teach her anything."

That's when her husband, Ian, told her about some reading he'd done that indicated diet might affect children's behavior.

They pulled all things dairy. No milk, no yogurt, no cheese. They read labels to make sure they didn't give Kylee anything with casein, a milk protein commonly used in the food industry.

"Within 24 hours, we had a brand-new kid," Sharp said.

Now 23 months old, Kylee can focus. She's now able to concentrate, her learning abilities increased dramatically and her speech improved. The tantrums ended.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

And it may be the cure for your child as well. But as the rest of that Associated Press story shows, it may not be quite that simple. At the very least you have to approach the change in a knowing and thoughtful manner.

On the positive side is a pediatrician who has long advocated for dietary change.

Doris Rapp, a pediatric allergist based in Scottsdale and an author of eight books exploring hidden allergies and environmental toxicity, recommends that parents try a diet to eliminate foods that commonly cause sensitivities, as well as buy an air purifier to reduce toxic airborne chemicals, dust, mold and pollen.

"The pity is that they've put kids on drugs when in many cases, there's a fast, simple, easy and inexpensive answer," Rapp said.

Rapp, whose 1989 appearance on Phil Donahue's show is posted on YouTube, wrote about these issues in her 1992 book, Is This Your Child? The first customer review of the book on Amazon.com tells the story of a woman who read the book, eliminated dairy products from her son's diet, and reported that within 48 hours, the boy's increasingly evident symptoms of listlessness and depression lifted.

Rapp's book is available on the Kids & Parenting page in my Milk-Free Bookstore.


Is this good science or merely anecdotal evidence? Hard to say for sure.

[S]tudies are conflicting and varied. For each that indicates a link, another detects nothing. And critics argue that focusing on diet could prevent kids from getting the medication and other therapies they may legitimately need.

Michael Daines, a pediatric allergist at University Medical Center [in Tuscon], whose practice is skewed heavily toward food allergies, acknowledged that blaming diet for behavior remains controversial because there is little research to back it up.

...

"My standard advice for families who want to do diet modification is that it's OK as long as they're avoiding one or two things," he said. "If they start avoiding more than one or two things, the problem is that they can put their child at risk for nutritional deficiencies."

Secondly, he encourages families to get input from developmental pediatricians, who can have a more detached analysis of behavioral changes, and get comments from teachers and school officials who frequently interact with their child.

"Parents of children with autism and behavioral problems are desperate to find ways to help their children out, so they're easily convinced," Daines said. "Parents need to make sure what they think they're seeing is what they're actually seeing."

That last paragraph is crucial. Parents need to find someone who is objective enough to look past their desperation and ensure that any "help" given to their children is truly help. A succession of false "cures" can make a bad situation worse.

The number of children who cannot properly be diagnosed with milk protein allergies yet can benefit from the removal of dairy in the diet is small. Yet the difference for those few children can be dramatic. All I can hope is that the right children find this right solution.

Adding Vitamin D to a Nondairy Diet

One of the more interesting points I learned while researching Milk Is Not for Every Body: Living with Lactose Intolerance is that many scientists believe that lactose tolerance evolved because northern Europeans no longer were able to expose their bare skin regularly to the sun.

The reasoning is that sun exposure makes vitamin D. That vitamin aids in calcium absorption, which goes to making strong bones. Lack of sun exposure, therefore, leads to vitamin deficiency diseases of the bones like rickets and osteomalacia. (Quick technical note: vitamins are defined as vital substances only available in food. So if the body can directly make vitamin D, then perhaps it isn't really a vitamin. But if you can only get it from food... Definitions can drive you crazy.)

Anyway, those who could drink milk could gain calcium, which would help counter the effects of the loss of vitamin D. And there is some evidence, although it is disputed, that the presence of lactase in an adult improves calcium absorption when lactose is ingested. The result was genetic pressure to favor adult lactose producers as descendents of those few who naturally had the mutation that allowed them to never stop making lactose.

All this is still true today. Many older adults in the U.S. and in other northern latitudes do not get very much sun exposure on their bare skin for long months of the year if at all. Most calcium supplements today come with a variety that contains vitamin D.

