"7 Foods Experts Won't Eat"

[lovetobehome]

Thanks for posting this, I hadn't read about potatoes or tomatoes before...wow, my list of what we will eat grows shorter and thus it becomes more difficult (and expensive) to make meals. It truly is sad that the FDA allows all this gunk. We'll be buying a share in a veg co-op soon.

[mirth]

MANY thanks for that article. It seems to me that canned tomatoes aren't as bad as other things. Here's a cut and paste section from the article:

 

"Consumer Reports tested three different samples of each canned item for BPA and found that the highest levels of BPA tests were found in some samples of canned green beans and canned soups. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had the highest amount of BPA for a single sample, with levels ranging from 35.9 parts per billon (ppb) to 191 ppb. Progresso Vegetable Soup BPA levels ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup had BPA levels ranging from 54.5 to 102 ppb. Average amounts in tested products varied widely. In most items tested, such as canned corn, chili, tomato sauce, and corned beef, BPA levels ranged from trace amounts to about 32 ppb. "

 

We don't eat canned vegetables (other than tomatoes), but we do eat canned soup fairly often (quick and easy in the cold of winter). I may have to rethink it... Maybe ramen with a few added veggies IS healthier.

 

Does anyone know where we can get a complete list of foods tested - with brand names?

 

Yes, thanks for the link to the article.

 

I concluded from reading it that the processes used to coat and cure BPA as can linings have terrible QC. I see the CR article as less of an indictment against the chemical nature of the foods to extract BPA but the uncontrolled leaching of BPA precursor from a poorly made can, or a process with poor clean-up procedures during changeover. (How can a BPA-free can test + for appreciable BPA?) The tomato acid thing does make sense, and I woulda expected the highest amount in that.

[Quiver0f10]

An idea for next summer would be to grow tomatoes and freeze them--if you don't like canning. This last summer, I canned a few, but mainly froze my tomatoes. It is very easy to do, and they are probably more healthy than canned because they aren't processed as long.

 

 

How do you freeze them? Cut up, whole, peeled etc? I never knew tomatoes could be frozen :blushing:

[Renai]

Our store bought potatoes not only sprout, but we planted some that were sprouting last year and they gave us some nice potatoes for this year.

 

HOWEVER, they don't come from Idaho. They are more local to us. Maybe that makes a difference? I still got them from the grocery store.

 

Nope, no difference. The ones that grew potatoes for us last year were not local to us.

[mom2tbcnm]

What if you simply can't afford to get the organic. Should we just not eat anything on the list. I am not on food assistance, but can't afford the more expensive organic stuff.

I guess we will have to eat hotdogs and Ramen all the time, cuz they are not on the list. They must be good for you. YUMMY:tongue_smilie:

Katty

[Dobela]

I didn't either until recently. I wonder if they just started it. My oldest son has stomach problems and when he is having a bad flare-up, he can eat chicken soup without it bothering him. So I have a choice of cooking two separate meals or heating up a can of soup.

Campbells ahas always had MSG in their soups, well, at least the last 20 years. I started avoiding MSG about 1990 and Campbells soups was at tht time one of the heaviest users of MSG, next to Chinese foods. I was eating large quantities of both as a poor college student and it was a real switch for me to find replacements. Now manufacturers are being more 'savy' by saying they are only using 'natural' MSG in things like hydrolized vegetable crud or that they are not adding MSG when they are really using products/preservatives that are heavily MSG - but has another name. If you want to read all the code names for MSG check out http://www.msgmyth.com/hidename.htm

[Nestof3]

I don't understand why they say to try to get a conventional potato to sprout. Mine sprout all the time if I don't use them fast enough. ???

[hornblower]

Canadian milk - even conventional - has no growth hormones in it as they're banned in dairy cattle here.

 

I use organic apples exclusively. They're widely available here. I guess a lot of southern BC & WA state farmers converted to organic because there is a large variety of organic apples at very good prices.

