PETA Embarrasses Vegans - Again

Will PETA ever stop? December 2007. PETA News That Sounds Like a Joke. September 2008. PETA Outsillies Itself.

The latest piece of idiocy? A campaign to rename fish Sea Kittens. You see, people won't eat kittens, so if they thought of fish as kitties...

This isn't even a good joke. Want a good joke? Well, if you rename fish as sea kittens, then what you do call caviar? Sea kitten puppies!

Boycott PETA. Don't send them a penny of your money. This has to end. Do it now.

Calcium-Fortified Lettuce?

Americans don't get enough of any nutrient, except possibly fat. Calcium is one that all studies agree that Americans of all ages, from teens on up, don't get enough of. So food chemists are putting calcium into all sorts of foods. Orange juice. Breakfast cereals. Soy milk. Bread. Water.

But lettuce?

Apparently. Food scientists Sunghun Park and Mark P. Elless think lettuce is the perfect vegetable for the purpose.

A new generation of calcium-biofortified lettuce is possible. Lettuce is an attractive choice for calcium biofortification. It is rich in vitamin K, and its daily consumption significantly reduces the risk of hip fractures in women compared to women who consumed lettuce at a lower rate. Therefore, the enhancement of calcium in lettuce could provide synergistic benefits to osteoporosis prevention. A large portion of women in the United States eat lettuce daily, suggesting calcium-biofortified lettuce for the prevention of osteoporosis would be consumed by a large target audience.

How in the world do you add calcium to lettuce?

One way to alter the calcium content in fruits and vegetables is to directly engineer these foods with calcium transporters. Simplistically, this strategy can be thought of as nutrient mining (biofortification)—where the nutrient is transported from soil into the edible portions of the plant. Specifically, a potential model for increasing the calcium content in edible foods would be to engineer plant endomembrane transporters to transport more calcium. The Ca2+/H+ antiporters, termed CAX (for cation exchangers), located on the vacuolar membrane, are important for calcium sequestration. This discovery led to an engineered version of a plant Ca2+/H+ antiporter, sCAX1, which could be used for calcium biofortification.

Clear?

Whatever this means, the authors say it's applicable to other vegetables as well. Skipping the supplements and getting more calcium directly from good foods might be a way out of the huge calcium hole we've dug ourselves into.

A-Soy WIC Eligible

A press release announced the WIC eligibility of a lactose-free adult nutritional product.

A-Soy, a soy adult nutritional beverage specially formulated for people who are lactose intolerant, cow’s milk allergic, or who prefer a vegetarian diet, is now federal WIC eligible. Developed by PBM Products, LLC, A-Soy is a great-tasting source of balanced nutrition for people older than 10 years of age through life, is free of lactose, milk (animal protein), cholesterol, trans fats, and gluten.

There's also a children's pediatric version.

"A-Soy was developed based on the success and popularity of our Bright Beginnings™ Soy Pediatric Drink, which received an international award for being the top new pediatric nutritional beverage for children younger than 10 years old," said PBM CEO Paul B. Manning. "Developing a similar soy drink for adults and people older than 10 years was the next logical step."

For more information, go to their website.

Win a Free Dairy-Free Cookbook

Last week I mentioned that Alisa Fleming of GoDairyFree.org put out an updated Go Dairy Free Diet & Health Journal.

That's available as a free download. Alisa has other publications but just like me she's forced to make you pay for them to provide some return for all the work, time, and cost that goes into them. We authors lead a hard life.

But wait. What if you could, you know, get her big book, Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living, free?

Sound good? Then get on over to the No Whey Mama blog. Sarah's blog is billed as "Writings, Recipes, and Links about Parenting a Dairty-Allergic Child and Her Siblings," so it probably has a lot many of you would be interested in anyway.

But this week Sarah is holding a contest.

Alisa has very kindly agreed to a Go Dairy Free giveaway here on No Whey, Mama. So let's do it! Leave me a comment telling me why you'd like a copy of Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living before 12 midnight EST on Friday, January 16, and you will be entered to win. I'll do a random drawing over the weekend and announce the winner by Monday, January 19.

It would be cool if somebody here were to win, completing the circle. Be sure to let me know if you do.

Non-Dairy Toffees

As a chocoholic myself, I love telling people about lactose-free chocolates.

My latest find is a new line of non-dairy and lactose-free toffees from Manhattan Chocolates.

What appears to be a press release was published on the New Jersey Jewish Standard.

Manhattan Chocolates, Inc., a division of Bayonne-based Kedem Food Products International, has released a new line of Toffee Crunch Mixes that are lactose-free and non-dairy. The all-natural products are free of additives and added preservatives. The product comes in two milk-like choices and three varieties of dark chocolate in stand-alone bags, boxes, and tubs. The milk-like alternatives are available in “Toffee Crunch” (cashew butter crunch) and “Toffee Crunch Mix” (containing peanuts and pretzels).

The World Has Gone Mad

I try. I try and try and try to educate people. But do you listen? No. Nobody listens. Some days I just want to cry.

What am I talking about?

This.

It is called Cadbury’s Dairy Milk and is the country's best known milk chocolate.

But the bar’s makers have still felt it necessary to warn customers that it contains milk.

The latest wrapper features a logo showing a glass and a half of milk being poured into a chocolate chunk and puts milk first in a list of ingredients.

It also explains that there is 'the equivalent of three quarters of a pint of milk in every half pound of milk chocolate'.

But Cadbury is also printing warnings in capital letters in yellow boxes saying 'Contains:Milk' to alert those who are allergic to milk.

It is printing warnings on bars of Dairy Milk Whole Nut, saying: 'Contains: Nuts, milk.

Wrappers on chunks of Dairy Milk Whole Nut found in boxes of Cadbury Heroes repeat the warning 'Contains: Nuts' four times.

A company spokesman said: 'We are meeting legal requirements. We want people
to know that allergens are listed clearly.'

Moira Austin, of the Anaphylaxis Campaign, a support group for allergy sufferers, said she could understand why people would think that the 'world had gone mad'.

You don't have to tell me how careful some people need to be about protein allergies. But this goes well beyond careful. This overkill needs to be done because too many people are stupid. They need protection from themselves. How many warnings are sufficient to warn people that milk chocolate contains milk and that nuts contain nuts? Isn't four three more than is necessary?

We as consumers have the right to know what is in our foods. Companies need to properly include and label all ingredients. Companies that mistakenly include allergens in food need to recall them at once. Companies that deliberately defraud the public about the contents of their foods should be put out of business.

What's next, though? Will people get RFID chips inserted in their lips that will ping if an offending food gets too close? Will the government have to require that to save them from themselves? It's coming to that. I guarantee it.

Some Vitamin D Tests Flawed

I've been telling you over and over that you probably need more vitamin D than you've been getting. See Everybody Needs More Vitamin D for an example with links to earlier postings.

Scientific studies have "reported that low levels of the vitamin may be linked to medical conditions including certain cancers, diabetes and immune system problems," which has lead many concerned people to get their levels of vitamin D tested, up some 80% over the last year at one laboratory.

A good thing, right? Sure. Unless that laboratory's tests turn out to be faulty, giving levels of vitamin D sometimes too high and sometimes too low.

That's a huge problem recently discovered in numerous tests conducted by national testing giant Qwest Diagnostics, of Madison, N.J.

Mary Brophy Marcus reported on this for USA Today. The problem with the problem is that we have no idea of the scope of the problem.

Testing problems were linked to a small percentage of the company's labs, says Wendy Bost, a spokeswoman for Quest. The company is not making public the locations where the mistakes occurred or saying how many patients may have been affected. However, the pathology publication The Dark Report, who's [sic] current issue drew attention to the Quest case, suggests thousands of patients may have been impacted.

The inaccurate tests typically gave readings that were too high — meaning some patients who need vitamin D supplementation might not have received it — but not in all cases...

While not getting needed supplement can be a long term concern, getting too much when it's not necessary can be dangerous in extremely high doses. Fortunately, the dangerous level is around 10,000 IUs a day, while even the largest doses normally given are 1000 IU or lower.

