What's in YOUR food?

[Lynn49]

Okay....I'll reveal my ignorance...what's "pink slime"?

And being here in Florida at the moment, I just cringe whenever the absolute need for a burger hits me...or anything with meat, really....but short of living on carbs (which wouldn't be too bad), I try to at least limit my consumption of red meat here and figure that for a month, it can't do that much to me...after-all...there are octogenerians living here, right?

[TaraF]

Umm I'd say consider yourself lucky as to not knowing what it is but I'm going to tell you anyways. Because I care. lol Although you may not want to eat anymore beef while in Florida. *gulps*

Pink slime is fatty slaughterhouse trimmings involving connection tissues that is treated with ammonia and used as a "filler" in beef products in the United States. I think places like McDonalds should be asking if you'd like a side of cancer with your burger instead of fries. The U.S.D.A allowed the ingredient on packaging to be labelled as a "processing agent" instead of by the name ammonia. I'm telling you, the food we eat is going to kill us and it will be because Governments are allowing this crap in the foods we eat and aren't telling us it's in there.

Was reading the following today:

According to today's New York Times, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations." This "nasty pink slime," as one FDA microbiologist called it, is now wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat, and then treated with AMMONIA to " spoilage," and turned into "a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips".

Source HERE

[xox2010]

The pink slime thing makes me want to hurl. So glad it's not used here... it's not right?
I had no idea that red food colouring was sometimes made from crushed beetles. That is gross. I agree with you Tara; companies need to be way more transparent in what is in their food. Even just eating fruits and veggies can cause health problems (the pesticides etc used). Nothing is really "natural" any more.

[Natalka]

I had first learned more about the pink slime and mechanically separated meat on the tv show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

There have been some recent news stories from the US about some places which are no longer using pink slime - McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco bell (may be others), as are some school districts. Some of the plants making it have already closed.
Result - better nutrition, hopefully. However, prices will rise.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82R1LP20120328

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01...e-in-u-s-meat/

Yay for Jamie. It took a Brit to go to the US to make a fuss and show real people what was up, so they could rally for change.

If you haven't seen the show, or parts of it at least, you really should. It's very enlightening.
You Tube has segments. It wasn't only about the above, it was about getting into general healthy eating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7eaHytpJWQ

[Lua]

yup.. and it is for reasons like this that make me a very picky eater/shopper. I am constantly reading labels and shopping the outer perimeter of the grocery stores. DH and I don't drink pop or anything containing, in my mind, 'fake' sugars. We try to stick to eating things that are as natural and fresh as possible... and feel great for it too!

As for the slime... omg.....

[Natalka]

Hi, Lua!

As for pop, gosh it was so good when Retro Pepsi was back for a while - pop made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.
Ah, HFCS, something else I would like to see banned!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...cornsyrup.html

[Lua]

Hi, Lua!

As for pop, gosh it was so good when Retro Pepsi was back for a while - pop made with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.
Ah, HFCS, something else I would like to see banned!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...cornsyrup.html

Hi Natalka!!!

Ooo you know what, reading what you wrote about real sugar in pop, I do recall now... there actually is a brand of pop that you can get in the Organics section of Loblaws that is made with real sugar and natural ingredients. DH and I will buy a can to split once or twice a year for a treat and it's actually really good. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the brand though.

[Abby5]

Johnnie Ryan soda has raw sugar in it it is made in new York state. My son Ryan loves it

[Lynn49]

I had first learned more about the pink slime and mechanically separated meat on the tv show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

There have been some recent news stories from the US about some places which are no longer using pink slime - McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco bell (may be others), as are some school districts. Some of the plants making it have already closed.
Result - better nutrition, hopefully. However, prices will rise.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...82R1LP20120328

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01...e-in-u-s-meat/

Yay for Jamie. It took a Brit to go to the US to make a fuss and show real people what was up, so they could rally for change.

If you haven't seen the show, or parts of it at least, you really should. It's very enlightening.
You Tube has segments. It wasn't only about the above, it was about getting into general healthy eating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7eaHytpJWQ

Thank you Tara, Natalka for that...gulp...information. So...it's okay to eat at McD's here in the US?
We've been shopping at Publix, but never bought any beef, while we're here, so that's good! Whew!
Although...some frozen fast foods, such as we bought from Bird's Eye had beef....ugh...I can't begin to think I actually may have eaten pink slime!!!!!

