I want to catch up on a few odds and ends from the past couple weeks:
I suppose I should take it as a compliment that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears to be reading my articles. Two days after my article on raw milk appeared in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, complete with mention of new research out of Michigan on how raw milk helps alleviate lactose intolerance (first reported here last month), the FDA issued a special report arguing essentially, no way, that raw milk can’t counter lactose intolerance.
The research is all nonsense, the FDA suggested. “Drinking raw milk will still cause uncomfortable symptoms in people who are correctly diagnosed as being lactose intolerant. But worse than this discomfort [uh oh, here comes some scary stuff] are the dangers of raw milk, which can harbor a host of disease-causing germs, says [John] Sheehan [the FDA’s raw-milk bully]. ‘These microorganisms can cause very serious, and sometimes even fatal, disease conditions in humans.’” And by the way, no mention of the research the FDA bases its claims on.
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The California Senate has finally scheduled hearings April 15 on “Fresh Farm Milk: Assuring Safety and Consumer Choice”. These hearings grow out of the big flap over AB1735 and its coliform standard, which ran into a little problem a couple weeks ago when a California judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing enforcement of the law. Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., is billing the hearing as “the biggest raw milk event in history.” I’ll leave the final judgment to the historians, but the simple fact that pro and anti are getting together for a public airing has to be a positive, doesn’t it? Equal billing and all that. Hearing goes from 3-9 p.m., at the Sacramento State Capitol Building, Rm #4203.
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Is any factory-farmed fish or meat still safe? The latest evidence of problems in the factory system comes from fish farms in Chile. The South American country provides much of the farm-raised salmon around the world—a key protein that provides essential fish oil. The fish are farmed in such close quarters that they are stressed and become diseased, necessitating large doses of antibiotics. Sound familiar?
I probably over-simplified when I suggested in my previous post that the emerging food shortages could make it important to know local farmers. For a food-conscious segment of people, CSAs and farmers markets will become more important. But for the great mass of people, the crisis will likely be dealt with the way most shortages are dealt with—by raising prices. People who have the means will be able to obtain all the foods they want, while those who don’t will have to find other ways.
The media has been putting out stories about how stores selling out-of-date products for drastically reduced prices are booming. I suspect we’re going to see a lot of “stretching,” not only of food, but of other things.
In all, it’s usually worthwhile to make more of less. I can still remember how my mother saved wax paper used to wrap lunch sandwiches, so it could be used again, and again, and again, until it nearly fell apart. I have a hunch, though, that more people than ever will be consuming ever-worse-quality factory food.
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And finally, there’s this little item about a Canadian judge blocking that country’s milk from being sold in New York state, noted recently in comments following my previous post. What I got from it is just further evidence, if it was needed, as to how seriously controlled the dairy industry is, both in the U.S. and in Canada, in terms of pricing and distribution. Not only do you have to pasteurize, but you can’t go to any kind of open market to sell your products. And if you do, the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets is there to shut you down, as Barb and Steve Smith and other raw-milk producers in New York know only too well.
They can not be believed in the smallest detail of any food news.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept98/acid.relief.hrs.html
I wrote the 15th on my calander, I’ll make sure to be in Sacto that day and walk over after work.
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1521
The above has information for saefood in different areas of the US.
Protonix is standard on the cardiac floor I work on as a nurse. Anyone suspected of having coronary artery blockage is given blood thinners; and during a catheterization, a patient is filled with blood thinners. Protonix is precautionary, since most people have no clue when they’re bleeding in the stomach. It is prescribed for nearly everyone on a blood thinner; protonix or some similar drug like prilosec or nexium or pepcid. Mild nausea can be the only symptom of a gastric bleed, and many people don’t even have nausea
I’ve never heard that medications that reduce gastric acid can make people more susceptable to infection. But it does make a little sense.
Gwen
I used to buy Alka Selter in warehouse packages for my husband. Since we went low carb in 2004 I haven’t bought any antacid at all for him. In college I drank a lot of liquid antacid; I ate a lot of pasta then. I can’t remember the last time I took an antacid.