The Food Thread

[neoplacebo]

Protect You and Our Oceans should change their name.....their initials are P YOO. They must be a bunch of sardine wranglers and tuna rustlers. It was probably founded by a handful of Korean religious fanatics or renegade nuns.

[billy.pilgrim]

Reasons I (mostly) don't eat the seafood that I love :

So much of it is threatened or endangered and it's hard to keep track;
You can't necessarily trust where "sustainable" seafood was caught;
You can't necessarily trust how "sustainable" seafood was caught;
Workers are often horribly exploited, and slave labor is sometimes even used;
You can't even trust what seafood is:

I consider those things, too, and then I ask myself "If I don't eat this tasty Opah, whose life - animal or human - will be made different?" Not the fish, because it's already dead. Not the fishmonger, because his order or his earnings will not be affected enough to change anyone's life or habits. Ultimately, if I don't eat that fish the only person affected will be me. Now sure, in theory - if everybody thought like that, then we'd keep making our world worse. And, in theory - if nobody bought the Opah, maybe fewer would be killed. But that's not the real life. The real life is that one old guy refusing to buy a piece of dead fish for environmental or ethical reasons isn't going to mean a hill of beans to anybody.

"Opah" is a new term for me. Maybe because I've never seen it in a fish market out here?

Or, did you mean Okra? I've et that, not a big fan, but it's OK.

Or, heaven forbid, Oprah? Certainly there would be a lot to go around, but I'm not into cannibalism as a rule.

The sardines I eat are supposed to be sustainably caught.

Recently bought some pouched tuna that also is labelled sustainably caught. SafeCatch...

https://safecatch.com/

Plus, it's local...

Safe Catch’s Wild Ahi Yellowfin Tuna

Ahi is one of our lowest mercury tunas. It’s a great choice for athletes, kids & pregnant women! Now in single-serving pouches. Take them anywhere!

Founded on Care, Grounded in Science

Safe Catch’s inspired beginnings were brought to life by our founder’s care for his Mom, when she developed mercury poisoning from eating a daily regimen of tuna. As a scientist in training, Sean sprung into technical action, determined to prevent this from happening to other moms, infants, children, and everyone else.

Mercury Tested

We hand select and test every, single, tuna, to a mercury limit (10x) lower than the FDA action limit. No other brand in the world does this. That is why Safe Catch Elite and Ahi, Wild Yellowfin are proven to meet Consumer Reports “Low Mercury” criteria set for pregnant and nursing women and young children. These products are also the only tuna endorsed by the American Pregnancy Association. At Safe Catch, we test because we care.

Artisan Cook Process

Chefs know, slow cooking premium ingredients leads to amazing taste and texture. That is why we hand fillet and pack nothing but sashimi grade tuna steaks, never fillers or artificial additives. In contrast, Industrial Tuna is cooked first on racks, refrozen, thawed, machine packed, where fillers are added, then cooked a second time, which may be an effective mass production process but definitively not an artisanal one. Our handcrafting of premium fish into noticeably elite tuna steaks makes Safe Catch a healthy and deliciously differentiated tuna.

Nothing Added, Nothing Drained

Carefully crafted pure ingredients make for amazing seafood that stands apart. With Safe Catch Ahi tuna there is nothing to pour down the drain. Simply open the can and use a fork to flake the tuna steak, then watch the natural omega-3s and vital oils be absorbed by the tuna. Have you ever wondered, “Why do I have to drain a can of tuna?” We did too, so that’s why Safe Catch Ahi tuna never adds water or oil fillers. We take pride in carefully preparing the best tuna nature has to offer, for you.

Sustainably Caught

We proudly follow the recommendations of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch® program. All Safe Catch seafood is wild caught, only using sustainable fishing practices. We never use FADs or long lines, which encourages healthy fish stocks while protecting dolphins and turtles. Our mission is to Protect You and Our Oceans.

Update: Just opened a pouch. It's pink, which is a good sign. Tasted a little, not bad. Mixed with mayo, snaking on it now. Yum. Even better with some crushed Cheetos.

Is it radioactive? I'm not so sure about Pacific caught tuna.

[Ulysses]

Is it radioactive? I'm not so sure about Pacific caught tuna.

I doubt that it's radioactive.