And all milk in the U.S. is fortified with vitamin D, which makes dairy products an excellent nutritional source in multiple ways.

What if you don't eat or drink dairy and still want vitamin D from food sources rather than supplements?

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has an Office of Dietary Supplements. Who knew? It has a webpage that is a Vitamin D Fact Sheet full of information. Unless you want to go in directly for cod liver oil, the best sources of vitamin are fish like salmon and mackerel. Even canned tuna fish and sardines are good sources.

Some foods besides milk are also fortified with vitamin D. Certain soy milks, fruit juices, even breakfast cereals have good amounts of vitamin D.

Here's a good account of food sources from dietitians Carrie Cassens and Teresa Smith at the Sauk Valley newspaper site.

Note the warning that they give not to exceed 2000 IU of vitamin D a day. By comparison a capsule supplement often has 400 IU a day.

Sign of the Apocalypse

Man, does this stuff sound tasty. And healthy.

The products are dairy free with no wheat or wheat gluten and they are approved by the British Association of Holistic Nutrition and Medicine.

Horne said: "We only use the best quality grain, brown rice and oats.

"I didn’t want to skimp on any of the ingredients."

They're also free of free of "preservatives, additives, flavourings, added salt or sugar."

Does this make you want to try some?

Ain't for you, sweetheart. This is dog food. Literally. Healthy Paws dog treats.

Check it out. LiverpoolDailyPost.co.uk.

And don't write to tell me how much you love your dogs and how they're just like family unless you actually feed your family this well.

Even Cruises Cater to the LI

Hey, I guess we've made the big time, culinarily speaking.

Caroline Costello on CruiseCritic.com, in something that feels like than a critical review and more like something I honestly thought at first was a press release, raves about the chefs on Princess Cruises.

At Chef's Table, passengers can chat with the chef while he cooks the night's meal as they snack on hors d'oeuvres and cocktails in the galley. Participants then dine on a special multi-course menu, served only at Chef's Table, and sample wine in a designated area of the ship's main dining room. Dessert is served with a side of conversation as the chef rejoins the group to answer questions and share cooking secrets.

The executive chef on each ship selects from several pre-designed Chef's Table menus and may make changes based on seasonal ingredients and the location of the ship. Vegetarian and lactose intolerant cruisers needn't feel left out -- other menu alterations are made in accordance with passengers' dietary needs.

Hooray for us.

Hooray for the wealthier of us, at least. Not only do these pampered passengers at the Chef's Tables have to book extra early because they all sell out, but the cost is an additional $75 per person -- for one night of the cruise.

Money. If you could just eat it, why would you settle for anything else.

No Evidence That Avoiding Foods While Breastfeeding Prevents Allergies

Women whose infants have known milk protein allergies or whose families have known allergies are properly told to avoid drinking milk themselves while breastfeeding. Milk proteins from the food can travel through the bloodstream and enter the breast milk, triggering allergic responses in the infants.

This advice has been widely disseminated in recent years. Perhaps too widely. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is afraid that women whose infants have no such allergies may be denying themselves foods out of fear of triggering allergies, even when those are unlikely.

In fact, the AAP feels this is such a problem that it has issued updated guidelines that reassure nursing mothers that no good evidence exists that avoiding certain trigger foods will prevent allergies from occurring.

Carla Johnson of the Associated Press reported the new policy in a story that I'm glad to see was widely covered. (The link goes to the Houston Chronicle, which reprints more of the article than some other newspapers.)

In August 2000, the doctors group advised mothers of infants with a family history of allergies to avoid cow's milk, eggs, fish, peanuts and tree nuts while breast-feeding.

That advice, along with a recommended schedule for introducing certain risky foods, left some moms and dads blaming themselves if their children went on to develop allergies.

"They say, 'I shouldn't have had milk in my coffee,'" said Dr. Scott Sicherer of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Jaffe Food Allergy Institute in New York. "I've been saying, 'We don't really have evidence that it causes a problem. Don't be on a guilt trip about it.'"

Mothers of high risk infants should still breast feed exclusively for at least the first four months, though.