What to do now?

[Joan Lappe, professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, who has conducted research in vitamin D] says concerned patients who are taking the vitamin should see their physicians and get double-checked. "If you stop taking it for a couple days or weeks it's OK and probably not going to make that much of a difference for most people," Lappe says. Though she says kids should be evaluated more carefully.

Turtle Mountain Goes Coconut Crazy

Turtle Mountain, the makers of So Delicious, Soy Delicious, Purely Decadent, and Sweet Nothings products, has started making coconut milk versions of, well, almost everything.

It's So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt is being billed as the first in the world. It's dairy-free and soy-free.

Read the reviews they have posted.

Their Purely Decadent line has a coconut milk variety as well, and also a reviews page.


Want more? How 'bout a Coconut Milk Beverage? You'll just have to wait for that one. It doesn't hit stores until March and won't get true national distribution until the summer. The company says that it's coconut milk products are a hit and are out-selling their traditional soy products, so there may be more coconuttiness in everybody's futures.

UPDATE: The people at Turtle Mountain sent me a link to the Whole Foods Market blog, Whole Story, with an entry and comments on their coconut milk yogurt.

The Anti-Milk Crowd Steps on Its Udders Again

If you've been reading this column for more than a few days, you knew that an article titled "Seven Good Reasons to Avoid Cow's Milk" was going to set me off. It was written by "Sheryl Walters, citizen journalist" - honest, that's what it says - and can be found on the NaturalNews.com site.

As always with these articles, the citizen journalist cherry picks negative studies and ignores all studies that reaches opposite conclusions. As I hope I've warned you often enough, single studies on any medical subject are rarely if ever to be taken as authoritative. Epidemiological studies, those that purport to show that a single food or nutrient has significant impact on health, are even more problematic. Isolating a single cause out of all the possible contributors toward health is extremely difficult and only the very best, largest, and longest studies have any meaningful results. This is true no matter what single factor is being studied or what conclusion is reached.

You can ignore most of what Walters writes just for this reason. It's clear she doesn't even know why what she says is wrong.

Most newspaper accounts of medical research ignore this basic fact, so your understanding of it may also be affected. A person writing an article should know better, though. And there are clues all through her seven reasons that her grasp on nutrition and diet is comical at best. Some of the best:

Milk is not the great source of calcium that most people believe it is. First of all, pasteurizing milk kills all of the nutrients, including calcium.

Pasteurizing milk does absolutely no such thing. There is as much calcium in pasteurized milk as any other. Calcium is a mineral. It can't be killed, since it was never alive.

Approximately 75 percent of the world's population is lactose intolerant, which means that they are unable to fully digest dairy. Lactase is the enzyme needed to digest lactose, and most people stop producing it around the age of 5.

Probably 75% of the world's population does have the gene that stops lactase production, true. But the decline starts at all ages. In many populations the decline does not begin until adulthood. Even most people with lactose intolerance can drink some milk products without symptoms, as shown by the huge growth in dairy in various Asian countries where the genetic levels of LI are extremely high.

People with many different healthy complaints notice a significant improvement when they avoid dairy.

I wish I had healthy complaints. Unfortunately, mine are always the opposite.

My complaints about the anti-milk crowd? Always the same.

Gas Is Good for Your Health

Whenever people say there are no stupid questions, I like to point them to the Internet. You could probably just set your browser at random and come up with a great set within the first ten minutes.

Today's example comes from an alternative medicine column - talk about easy pickings - from the Sacramento Bee. The authors are "Drs. Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden ... medical directors of Sutter's Downtown Integrative Medicine program. They have written The Complete Idiot's Guide to Secrets of Longevity."

I have great health but a loud digestive system. I have been trying to persuade my wife that there are health benefits to my digestive gases, but she does not believe me. Can you ladies shed light on this?

Admittedly, I'm pretty sure that the doctor ladies had their tongues well into their cheeks when they gave a semi-serious answer.

A recent study showed that hydrogen sulfide, the gas that is responsible for making flatulation so smelly, can also lower blood pressure.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine just published data showing that hydrogen sulfide produced in the blood vessels of mice reduced their blood pressure by relaxing blood vessels – thus preventing hypertension.

Mice that were missing the gene needed to make hydrogen sulfide had blood pressure spikes that were 20 percent higher than their normal counterparts.

What does this mean for us humans? Well, the jury's still out, but it could be that those of us who are skilled at making the stink bombs actually are protecting our hearts.

And they go on to do a good article on gas and its causes. So a point to them.

But as for letter writer Don W., let's all feel sorry for his wife.

Updated Go Dairy Free Diet and Health Journal

Alisa Fleming of the GoDairyFree.org website is always doing something interesting. Today's news is that she's issuing an Updated Go Dairy Free Diet and Health Journal.

Just in time for those New Year's resolutions, the Go Dairy Free Diet & Health Journal has been updated, and is now available as a FREE download via the Go Dairy Free Ebook & Downloads Page. The Journal was originally created a few years ago in conjunction with The Dairy Free Challenge, a simple 10-day dairy elimination "test" to help identify milk sensitivities and intolerances that may be leading to unwanted symptoms (digestive distress, acne, headaches, respiratory problems, fatigue, etc.). The challenge has proven successful for many Go Dairy Free viewers. However, for those of you who are already committed to a dairy-free diet, or who have other dietary concerns, such as weight loss, chronic disease, additional food sensitivities, or general health and disease prevention, this journal is a great way to track your diet and how you feel each day.

The journal includes 2 weeks (14 days) of full page entries. Each page is divided into segments to help you track what you ate, how you felt each day (including a sizable list of symptoms with severity ratings), and any additional notes of importance. If you wish to track your diet for more than 2 weeks, the journal can be saved to your hard drive, reprinted or downloaded at any time for free.

Various types of medical tests are available to help identify food allergies and intolerances, yet many doctors continue to recommend dietary tracking and elimination diets as the "gold standard" for identifying food sensitivities. Why? For starters, it is hard to argue with your own body. Food allergy tests frequently produce both false positives and false negative, but monitoring your own symptoms in reaction to particular foods (keeping in mind that some symptoms may be delayed by as much as 48 hours) offers a more clear cut answer on the culprit. Also, elimination diets are cheap; no pile up of medical testing bills. Nonetheless, you should always speak with a physician before undergoing any change in diet, especially when a severe food allergy may be of concern.

Go to this this page for a free download.

Organic Grocery Deals

The OrganicGroceryDeals.com website is a small community that is trying to connect people who are looking for special foods and the stores that carry them.

Hello Guest!

Welcome to Organicgrocerydeals.com! We are a small friendly community of people that are interested in learning more about purchasing organic foods, living healthy and being environmentally conscious. If this is your first time here please feel free to register and join this fun community. No matter if you are totally green or just want to try and incorporate a little more green into your life you will be welcomed.

It's all about taking it in baby steps and learning as we go. We want to foster important conversations about green living as well as help our members save money in their quest of going organic.

So come on in and join the fun!

Site Features
Coupon Database: Find out what new coupons are out in the stores, the Sunday Paper, online printable coupons and more!

Newsletter: Join our newsletter and have timely articals [sic] and tips on green living as well as community news delivered right to your email inbox.

Target Coupon Generator: Do you shop at Target stores? Find Target store printable coupons here and combine them with manufacture coupons for even more money savings!

Forums: We have forums on many topics from shopping at stores like Whole Foods to your local drug store. Find local info on farmers markets and co-ops, learn how to go green on everything in your life and world!

And much more!