 

Potatoes - I tend to use organic but if my choice is local conventional or organic from 100s of miles away, I'll go conventional

 

I go through less than 5 cans of tomatoes a year.

 

We don't eat corn-fed beef at all. Must be reasonably local & grass pastured and humanely raised and humanely slaughtered - or we don't eat it at all.

 

No farmed salmon at all. Must be pacific and wild.

 

I find microwave popcorn incredibly icky. We bought it once years ago just to show the kids how it works. Nobody actually ate much of it.

[Hedgehogs4]

this article made me feel sick to my stomach, not because it was unappetizing, but because it made me feel so vulnerable.

 

i did not know there were issues with canned tomatoes. we eat them all the time. causes me to wonder if it's part of the reasons i had so many miscarriages, etc.

 

i want to look into options, here. the bottled marinara is a good idea, and the tetra pack, but where do you get them?

 

this food thing gets me down regularly...i know i want to provide my family with the healthiest foods available, but there seems to be no escape from toxins in our food. i just want my kids to be healthy... :confused:

[laughing lioness]

RE: freezing tomatoes. Put them in freezer bags, remove as much air as possible, freeze. When needed, take them out, put under running warm water, watch as peel falls off. Throw in pot.

This is how we "put up" most of our summer tomatoes.

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

The easiest way is to cut off the stem and and pop them in a freezer bag.

 

I prefer to slip the skins off before I freeze them: cut an x in the bottom of a tomato and dip it into boiling water for a minute or so till the skin wrinkles. Pull it out with a slotted spoon, cool slightly and slide the skin right off, then pack as many as you would need for one recipe in a freezer bag.

 

I guess you could freeze them in mason jars too. Frozen tomatoes are mushy, but they work just fine in soups and stews.

[Lovedtodeath]

What if you simply can't afford to get the organic. Should we just not eat anything on the list. I am not on food assistance, but can't afford the more expensive organic stuff.

I guess we will have to eat hotdogs and Ramen all the time, cuz they are not on the list. They must be good for you. YUMMY:tongue_smilie:

Katty

:lol:I will actually do similar. I will try to avoid my allergies and anything processed and as a result I have pancakes every day.

[6packofun]

No kidding. Pus in my milk. Thank you very much. GAG!!!

[love2read]

Well, my granddaddy used to spray the orchard and come home covered in arsenic. He died in his tomato patch at age 80.

I've been thinking about just this lately and while we tend to trust the reports more than anecdotal evidence, I'm starting to lean in the direction of personal observation when making decisions.

My mother is 85. She grew up in a town with a canning factory. I don't remember which brand, but it was Green Giant or a similar one. She worked in the fields as a child, picking vegetables each summer from the age of 6 (her father was dead and they were on a type of welfare for awhile.) Her siblings picked too as did most of her friends, and they remember them spraying pesticides while they were in the fields, sometimes with pump machines and later with planes. She remembers smelling for days afterwards and not being able to get the icky feeling off even with repeated soapings. When she was in her teens, she worked in the factory sorting the veggies. She grew up eating the canned food constantly as did everyone in the town because they got the dented ones very cheap and the regular ones discounted. It was post depression and a poor town, so there weren’t a lot of other options. This was in small town and she has kept in touch with many of her childhood friends as have her siblings and many of them still live in the town. OK, I'll shorten this story ;) They are still an incredibly healthy group and she laughs about all the pesticide and "no canned food" information. She says this is a source of amusement at their class reunions too and that there is not a greater incidence of cancer or illness in the town than in other towns. They all still eat canned veggies (which I hate.) Anecdotal, I know, but I think genetics has a lot more to do with cancer and illness than is being credited. I should add, the factory closed in the late 70s and 80s and the buildings were bought by another food packaging company.

[love2read]

I'm surprised at how many people canned tomatoes this year. We had the blight and all the tomatoes in our garden died. There were no tomatoes to be found at the farmer's market and I just assumed this was across the country.

