Maybe a Good Reason Why the Gob will not Gobble Meat...

[Joe Guy]

Pink Slime and Ammonia: Two Main Ingredients in Some Ground Beef

by Colleen Vanderlinden, Planet Green

"Fat, sinew, bloody effluvia, and bits of meat." Oh, and ammonia.

This is what you're eating when you buy and prepare ground beef from most grocery stores in the U.S. today. It's also what you're eating when you eat a fast food burger or grab a quick bite at your local diner, most likely.

Full story

[Gob]

Eating a portion of processed red meat daily can boost a person's risk of dying young by up to 20 per cent, says a long-running US study of more than 120,000 people.

While the research by Harvard University experts offers more evidence that eating red meat increases the risk of heart disease and cancer, it also counsels that substituting fish and poultry may lower early death risk.

"This study provides clear evidence that regular consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, contributes substantially to premature death," said Frank Hu, senior author of the study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.


Researchers gleaned their data from a study of 37,698 men who were followed for 22 years and 83,644 women who were tracked for 28 years.

Subjects answered surveys about their eating habits every four years.

Those who ate a card-deck-sized serving of unprocessed red meat each day on average saw a 13 per cent higher risk of dying than those who did not eat red meat as frequently.

And if the red meat was processed, like in a hot dog or two slices of bacon, that risk jumped to 20 per cent.

However, substituting nuts for red meat lowered total mortality risk by 19 per cent, while poultry or whole grains lowered the risk by 14 per cent and fish did so by 7 per cent.

The authors said between 7 and 9 per cent of all deaths in the study "could be prevented if all the participants consumed fewer than 0.5 servings per day of total red meat".

Processed red meat has been shown to contain ingredients such as saturated fat, sodium, nitrites and some carcinogens that are linked to many chronic ailments including heart disease and cancer.

"More than 75 per cent of the $US2.6 trillion ($2.5 trillion) in annual US health care costs are from chronic disease," said an accompanying commentary by Dean Ornish, a physician and dietary expert at the University of California, San Francisco.

"Eating less red meat is likely to reduce morbidity from these illnesses, thereby reducing health care costs."

A separate study, also led by Hu but published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, found that men who drank sugar-sweetened beverages daily faced a 20 per cent higher risk of heart disease than men who did not.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-an ... z1ownzOO6e

[BoSoxGal]

My new DO who I just met today has recommended a largely vegetarian diet, based on my expressed health objectives.

He agrees it's okay for me to eat wild game meat 1-2x a week, but in general I am saying goodbye to meat, in particular anything processed or purchased from the industrial meat industry.

I will still eat fish, but nothing farmed.

I'm purchasing an Indian cookbook and am going to learn to cook lots and lots of vegetarian dishes.

Gob/Hen; feel free to make recommendations!

I am also swearing an oath to eschew eating anything that comes out a window.

[kristina]

BSG, I taught myself to cook Indian food from a wonderful cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey, called World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking; I've since gotten two other cookbooks of hers. I'm still not a natural with the spices (I need to follow the recipe...) but I've never had a bad meal from any of her recipes!

[Sue U]

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey is a good introduction to Indian cuisine (I've got three or four of her books), but there are lots of great recipes on line these days. (Start with curried okra, a/k/a bhindi masala, it's easy and always tastes great.)

[Andrew D]

Almost four decades later, Madhur Jaffrey's An Invitation to Indian Cooking is still a classic.

For vegetarian Indian food in particular, an indispensable treasure is Yamuna Devi's massive Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking. By my count, it contains 532 recipes:

25 Rice
37 Dals
33 Breads
103 Vegetables
53 Dairy Products and Dairy-Based Dishes
25 Salads
30 Chutneys
25 Sauces and Relishes
83 Light Meals and Savories
20 Snacks and Nibblers
64 Sweets
34 Beverages

It also has a very useful 70-page "A-Z General Information" section as well as a thorough index. Interestingly, because it comes from the Vaishnava tradition, none of the recipes uses onions, garlic, leeks, shallots or mushrooms.

If you have access to an authentic Indian grocery, Linda Bladholm's The Indian Grocery Store Demystified is another essential. It contains some 700 entries, and it includes sections on the Ayurvedic tradition of using foods for healing, on kitchen equipment, and on cooking methods.

[Joe Guy]

I wish I liked Indian food but I just don't.

I just eat as many fruits & vegetables as possible and not not much meat.

I just recently decided to avoid eating pink slime & ammonia.

[BoSoxGal]

If anyone is interested in online sources for farmed bison, elk and/or grassfed beef, let me know.

[BoSoxGal]

I will pick up the Indian cookbook recommended, and thanks!

Any tips for tolerating cod liver oil? DO has me taking two teaspoons per day. I bought the flavored liquid version he recommends; even with flavor, it's ick!