Their forums include:

Natural and Organic Stores
These stores are largely dedicated to providing almost entirely natural and organic foods and household items.
Sub-Forums: Earthfare, Trader Joe's, Rater Joe's, Sprouts Farmers Markets, Whole Foods/Wild Oats Whole Foods

Conventional Stores with Organic and Natural Products
Here are the stores our members have requested. These stores are largely conventional, but also cater to an organic market. Don't see your favorite store listed? Request it!
Sub-Forums: Albertsons, Big Y, Kroger Companies, Meijer, Publix, Safeway Companies, Shaw's, ShopRite, Stop & Shop, Superfresh, Wegmans, Drug Stores, Other Conventional Stores CVS

Big Box Stores with Organic and Natural Products
Sub-Forums: Costco, Fred Meyer, Target/SuperTarget, Walmart

Online Organic Stores
Find links to online retailers who specialize in organic and natural groceries.
Sub-Forums: Amazon, Diamond Organics, eFoodPantry.com, WellnessGrocer.com, Online Deals and Coupon Codes

Constipation Not Linked to Dairy Allergy in Children

The Doctor NDTV site reported on a new study on chronic constipation.

The prevalence of allergies among children with chronic constipation is not significantly different from that of the general population and an allergy to cow's milk does not seem to be involved.

In several studies, chronic constipation in children has been reported as a clinical manifestation of cow's milk allergy. Allergic proctitis - an allergic reaction causing inflammation of the rectum, which can be accompanied by a frequent urge to defecate, bloody stools and other symptoms - has been suspected, but the response to eliminating cow's milk protein from the diet has been variable.

They took this from an article in the December 2008 issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood. D. Simone et al. 93(12):1044-1047, December 2008.

Prevalence of atopy in children with chronic constipation.

Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of chronic constipation (CC) in unselected children, its association with atopy and the efficacy of a cow's milk protein (CMP) elimination diet on refractory constipation.

Study design: The study was conducted by six primary care paediatricians, serving a population of 5113 children aged from birth through to 12 years; only 2068 children were 6 months to 6 years. During a 3-month period, prevalence of CC was determined for the entire study population, ages 0-12 years. In the second part of the study, all patients aged 6 months to 6 years with CC, and age- and sex-matched controls, were evaluated for atopy and its association with CC. A questionnaire was completed including personal and family history of atopy and bowel-movement characteristics. Patients were tested for atopy by specific serum IgE and/or skin-prick tests. Constipated patients, refractory to osmotic laxatives, underwent a 4-week CMP elimination diet.

Results: 91 (1.8%) children had CC, and 69 (3.3%) of the 6 months to 6 years age group fell into the atopy study age range. All 69 constipated children (mean age 34.9 (18.0) months) and 69 controls completed the questionnaire. Twelve of the 69 constipated children (17.3%) and 13 out of the 69 control children (18.8%) had a diagnosis of atopy. Eleven out of 69 (15.9%) constipated children were refractory to constipation treatment, and three (27.3%) of these had atopy. The 4-week trial of dietary elimination did not result in improvement in any of these 11 children.

Conclusions: In our study group, prevalence of atopy among children with CC is similar to that in the general population. The level of refraction of CC does not seem to be related to cow's milk allergy.

Lactase: The Miracle Cure

Lactase. It's the enzyme that digests the milk sugar lactose. If your body stops making it, if your body merely decreases its production of lactase, undigested lactose continues to move through your digestive system.

This can have two major consequences, both bad. One is that the lactose pulls water into your intestines, the opposite of what normally occurs. Excess water in the intestines leads to diarrhea. The other is that the lactose can be fermented by bacteria that naturally live in your colon, creating the gas that you feel as cramps, bloating, and flatulence.

The cure for this? Lactase pills. The lactase enzyme, or a variant of it, can be produced by yeasts and other microbes. Some of these bacteria are found in yogurt, kefir, and other cultured milk products, and so can be introduced into your system. Or you can take a probiotic pill that contains these bacteria. That may be enough for you.

If not, take a lactase pill. Or several if necessary. They're relatively cheap and easily available, findable at all supermarkets, pharmacies and discounters. Most brands are the same, although each has slightly different composition and fillers, so they may work differently for you. If one brand doesn't work, try another before you give up on them.

I remember the days before lactase pills existed. Believe me, I never want to go back to them.

And all that intro brings me to the questions I keep getting asked.

When should I take a pill?

The best time is just before you start eating. That gives the lactase a head start to get to your intestines before the food does. The lactase works in the small intestine, just as naturally produced lactase does.

How many should I take?

As many as you need. There are no known side effects to lactase and no known overdose. Any lactase your body doesn't use gets eliminated with the rest of the waste. If one pill doesn't work, try two or three.

If two or three are good, does that mean a dozen is even better?

Probably not. You only need enough lactase to digest the amount of lactose you're having in that one meal. You have to work out through trial - and occasionally error - just how many pills will balance off how much lactose in your particular case. Even so, a dozen pills is probably overkill. There's no reason to think that you'll need that much.

What if I eat something else with lactose late in the meal?

We all get tempted by dessert at times, even if we hadn't planned on it. If you hadn't anticipated an additional lactose load, then take an extra pill.

What if I have something an hour later?

Same answer. The lactase should stay in your system for several hours. If you took enough to begin with you don't need to to keep adding more all the time. If you didn't take enough at first, then add more.

Should I take lactase with every meal?

If you extra to have lactose with every meal, then yes.

Can I give lactase to my children?

Lactase should be perfectly safe to give even small children. There are chewable pills if they have trouble swallowing pills. You can also crush the pills into their food.

What is the children's dosage?

There is no special children's dosage. Lactase is not a medication or a drug. It is a natural body enzyme that works only on lactose. If your child has an 8 ounce glass of milk, exactly the small amount of lactase is needed as if an adult had an 8 ounce glass of milk. The amount of lactase always depends on the amount of lactose to be eaten.

I think that covers the most frequent questions. If you have any be, be sure to drop a question in the comments.

Great Chefs Cook Vegan Cookbook

The name Carper has inspired both derision and doubts about my authenticity - I was a critic and book reviewer for years - but at least it's fairly rare. Try searching for Linda Long and see how many irrelevant hits you get.

I just wanted to be sure that I hadn't already mentioned her new cookbook here. I haven't, though I'm not sure how I missed it. I found it just in time to include in with other cookbooks released in 2008 because of a press release that announced an award it won:

For her cookbook Great Chefs Cook Vegan, a compilation of high-end vegan-cuisine recipes from an elite array of renowned chefs, New York resident Linda Long has won the Best Vegan Cookbook category in PETA's Sixth Annual Proggy Awards. Long will receive a framed certificate and will be featured on PETA's award-winning Web site PETA.org. PETA's Proggy Awards ("Proggy" is for "progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements in commerce and culture. Long shares the honors with Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman, authors of the best-selling vegan cookbook Skinny Bitch in the Kitch.

Long has put together the finest creations by the finest chefs, including Charlie Trotter, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Suzanne Goin. Great Chefs Cook Vegan is filled with recipes for three- to four-course meals from culinary A-listers who have omitted the animal products that they usually work with in order to create 100 percent vegan menus. The book's high-end cuisine - including zucchini boxes provençal, grilled king oyster mushrooms, and avocado carpaccio with charred jalapeño oil and caramelized silken tofu brûlée - will have vegetarians and nonvegetarians alike asking for seconds.

You can find it on the Vegan Cookbooks page in my Milk-Free Bookstore.

Everybody Needs More Vitamin D

Vitamin D is necessary for many reasons, not least because it helps the body absorb calcium better. I've been telling you You Need More Vitamin D with Your Calcium and that there are Vitamin D Deficiency Problems in Teens and Adults.

Now the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has announced that it is doubling the amount of vitamin D it recommends for infants, children and adolescents.

The previous recommendation, issued in 2003, called for 200 IU per day beginning in the first two months of life.

The change in recommendation comes after reviewing new clinical trials on vitamin D and the historical precedence of safely giving 400 IU per day to the pediatric population. Clinical data show that 400 units of vitamin D a day will not only prevent rickets, but treat it. This bone-softening disease is preventable with adequate vitamin D, but dietary sources of vitamin D are limited, and it is difficult to determine a safe amount of sunlight exposure to synthesize vitamin D in a given individual. Rickets continues to be reported in the United States in infants and adolescents. The greatest risk for rickets is in exclusively breastfed infants who are not supplemented with 400 IU of vitamin D a day.

