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| © Prevent Disease |
From the color of foods to their fat content and nutritional value,
there are facts about what we consume, their origin and manufacture
which is not common knowledge and rarely promoted as truth. Here are 10
food facts that still surprise the majority.
1. Orange Tomatoes May Be Healthier Than Red Ones
Usually, deep color in fruits and vegetables indicates abundant
antioxidants - compounds that have been linked to heart and brain
health - so it makes sense to consume produce with the deepest hues.
But a study by Ohio State University researchers, published in the
Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry,
found that a variety of orange-colored tomatoes called Tangerine
provided more readily available lycopene than did red tomatoes.
Lycopene is an antioxidant that has been shown to reduce risks of
cancer, cardiovascular disease and macular degeneration. Tangerine
tomatoes are not available in grocery stores, but the researchers
suggested that the advantage might extend to other orange- and
gold-colored tomatoes.
2. Gelatin is Made From Cattle Hides and Pork Skins
Gelatin is used to make many desserts, such as
jelly powders, marshmallows and frozen cakes. Gelatin is made from the
collagen of animal skin and bones. Gelatin melts to a liquid state
when heated, and solidifies when it cools. You may see gelatin form if
you use animal bones to make your own soup stock and cool the broth.
Gelatin is the main ingredient in jelly powder. On
its website, Kraft Canada states that the gelatin used in
JELL-O is extracted only from cattle hides and pork skins,
and only from the hides of healthy animals that have passed strict
inspections and are found fit for human consumption. You do not
recognize gelatin's taste as an animal product because, as Kraft says,
"during the manufacturing of gelatin, chemical changes take place so
that the final product, the composition, and the identity of the
original material is completely eliminated." If you have chosen to
follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, you may prefer to avoid eating
products made with gelatin.
3. Consuming Eggs Regularly Does Not Boost Cardiovascular Risk
Americans have been urged to reduce egg
consumption in the belief that eggs' high cholesterol levels
contribute to coronary disease. We seem to have gotten the message:
in 1943, per capital consumption was 402 eggs annually; by 2007, it
was down to 253, a 38 percent decline.
But several large studies indicate that egg
anxiety is unfounded. Most notably, a 1999 report from the Harvard
School of Public Health (published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association)
that tracked 110,000 American adults for up to 14 years found no
increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke among healthy men
and women who ate as much as seven eggs per week vs. those who ate
less than one per week. There did, however, appear to be a
correlation between high egg consumption and heart disease among
diabetic men and women that "warrants further research" the authors
concluded.
Many groups have also been against eggs due to
allergies, especially for children. However, Pediatrician Fatima
Arash, M.D., says that a
high percentage of children can eliminate allergy sensitivities by incremental exposures to the allergen,
especially eggs. "Under proper supervision, almost 70 percent of
egg allergies can be reversed in children before the age of eight by
incrementally exposing the immune system so that it gradually tames
the defense mechanism and no longer reacts to antigens violently,"
she stated.
The only way to ensure you are buying a healthy egg
is to visit the farm itself. Ensure farms practices are free of
synthetic chemicals of any kind, free of genetically modified
organisms in their feed and are producing soils of enhanced biological
activity.
Do not rely on the USDA
organic label which has no interest in organic farming, improving
soil, quality of the produce, or factors that pollute the
environment.
4. Many Decaffeinate Teas and Coffees Are Manufactured Using Carcinogenic Solvents
Most countries permit three food additives for
decaffeination of tea and coffee: carbon dioxide, ethyl acetate and
methylene chloride. The last two are chemical solvents that strip the
caffeine from green coffee beans or tea leaves.
Green tea
labeled as “naturally decaffeinated” may have been decaffeinated using
carbon dioxide, whereas methylene chloride is more often used to
remove caffeine from black tea or coffee.
Methylene chloride, or dichloromethane is
recognized as possibly carcinogenic, and for this reason, many
manufacturers have switched to using carbon dioxide or the
Swiss Water
process instead. Of course, the methylene chloride is removed from
the coffee or tea before it is packaged and sold, but knowing your tea
or coffee has been processed using a carcinogenic solvent may
influence your shopping choices.
Bottom line is
if you're going to drink coffee, make it caffeinated.
5. Drinks Containing Hibiscus Are The Highest In Antioxidants
The tea made from hibiscus flowers is known by many names in many
countries around the world and is served both hot and cold. The beverage
is well known for its color, tanginess and flavor. A study
conducted in Portugal found that drinks containing hibiscus exhibited
the highest antioxidant activity compared to other beverages. The
results were published in the
Food Science and Technology Journal. A study in
Food Research Journal showed that anthocyanins are a major source of antioxidant capacity in Hibiscus extract.
A 2008 USDA study shows consuming
hibiscus tea lowers
blood pressure
in a group of prehypertensive and mildly hypertensive adults. Three
cups of tea daily resulted in an average drop of 8.1 points in their
systolic blood pressure, compared to a 1.3 point drop in the
volunteers who drank the placebo beverage. Study participants with
higher blood pressure readings (129 or above) had a greater response
to hibiscus tea: their systolic blood pressure went down by 13.2
points. These data support the idea that drinking hibiscus tea in an
amount readily incorporated into the diet may play a role in
controlling blood pressure, although more research is required.
6. Crush Garlic, Then Wait 10 Minutes Before Cooking, To Maximize Health Benefits.
Argentinian researchers reported in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
that crushing garlic releases an enzyme, alliinase, that catalyzes
the formation of allicin, which then breaks down to form a variety of
heart-healthy organosulfur compounds. So crushed or chopped garlic,
they reported, was potentially better for cardiac health than whole
cloves.
