LI Celebrity Alert: Corinne Brown

Rep. Corinne Brown (D-Fla.) is one of us.

What food can you not eat under any circumstances?

I wasn’t raised that way. I pretty much eat everything. I can’t eat ice cream except when I’m at home. I’m lactose-intolerant.

Catsip for Cats

A syndicated article by Dr. Marty Becker, McClatchy-Tribune reminded me of a product I haven't been reminded about in years.


CatSip is a lactose-free lowfat milk for cats, although dogs can have it as well. It's made by AKPharma, run by Alan Kligerman, the man who created Lactaid. They remove the lactose with the lactase enzyme, just like regular lactose-free milk for humans.

Dr. Becker wrote:

CatSip also has the amino acid Taurine added which is essential to healthy feline hearts and eyes. Once opened, the product (which is also dog approved) must be refrigerated to last as long as regular milk.

Go to the CatSip home page for more information.

Or you can reach their customer service hotline at 1-800-994-4711 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST Monday-Friday, or email them at prbetty@akpharma.com.

AkPharma Inc.
PO Box 111
Pleasantville, NJ 08232

My Wall Gets Dented Yet Again

Miscellaneous ignorance about lactose from around the net.

First, a reader's comment from the East Bay Express:

What the heck is "Culinary Cream," why is it low-potassium when most Americans are potassium-deficient, and since when are so many Americans lactose-intolerant in the first place? (Is it the lactose, or the bovine growth hormones?

First, "Culinary cream" is a standard institutional cream-substitute made with neutral-flavored starches to help it resist high heat and give it a longer shelf life. It's not very surprising that a hospital kitchen would use it in place of real cream.

Second, although Americans don't eat as much potassium as recommended, very few healthy Americans are potassium-deficient.

Third, and to the point of this blog, lactose intolerance is an innate genetic condition. It cannot be changed by diet and it has nothing to do with bovine growth hormones.

And if that's not enough, here's yet another example of a writer who doesn't bother to read his or her own article.

It's by E.J. Mundell in the Burlington Free Press:

Lactose-intolerant individuals should still be able to consume skim or lactate-free varieties of milk, or they can turn to fortified non-dairy products.

Lactose-free varieties of milk. Lactose intolerance is intolerance of lactose. Not lactate, which is an entirely different chemical that bothers no one with lactose intolerance. How can you confuse the two in the very same sentence?

Hello, wall. I'll be with you in a second.

Moms - and Docs - Say: Eat Your Vegetables

Many of us with lactose intolerance don't get our calcium from dairy products. Plant calcium is a good alternative source. But that means eating vegetables, an activity Americans value about as much as they do dollar coins.

Mirandi Hitti reported on WebMD.com on a major study from Johns Hopkins University researchers that said we're eating fewer vegetables now than even a few years ago. (Casagrande, S. American Journal of Public Health, April 2007; vol 32.)

That's right: all the people turning vegetarians and the strive for five campaigns and emphasis on diet has backfired. We're doing worse.

Johns Hopkins University's Tiffany Gary, PhD, and colleagues reviewed data from two national health surveys.

The first survey, conducted from 1988 to 1994, included nearly 15,000 U.S. adults. The second survey, done between 1999 and 2002, included about 8,900 U.S. adults.

In both, participants reported everything they had eaten during the previous 24 hours. Then researchers checked how many people met these goals:

• Two or more servings of fruit, including fresh fruit, dried fruit, and 100% fruit juice
  
  
• Three or more servings of vegetables (fried potatoes count).

The result:

Fruit consumption basically stayed the same while vegetable consumption dropped slightly, note the researchers.

In addition, vegetable eaters appear to be in a bit of a rut. They tended to eat several servings of the same vegetable, showing little dietary diversity.

In each survey, only 11% met both goals.

Fried potatoes count? And we're still doing worse?

Give me strength. Literally. I need it to bang my head against the wall.

OK, that does it. You asked for it. We're down to desperate measures.

Tomorrow we talk about the new food pryamid.

Lactose-Free Ice Cream in Canada

Allison emailed me to let me know about the Our Compliments Lactose Free Ice Cream that is available in Canada.