Adequate vitamin D throughout childhood may reduce the risk of osteoporosis. In adults, new evidence suggests that vitamin D plays a role in the immune system and may help prevent infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer and diabetes.

Adults may be higher recommendations as well, according to an article by Carol M. Bareuther on the Triton.

On the heels of the AAP’s announcement, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) is set to review its recommendations for adults. Currently, adults up to age 50 should consume 200 IUs per day, adults aged between 51 and 70 should have an intake of 400 IUs, and adults aged 71 and over should consume 600 IUs.

I've noticed that major brands like Caltrate and the store brands that copy its lead have labels proclaiming "advanced levels of vitamin D" on its bottles of Calcium 600+D calcium supplement. That means 600 mg of calcium and 400 IU of vitamin D in each pill.

Be careful not to overdo the D. There are warnings associated with amounts of 2000 IU per day and over.

Gluten-Free French Toast?

Following yesterday's post on a chef who apparently didn't know the meaning of dairy-free, I find another chef who apparently doesn't know the meaning of gluten-free. UPDATE: I should have pointed the finger of blame at the reporter, not the chef. See the comments.

Becky Coffey of the Harbor News, wrote about Russell Marcello, chef at and co-owner of the Paperback Cafe in Connecticut.

"Introducing the gluten-free menu is helping to support the restaurant by selling more meals than I otherwise would have," said Marcello. "My customers are enthusiastic, too. Some customers that would just pick up a cup of coffee at the counter before now have been converted to dining room customers; others are completely new customers."

And what are among his gluten-free choices? French toast for breakfast–soy milk can be substituted for cow's milk for those who are also lactose-intolerant. Or for lunch, it's Chicken Parmesan. And for dessert, customers can choose from either brownies or crème brûlée.

Gluten-free French toast? It's not impossible, of course, but you have to start with a gluten-free bread, something that's not mentioned anywhere in the article. The kind of bread used for French toast would be a fairly important specific for those seeking to avoid gluten. Gluten-free brownies are also possible, but again need special attention.

And despite the possibility of getting soy milk in your French toast, the rest of the items mentioned are hardly friendly to the lactose intolerant. Chicken parmesan? Crème brûlée? Crème brûlée is heavy cream with egg yolks and sugar.

Look, creating a gluten-free menu is a fine gesture, and not an easy one for a chef to manage at a busy restaurant. The details are crucial, however. Maybe it's just in the way that Coffey wrote the article, but I would want far more reassurance than I'm given that the meals are safe. She may have done Marcello a disservice. Or she may have inadvertently alerted people to a problem.

As always, check for yourselves, and don't take claims for granted.

Three-Course Dairy- and Gluten-Free Dinner

"A deliciously light healthy meal" is the article called this complete dinner, created by Maria Cachia.

The starter, a delicate pumpkin soup which may be served either hot or cold with Parmesan shavings is the perfect comfort food especially coming in after the cold and rain.

With Dean Martin’s let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, softly playing in the background we moved onto the main course, tuna steaks marinated in a mustard sauce which went perfectly with the roasted green and orange peppers offering a balance between the two.

To finish off the great evening, the dessert, a wonderful apple crumble with vanilla pods and small blobs of custard was the perfect end to the dinner, without leaving you feeling too full or bloated but comfortably satisfied.

The complete recipes for the dinner can be found in the article.

Translations into American:
Aubergine = eggplant.
Courgettes = zucchini.
Castor sugar = superfine sugar.

Skip the parmesan shavings. And doubly note that goat's butter is exactly as much dairy and lactose as cow's butter. Somebody must have hit Ms. Cachia over the head with bad British nutritional advice. Stick to dairy-free margarine.

Santa Speaks

From an apparently authentic interview with Santa Claus. I mean, it was printed in a paper, so it has to be real, doesn't it?

Q: Do you have any nut allergies or are you lactose intolerant?

A: No! Ho Ho Ho! But I won’t eat the peanut butter cookies right away. I take them home and eat them there so that I don’t contaminate other cookies - just in case someone else is allergic!

Diet Coke Not Functional Food

Functional foods are growing to be the next big food fad. Adding nutrients or probiotics, or claiming that they have extra nutritional value, makes a regular food "functional."

You know that this will be a huge fad because it is already being abused.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called Diet Coke Plus "misbranded … because the product makes a nutrient content claim but does not meet the criteria to make the claim."

Diet Coke Plus does have nutrients added. In the Atlanta Journal Constitution Joe Guy Collier wrote that:

Its labeling says that each 8-ounce serving provides 15 percent of the daily reference value for niacin, B⁶ and B¹² and 10 percent of the daily reference value for zinc and magnesium.

This is about as meaningful as adding a sprinkle of vitamins to a kid's cereal and then claiming that it's healthy.

Diet sodas are slightly better for you than regular sugared sodas, but mostly are expensive carbonated water. Nobody should have such a ridiculously unhealthful diet that a smidgen of nutrients added to diet soda would make a difference. It's total marketing hype and not worth your dollars.

Be a smart consumer and think about any "healthy" claims that products make. A label plastered across a package touting its wonderfulness isn't always going to be real. If a food really isn't functional, don't bother with it. And don't believe that functional foods will magically make you healthier. Only a good, balanced diet will do that.

Dairy Free Cool Soups

You know what the next big trend in foods will be? Pre-packaged, drinkable soups-to-go. They don't even need to be heated to make them palatable.

Go Appetít is one of the firms jumping in on this game. And all their soups seem to be dairy free. At least that's what their press release tells me.

Go Appetít makes three delicious Cool Soup flavors to help support a healthy weight-loss plan. All are shelf-stable and need only be chilled. Drink them out of the bottle or pour them into a bowl and garnish with fresh herbs or whole wheat crackers:



rich vegetable gazpacho
$2.99/8 oz bottle
Go Appetít's take on this classic Mediterranean chilled soup is silky smooth, flavorful and nutritious. Cool Soup's rich vegetable gazpacho contains cucumber, tomato paste, green bell pepper, onion, olive oil, vinegar, sea salt and garlic. 100 calories. Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Peanut and Tree Nut Free.

creamy mango spice
$2.99/8 oz bottle
This refreshing, vitamin-packed soup contains mango, peaches, coconut cream, sweet potato, apple juice concentrate, mint and hint of chili pepper. The surprising touches of chili and mint elevate this soup to an exotic little indulgence. 110 calories. Vegan, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, and Peanut Free. Contains coconut.

luscious carrot bisque
$2.99/8 oz bottle
Go Appetít's newest flavor features a savory blend of carrots, sautéed onions, sweet potatoes, chicken stock and olive oil to give it a rich, silky smooth body and weighs in at only 60 calories. This vitamin A rich (380% of the daily requirement!) bisque is best served chilled and enjoyed right out of the bottle, making it perfect for an on-the-go energy boost or as a low calorie meal replacement. 60 calories. Dairy Free.

Lots and Lots of Vegan Recipes

Bryanna Clark Grogan's Vegan Feast Kitchen has a seemingly endless number of vegan recipes, with detailed instructions and pictures.

She also has a website with even more stuff on it, and lists of special holiday-themed recipes.

Follow-Up on Hidden Allergens

I did a series of posts last month, including Hidden Allergens Seldom Recalled and Good Intentions May Still Hide Allergens, based on the major investigation of food ingredients and labeling that the Chicago Tribune instigated.

The Tribune ran a follow-up to that earlier article today with Tribune investigation prompts stores to pull food items, by reporters Sam Roe and Ted Gregory. They detail what happened when they contacted the dozens of companies which their investigation found to not have accurate or complete food labels.

Most complied instantly. A few just didn't seem to get it.

Please read it. This is an important piece of work.