The study is in the journal Pediatrics. You can read the full text online at Effects of Early Nutritional Interventions on the Development of Atopic Disease in Infants and Children: The Role of Maternal Dietary Restriction, Breastfeeding, Timing of Introduction of Complementary Foods, and Hydrolyzed Formulas by Frank R. Greer, MD, Scott H. Sicherer, MD, A. Wesley Burks, MD and the Committee on Nutrition and Section on Allergy and Immunology. PEDIATRICS Vol. 121 No. 1 January 2008, pp. 183-191 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-3022)

Here's the Summary:

It is evident that inadequate study design and/or a paucity of data currently limit the ability to draw firm conclusions about certain aspects of atopy prevention through dietary interventions. In some circumstances in which there are insufficient studies (pregnancy and lactation avoidance diets, timing of introduction of specific complementary foods), the lack of proven efficacy does not indicate that the approach is disproved. Rather, more studies would be needed to clarify whether there is a positive or negative effect on atopy outcomes. The following statements summarize the current evidence within the context of these limitations.

1. At the present time, there is lack of evidence that maternal dietary restrictions during pregnancy play a significant role in the prevention of atopic disease in infants. Similarly, antigen avoidance during lactation does not prevent atopic disease, with the possible exception of atopic eczema, although more data are needed to substantiate this conclusion.

2. For infants at high risk of developing atopic disease, there is evidence that exclusive breastfeeding for at least 4 months compared with feeding intact cow milk protein formula decreases the cumulative incidence of atopic dermatitis and cow milk allergy in the first 2 years of life.

3. There is evidence that exclusive breastfeeding for at least 3 months protects against wheezing in early life. However, in infants at risk of developing atopic disease, the current evidence that exclusive breastfeeding protects against allergic asthma occurring beyond 6 years of age is not convincing.

4. In studies of infants at high risk of developing atopic disease who are not breastfed exclusively for 4 to 6 months or are formula fed, there is modest evidence that atopic dermatitis may be delayed or prevented by the use of extensively or partially hydrolyzed formulas, compared with cow milk formula, in early childhood. Comparative studies of the various hydrolyzed formulas have also indicated that not all formulas have the same protective benefit. Extensively hydrolyzed formulas may be more effective than partially hydrolyzed in the prevention of atopic disease. In addition, more research is needed to determine whether these benefits extend into late childhood and adolescence. The higher cost of the hydrolyzed formulas must be considered in any decision-making process for their use. To date, the use of amino acid–based formulas for atopy prevention has not been studied.

5. There is no convincing evidence for the use of soy-based infant formula for the purpose of allergy prevention.

6. Although solid foods should not be introduced before 4 to 6 months of age, there is no current convincing evidence that delaying their introduction beyond this period has a significant protective effect on the development of atopic disease regardless of whether infants are fed cow milk protein formula or human milk. This includes delaying the introduction of foods that are considered to be highly allergic, such as fish, eggs, and foods containing peanut protein.

7. For infants after 4 to 6 months of age, there are insufficient data to support a protective effect of any dietary intervention for the development of atopic disease.

8. Additional studies are needed to document the long-term effect of dietary interventions in infancy to prevent atopic disease, especially in children older than 4 years and in adults.

9. This document describes means to prevent or delay atopic diseases through dietary changes. For a child who has developed an atopic disease that may be precipitated or exacerbated by ingested proteins (via human milk, infant formula, or specific complementary foods), treatment may require specific identification and restriction of causal food proteins. This topic was not reviewed in this document.

Food Pyramid Modernized for Older Adults

We're all getting older, some of us precipitously. Our bodies don't function as well as they did when we were younger and we process and digest food differently as well. That's means that the recommendations for a so-called healthy diet also have to change.

The researchers over at Tufts University who take care of such things have issued a report in the January issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults by Alice H. Lichtenstein, Helen Rasmussen, Winifred W. Yu, Susanna R. Epstein and Robert M. Russell. J. Nutr. 138:5-11, January 2008.