[grace'smom]

I have read all this in the past, but I got overwhelmed trying to afford everything we "need" to avoid these other things. I felt like I was living my life in this huge state of anxiety, because it snowballed. Once you start learning, you realize there's a ton of food you shouldn't eat, nonstick pans shouldn't be used, tupperware and plastic in general is apparently dangerous, and then you have to get into the world of personal care products and even the water that comes out into your shower. Seriously, even pajamas are treated with flame retardant that some report is dangerous. For me, it became the case of a total sense of helplessness that made me want to avoid the entire issue. Now I try to just make sure we eat whole foods, not processed, and avoid anything with junk chemicals in it. We also take a very good brand of natural vitamins and fish oil. That's the best I can do, and I can't beat myself up about it. I think we eat better than 90% of the population just by avoiding McDonalds. So maybe we might die of cancer, but not before everyone else does first, LOL.

 

But I really admire the people who can make this work. My neighbors do. I just can't. I feel like I can do some things, like homeschooling, that can make a difference for my family, but in the area of health I get completely overwhelmed and just have to avoid, avoid, avoid. I can do positive things, like making healthy food, but for some reason the negatives, like "don't eat this or that" are overwhelming to me. It's probably some personal psychological issue. Learned helplessness, or counterwill or something ;)

 

And I thought they didn't use hormones on the cows anymore?

[milovany]

RE: freezing tomatoes. Put them in freezer bags, remove as much air as possible, freeze. When needed, take them out, put under running warm water, watch as peel falls off. Throw in pot.

This is how we "put up" most of our summer tomatoes.

 

I had taken the skins off the tomatoes before freezing (the blanching method) before a friend told me "the skin comes off easily after they're thawed" so no more blanching here.

 

Also, I roasted some of my tomatoes with onion and garlic, then whirred this in a blender for a roasted tomato sauce. It's very yummy. (I froze several bags of this).

[Alice]

I haven't read all the posts but one thing that I noticed when skimming the article was that the experts are not exactly objective. For example, Joel Salatin saying he won't eat corn-fed beef isn't exactly shocking. Now, I respect Joel Salatin and pretty much agree that grass-fed beef is better (I've read Michael's Pollens' books and some of Salatin's articles). BUT, he's not exactly an objective expert on the matter since he makes his living on the idea that grass-fed is better. He might still be right (and I agree he is) but I think they should have gotten different experts. I don't know the others as well but it made me a bit skeptical of what they were recommending.

 

Also, on the potatoes, I've absolutely had conventional potatoes that sprouted which seems to be the expert's big argument against them (they won't sprout because of treatments). In fact I'm always annnoyed at how fast they sprout.

 

So I agree with a lot of it but also think moderation is important especially when balancing other factors like cost. A can of tomatoes or two isn't going to kill you.

Edited December 10, 2009 by Alice

[Audrey]

Canadian milk - even conventional - has no growth hormones in it as they're banned in dairy cattle here.

 

.

 

 

I did not know that! And, I have a dairy farmer for a bil! Milk is not something I ever worried about because I don't like it much. It's fine for cooking and such. I just don't care to drink it. Ds drinks a fair amount of milk, though, so I sometimes wondered, but it's good to know BGH is banned in dairies.

[Tracy in Ky]

I blanch the tomatoes to remove skins, then just pack into bags. Dd9 eats most of them. I froze about 69 bags (of varying amounts) of tomatoes this year--mostly for her! lol.

 

Our tomatoes did very well this year. Our potatoes didn't do as well though, but we haven't run out yet.

[Amy in KS]

homemade microwave popcorn is easy. Just put a 1/4 cup of popcorn kernals in a brown lunch sack. Add a tiny bit of oil (1 tsp) and salt if desired. Fold over bag several times. Trust me, it pops just like the bags you buy in the store!

[LittleIzumi]

I refuse to read it because we use tons of canned tomatoes and are working on the other things already :lol: plus mostly vegetarian, only "happy meat" when we do have it, no HFSC, no red dye, and dd can't have dairy or soy. Can only cut out so many things at a time! If I can get this gardening-for-storage thing down then maybe.