I actually have a Geiger Counter here... somewhere... can't remember just now where I put it.

When I find it, if I have any tuna left, I'll check it.

[Vrede too]

Protect You and Our Oceans should change their name.....their initials are P YOO. They must be a bunch of sardine wranglers and tuna rustlers. It was probably founded by a handful of Korean religious fanatics or renegade nuns.

[Vrede too]

Is it radioactive? I'm not so sure about Pacific caught tuna.

Maybe there's more or should be more, but all of the concern I can find about Fukushima (2011) fish is from 2012-14.

[Ulysses]

Is it radioactive? I'm not so sure about Pacific caught tuna.

I doubt that it's radioactive.

I actually have a Geiger Counter here... somewhere... can't remember just now where I put it.

When I find it, if I have any tuna left, I'll check it.

Here's a bit:

Two examples of these migratory fish are Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) and albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), and both 134Cs and 137Cs have been detected in these species caught in the eastern Pacific. For public health, the levels of radiation are very low and far below levels that are considered cause for concern.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coa ... coast-tuna

Aaaaand:

Worried about Fukushima radiation in seafood? Turns out bananas are more radioactive than fish

ix years ago, a devastating tsunami swept over the eastern edge of Japan, killing over 18,000 people and triggering a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The plant was perched on the coast, so some radiation leaked into the sea. In the months and years following the meltdown, people began to wonder: Did these leaks make Pacific seafood too dangerous eat?

The answer, then and now, is no, scientists say. The Fukushima leaks were miniscule compared to the vast scale of the Pacific, said Nicholas S. Fisher, an expert on nuclear radiation in marine animals at Stony Brook University in New York. The disaster added just a fraction of a percent to the radiation that’s already in the ocean, 99 percent of which is naturally occurring.

At those levels, you could eat piles of Pacific fish and have nothing to worry about from radiation, Fisher said. The dose of Fukushima-derived radiation from the average tuna fillet, he explained, “would be far less than the total radiation you’d get from eating a banana or flying in an airplane.”
Cesium in the sea

It’s understandable to get the heebie-jeebies from nuclear radiation. “No one can see or touch or feel or smell it,” said Kenneth Buesseler, the director of the Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Most people have a foggy understanding of radioactivity, so real threats get conflated with overblown or made-up ones.

The risks were greatly exaggerated, for example, when several bluefin tuna and one sockeye salmon showed up in the United States and Canada carrying traces of radioactive cesium from Fukushima. Super-sensitive instruments detected the cesium, but the fish weren’t unsafe to eat. “Just because you can detect it,” Fisher said, “doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.”

[Ulysses]

How many bananas would I need to eat to become radioactive?

Bananas are slightly radioactive because they are rich in potassium, and one of its natural isotopes (variants) is potassium-40, which is radioactive. A lorry full of bananas is radioactive enough to trigger a false alarm on a radiation detector looking for smuggled nuclear weapons. But you can’t become radioactive by eating bananas, because you already are radioactive!

A typical adult contains around 140g of potassium, of which about 16mg is potassium-40 – making you 280 times more radioactive than a banana. Eating one increases your total amount of potassium-40 by 0.4 per cent, which is detectable with a sensitive Geiger counter, but the effect is temporary since your metabolism closely regulates the amount of potassium in your body, and you will excrete the excess within a few hours.

In other words, most of us are already more radioactive than a pacific caught tuna...

[Vrede too]

Here's a bit:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coa ... coast-tuna

Aaaaand:

Worried about Fukushima radiation in seafood? Turns out bananas are more radioactive than fish

The NOAA studies are from 2012, important then, of little use now. The Oceana article is much better, credible group and 2017 is far more current. Definitely superior to anything I found.

[O Really]

"Opah" is a new term for me. Maybe because I've never seen it in a fish market out here?

You need a better fish market.

https://www.hawaii-seafood.org/wild-haw ... fish-opah/

[O Really]

Honey, could you pick up a couple of boxes of tuna on your way home?

Naaaa, I don't think so.

[Vrede too]

Doritos awards Australian teenager $20k for a puffy chip



Of course, they’ve gotten far more than $20k in free ads from media like this.

“Dad is saying that since he bought the packet, it’s his chip, but I ate the packet and found it, so I believe it is mine,” she added.