Just a hint of the results:

A snapshot of findings from the Tribune database:
47: Percent of products recalled for hidden allergens since 1998 were not announced to the public.
5: Average number of products recalled each week for hidden allergens.
7: Percent of consumer complaints that result in mislabeling recalls.
One third of all products recalled for hidden allergens are cookies, candy, ice cream or snacks.
36: Number of firms with five or more recalls for hidden allergens since 1998.
50: Percent of allergen recalls involving undisclosed milk or eggs.

Divvies Holiday Allergy-Free Tips

Divvies is a dedicated nut- and dairy-free gourmet bakery. Owners Lori and Mark Sandler are masters of promotion and publicity as well, putting out press releases with amazing frequency. Fortunately, their releases have more meat to them than most. Like this long list of " simple ideas to help make the Holiday's [sic] more palatable for children with food allergies."

1. R.S.V.P. as soon as your family receives an invitation. You want to make sure you give your hosts (and yourself!) plenty of time to comfortably work out allergy-free solutions. This gives them the opportunity to purchase "safe" foods (like those offered by Divvies.com) or prepare foods using allergen-free ingredients.

2. Bring an allergy-safe and delicious dessert that everyone will enjoy. Make sure the dessert you bring not only tastes great but looks intriguing and festive. And that means serving platter included. Don’t bring over something the hostess has to scrounge around for a platter to put it on. She’s busy, don’t add to her work.

3. When home baked foods show up at your home as gifts and you are not sure of the ingredients, have alternative "safe" foods available for your child, so she doesn't feel left out of the celebration. These should be special treats, not the usual fare.

4. Ingredients in packaged goods sometimes change due to the season or recipe changes by the manufacturer. Always check ingredient lists and manufacturing practices on packaging to make sure that foods are still safe.

5. If you are the host for a large gathering where there are a lot of children and close supervision of what is being eaten might be difficult, steer clear of offering any items known to be highly allergic (e.g. peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, etc.). Make the whole table largely allergy-safe so everyone can relax and enjoy.

6. If you are a host for a smaller gathering where close supervision is less of an issue, serve a variety of food, but make sure the items, that are free of common allergens, are well-marked.

7. When hosting parties, know your guests and don’t be afraid to ask if anyone planning to attend your party has any allergies. Find out ahead of time and avoid making guests feel self-conscious about their allergies during the party.

8. Say, "Thank you!". After the party make sure to express your appreciation for all that your host did to make the event a safe, fun and inclusive occasion.

My tip: hire PR firms that are literate or at least can hire someone to proofread their releases.

Jean Duane GFCF Videos

Jean Duane bills herself as the Alternative Cook. Her latest discovery is that some people are gluten intolerant and dairy allergic.

The press release said:

The Alternative Cook helps those who have been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, Autism, Crohn's Disease, IBS, ADD, ADHD, gluten and dairy intolerance. Children with Autism reportedly improve on the Spectrum when following a gluten-free, casein-free diet. Nursing mothers can reduce colic in their babies when following this type of diet.

Sounds good. Unfortunately, there's more that I'm not so enamored of:

Casein is a protein found in dairy products. People who think they are lactose intolerant may actually be reacting to the protein rather than the sugar (lactose) in dairy products. Protein reactions can be severe and can cause long-term health problems.

It's true that some people mix up lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy, but that's probably a very small percentage of the whole. GFCF is the latest fad diet and is probably unnecessary for many people. Her intolerance quiz is one of those pseudoscience compilations that ascribe all sorts of common, everyday complaints - low energy, aches and pains, an "unclear" mind - to whatever ailment they're purporting to clear. And it doesn't matter what the doctors say:

Even people who pass all of the doctor’s tests report that they feel significantly better and loose [sic] weight on a gluten-free and/or dairy-free diet.

Heads, you go on my diet. Tales, you go on my diet.

However much nonsense the rest of the site might be, I suppose it's worth presenting to you because it's certainly helpful to have more good milk alternative and substitute recipes available. Check out her Alternative Cook website and the video streams page for the recipes and cooking instructions.

The Other Milk Alternatives

We hear about soy milk all the time these days. But "milks" can be made from a huge variety of nuts and plants.

The latest Earth Talk column from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine covers some of these "milks."

Other tasty and healthy alternatives to cow’s milk include those made from rice, almonds, oats—and even hemp. According to the health and wellness website Sixwise.com, almond milk is rich in magnesium, potassium, manganese, copper, the antioxidants vitamin E and selenium, and calcium and "may be one of the more nutritious milk alternatives on the market." It is very low in calories and contains no cholesterol. Rice milk, Sixwise reports, is mainly a source of carbohydrates, and should not be considered a nutritional replacement for cow’s milk, though it is "a useful replacement for milk for taste and cooking purposes."

Hemp milk, which is made from the seeds of hemp plants but contains none of the psychoactive ingredients in marijuana, can be a good source of protein, calcium, omega fatty acids and other vitamins and minerals. Another good alternative is oat milk, which is high in fiber, free of cholesterol and lactose, and contains vitamin E, folic acid, and other healthy elements and minerals.

Food Faddist Nonsense Redux

"Dairy products are thought to put extra pressure on the liver."

That bit of total absolute idiocy, the most flagrant food faddist nonsense I've seen in many a moon, comes to you courtesy of FemaleFirst.co.uk. The UK. I should have known. Is there anyone in the country dispensing food advice that isn't a crackpot? Females, please put this site last.

Once they scraped me off the ceiling I put iron bands around my stomach to keep my gorge from rising and set off to investigate how such a loony tunes notion could come into being.

The clue came from the article's title, "Christmas Countdown: Festive Detoxes." I've railed against detox diets before, in Detox Your Brain, Not Your Diet.

Somehow the detox numbskulls and the "milk is poison" dimwits have met head on, presumably crushing the one brain cell left between the groups. Take a look at the nonsense packed into The Problem of Meat and Dairy Products, a page that is the equivalent of an internet black hole because when you get that much fraudulence packed into that small a space, no intelligence can escape.

Meat is harder to digest than plant foods and continues to putrefy in the digestive tract, taking about 4 to 4 1/12 hours to be absorbed in the intestines versus 2 to 2 1/2 for grains and vegetables. Purification produces toxins and amines that accumulate in the ,liver, ...

That's cut and paste from the site, BTW.

Look, meat does not putrefy in your intestines. Colon cleansing is a scam. Milk does not affect the liver. You can't detox the body because there is nothing to detox.

Don't get taken in by these quacks and fraudsters. Don't even listen to them. Don't allow them to poison the inside of your brain. Take a stand now.

Cookbooks for More Than Cooking

Megan McArdle's "Holiday gift guide: Cookbook edition" in The Atlantic is the type of cookbook guide I really go for. She looks at books that teach you about cooking and food far more than books than merely compile recipes. The difference between following a recipe and making good food is knowing how to cook, and what affects taste.

This is especially true for specialty cookbooks, because it's far harder to cook when the palette is restricted. She mentions three vegan cookbooks that she particularly likes.

Vegan with a Vengeance and Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. These are, by far, the most fun vegan cookbooks I own. The recipes really are delicious, easily enough to recommend them to non-vegans. I've made brunch for non-vegans a ton of times who never recognized that they were having a vegan meal.





The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-
Goudreau. Indispensible. Vegan baking is tricky--it turns out eggs are really, really useful. This book explains what it's doing and why, and incidentally, produces some pretty amazing desserts. The tofu chocolate mousse is the fastest, easiest, most elegant dessert you can whip up on absolutely no notice.





How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. If anything, even better than the original omnivore book. Not all the recipes in here are vegan, but many are, and they're clearly marked. A number of others are veganizeable. But really, don't think of this as a book for vegetarians; it's a book for everyone who eats vegetables.

All these cookbooks can be found in my Milk-Free Bookstore on the Vegan Cookbooks page.

More Anaphylactic Reactions Than Previously Reported

A Mayo Clinic study reported that anaphylactic reactions reported in emergency room visits increased from 30,000 to 50,000 over the decade from 1990 to 2000.