 

And dh makes popcorn on the stove almost every day. Doesn't even need butter, just pepper and salt. :D

[mirth]

Does anybody ever feel like it's a crapshoot no matter what we do? I switched from plastic bottles to re-usable. I stopped doing this...I stopped doing that...and still...this is 7 more things I have to worry about (ok, really 4 or 5 because I had already stopped doing the others.)

 

I cook with canned tomatoes for about 60% of my meals...I use them several times a week. Now I have to feel guilty about that too :( I don't use canned veggies b/c we just don't like them. My daughter DOES like canned campbells soup though. I can't keep a pot of chicken noodle soup long enough to freeze it (and honestly, I would freeze it in plastic containers..so even that wouldn't be good.)

 

I'm slowly killing my family by just cooking and I can only do so much to stop it. :angry:

 

 

Don't go down this road. Don't be like the lady in the article photo sneering at her salad. I know her portrayal is a caricature but this is the feeling the article is obviously hoping to fuel. You are alert and able, and if you live in the US, you live in a country with more food availability, regulations, choices than most others. Trust in your good sense to do the best any human could do with your geographical, budget, and time parameters. Also trust in the manufacturers to be railed about this article and force their packaging suppliers into better QC.

 

By the way, does reading the article make you want to buy IAMs Healthy Naturals prebiotic cat food (what on earth??)? Or the book The 2 Week Turnaround Diet? (These are the ads on my link page.) I think I am supposed to feel so bad and then see those ads and feel a wave of holistic goodness and relief from my bad and obviously uneducated food tendencies.

 

Well, it makes me want to ask how many cans of tomato did Dr. vom Saal, PhD test and what was the variance in BPA level amongst them all? Did Muir Gardens the fancy organic tomato canner really have as big a BPA average and variance as any other? And I do not believe that aseptic packaging is exactly leachant free.

 

I worked in high-performance packaging for years. I take all this with a grain of salt. I also believe in trying to focus on all the good in things.

Edited December 10, 2009 by mirth

[Michelle T]

except for salmon, since I don't like fish.

 

I'm still alive. But eventually, I'll die. So will every single one of you, despite not eating microwave popcorn, or canned tomatoes.

 

I think we are at a point where the endless messages of danger, warning, threat are so overwhelming, that it is close to impossible to just live. Sure, be as healthy as possible, but if you didn't eat every single thing you were warned about, what would be left? And you are still breathing the air, touching the soil, having sex, being around other people/animals, driving in cars, going on airplanes........

 

I pick and choose what to worry about. There is only so much one can do in the face of endless warnings. Regardless, I will die no matter how healthily I eat, exercise, live. I figure I might as well enjoy life while I'm living it. Worrying about the occasional canned tomatoes isn't worth it, IMHO.

Michelle T

[tdeveson]

Every potato I ever bought has sprouted if I leave it long enough. The author got the potatoes wrong -- that makes me wonder what else he got wrong.

 

I'd also be very interested to know who the writer works for, and more importantly, links to the research. I'm not easily swayed by vague references to "research" the author is not willing to link to, iykwim.

 

I'll have to double check the tomatoes. We consume a lot of canned tomatoes.

[Quiver0f10]

RE: freezing tomatoes. Put them in freezer bags, remove as much air as possible, freeze. When needed, take them out, put under running warm water, watch as peel falls off. Throw in pot.

This is how we "put up" most of our summer tomatoes.

 

The easiest way is to cut off the stem and and pop them in a freezer bag.

 

I prefer to slip the skins off before I freeze them: cut an x in the bottom of a tomato and dip it into boiling water for a minute or so till the skin wrinkles. Pull it out with a slotted spoon, cool slightly and slide the skin right off, then pack as many as you would need for one recipe in a freezer bag.

 

I guess you could freeze them in mason jars too. Frozen tomatoes are mushy, but they work just fine in soups and stews.

 

I had taken the skins off the tomatoes before freezing (the blanching method) before a friend told me "the skin comes off easily after they're thawed" so no more blanching here.