She said that:

I noticed your list does not contain my favourite Lactose Free Ice Cream made by "Our Compliments" and distributed through Sobeys and IGA in three flavours.

Mango, Chocolate Brownie, and French Vanilla.

She also said that:

With regards to Natrel milk – It is being distributed by Scotsburn and is available throughout their distribution network. I live in Nova Scotia and it is in the stores here.

Thanks, Allison. I'll add this brand to my web site as well.

More Food Hysteria

Poor ol' milk. It's really taking a beating these days. At least from people whose fear of science seems to be equal to their ignorance of it.

I talked about this a few days ago in Another Victory for Ignorance.

Now comes the latest bit of hysteria. Milk from...

{ominous music}


... cloned cows.



The evidence comes from an article Milk from cloned cows may soon appear in a dairy case near you, by Celeste Kennel-Shank and Zena McFadden of the Medill News Service that I found online at the Chicago Defender website.

[C]onsumers buying milk produced by cloned cows or their offspring won't know it because, on Dec. 28, the FDA announced that products from cloned animals are safe to eat.

Products from cloned animals would not be specially labeled because the FDA does not view them as different products, the agency states on its Web site. "There is no science-based reason to use labels to distinguish between milk derived from clones and that from conventional animals."

Yes, that does seem to be the opinion of everyone in the scientific community. But fear of science is everywhere. Life isn't perfect, there's e-coli in the spinach, and science is to blame.

[G]rocery store clerk Devyn Slemp of Sycamore said she wouldn't buy milk from cloned animals. "I would be kind of afraid to drink it."

Thinking most consumers agree with Slemp, several dairy processing companies have said they will not buy milk from cloned cows even if the FDA approves its sale. The largest U.S. milk processor and distributor, Dean Foods Co. of Dallas, announced Feb. 23 that it won't buy milk that has come from cloned cows. Dean also owns Land O'Lakes and Horizon Organic.

The makers of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, based in Vermont, oppose using milk from cloned animals, and are advocating against it on the company Web site.

To be fair, here is the Ben & Jerry's anti-clone page. Some concerns are mentioned near the bottom, but no actual evidence against milk from cloned animals is given.

What you do find prominently on the page is fear. Fear that something is happening not in peoples' control. Fear of something new. Fear of science.

Back to the original article:

Whether the cause for concern is real or due to fear has yet to be seen. "We need to be careful about hysteria about the unknown," said Rex Chisholm, director of the Center for Genetic Medicine at Northwestern University. "A lot of times when we make genetic changes we get unintended consequences," he said. "Our lives are full of unintended consequences."

Studies of public opinion on animal cloning and the food supply documented by the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University suggests that the word cloning conjures up negative ideas of science fiction. Research indicates that most people know little about the science of cloning.

Chisholm thinks people should have more confidence in the process. If you handed over a glass of milk and "told me this is milk from a cloned cow, I wouldn't think twice about drinking it," he said.

Humans have been manipulating the genes in food for thousands of years, Chisholm said. Long before people knew what genes were, they selectively reproduced the plants and animals they preferred, altering their gene pools, he said. Current breeding techniques to reproduce prized cattle and bulls are not far from cloning, he added.

Although Chisholm supports use of the products, he is in favor of labeling the food from cloned or genetically modified animals, unlike the FDA. "When people use the products and find out they are no different than anything else, this whole thing will go away," he said.

Maybe. I don't believe it, but maybe.

You can have a say in all this. The FDA is accepting comments from the public through April 2. Go to the Draft Animal Cloning Risk Assessment Comment Page and click on "Submit Comment."


For more information, go to the FDA's Animal Cloning FAQ page or go here for the full report in .pdf format or here for a nine-page .pdf summary.

Lactose-Free Statins

Many people who take statin drugs to help lower their cholesterol suffer from muscle pains that the drugs cause.