The study, entitled "The etiology and incidence of anaphylaxis in Rochester, Minnesota," by Wyatt W. Decker, M.D., chief of emergency medical departments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and his team, reported that there were 50 emergency room visits per 100,000 population per year caused by anaphylaxis.

The actual increase is probably smaller than a two-thirds rise because reporting was much better than in earlier studies.

"We don't think the incidence of anaphylaxis has doubled, but through the Rochester Epidemiology Project we were able to much more meticulously identify cases which in other studies might not have been identified," says Dr. Decker. "So this study gives us a more accurate picture of the magnitude of the problem. Still, we did see about a 10 percent increase in cases of anaphylaxis over the 10-year period of the study."

Other findings from the study include:

-- Children ages 0 to 19 are at the highest risk for anaphylaxis.
-- Insect stings accounted for 19 percent and medications for 14 percent of cases. The rest were due to some other cause (e.g., cats, latex, unknown).
-- None of the medical records involved a fatal reaction.

The Science of the Human Past

"The Science of the Human Past." Doesn't that sound cool? It was a symposium recently held at Harvard.

At it Mark Thomas, of University College, London, "presented evidence about one of the strongest forces that has driven human evolution in Europe over the past 20,000 years: milk." according to an article by Alvin Powell of the Harvard News Office. Here's his summary of what Thomas had to say.

Thomas' research showed that a gene variant for "lactase persistence" (LP) that allows humans to digest milk into adulthood — uncommon in most adult animals and in many human societies — swept across Europe sometime in the last 20,000 years.

To spread so rapidly, Thomas said, the gene must have conveyed an extraordinary survival advantage to those possessing it. Though science has not yet identified the specific advantages at play in early Europe, there are several potential candidates. Among them is that milk provides a ready source of calories, protein, calcium, and fat, particularly during the winter or during crop boom-and-bust cycles. It also provides an uncontaminated source of fluids, perhaps lessening illness and parasitic infections; and obtaining it may be a more economical use of lands than farming.

"In Europeans, this is probably the most strongly selected part of the genome in the last 20,000 years," Thomas said.

Thomas found that the gene variant coincided well with the rise of animal domestication, indicating that humans became dairy farmers almost as soon as they began to keep animals.

To track the gene's spread across Europe, Thomas designed a computer model that took into account both archaeological and genetic data. He then ran multiple simulations, randomly changing other variables and looking for patterns that matched what is known today.

The closest matches pegged the rise of milk-drinking Europeans to about 7,400 years ago in central Europe. The spread matched the known rapid spread of Europe’s first farmers, the Linearbandkeramik culture.

"The spread of the LP variation was shaped by selection and by an underlying demographic process, the spread of farming," Thomas said.

Neanderthals Were Lactose Intolerant

I'm written many times that the ability to drink milk as an adult is a recent cultural phenomenon. All mammals who manufacture lactose as the sweetener for their mother's milk produce the lactase enzyme, the one that digests lactose, only up through the age of weaning. After that the lactase production stops, since the body naturally thinks that the animal won't drink any more lactose after being weaned from it.

Nature didn't reckon with humanity's ingenuity. For one thing humans developed ways of milking other mammals. And they fermented or cultured the milk so that it would last longer in warm climates, making products such as yogurt and kefir and cheese. Yogurt and kefir and cheese also happen to be naturally much lower in lactose than regular liquid milk.

So people started eating dairy products.

Here's another odd fact about the human body. A small percentage of humans have a spontaneously mutated gene on Chromosome 2. That mutated gene never sends the signal to turn off lactase production. That means that those people can have all the dairy products they want, even regular unprocessed milk, all their lives.

Milk, no matter how many crazy claims you hear, is a really healthy product, full of vitamins and nutrients, especially calcium. People who can have loads of milk tend to be healthier than those who don't. It's not a huge difference, but even if only 5% of the population with the mutated gene out-reproduces the rest of the populations, the mutant gene will spread rapidly, in historic time.

That's why northern Europeans tend to be lactose tolerant. It all started around 10,000 years ago, with the first instances of dairying and herding and milking and milk processing. Before that time you would expect almost all humans to be lactose intolerant. Natural selection would have no pressure to drive the mutant gene through any population.

Can we get any confirmation of this hypothesis?

Just out is a statement that Scientists have decoded half of the Neanderthal genome. The Neanderthals, another species of humanity that are now thought to have been wiped out by modern humans, died off well more than 10,000 years ago. And analyses of 38,000-year-old Neanderthal DNA "suggest that Neanderthals were lactose intolerant, hardly surprising since the ability to digest dairy products in adulthood only became common in humans after the domestication of cows, 10,000 years ago."

Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalis probably didn't interbreed, and the Neanderthals didn't evolve into us. We were two different species that happened to share the earth at one time. We outcompeted them. Happens to animals all over the world in every time in history.

That either makes us very special or very ordinary. Let the philosopher in you decide which.

Bloggers Drive Me Crazy

Here's a story that is intended to make your eyes pop out of your head.

From Axis of Logic:

Manna Storehouse began 9 years ago as a small ordering group called the Stowers Co-op. At the beginning, it was run by John & Jackie Stowers and their 2 oldest boys, Chris & Chad. Eventually we expanded from 3 families to over 60 regular customers. Within the last 3 years, we have gone through a major transition time. We began ordering on a weekly basis, plus splitting cases for our customers and selling the left over items as retail. Thus, the Stowers Co-op became Manna Storehouse, creating what is now a non-working food co-op. ...

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years. There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking [sic].

Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

Doesn't that make your blood boil? It's designed to. It's almost perfect propaganda. The Axis of Logic site is run by people who "identify 'Corporate Global Empire' as our common foe and the enemy of the people. We believe that all current, viable political parties in the U.S. are in service to the empire and do not represent the people." They tackle the stories the mainstream media won't tell you. They are from a number of countries, but this particular article appears to be written from Venezuela, where the Axis is a supporter of Hugo Chavez.

That's not the problem here. After all you can find any number of American blogs that contain or reprint this story in all its gory details: the SWAT team, the children with guns pointed at their head, the recriminations for the crime of not cooperating with the evil government.

There seems to be one slight problem with this scenario. It may not be true. Not even close to the truth.

It took more than a week after the raid for the police side to get out. When the police are at fault in a situation - and they often are - the aftermath is almost consistent: defensive tones, attacks on the victims, implications of huge crimes committed and/or prevented by their actions. These are so futile they work about as well as writing GUILTY on their foreheads.

That's one reason I find the police statement more convincing than the bloggers.

Here's what the Cleveland Plain Dealer, admittedly one of the mainstream newspapers, has to say.

[T]he Lorain County Sheriff's Office, which conducted the "raid" along with the county Health Department and the Ohio Department of Agriculture, is puzzled by the outcry over what it calls the "very uneventful" execution of a simple search warrant. ...

[Sheriff's Capt. Richard] Resendez said four deputies conducted the search over three or four hours - not the nine claimed on some sites. There was no SWAT team and no semiautomatic weapons.

"We don't even have semiautomatic weapons," he said.

One officer carried a shotgun, Resendez said, and the family was kept in one place to control the area, as is standard for any search warrant.

"Nobody was held at gunpoint," Resendez said. "That's definitely something that didn't happen."

Why did the "raid" take place?

Assistant County Prosecutor Scott Serazin said any business that sells perishable foods must be licensed and follow regulations covering those who store and supply food. There is no exception in the law for a co-op, Serazin said, and Manna cannot ask customers to waive safety regulations.

So what we have is the same public who are currently screaming at the banks and financial institutions for running their companies into the ground and at the government for not regulating the industry or providing proper oversight or protection of consumers now screaming at the government for trying to regulate an industry and trying to provide oversight and protect consumers. Only this time it's consumers who want the government to keep out of their affairs and allow them to buy unregulated foods.