Abstract

In 1999 we proposed a Modified Food Guide Pyramid for adults aged 70+ y. It has been extensively used in a variety of settings and formats to highlight the unique dietary challenges of older adults. We now propose a Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults in a format consistent with the MyPyramid graphic. It is not intended to substitute for MyPyramid, which is a multifunctional Internet-based program allowing for the calculation of individualized food-based dietary guidance and providing supplemental information on food choices and preparation. Pedagogic issues related to computer availability, Web access, and Internet literacy of older adults suggests a graphic version of MyPyramid is needed. Emphasized are whole grains and variety within the grains group; variety and nutrient density, with specific emphasis on different forms particularly suited to older adults' needs (e.g. frozen) in the vegetables and fruits groups; low-fat and non-fat forms of dairy products including reduced lactose alternatives in the milk group; low saturated fat and trans fat choices in the oils group; and low saturated fat and vegetable choices in the meat and beans group. Underlying themes stress nutrient- and fiber-rich foods within each group and food sources of nutrients rather than supplements. Fluid and physical activity icons serve as the foundation of MyPyramid for Older Adults. A flag to maintain an awareness of the potential need to consider supplemental forms of calcium, and vitamins D and B-12 is placed at the top of the pyramid. Discussed are newer concerns about potential overnutrition in the current food landscape available to older adults.

Laurie Barkley at MedScape gives the play by play:

The Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults specifically emphasizes whole grains; variety within the grains group; variety and nutrient density; vegetables and fruits particularly suited to older adults' needs, such as frozen foods; low-fat and nonfat dairy products including reduced lactose alternatives in the milk group; low saturated fat and trans fat choices in the oils group; and low saturated fat and vegetable options in the meat and beans group.

The underlying principles of the Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults include focus on nutrient- and fiber-rich foods within each group, recommending food sources of nutrients rather than supplements, and use of fluid and physical activity icons. The base of the pyramid has a row of glasses to remind older adults that it is crucial to remain well hydrated. In the second row, pictures of various physical activities emphasize the need for regular physical activity, which is of vital importance given the high prevalence of physical inactivity in older adults.

And, quoting one of the study's authors:

"The advantages of MyPyramid compared with the original Food Guide Pyramid are that the guidance is delivered in terms of household measures, is accompanied by tips on how to achieve the recommended goal, presents food group serving suggestions in terms of total intake per day, and provides tips on altering standard recipes to limit added sugars, utilizing the information available on food labels and adhering to food safety standards," write Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, from the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues. "Despite these benefits, the updated system presents unique challenges for older adults. This group of individuals has less access and familiarity with computers than their younger counterparts and a lower comfort level for deriving computer-based information."

Click here for a larger, more readable version of the pyramid.

A Turtle Mountain of Soy Yogurt

I just wrote about the Turtle Mountain lines of nondairy soy frozen desserts a month ago. Now they're back in the news again.

With a brand new line of nondairy soy yogurts under the SoDelicious brand name.

Comes in Blueberry; Cinnamon Bun, Peach, Raspberry; and Vanilla flavors.

Yep, they're vegan. And a whole bunch of other things.

► Dairy Free Lactose Free
► Certified made with Organic Ingredients
► Excellent source of Vitamin B12 (vegetarian friendly)
► All natural, made with organic soy milk
► Formulated for maximum calcium absorption
► Contains Pre- and Probiotics for enhanced intestinal health
► Cholesterol Free
► No Trans Fats

You can request a coupon for the new yogurts and the other Turtle Mountain products on this page.

An Apple a Day

So why do Canadians get to have all the fun these days?

Their dollar is beating our like a rented mule and they get to have interesting looking books on food that aren't available in the U.S.

Marilyn Linton, in the Toronto Sun, wrote an article on An Apple a Day, a new book by chemistry professor Joe Schwarcz.



Schwarcz does exactly what I want a scientist to do. He looks at the claims behind food and examines them for their validity. Hooray, may I say.

From apples to fish to olive oil and milk, Schwarcz examines the results of studies that claim benefit or harm. He investigates artificial sweeteners, food fortification, trans-fats and hormones in meat and weighs the results of small and large, famous and infamous studies -- all the while asking, "where is the evidence?" that backs up something's claim of providing benefit or doing harm.