 

Also, I roasted some of my tomatoes with onion and garlic, then whirred this in a blender for a roasted tomato sauce. It's very yummy. (I froze several bags of this).

 

I blanch the tomatoes to remove skins, then just pack into bags. Dd9 eats most of them. I froze about 69 bags (of varying amounts) of tomatoes this year--mostly for her! lol.

 

Our tomatoes did very well this year. Our potatoes didn't do as well though, but we haven't run out yet.

 

 

Thanks for the tips! Can't wait to try freezing them now.

[Ginevra]

1 - Canned tomatoes

2 - Corn-fed beef

3 - Microwave popcorn

4 - Non-organic potatoes

5 - Farmed salmon

6 - Milked produced with artificial hormones

7 - Conventional apples

 

 

1. I can my own tomatoes, thankfully, organically grown in my garden.

2. Grass-fed beef tastes yucky and is too expensive. :D

3. I don't usually eat micro-popcorn; we air pop.

4. We eat potatoes organically grown in our own garden, until it just gets too far into the winter and those that are left are too shriveled and soft.

5. I don't eat salmon.

6. I agree about the milk but it is just too expensive the other way. We go through 5 gallons a week and I can't deal with spending half the grocery budget on organic milk.

7. Same with apples. It would be nice the other way, but there is reality, so there ya go.

[Ginevra]

I'm still alive. But eventually, I'll die. So will every single one of you, despite not eating microwave popcorn, or canned tomatoes.

 

I think we are at a point where the endless messages of danger, warning, threat are so overwhelming, that it is close to impossible to just live. Sure, be as healthy as possible, but if you didn't eat every single thing you were warned about, what would be left? And you are still breathing the air, touching the soil, having sex, being around other people/animals, driving in cars, going on airplanes........

 

I pick and choose what to worry about. There is only so much one can do in the face of endless warnings. Regardless, I will die no matter how healthily I eat, exercise, live. I figure I might as well enjoy life while I'm living it. Worrying about the occasional canned tomatoes isn't worth it, IMHO.

 

 

I tend to agree.

[Ginevra]

I buy locally grown, organic potatoes. They are harvested the week I get them and they will sprout on me in less than 10 days, if not used or refrigerated. How long have normal potatoes been sitting in the super market covered in a chemical that has delayed sprouting? So even if your potatoes will sprout within 10 days of your bringing them home, they were harvested possibly months before that.

 

I do not experience this as such. We dig our potatoes in late Sept or Oct, keep them in the garage where it's cooler and not as light and they don't sprout for months. They have no chemicals on them. I could go get some right now and out of eight potatoes, perhaps one or two may have a little sprout in the eye, but there's not a lot of sprouting going on.

 

Anyway, I agree with those who question why the article said that. Potatoes I have bought from the store sprout, too, although I would assume if I'm buying them in February, they have been delayed chemically or else they were dug somewhere far, far away. Cuz all my home-growns look like a prune with ten-inch roots by February. :D

[Guest Katia]

except for salmon, since I don't like fish.

 

I'm still alive. But eventually, I'll die. So will every single one of you, despite not eating microwave popcorn, or canned tomatoes.

 

I think we are at a point where the endless messages of danger, warning, threat are so overwhelming, that it is close to impossible to just live. Sure, be as healthy as possible, but if you didn't eat every single thing you were warned about, what would be left? And you are still breathing the air, touching the soil, having sex, being around other people/animals, driving in cars, going on airplanes........

 

I pick and choose what to worry about. There is only so much one can do in the face of endless warnings. Regardless, I will die no matter how healthily I eat, exercise, live. I figure I might as well enjoy life while I'm living it. Worrying about the occasional canned tomatoes isn't worth it, IMHO.

Michelle T

 

Thank you. My thoughts exactly.

[FlockOfSillies]

Are these the same people who caused the Alar scare? Who generate the buzz about the heart-saving food of the week? How many other fads have they introduced and discarded over the years?