[Vrede too]

Go ahead, have that third cup of coffee. You just might live longer, new research suggests

... Compared to non-coffee drinkers, drinking up to three cups of coffee daily was associated with 21% lower risk of stroke, 17% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and 12% lower risk of all cause death, the researchers said....

“Up to 5 cups of coffee each day can typically be considered safe according to studies and dietary guidelines," said Seth Martin, a cardiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine ...

[billy.pilgrim]

Go ahead, have that third cup of coffee. You just might live longer, new research suggests

... Compared to non-coffee drinkers, drinking up to three cups of coffee daily was associated with 21% lower risk of stroke, 17% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and 12% lower risk of all cause death, the researchers said....

“Up to 5 cups of coffee each day can typically be considered safe according to studies and dietary guidelines," said Seth Martin, a cardiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine ...

Yet there was a study published within the past couple of weeks that too much coffee contributes to dementia.

[Vrede too]

Go ahead, have that third cup of coffee. You just might live longer, new research suggests

... Compared to non-coffee drinkers, drinking up to three cups of coffee daily was associated with 21% lower risk of stroke, 17% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and 12% lower risk of all cause death, the researchers said....

“Up to 5 cups of coffee each day can typically be considered safe according to studies and dietary guidelines," said Seth Martin, a cardiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine ...

Yet there was a study published within the past couple of weeks that too much coffee contributes to dementia.

High Coffee Consumption Linked to Dementia Risk

A high level of coffee consumption — drinking more than about about six cups a day — is linked to a much higher risk of developing dementia, according to a new analysis published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.

... dementia risk was lower in light coffee drinkers than in non-coffee drinkers or decaffeinated coffee drinkers. But once coffee consumption went above six cups per day, the risk for dementia shot up again — these heavy coffee drinkers were 53% more likely to develop dementia than participants who drank 1 to 2 cups daily. The researchers also found a smaller but significant increase in the risk for stroke among heavy coffee drinkers, 17% higher than among light coffee drinkers....

It's 3-4 for me, plus 1 or 2 decafs.

[O Really]

I used to drink a lot of coffee, but I don't remember how much.

Naaa, I think I drink about 4. Actually, I make a pot and we drink it. The carafe is marked in "cups" which clearly aren't a standard 8oz liquid cup. I have read variously that a "standard cup" of coffee is 4 oz and also 6 oz. Who drinks coffee in a dainty little 4 oz cup? One might expect more precision from a scientific article warning of serious effects. I'm reminded of one of the first rules of statistics: "correlation does not equal causation.'

[Ulysses]

Well, I use a K-cup brewer for most of my coffee. I was usually drinking one 6-8 oz cup in the morning, and then another one around 4 pm. However last week I switched from caffeinated to decaf in the afternoons. For that I had to purchase a big tin of decaf ground coffee. I use a special re-usable k-cup holder for that.

With regard to brain function, I've done a bit of research, and as far as that goes, Omega-3 fatty acids are thought to be beneficial for brain health. So I loaded up on sardines, and after I got tired of those, I got some fish oil softgels with 300 mg in each. I'm sure you've all noticed how brilliant it has since made me.

Ahem.

Somewhere in the workshop I *think* I have a Geiger counter. I might want to check out the sardines and fish oil softgels with it some day. Not to mention the next bunch of bananas.

Or not.

[neoplacebo]

I use one heaping spoon full of coffee per cup of water, boil the coffee and water in the metal pot, and drink it right from the spout. It's crazy to dirty a cup for no reason.

[GoCubsGo]

I use one heaping spoon full of coffee per cup of water, boil the coffee and water in the metal pot, and drink it right from the spout. It's crazy to dirty a cup for no reason.

Do you use your teeth to filter it?

[neoplacebo]

I use one heaping spoon full of coffee per cup of water, boil the coffee and water in the metal pot, and drink it right from the spout. It's crazy to dirty a cup for no reason.

Do you use your teeth to filter it?

Nah, use a gargle bag. Invented it myself. Makes you go

[GoCubsGo]

Only in America (I guess)......

From the McRib to Taco Bell's Mexican pizza: fast food innovations we still crave today

So after 40 years I finally gave the McRib a try......puke city.
Threw it out. It really didn't resemble food in any form I'm familiar with.