Here's what's killing me. The book is only available from the Canadian version of Amazon (linked to above).

Dr. Joe apparently has written a whole bunch of other fascinating-looking books on the chemistry behind everyday life, including food-centric titles like That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life and Let Them Eat Flax!: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Science of Everyday Food & Life, neither of which are in my local library system.

Boo and hiss.

C'mon, Canada. I know we're a backward second-rate country now, but let us have some crumbs from the cookie for old times' sake.

Food Advice During Pregnancy

A pair of articles appeared today with pertinent advice for those who are currently pregnant. I'll just excerpt the parts that are most relevant.

What Does Your First Trimester Diet Contain? by Apurva Shree in The American Chronicle.

Lots of carbohydrates, protein, iron, calcium, and fibers are what you need at this time. This is the time to substitute refined fats and sugars with diary products brimming with protein and calcium. If you are lactose-intolerant, go for beans, tofu, corn tortillas, fresh fruits, and dark green leafy vegetables. In addition to this, you need to drink about 6-8 glasses of water everyday, to fulfill your requirement of fluid during pregnancy. However, this doesn’t mean that you gulp down cups of tea, coffee, and soda. It’s plain water that’s healthy.

Experts bust the nine biggest myths about what to expect. by Alonna Friedman in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

MYTH 4: Cut out the cheese

True! Well, you don't have to ban all cheeses. Some kinds, such as Cheddar and Swiss, are innocuous because they have been pasteurized. It's the soft, unpasteurized products such as brie, feta and goat cheese that might carry food-borne illnesses. If you're lucky, the market you frequent will carry pasteurized versions -- just start looking at labels more often. And then you can still enjoy your crackers with cheese.

Lactofree To Be TV Star

Today you can't get through a comedy without somebody making a lactose intolerance joke. (Fart humor is as old as time. I'm sure there's some graffiti in hieroglyphics on it.) Yet when I learned I was LI in 1978, I had never heard the term before.

So what happened in between? Well, in 1990 DairyEase entered the lactase and lactose-free markets to compete with Lactaid. For a couple of years the two companies blitzed television with $10 million ad campaigns. You don't think advertising works? Here's proof to the contrary. Although DairyEase was never to be more than a distant second to Lactaid in market share, the whole of the American audience now knows the term "lactose intolerance."

The UK has long been behind the U.S. is LI awareness. That might change soon, and for the same reason.

Arla Foods for the first time is going to do tv ads for its lactose-free milk called Lactofree. Those ads will be just part of a £3m cross-media campaign.



Nikki Sandison of BrandRepublic.com wrote:

The TV spot will be supported by a number of print ads in women's consumer titles, as well as advertorials that will include an elimination diet challenge and lactose-free recipes using Lactofree.

Digital agency Outside Line will revamp the Lactofree website to include a new Community Hub section.

Lactofree's PR agency, Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster, will launch a nationwide Lactofree cafe, offering samples of hot teas and coffees using Lactofree at major supermarkets.

Over at TalkingRetail.com, they said that Arla has more plans for the fast-growing Lactofree brand:

2007 saw the brand grow by 185.20% and Lactofree has recently launched in Ireland and just announced that it will be stocked in Somerfield - in addition to the other leading supermarkets.

Of course, that huge rise is building from a very tiny base. I announced the introduction of Lactofree only two years ago.

Just a reminder. Whenever you see a percentage in the article, think twice. Large percentage growth almost always means that a tiny thing has become a little bigger, not that some big thing has become huge.

Milk-Hearted Stout

On New Year's Day I skipped the endless bowl games for a marathon on Turner Classic Movies, with all three of the That's Entertainment! clip shows from the vaults of MGM and a special prize of That's Dancing! as well. Movie buff heaven. Somewhere in the middle of That's Entertainment II appeared Nelson Eddy in New Moon, yet another historical mish-mosh, this one set in Louisiana and Martinique. Eddy is the Duc de Villiers, temporarily enslaved until a shipwreck, when he emerges as leader, needing to rally his troops. And what better troop rallier could there be than for him to burst out in song? This song: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/Who will fight for the right they adore.

