In this installment we look at men who suffer depression from vegetarian diet, your right to know where meat
comes from, why laws need to be changed, fast foods that science says are
unhealthy but have their tempting qualities, and some new safety policies
regarding store-bought catfish steaks.
1. MEN MAY SUFFER DEPRESSION FROM VEGETARIAN DIET: I'll bet the networks will pick up on this one, a good controversial scare story and backed by a highly regarded publication, The Journal of Affective Disorders. The study looked at any number of other factors that might be causes such as health, employment or marital problems. According to Food Safety News, the study says: “Nutritional deficiencies (e.g., in cobalamin or iron) are a possible explanation for these findings, however, reverse causation cannot be ruled out.” Reverse causation probably means that depressed men might turn to vegetarianism hoping for relief. The complete study is behind a darn pay wall so I won't link to it but it may become public as the story gets more media attention.
2. YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW WHERE YOUR MEAT COMES FROM: Meat items like steak and pork chops used to have to be labeled as to country of origin and travels. Add to that, now it looks to me like we’re being set up to accept Chinese chicken without labels. There are some big questions and problems involving Chinese chickens. But anyway, the identification requirement ended when the World Trade Organization ruled that such labeling hinders trade because of increased paperwork and some other difficulties. So you don’t know what you’re getting from where. Those against labeling say consumers don’t
care, and
all meat must be up to USDA standards so imported is okay, what you see is what
you get. But according to one survey, 89 percent of U.S. consumers want
informative labels. Elected officials dropped the requirements, they can
re-instate them: tell Congress you want origin labels on meat and poultry.
And fish too for that matter. As you can imagine, U.S. cattle ranchers want the
labeling because they believe Americans want to buy American. But the big meat
packers don’t want it, they just want to bring in foreign meat, pack it up and
sell it to you without information as to whereabouts.2. YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW WHERE YOUR MEAT COMES FROM: Meat items like steak and pork chops used to have to be labeled as to country of origin and travels. Add to that, now it looks to me like we’re being set up to accept Chinese chicken without labels. There are some big questions and problems involving Chinese chickens. But anyway, the identification requirement ended when the World Trade Organization ruled that such labeling hinders trade because of increased paperwork and some other difficulties. So you don’t know what you’re getting from where. Those against labeling say consumers don’t
3. SCIENCE SAYS DON’T EAT THIS STUFF: I’m not a big health
nut crusader, I think if you eat the old fashioned way you will naturally be
eating healthy, still I thought it was fun to see what these scientists
consider to be awful fast food meals. The focus on some popular venues like
Chilis and Texas Road House. They hate Dave & Buster’s Carnivore Pizzdilla:
“a
super-cheesy 12” quesadilla served pizza-style in eight slices, stuffed with
Manchego and cheddar cheeses, pepperoni, and Italian sausage, then topped with
even more pepperoni and Italian sausage, plus bacon, marinara, and mozzarella
and Parmesan cheeses.” I probably would order that. Well, you decide, you can
check it out on the Concerned Scientist site.
4. MAKING CATFISH SAFER FOR
CONSUMERS: Where I lived in the deep South, catfish got as much respect as
steak. But I haven’t been too happy with storebought catfish and wondered if it
is the same fish. I did an article (scroll down to “Yes, You Could Be Killed By A Catfish”) about the varieties of
catfish and how they may be imported. The government seems to be paying more attention
to the situation these days. According to Food Safety News, the “FSIS (that’s the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service) will inspect both wild-caught and farm-raised catfish processed in
official establishments and test them for metals, dyes, pesticides and animal
drug residues.
You will be happy to learn that
the FSIS requires that fish harvested for human food, whether wild-caught or
farm-raised, not be raised “under conditions that would render them unsound,
unhealthful, or otherwise unfit for human food.”
Congress took inspection
responsibility away from the Food and Drug Administration (apparently due to
complaints from U.S. catfish farmers) and gave it to FSIS, along with an
order to begin re-inspection of all foreign catfish arriving at a U.S. port of
entry. Imports of catfish may come from Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada,
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Guyana, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria,
Pakistan, China, Thailand and Vietnam.
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