As for POP, I had a bottle of RootBeer here that had real sugar in it...didn't know it was anything special...different, but it really did taste lovely! I'll be on the lookout from now on for the stuff with real sugar when and if the urge to have a pop hits me again...mostly I've been drinking prepared ice tea here...omg, let me check the ingredients.....ummmmm...nothing GOOD in it! I guess I'll be making my own at home.

btw...that about Truvia? It's advertised as natural and safe (yes, I know..., but I've never seen it in Canada...your thoughts on that product, Ladies? I'd pick it up here before we leave....

[TaraF]

Umm you're welcome Lynn? lol Actually McDonalds is the original fast food joint that came under fire for including it in their patties. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. This article dated Feb 1 said that McD's was going to stop using it in their products. When I have no clue but you can read it HERE. It's estimated that up to 70% of the beef products in the US contain Pink Slime. Ewwww.

Truvia as I understand it is Stevia but just a "brand name" correct? Personally I HATE the taste of Stevia, it leaves a Metallic aftertaste. As for it's being safe or not the jury is out on that one too. You can buy Stevia in Canada at Walmart, infact a new health store opened near me that has it in liquid form and baking form too.

[Darth Penguin]

Banned in EU available in US

[francine1985]

I am a bit concerned about some of the ingredients that are in most foods. we do tend to eat a lot of raw meat, fruits and veggies. we eat less processed items and that's only when they are on sale really cheap. we usually go through the flyers and decide on the meat/veggies we eat that week based on the sales. we usually get the same fruits all the time even when they are not on sale. we usually end up eating a lot of hamburger or chicken since those are usually on sale. we also get roasts, hams, and pork chops when they go on sale. (they don't usually have very good sales on a weekly basis but when they go for 2.99$/pound we buy them).

Dh likes to drink a lot of juice, cool aid or iced tea. I drink diet pop a lot. because of my gestational diabetes i usually drink milk if i decide to drink my carbs instead of eating them. (i love milk especially with coffee flavor in it.) other than that i either drink water or diet Pepsi. i also like the diet orange crush that is made with splenda but we can only find it in cans and i don't like the metallic taste. i love cream soda but haven't been able to find any diet cream soda. i would prefer to have juice or even pop with real sugars but unfortunately in my case its actually healthier to drink the diet pop. I cant stand only having water all day since i crave flavors a lot.

another thing i've been having recently is diabetic candy that has sugar alcohols which apparently have little effect on blood sugars. i love the baskin robins cookies and cream hard candies or the diabetic coconut fingers.

[alicia]

I'm not sure what isn't a potential carcinogen. Air and water are, and we wouldn't last too long without them. They're in everything.

It's all risk management. Something is going to kill us, or we'll die anyway.

I blame it all on the NDP.

I am with DaveP on this... Hate to say it, but in my environmental Chem class in undergrad my Prof did a whole speal on this - did you know mushrooms increase your risk of getting cancer by 0.008% and therefore can be considered a carcinogen.

I do however like knowing what I eat and therefore try to eat as much fresh/homemade food as I can.

[ninna]

Retro Pepsi. Gosh that stuff was tasty. Real sugar and everything. Can you believe my kids did not like it???

ewww on the pink slime. I'm glad Lynn asked for clarification because I didn't know what it was either. In theory, I agree with Dave P-- something is gonna kill us sooner or later; at the same time, I can't help but wonder how my choices might speed up my own death so I've been trying to be more careful about using less processed foods; cooking more from scratch and eating more vegetables and healthier things. Like Lynn, the occasional hot dog slips into my house, but overall, I'm making a concerted effort to be more conscious.

At the same time though, it feels a little like playing the game "whack-a-mole." Studies come out claiming this is bad for you so we stop doing this. Then another study comes out and it's something else that's bad for you. A third study comes out that retracts the findings of the first study..until you reach the point where there's a list a mile long of things you can't buy, eat, cook, or do who can keep it all straight? LOL. Guess all I can do is make the smartest choices I can make and hope for the best.

[Darth Penguin]

At the same time though, it feels a little like playing the game "whack-a-mole." Studies come out claiming this is bad for you so we stop doing this. Then another study comes out and it's something else that's bad for you. A third study comes out that retracts the findings of the first study..until you reach the point where there's a list a mile long of things you can't buy, eat, cook, or do who can keep it all straight? LOL. Guess all I can do is make the smartest choices I can make and hope for the best.

I see this with diets all the time. Each X this week. Eat Y....X is bad ...No eat Z....Y is worse than X...rinse and repeat.

All we can do is read, understand and prepare food for our families. Some prepared food is better than others. As small amount of crud makes for a feeling of not being deprieved....