(I have to admit that when we were kids, we modified the lyrics slightly into: Give me some men who are stout-hearted men/And we'll show you some men who are fat. Belated apologies to Nelson Eddy, and the considerably classy composing team of Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, Laurence Schwab, and Sigmund Romberg, giants all.)

Puns are in the air (remember "Love Is In the Air" by John Paul Young? Bet you don't.) and I can't help throwing a title of Milk-hearted Stout over the whole subject, the subject being the weird brewing process of adding lactose to beer.

Blame it all on Ferocious Fred, the name of the sweet porter brewed by Steve Urwin, the head brewer at High House Farm Brewery near Matfen, and named in honor of the original ferocious Fred, a very nasty bull.

The beer is somewhat milder:

Steve describes the nose as having chocolaty roasted, nutty toffee and spicy notes while the ale itself has a full bodied, smooth almost velvet texture.

So called sweet or milk porter/stout became popular in the years following the Second World War, but started to die out towards the end of the 20th century.

Now High House is leading a revival of interest in this nourishing stout which used to be prescribed for new mothers and invalids.

Milk stout is made from the addition of lactose to the beer, which gives it added body, sweetness and calories.

...

"The new beer is a delicious very dark porter, with a chocolaty flavour and a pleasing sweetness," said Steve.

"We wanted to create something a bit different for winter and Christmas this year, and decided on an old fashioned sweet porter, which we hope our customers will enjoy."

Milk stouts are coming back into favor in this country as well. Almost two years ago, I posted Lactose in Beer? which links to several American sources of the brew.

Salud!

There's Lactose in All Animal Milks, Dummy!

Over thousands of years, human cultures around the world have turned to large animals for milk. Not just cows, but horses, water buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, reindeer and many more mammals have been the choice for milking.

And they all share one major thing in common. They all have lactose in their milk. In fact, they all have about the same amount of lactose, some three to four perfect. See my Lactose Zoo for exact percentages.

There are a few mammals whose milk doesn't contain lactose (or very tiny quantities of it). Those are the primitive mammals like the platypus, which evolved before lactose did, and the large sea mammals like seals, which traded lactose for more fat for extra energy.

All the animals used for milking have about the same amount of lactose in their milks as cows do.

This is pretty simple to find out. There's my page for one, and any number of other lactose percentage charts can be found through the internet.

So why do the new agey-style idiots Suzy Grant -billed as an "expert nutritional therapist"! and Dr. Henry Clover, chief dental advisor for Denplan, who should be capable of some medical research, say this nonsense on FemaleFirst.co.uk?

Low fat milk and cheese: Calcium-rich for teeth and bones. If you are lactose-intolerant find alternatives made from ewe, goat or buffalo milk.

Is there something wrong with the entire British educational system?

I'll say it again. Ewe, goat, and buffalo milk have almost exactly the same percentage of lactose as cow's milk does. Nobody who is intolerant to the lactose in cow's milk should be drinking this milk.

Please, will somebody in that country get this right?

Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes

Who releases a new book on New Year's Day? That's not the marketing strategy I would use.

On the other hand, it got instant response from my blog on an otherwise slow news day, so maybe they had a good idea.



The book in question is Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes: More Than 100 Mouth-Watering Recipes for the Whole Family (A Cook's Bible) by Grace Cheetham. A hardback with a list price of $19.95, this appears to be Cheetham's first book.

Book Description

The number of people affected by allergies and intolerances continues to escalate dramatically: as much as 35% of the population suffers from food-related problems. And those who can’t eat bread, cakes, pasta, cheese, milk, or butter are in desperate need a cookbook that will provide them with truly delicious wheat- and dairy-free recipes. Here it is, with 100 mouthwatering dishes that everyone will love. The chicken and herb risotto, for example, is so luscious and rich, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered with parmesan, while the berry and almond tart tastes like real pasty…even without wheat. With everything from simple breakfasts and quick lunches to stunning dinners suitable for entertaining, no one need ever miss out on great food again.