Why Does a Cream Pie Crust Get Soggy? And Digesting the Latest Raw Milk Data

If you’re going to consult with a dietician or nutritionist, what kind of expertise do you expect?

A reader sent along some of the questions from the study guide for the Registration Examination for Dietitians (put together by an affiliate of the American Dietetic Association). This is the examination that will be required of all registered dietitians and nutritionists in Michigan and is already required in many other states. Here are a few of the questions:

–Compared to a conventional oven, a convection oven should have which of the following adjustments to temperature and baking time?

1. Increase 10°F to 15°F, increase time 25% to 50%
2. Decrease 10°F to 15°F, increase time 25% to 50%
3. Decrease 25°F to 50°F, reduce time 10% to 15%
4. Increase 25°F to 50°F, increase time 10% to 15%

–Which of the following corrective actions should be taken if the temperature of a chicken casserole drops below 140° within an hour?

1. Discard the casserole
2. Return the casserole to the hot-holding cabinet to reheat it to a minimum temperature of 165°F.
3. Return the casserole to the oven to reheat it to a minimum temperature of 165°F.
4. Return the casserole to the oven to reheat it to a minimum temperature of 140°F.

–The crust of a cream pie becomes soggy when refrigerated, most likely because the:

1. crust was improperly baked.
2. filling was undermixed.
3. filling underwent retrogradation.
4. filling was collked at a temperature that was too high

My apologies for not having the answers to share with you, but I think you get the drift. In all fairness, there are questions about more substantive matters, like liver glycogen, nutrition screenings, and protein sources. But the point here is that nutritionists and dietitians are being fed information that is either extraneous to what many do, or else of questionable use, like baking cream pies. All the more reason not to have one organization setting the standards for nutrition.

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The discussion on the subject of two children who became ill last September, apparently from drinking Organic Pastures raw milk, has continued following my update on the Michigan raw milk situation. I mentioned several times in postings last October that four children contracted E.coli, but I didn’t explain that their E.coli had a distinctive genetic blueprint, which is what enabled authorites to differentiate it from the spinach E.coli sickening people at the same time. This is an important distinction to make, and my apologies for not having been clearer in my postings.

By the same token, the issue of a distinctive E.coli sickening the children becomes important concerning the issue of E.coli apparently being found in one of the Organic Pastures cows (as reported by Mary McGonigle-Martin in her comment). My understanding is that because that E.coli had a different genetic blueprint from the E.coli found in the four children, it isn’t considered an issue. E.coli can be found in cows, without necessarily getting into the milk and posing a health hazard. The fact is that it hasn’t been found in any milk. You can be sure if the E.coli found in a cow had had the same genetic markings as that which sickened the children, the enforcement activity would have been very intense, and Organic Pastures might well have been shut down.