Even more surprising, they noted that
allowing the crushed garlic to stand for 10 minutes before cooking
appeared to further enhance formation of those compounds. So when
making a dish that contains garlic, crush the cloves first, and let
them rest on the cutting board for at least 10 minutes while doing
other prep work.
7. Salt Is Beneficial For Human Health
The pharmaceutical industrial
complex has had great influence in scientific journals, medical
literature and consequently Physicians in promoting the idea that salt
is a baddy. Contrary to public perception, the reason the mantra of
"eat less salt" has been advocated so strongly in decades past was
due to the higher risk associated with cardiovascular disease which
increased profits for pharmaceutical drugs.
Even a recent
report
commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) stated that salt
is no longer considered a substantial health hazard. What the CDC
study reported explicitly is that
there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp per day.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Glasgow has
revealed that low chloride levels in the blood is an independent
indicator of mortality risk in people with hypertension.
The key is to know the difference between a good salt and bad salt.
Table salt is recrystallized where a brine solution is treated with
chemicals that precipitate most magnesium and trace minerals. During
the drying process, an anti-caking compound is added to the brine
and these agents often use sodium ferrocyanide, tricalcium
phosphate, calcium or magnesium carbonates, fatty acid salts (acid
salts), magnesium oxide, silicon dioxide, calcium silicate,
sodium aluminosilicate, and calcium aluminosilicate. The
ferrocyanide and aluminosilicate compounds give the most cause for
concern. And the iodization of salt, especially as it is used in
processed food, poses real problems for those who are sensitive
to iodine.
The problem is not salt, it's the type of salt we use.
It takes just half an hour for one meal high in table
salt to significantly impair the arteries’ ability to pump
blood around the body,
alarming research has shown. Blood flow becomes temporarily more restricted between 30 minutes and an hour after the food has been consumed.
8.
Vanilla is Mildly Addictive and Blocks Bacterial Infections
The consumption of natural vanilla causes the body to release
catecholamines (including adrenalin) -- for this reason it is considered
to be mildly addictive.
Mayans used them to flavor chocolate drink centuries before Spanish
first set their foot in Mexico. Ancient Mayans believed that vanilla
drink was supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities.
When vanilla plants were first exported from Mexico
to other tropical climes, they flowered but wouldn’t produce vanilla
pods. It was discovered that a bee native to Mexico was the only
creature that could pollinate vanilla flowers (vanilla comes from a
special species of orchid). Attempts to move the bee to other
countries failed and it was not until a slave boy discovered a method
of artificial pollination that Mexico lost its monopoly on vanilla.
As well as being mildly addictive, vanilla has also been found to
block bacterial infections.
Natural vanilla extract contains numerous
antioxidants, including vanillic acid and vanillin. Antioxidants
protect your body from damage from harmful components, such as free
radicals and toxins. Researchers in a 2007 study published in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
found that vanilla extract contains 26 to 90 percent of the
antioxidants of unprocessed vanilla, depending on the type of
antioxidant and the concentration of the extract. They concluded that
vanilla showed great potential as a health supplement and as a food
preservative.
9. Chicken Contains 266% More Fat Than It Did Just 40 Years Ago
The research team, using data from a long-ranging study into mothers'
diets, examined the content of chicken meat from 1970 compared to today.
They found the fat content is now almost three times higher. Protein
has dropped by almost a third.
In 1970 there was an average 8.6grams of fat per 100 grams of meat.
Today there is an average of 22.8grams. Protein levels in 1970 were
24.3grams per 100 grams. Today it is a mere 16.5grams. Buying organic
gives only slight protection from the extra fat but does protect the
consumer from chickens fed genetically modified feed and antibiotic or
hormone injections. A typical organic chicken has 17.1grams of fat per
100 grams. Like their battery-farmed counterparts, organic chickens are
likely to live relatively sedentary lives compared to birds in the
1950s, 60s or 70s.
In the 1950s, chicken was regarded as a luxury, reserved for special
occasions. By 1976, nutritionists were praising it for its low fat and
high protein. In the 1980s, sales of pork, lamb and beef dropped as the
message got through, and as health conscious consumers chose chicken the
industry began factory farming techniques producing as many chickens as
possible to feed the demand.
10. Long Before Carrots Were Domesticated, They Were Purple
Carrots were originally recorded as being
cultivated in present day Afghanistan about 1000 years ago and were
purple. Carrot cultivation spread to Spain in the 1100s via the Middle
East and North Africa. Purple, white and yellow carrots were
brought into southern Europe in the 14th century and were widely
grown in Europe into the 16th Century. Purple and white carrots still
grow wild in Afghanistan today where they are used by some tribesmen
to produce a strong alcoholic beverage. Over the ensuing centuries,
orange carrots came to dominate and carrots of other colours were
only preserved by growers in remote regions of the world.
Nature then took a hand and produced mutants and
natural hybrids, crossing both with cultivated and wild varieties. It
is considered that purple carrots were then taken westwards where it
is now known, through modern genetic research, that yellow varieties
were developed to produce orange. Then some motivated Dutch growers took
these "new" orange carrots under their horticultural wings and
developed them to be sweeter, consistent and more practical.
Sources:
dailymail.co.uk
preventdisease.com
drweil.com
carrotmuseum.co.uk
Karen Foster
is a holistic nutritionist, avid blogger, with five kids and an active
lifestyle that keeps her in pursuit of
the healthiest path
towards a life of balance.