[Gob]

I know it's not Indian, but I Highly recommend anything by Cranks BSG.

May invest in this for Hen's I-pad too.

[Gob]

Schools across the US are to be allowed to stop serving so-called "pink slime" beef to their pupils at mealtimes.

In a statement, the US Department of Agriculture said schools buying beef from a central government scheme could now choose from a range of options.

The term has become used to describe a type of beef trimming commonly found in school and restaurant beef in the US.

Reports it was widely used in schools prompted a popular outcry, although the beef is certified as safe to eat.

Social media campaigns and an online petition sprung up to oppose the use of the product. The beef's producer led a campaign to explain it was nutritional and safe.

Last year, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver publicly criticised the product on his now-defunct US TV show, and McDonald's recently said it would phase out the use of "pink slime" in its burgers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17393376

[BoSoxGal]

Arrived today:



Can't wait to start cooking! (In case you can't read the small print, it's 'more than 650 meatless recipes from around the world' - Indian, plus lots more!)

[kristina]

Have fun! I first discovered Madhur Jaffrey on a cooking show broadcast by PBS in the early 80s. I still make the "Lemony Chicken with Coriander (aka cilantro)" that I frantically copied from one episode.

[Gob]

I just recently decided to avoid eating pink slime & ammonia.

LOL!!

Interesting stuff, the old pink slime...

In 1994, in the wake of public health concerns over pathogenic E. coli in beef, Eldon Roth, founder of Beef Products Inc. (BPI), began work on the "pH Enhancement System," which disinfects meat using ammonia.

The additive was approved for human consumption by the USDA in 2001. Some USDA scientists had argued against approval, saying that it was not "meat" and was in fact "salvage," but were overruled; approval was ultimately granted by then-Under Secretary of Agriculture JoAnne Smith, who according to former USDA microbiologist Carl Custer stated "It's pink, therefore it's meat." Smith left the USDA in 1993 and joined the board of directors of BPI's principal supplier, where according to ABC News she made at least $1.2 million over 17 years.

In 2007, the USDA determined the disinfection process was so effective that it would be exempt from "routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public."


The production process uses heat in centrifuges to separate the fat from the meat in beef trimmings. The resulting product is exposed to ammonia gas or citric acid to kill bacteria. Gaseous ammonia changes into ammonium hydroxide when it comes in contact with moisture present in the meat. The product sold by BPI introduces the trimmings to ammonium hydroxide (a solution of ammonia in water), while the Cargill product uses citric acid in lieu of ammonium hydroxide. Part of the manufacturing process at BPI includes extruding the material through long tubes that are thinner than a pencil, during which time the meat is exposed to gaseous ammonia.

The product is sold in the U.S. to food companies which use it in ground beef production. A 2008 Washington Post article suggested the content of most beef patties containing the substance approaches 25% Most is produced and sold by Beef Products, Inc. (BPI), Cargill Meat Solutions and Tyson Foods

Public attention was drawn to the product in March 2012 by a series of reports at ABC News, which reported at that time that 70 percent of ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets contained pink slime. In the U.S., beef can be labeled "100 percent ground beef" even if it contains up to 15 percent pink slime, and currently in the U.S., only if a USDA Organic label is present can consumers know that the beef contains no pink slime. Source areas may include, but are not limited to, the most contaminated portions of cattle,[6] such as near the hide which is often exposed to fecal matter. The nature of the product and the manner in which it is processed led to concerns that it might be a risk to human health, despite the fact that there have been no reported cases of foodborne illnesses due to consumption of the product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime

Just when you thought your burgers were safe....

It might also be the first example of a food ingredient being withdrawn not because of any safety fears, but because people have decided it sounds disgusting.



Jamie Oliver first alerted Americans to what was in their burgers Industry chiefs are furious about what they see as a media-led smear campaign against a product that has been used in the US since the early 1990s and meets federal food safety standards.

Earlier this week, they launched a fight back - unveiling a new slogan "Dude, it's beef" and enlisting the help of Texas governor and former presidential candidate Rick Perry, who dutifully chowed down on a burger containing the stuff on a visit to a processing plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska.


To British eyes, this stunt contains echoes of Conservative government minister John Gummer feeding his young daughter a beefburger, in front of the TV news cameras, at the height of the "mad cow disease" controversy in 1990.



But unlike the BSE outbreak no-one is seriously suggesting "pink slime" is dangerous - or even that burgers containing it are significantly less tasty or nutritious than other beef products.

The industry has launched a website, beefisbeef.com, to emphasise this - although Gary Martin, president of brand-naming consultants Gary Martin Group, believes they are missing the point.

"Who cares whether it's 100% beef and who cares whether it's lacking bacteria, if it's something that you find disgusting?" he says.