Right. These are people who want the government to protect us fro tainted milk coming from China, but not to even investigate any foods grown here locally. The government can't be trusted for them, so it can' be trusted for us, although it should do their jobs properly for them. Or as a Rush Limbaugh tribute site says:

The freedom to purchase food directly form [sic] the source is increasingly under attack. For those who have food allergies and chemical intolerances, or who are on special medical diets, this is becoming a serious health issue. Will Americans retain the right to purchase food that is uncontaminated by pesticides, herbicides, allergens, additives, dyes, preservatives, MSG, GMOs, radiation, etc.?

The irony is killing me. It may eventually kill all of us if we don't get our heads clear and realize that we can't be against regulation and for it at the same time, and that the interests of companies are all alike, whether they are tiny co-ops or multinational corporations.

If there was ever a time in the history of the U.S. where government regulation has been shown to be badly needed, but butchered and diminished by anti-government zealots working within government to benefit corporations, this is the moment. I want more food regulation, and not less. I want the government to check foods coming into the country from abroad and I want the government to check the foods coming from local growers who want the power to do whatever the hell they feel like doing with our food, according to whatever idiot notions of food and nutrition may have leaked into their minds. I want it both ways.

I want to know what's in food and have it labeled properly so I can make my own decisions. Are you a raw milk freak who think you can magically keep your cows healthy when no one in history has managed to do so? I want to know that. Does this mean you may need to get a license? Pass an exam? Allow inspectors on your property? Fine with me. You should do all that and much more.

Before you run off and read more blogs ranting on this subject, remember this: as of today we still don't have full statements from the Stowers family and we don't have full statements from all the police who took part. We don't have full information on the supposed violations or the laws that were allegedly broken. We don't have any evidence of police vandalism and we don't know what was or wasn't taken.

Personally, I'd like to have that information before I make up my mind. But I'm not your typical blogger, apparently.

Good thing for you.

Most Consumers Never Think About Soy

What we don't know can hurt us.

Ignorance about soy and soy products is depriving the majority of Americans from the benefits of soy products and soy alternatives to milk.

That's the conclusion of a study conducted by 8th Continent soymilk owner Stremicks Heritage Foods, reported on by NutraIngredients-USA.com.

The article by Shane Sterling said:

More than 50 per cent of consumers polled in a recent survey admit they know very little about soy with less than one in five consuming soy products on a weekly basis, according to a new survey.

Less than one in 10 said they had discussed the health benefits of soy products with doctors or health care providers, while 36 per cent of adults and 41 per cent of parents had never tried a soy food or beverage. ...

But only 17 per cent consume soy products on a weekly basis; 34 percent monthly.

About 37 percent have drunk soymilk with about 40 percent of respondents saying they have never tried it because they believe it tastes bad. A quarter said they found it to be too expensive or felt they did not know enough about its health benefits.

Of course the study is somewhat self-serving. 8th Continent will be launching a product fortified with the additives that consumers already try for by other means. It's still helpful to have some concrete information on the alternative market, one that few outside the industry have any facts about.

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive and comprised more than 2000 US adults. About a quarter of these had children under 18 years old.

Don't Water Down Baby Formulas

Here's a sad and frightening article, Too much water not good for infants by Dan Kelly of the Reading Eagle.

A Florida woman brought her infant son, unconscious and convulsing, into the St. Petersburg Hospital emergency room.

The diagnosis: Water intoxication.

The mother told doctors she had been adding water to her infant's formula to conserve the powder.

"Basically, babies do not need water," said Dr. Mary Ann Mancano, chairwoman of St. Joseph Medical Center's pediatrics department. "The side effects of too much water go all the way to seizures, coma and death."

The Johns Hopkins Hospital issued a warning that, if a baby is given too much water over time, the child will become malnourished and underweight. Symptoms may include irritability or sluggishness; their face may swell and their eyes may flutter hours before the child goes into convulsions.

This is a dismal side effect of the current recession. Desperate parents try to make every food stretch and can unwittingly do their children harm.

The article makes the good point that breastfeeding is cheaper than formula and always healthier than watered-down formula could ever be.

Parma! Vegan Parmesan Cheese Replacement

Mike Adams of the Natural News raved about Parma! Vegan Parmesan, a non-dairy vegan parmesan cheese substitute.

It's sold in a shaker, just like conventional parmesan cheese, but it's made from plants, not dairy. Just pure, simple, all natural ingredients with no MSG or yeast extract.

The combination is shockingly similar to real parmesan cheese. Really, the taste will absolutely fool you. And here's a secret recipe I discovered that functions as a kind of "cheese replacement" in your cooking:

Just take several heaping spoonfuls of regular hummus (made from chickpeas), then sprinkle on a generous serving of this Parma! product. Mix it up with a fork and slather it on top of a corn tortilla covered with organic quinoa and spicy black beans. Pour some fresh salsa on top and sprinkle with fresh cilantro. You've got "cheese" tortillas!

Parma! comes in Original and Chipotle Cayenne flavors. You can find out more about the products and locations you can purchase it at the Eat in the Raw website.

Canadian Allergy Alerts Page

You all have the US alerts page, www.Recalls.gov, bookmarked, I hope.

I want to remind you that the Canadian government maintains a similar site. Look for the What's New links on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency page.

You'll see a number of alerts about such items as undeclared milk in various foods.

LI Celebrity Video: Devin Hester for Berry Chill

I first wrote about Berry Chill a few months ago when the store opened in Chicago.

Barry Chill Yogurt Bar press release.

Berry Chill opened its first location in [Chicago in] January 2008. Two more locations are planned to open in the upcoming months. Berry Chill provides their customers with a daily menu of Original chilled yogurt and rotating flavors that include Chocolate Amaretto, Pina Colada, and Pink Guava (lactose-free). Customers can customize their yogurt or choose from a list of signature creations.

Review of Berry Chill from the Chicago Maroon.

Berry Chill apparently is trying to get a lot bigger than just a few local stores. They recruited football star Devin Hester and put a 30-second commercial up on YouTube. You can see it above.

And the cool thing is that Devin Hester is lactose intolerant.

Berry Chill, Chicago's first all natural yogurt bar, today launches a 30-second digital video commercial starring Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester. Hester is known for his lightning-quick decisions on the field, earning him the nickname "Anytime" -- the inspiration behind the 30-second online video available now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBeobWHQ5Uk.

The Berry Chill video opens with Devin Hester on the football field for the kick-off. As the ball comes toward him, he decides whether to "wave fair catch," "take a knee" or "run like hell," and graphics show his thought process as computerized options. Later, he applies the same precise decision-making at Berry Chill, only this time he's choosing his favorite toppings. http://www.berrychill.com/devinhester "I've been a fan of Berry Chill yogurt since this summer, when I discovered that it's lactose free," said Devin Hester, who is lactose intolerant. "It's the first time I've been able to enjoy chilled yogurt, and I really appreciate that it's high in protein, too."

New Go Dairy Free Cookbook

Alisa Fleming runs the other big website about lactose intolerance, milk allergies, and all things generally dairy free, and it's called GoDairyFree.

She has news big enough to warrant a press release.

Alisa Fleming, creator and chief editor of the informational website godairyfree.org, has released her second book, Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living. Fleming’s first book, Dairy Free Made Easy, sold out within six months, but rather than reprint, she opted to expand the guide to include an entire cookbook section. In the process, she also dramatically increased the already sizable dairy substitutes section to be the largest available in any guide or cookbook, and updated with the latest health information and more tips on dairy-free living.

Recognizing various dietary needs, Go Dairy Free caters to individuals who are also vegan, egg-free, gluten-free, wheat-free, soy-free, and nut-free, with special diet tips throughout the guide and an easy to read food allergy chart of the 200 plus recipes.

The recipes cover homemade dairy alternatives, meals, desserts, and everything in between, offering a unique blend of comfort food appeal and nutrition. To fulfill cravings, readers will find numerous recipes for stovetop macaroni and "cheese," lasagna, enchiladas, creamy soups , "milk" shakes, and "ice cream." For everyday needs, there are also recipes for breakfast foods, such as homemade granola and pancakes; celebrations, such as birthday cakes with various types of frosting; and quick snacks, such as instant puddings and easy dips.