An article in the Jerusalem Post quotes Prof. Jeff Aronson, clinical reader in clinical pharmacology, University of Oxford, UK, on a new statin drug Ezetrol (ezetimibe) that may lower that risk and may also be lactose-free:

Simvacor is simvastatin, one of a group of drugs (the statins) that inhibit an important enzyme in the synthesis of cholesterol, reducing its production. They can all cause muscle stiffness, pain and tenderness, although the risks are different with different statins. In rare cases there can be severe muscle damage. Ezetrol is ezetimibe, which lowers cholesterol by a different mechanism: It reduces its absorption from the gut. There have been a few anecdotal reports that ezetimibe can also cause muscle damage, but because it is a much newer drug, it is impossible to say at present what the risk is and whether it is less than with the statins. It may be that someone who has had muscle pain from a statin is at a higher risk of muscle pain from ezetimibe, but there is currently no information about that.

You should ask your doctor to see whether this might be a possibility for you, but there is always more risk with newer drugs because they lack the wide usage that brings out previously unknown problems like muscle pains.

GoDairyFree Monthly Food Prize

The ever-busy Alisa Fleming of GoDairyFree.org has a new promotion happening at her site.

Here's the whole press release:

Las Vegas, NV, March 16, 2007 --(PR.COM)-- The informational website, www.GoDairyFree.org has launched a monthly prize giveaway within their line up of new offerings. Each month one newsletter subscriber is chosen at random to receive a gift package from the sponsoring food company. All prizes are dairy-free, and many are also vegan, gluten-free, kosher certified, and/or food allergy friendly.

“Our goal is to provide dairy-free, vegan, and special diet consumers with as many great food options as possible. We thought monthly prize giveaways would be a fun way to introduce some of the specialty food manufacturers,” said Alisa Fleming, the website’s founder and author of the book “Dairy Free Made Easy.”

The March prize will be provided by Divvies, a producer of food allergy-friendly cupcakes, cookies, candy, and popcorn. Divvies’ product line is vegan, kosher certified, and free of dairy, eggs, tree nuts, and peanuts. Nonetheless, these Disney World approved treats will likely please all sweets cravings and partygoers, food allergy or not. The drawing for the Divvies prize will occur on March 19. If you do not enter in time, just use the coupon code DairyFree10 at www.Divvies.com to purchase any of their goodies at 10% off.

Future monthly giveaways seem to be equally enticing. On tap for April is Namaste Foods (www.namastefoods.com), purveyors of gluten-free, dairy-free pasta and baking mixes. Their products are also vegan, kosher-certified, and free of several food allergens including soy, corn, and nuts. For May, NoNuttin’ Foods (www.nonuttin.com) of Canada will make a prize offering from among their selection of natural granola bars, snacks, and baking ingredients.

The Go Dairy Free newsletter is sent out once per month with recipes, nutrition news, product reviews, and special offers. Visit www.GoDairyFree.org to register. Newsletter sign-up requires only a valid email address, so that the winner may be reached successfully.

Go Dairy Free was created as a central resource for special diet consumers. Reader feedback, ratings, and comments are welcome throughout the website. "Dairy Free Made Easy," a limited run publication, is currently available to purchase directly from www.GoDairyFree.org, or via www.Amazon.com.

Lactose-Free Congratulations

Lactose-Free congratulations go to Valarie Watson, who was recently selected as one of 10 finalists in the dessert category of Johnson & Wales University's National High School Chef of the Year competition, from among 725 entrants.

According to Jason Beck's article in the Dunn, NC, Daily Record:

With inspiration from Chef Pearl, she created the masterpiece that earned her a spot in the competition - the banana-flavored, lactose-free panna cotta with almond lace cookie.

An Italian dessert featuring gelatin, bananas, strawberries, chocolate hearts and a twisted cookie, the panna cotta has visual appeal. Judges selected which students would advance to the final round after viewing pictures of the dish, nutrition information and ingredients.

...

Valarie chose her dessert for another reason: She is lactose intolerant.

Though the soy-milk dessert is not exactly a staple of Southern culture, Chef Pearl said many of his students enjoyed the unique creation after some persuasion.

"When we finally got some of the students to try it, they actually liked it," he said.

Obviously the judges were impressed as well.

She'll know very soon how well she does in the finals: they're held tomorrow (3/17). The rest of us will probably have to wait to find out until they are shown on Food TV, which they will be at a yet unscheduled time.

[Update]

Valarie Watson was first runner-up in the dessert category and the winner of a $7,500 renewable tuition scholarship.