 

We have so many luxuries now -- clean running water, life-saving medicines and treatments, plentiful food, refrigeration and freezing capability, conveniences coming out of our ears -- that our life-expectancy rates are far beyond what they were just 100 years ago. So now we have the luxury of worrying about what will kill us when we're in our 80s and 90s, rather than wondering whether we'll die in childbirth, or how many of our children we'll outlive because of smallpox or TB. How many people in the Third World would love to worry about the things that give us anxiety...

 

I don't care one whit what a bunch of self-proclaimed experts/activists/nannies/Chicken Littles say I should or shouldn't eat. Sooner or later, they'll change their minds but remain just as adamant about their correctness and authority. And I'm certainly not going to change my eating habits every time I see a food-scare thread on a message board.

[nmoira]

 

I don't care one whit what a bunch of self-proclaimed experts/activists/nannies/Chicken Littles say I should or shouldn't eat. Sooner or later, they'll change their minds but remain just as adamant about their correctness and authority. And I'm certainly not going to change my eating habits every time I see a food-scare thread on a message board.

You might wish to peruse these summaries of recent studies of BPA.

[LibraryLover]

Which begs the question: How can those of us who live across the oceans get real San Marzano tomatoes?

[Spy Car]

Which begs the question: How can those of us who live across the oceans get real San Marzano tomatoes?

 

You can get them a Domingo's down on the corner.

 

Bill

[LibraryLover]

You can get them a Domingo's down on the corner.

 

Bill

 

 

Bulk, can, or jar?

[Spy Car]

Bulk, can, or jar?

 

In a can, darn it all :tongue_smilie:

 

Bill

[Vida Winter]

I guess we're doomed. We eat most of that and probably worse.

[Firefly]

We don't eat that stuff. Fortunately we can get most of our food locally, including beef and raw milk, and I grow much our fruit and veggies. The tomato thing can be frustrating though... we use a lot in sauces, etc and I never seem to put up enough. Thank you for the freezing ideas!

 

For me it's not about dying early or not, it's about quality of life. We are rarely sick. None of us is on any kind of medication or have any recurring health issues. This is so rare in our circle of friends/family. Anyway, it's important to me so we do it; we make sacrifices in other areas so we can buy quality whole foods. I don't judge others who make different choices. (Okay, the mom who used to send her kid to day camp with a coke and a can of cheeze-puffs for lunch, maybe I did judge her just a little... ;))

[melissel]

(Okay, the mom who used to send her kid to day camp with a coke and a can of cheeze-puffs for lunch, maybe I did judge her just a little... ;))

 

:lol:

 

I'm so sad about the potatoes and apples! We don't eat/use the other stuff (I hate canned tomatoes--I can't figure out how to get them to NOT taste like can). But I loooove Macintosh apples (I know, so lame), and I had no idea about the potatoes! Come to think of it, the organic apples I have from a week ago are sprouting already, and the leftover conventional ones that my mom brought over almost a month ago are sitting next to them, all sad and squishy and sproutless :(

 

It IS so frustrating, but we're lucky to have access to some good deals on meat from happy cows and chickens and affordable raw dairy products, so I'll eat my unsatisfying organic apples and count my blessings, I guess...

[sadiegirl]

:iagree:

 

I'm still alive. But eventually, I'll die. So will every single one of you, despite not eating microwave popcorn, or canned tomatoes.

 

I think we are at a point where the endless messages of danger, warning, threat are so overwhelming, that it is close to impossible to just live. Sure, be as healthy as possible, but if you didn't eat every single thing you were warned about, what would be left? And you are still breathing the air, touching the soil, having sex, being around other people/animals, driving in cars, going on airplanes........

 

I pick and choose what to worry about. There is only so much one can do in the face of endless warnings. Regardless, I will die no matter how healthily I eat, exercise, live. I figure I might as well enjoy life while I'm living it. Worrying about the occasional canned tomatoes isn't worth it, IMHO.

