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There’s something funny in this fruitcake |
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Cookies in the conference room, cheese logs in the mail, homemade eggnog at your neighbor’s party. Food is everywhere this time of year, and I’m not talking about carrot sticks and tofu. ACS got into the act last month with its “kitchen chemistry” theme for National Chemistry Week 2000 (1). Food is a favorite topic on the Web; hundreds of sites are devoted to healthy eating, food safety, and guides to what’s in that rum cake that’s been calling your name all afternoon (or that fruitcake you’ve been trying to ditch). What you do want to eatYou don’t have to sacrifice holiday fun to maintain healthy eating habits this time of year. There are plenty of good things to eat that won’t give you a guilt attack afterwards, and even the really “bad” stuff can be enjoyed in moderation. Sort out the scare stories from the solid advice at the Nutrition News Focus site (2). You can subscribe to an e-mail newsletter (it’s free) or browse the archives, but you’ll have to deal with an intrusive little pop-up ad window that obscures part of your screen every two minutes. Find out about heart-healthy eating at the Heart Information Network (3). The Nutrition Guide page (4) contains links to articles on sensible eating, even during the holidays (5). Can you get the flavonoids responsible for the “French paradox” effect (6) without the alcohol? Yes, you can. Just drink purple grape juice instead of red wine (7). If weight control is your thing, check out the recipes at the Weight Watchers site (8). If you want to go completely nutty (or keep the kids entertained during semester break), check out the selection of edible and inedible experiments at the Mad Scientist site from Washington University, St. Louis (9). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s FDA Consumer Magazine (10) is a good way to keep up with the latest food news or search for news items on a specific topic. Subscriptions are available, but casual browsers can access current and back issues online as well. The most recent government dietary guidelines emphasize maintaining regular physical activity and a healthy body weight, in addition to watching what you eat, according to Linda Bren’s article, “New Dietary Guidelines Give Practical Advice for Healthier Living”, in the September–October 2000 issue (11). What you don’t want to eatHoliday eating can be disastrous if you don’t clean up properly after handling that raw turkey, if the hollandaise sauce sits out a little too long, or if that piece of imported fruit wasn’t inspected for parasites. Science and technology have eliminated many of the food-borne hazards that plagued us in the past, but new hazards have taken their place. People now eat a greater variety of foods that may come from anywhere in the world. Americans are relying more on food prepared by others, and the aging American population is at higher risk for food-borne illnesses. President Clinton announced the Food Safety Initiative on January 25, 1997, to address just such issues. Find out more about this initiative at the FDA’s Food Safety Initiative site (12). Further information, including news items, consumer and industry resources, videos, and conference announcements, can be found at the Gateway to Government Food Safety Information site (13). What’s in the stuff you’re eatingGetting enough of the good stuff and avoiding the bad stuff is easier if you know which is which. The FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has provided a page of useful links to other FDA sites, home pages for professional organizations, and a variety of databases (14). CFSAN’s Office of Premarket Approval has a home page that provides a convenient starting point for finding the official approval status on specific food additives, as well as technical documents, consumer information, and guidelines for submitting petitions (15). The FDA also monitors food products to make sure that the ingredient lists on the labels are accurate and truthful. Paula Kurtzweil’s article in the March–April 1999 issue of FDA Consumer Magazine (16), entitled “Fake Food Fight”, gives a brief history of the FDA’s effort to stop economic adulteration of food. Even though it is against the law to use inferior ingredients to cheat consumers and undercut the competition, the practice persists. In recent years, the FDA has sought and won convictions against companies and individuals who make and sell bogus orange juice, apple juice, maple syrup, honey, cream, olive oil, and seafood, says Kurtzweil. Another useful page for agricultural and food chemistry information is provided by the Chemical Institute of Canada, Hamilton section (17). The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition includes a good sampling of chemistry-based articles in its Highlights of Recent Research page (18). The table of contents is linked to article abstracts, which are linked to the full text of the corresponding articles. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) provides a wealth of information on nutrition, food additives, food safety, and government policy at its Web site (19). Its alphabetical listing of food additives (20) rates each additive as “safe”, “cut back on this” (bad in large amounts, or promotes poor nutrition), “caution” (insufficient testing or indeterminate risk level), “certain people should avoid” (mostly allergens), and “everyone should avoid”. There is a “cemetery” of banned food additives at the bottom of the page. Colorful eatingGood cooks have been adding coloring agents to their recipes for centuries. Elise Fleming has compiled a biblio graphy of food colorings from various cookbooks, many from the 16th and 17th centuries (21). Most of these are natural products, but some are not safe to eat. For example, Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery describes how to color sugar “fruits” with vermilion, a crystalline form of mercuric sulfide. The Health Education Alliance for Life and Longevity’s (HEALL) Community for Body Mind Soul Earth Wellness Resources is a good source of information and news items on food (22) and food colorings (23). Did you know that the pink, red, or purple color in some ice creams and yogurts, fruit drinks, and the aperitif Campari come from cochineal extract or carmine, derived from female cochineal beetles? One of the news releases on the HEALL Web site reports incidences of allergic reactions to these coloring agents. On August 24, 1998, the CSPI petitioned the FDA to either revoke approval of the colorings or require that they be clearly labeled by name (24). Healthy and naturalThe Environmed Research (West Vancouver, BC) Web site promotes the Alpha Nutrition Program (25). Although this site pitches a commercial nutrition program, there are several easy-to-read summaries of common health problems related to diet, nutrition, allergies, and the environment, with references to the medical literature. The American Society of Pharmacognosy Web site (26) has links to related Web sites and journals, meeting announcements, and membership information, but very little direct information on pharmacognosy. Follow the “Links to Related Sites” trail to find out about drug products derived from natural sources. By the way, the society’s Journal of Natural Products is co-published monthly with ACS (27). The Centre for International Ethnomedicinal Education and Research provides a rich, if somewhat cluttered, launch pad for digging up information on ethnobotany and related topics (28). Recent news items listed on this site report on hazelnuts as a source of Taxol, a recent outbreak of mushroom poisoning in Russia, and an impending government ban on a Chinese weight loss herb implicated in several cases of cancer and kidney failure. Kippewa Gardens sponsors “The Gatherer”, a multiple-database search engine on various uses for plants (29). This site is devoted mostly to natural medicines and other remedies, but one link led to “Nativetech: Native American Technology and Art”, which had an extensive collection of Native American recipes (30). American food historyPrinceton University has a Web page devoted to the accomplishments of Lloyd Hall (31) as part of the series “The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences”. Hall’s research is responsible for many of the preservatives that keep our foods and pharmaceuticals fresh. Before his discoveries, the most common preservative was a mixture of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. In addition to work on meat-curing products, seasonings, emulsions, bakery products, antioxidants, and protein hydrolysates, Hall developed sterilization procedures for spices, cereals, and pharmaceuticals that are widely used today. Falling off the wagonNutritious, well-preserved food is all well and good. On the other hand, if we cut all the fried fast food out of our diets, there won’t be much demand for the Veggie Van (32), a three-ton Winnebago that runs on biodiesel fuel made from the used vegetable oil from restaurant fryers. Its exhaust is reported to smell like French fries. Yum. References
Nancy K. McGuire is associate editor of Chemical Innovation. |