In order to make the information available to as many people as possible, Go Dairy Free is being offered in both paperback and ebook formats. Both the physical book and ebook can be purchased directly from www.godairyfree.org. In addition, Go Dairy Free is available via www.barnesandnoble.com, www.amazon.com, and Amazon Kindle for kindle subscribers.

I constantly send people over to her site to check out the huge array of information she has. If you haven't already been there, what are you waiting for?

Vegan à Go-Go!

Sarah Kramer had one of the cookbooks featured in last year's Bestselling Vegan Books post, about Vegan.com's bookstore's bestsellers.

She's back this year with a small oddity, Vegan à Go-Go! A Cookbook & Survival Manual for Vegans on the Road. It's a "best-of" plus, a "compilation of recipes from her first three vegan cookbooks, along with 20 new recipes."

Kramer, a Canadian who lived in Victoria, B.C., got featured by the CBC in a feature article by Shaun Smith titled "Non-traditional holiday fare from Canadian cookbook authors."

The new pocket-sized volume is designed to help vegans overcome cooking challenges while travelling. "These are recipes for surviving that visit to your family who live in Meat-ville," she writes.

Even better, Kramer's vegan Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie recipe got its own page.

FAAN Names New CEO

I write about FAAN, The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, or its many programs, almost every month, it seems. They've been around almost as long as I have, which means they were early adopters in the allergy biz.

They describe themselves as:

the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially fatal condition that afflicts about 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25. A nonprofit organization based in Fairfax, Va., FAAN has 30,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and 62 other countries. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness of food allergy and its consequences, to educating people about the condition, and to advancing research on behalf of all those affected by it. FAAN provides information and educational resources about food allergy to patients, their families, schools, health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, and government officials. For more information, please visit FAAN at www.foodallergy.org, www.faankids.org, and www.faanteen.org.

I automatically associate Anne Munoz-Furlong with FAAN. And why not? She was FAAN's Founder, and has acted as CEO for its first 18 years. She and FAAN seem interchangeable.

And yet, 18 years is an era. And so Anne and her husband and FAAN co-founder Terry Furlong, will be stepping down from the day-to-day operation of the organization, although Anne will stay on the Board of Directors

To replace her, FAAN has chosen Julia E. Bradsher as its new CEO.

Dr. Bradsher brings to FAAN extensive knowledge of anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially fatal allergic reaction. For the past six years, as Senior Director of Marketing, she led the marketing team and strategic planning for all Dey Pharmaceutical products, including EpiPen(R), an autoinjector device containing epinephrine, a drug that can stop an anaphylactic reaction. In that role, she has dealt extensively with leaders in the allergy-related scientific community. She has also conducted research on the needs of those who suffer from food allergy and anaphylaxis. ...

Bradsher holds a Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of Miami and a master's in business administration from the Sawyer School of Management at Suffolk University in Boston. She has authored 10 journal articles, seven book chapters, and other solicited publications, and she has held research and faculty appointments in private research institutes and universities.

So, a welcome to Dr. Bradsher and a hope that she understands the very large responsibilities she has taken on. I use FAAN as a constant resource, which means that it is one of the few places I trust to give me accurate information. On the Internet that's a very high compliment indeed.

Allergies May be Genetic

I hate it when newspapers run press releases and make them appear to be real articles. It happens a lot more than people think. Sometimes the paper will rewrite the article to lessen the connection, but other times, especially in smaller papers, the release is run just as is.

I quote from press releases all the time to alert you to new products and services. That's not the issue. When I tell you I'm getting information from a press release that should make you understand that you are getting only one side, and that side with the most positive spin possible. The product may still be a good one, but you should realize you need to check it out more for yourself.

Many people believe that this is what newspapers do for them. Not so. Very few critical articles, examining both sides of an issue, are run by smaller papers. They don't have the time or the expertise, and they don't want to offend advertisers. Filling space is often their main concern.

I'm saying all this because I find what sure looks to me like a press release, not rewritten, not critically examined, on the North Florida NewsDaily website.

Titled "Are Food Allergies Genetic?" with a slug line of "Courtesy of ARAcontent" rather than a reporter's byline, the article is basically an ad for Neocate, a hypoallergenic "elemental" amino acid-based baby formula for infants who, for various reasons, cannot handle milk-based or soy-based baby formulas. I talked about Neocate before, most recently in Dairy Allergies Damage Parents Too, for which I did some research and discovered that the Act Against Allergy website was another arm funded by Neocate. They have good promotional and marketing people. The product is a fine one as well, as far as I know. Just remember that different arms of the same firm are recommending it.

And here's one more arm of the same octopus. The NewsDaily article ends:

If you suspect your child might have a food allergy, visit www.testforallergy.com for a free test and information you can download and discuss with your baby's pediatrician.

You guessed it. TestforAllergy.com is yet another Neocate site. The test, which you can receive free by giving them your name and email address, may even be a legitimate test. But I'll bet that whatever the results say, you'll also get a pitch about how wonderful Neocate is for milk or dairy allergy.

Neocate, you might want to know, is made by Nutricia North America, a huge pharmaceutical company that is itself only the United States division of SHS International, a United Kingdom-based global leader in clinical nutrition since the 1960s. They have lots more money for marketing than I have time to track down all their arms. A peek beneath the octopus is all I can do.

Bottom line: Neocate is one of a line of important elemental baby formula products. They may be useful for a highly allergic baby. Or they may be expensive overkill. Check with a doctor or pharmacist before going further.

First Non-Dairy Starter for Smoothies and Desserts

Nasoya tofu introduces a soy-based non-dairy starter, according to this press release.

The first ever non-dairy "dessert starter", new Silken Creations from Nasoya is naturally flavored, dairy free, low in fat and calories, has no cholesterol and is gluten free. It comes in the three most popular flavors for smoothies and desserts: Dark Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry.

Chef, nutrition educator, and cookbook author Maribeth Abrams enjoys the versatility of "Silken Creations". She says, "Silken Creations adds a rich chocolate flavor to Chocolate Mousse and cake recipes. The smooth and creamy consistency of the Vanilla really gives a boost to Key Lime Pie, puddings, frosting, and fillings. The strawberry makes every fruit smoothie taste delectable." ...

Made from whole soybeans and sweetened with cane juice, Silken Creations is low in calories (only 110-120 per half cup serving), low in fat (only 1-1.5 grams) and is a good source of protein (3 grams).

Designed for placement in the fresh produce aisle, Silken Creations has a suggested retail price of $2.49-$2.89 per package. For ordering and further information, contact Nasoya Sales at (978) 772 6880.

About All Natural Nasoya:
The first brand of authentic tofu brought to North America, Nasoya has been one of the top-selling tofus for 30 years. It is produced by Vitasoy USA Inc., the soyfoods pioneer which is committed to producing delicious, innovative foods that promote our health and well being. Look for the company's premium tofu, soymilk, Asian noodles and wrappers, and non-dairy salad dressings and sandwich spreads under the brand names Vitasoy® and Nasoya®. For more information and quick and easy recipes, visit www.vitasoy-usa.com and www.nasoya.com.

Entrepreneur of the Year

From an article by Heidi Lees-Bell on the UK's Institute of Commercial Management website.

A Dorset businesswoman and founder of Nutrichef, Barbara Cox has been voted the winner of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) Entrepreneur of the Year Award. ...


Each of the winners received a certificate at the gala dinner, and GD Environmental Services, the winner of the Award for Outstanding Business Achievement also took home the top cash prize of £50,000 courtesy of RBS Group.

Barbara Cox, founder of Nutrichef Ltd., is a member of the Dorset Chamber of Commerce, and won the Staples-sponsored award because of her innovative, healthy meal-delivery service business.

Her niche business provides freshly-prepared, wheat-free, dairy-free meals direct to customers’ homes – including people fighting serious illnesses such as cancer, individuals trying to lose weight and sportsmen and women.

Congratulations, Barbara. Sounds like an excellent business and an excellent service.