Michelle T

[justamouse]

I read that and we're pretty much OK but the tomatoes really bothered me. We use an Italian brand, but I still want to can my own now.

 

And I'm with Firefly, quality of life. My MIL never cared and she's in her early 60s, is very big, is shrinking, and has numerous health ailments.

 

In comparison, my aunt has always cared, also in her 60s and does more in a day than I can. Garden club, Curves, traveling..utterly amazing. She took vitamins when no one was, only ever used natural peanut butter when hydrogenated kinds were all the rage, kept her own chickens. I'll do it my aunt's way.

[Jill- OK]

...that I've got to shrug off is...corn fed beef.

 

I cannot STAND the taste of solely grass fed beef. Blech.

 

I've had corn-finished beef that I liked, but all of the solely grass fed beef I've had--and I've had a lot--has been gross. Gamey.

 

(The canned tomato thing is hard for me, too, but almost everything else I follow, to some extent.)

[Thea]

I hate that list.

 

We eat canned tomatoes practically every day - I knew there were issues, but now that I've read the article, we'll certainly be looking into other options!

 

And the potatoes - I bought the book The Omnivore's Dilema (The Young Reader's version by accident) and the beginning pages tell a picture inducing story about how non-organic potatoes are grown...I didn't get much past that part because I LOVE POTATOES (and the organic ones are sooooo expensive!). I wan't to read the rest o the book, but I'm scared.

 

 

 

Yeah, I read that book. It's costing me a lot of money since I can no longer in good conscious eat the same way.

[Colleen]

 

I don't care one whit what a bunch of self-proclaimed experts/activists/nannies/Chicken Littles say I should or shouldn't eat.

And yet you cared enough to read and reply...

 

[Laura Corin]

 

I've had corn-finished beef that I liked, but all of the solely grass fed beef I've had--and I've had a lot--has been gross. Gamey.

 

 

Do you like lamb? I think most Brits find grass-fed beef (we have a lot of lush grass, so grass-fed beef is not that rare) to be normal, but we also eat a lot of lamb, so are used to a stronger taste.

 

I do avoid eating steaks towards the end of the winter, when the beef cattle will have been eating silage. We find that the meat is tainted by this.

 

Laura

[Lovedtodeath]

DH made chili for dinner. It contained 6 cans of Red Gold diced tomatoes.:001_huh:

[Colleen]

I share the general sentiment expressed here and, as most know, I err on the side of organics anyway. Alas, tomato production here isn't such that I have extra quantities to freeze so I do rely to an extent on the packaged product ~ both in cans and glass (Bionaturae and Muir Glen). Re the potential harm from BPA in the lining of the tins, I'm not terribly concerned. It's worth remembering that the BPA-scare isn't a worldwide phenomenon, as evidenced by the European Union's most recent risk assessment.

[KidsHappen]

I can't tell you how glad I was not to see peppermint bark on here. :tongue_smilie:

[MBM]

I also avoid conventional carrots, celery, lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, pears, peaches, nectarines, grapes, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, wheat, and last of all, because I eat the skin and pith -- lemons.

 

A consumer doesn't have to purchase all organic. A number of vegetables and fruit are not bothered much by pests or disease.

 

Although I love fish, I rarely eat it except for the occasional wild-caught, Alaskan salmon. Mercury and the unknown effect of nurdles and the chemical soup they're exposed to turn me off. Blech.

 

Another concern of mine is exposure to trace amounts of medications and other chemicals that aren't filtered out of drinking water. (Chicago Tribune article). Because these can build up in fat tissue, it's possible this could pose serious problems -- to fetuses especially. IMO, it's a problem that should be addressed.

 

We've visited a few organic farms in Hawaii, and ideally, that is how I'd like to live. For now I'll have to make due with Illinois. :)

[Tammyla]

Dang...dang...dang...I knew this thread would cause me trouble.

 

Canned tomatoes...:sad:

 

 

I used the last can during our blizzard the other day in big batch of veggie chili.

 

I'm betting my local grocery stores wont have the tetra packs either.