Allergy Alert: Raisins Recalled for Sulfites

A New York company is recalling its 14 oz. packages of “Deer Raisin Golden” raisins because they contain undeclared sulfites. Consumers who have severe sensitivity to sulfites run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reactions.

In a news release, Best Food Cash & Carry Inc. of Maspeth, NY said the problem was discovered after routine sampling by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Food Inspector and subsequent analysis by Food Laboratory personnel.

The consumption of as little as 10 milligrams of sulfite per serving has been reported to elicit severe reactions in some asthmatics, including anaphylactic shock in some sensitive individuals. Analysis of the “Deer Raisin Golden” raisins revealed they contained 11.07 milligrams per serving. The presence of sulfites was not declared on any label.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with the raisins.

The recalled “Deer Raisin Golden” were distributed in 14 oz, clear uncoded plastic packages in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut retail stores.

Consumers who purchased the recalled packages of Deer Raisin Golden may return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. Contact the company at 718-786-8961 if you have questions.

(Food Safety News)

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Approximately 45 million low-income Americans are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program which provides food stamps to purchase produce, meats, dairy, breads, and packaged foods. There has been much controversy over which foods should actually be allowed to be purchased with food stamps based on nutritional value. Currently, items such as sodas, candy, and chips are able to be purchased, despite seeing trends in the rising obesity epidemic which is largely seen in low-income communities.

Recently, the Yum! Corporation which owns Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver’s have been lobbying to have their fast food restaurants included within food stamp programs. They’ve caught on to the increasing use of food stamps during these rough economic years and would like to take full advantage of the opportunity.

What are people saying about this? Some anti-hunger coalitions are actually encouraging it! They’re reasoning, not everyone can get to a grocery store, so a fast food restaurant may be the optimal choice for some. At Foodfacts.com, we’re aware that many people are facing a tough financial time. However, we wouldn’t be so quick to recommend a 2 minute walk to get a KFC Double Down, when you may have some access to whole foods with proper nutritional value.

In good news, many public health organizations are rallying against this movement. They argue that the more revenue these fast-food chains bring in, the more health complications we see, and the higher price we pay later on. Try to eat whole, nutrient-dense foods as much as possible!

(Foodfacts.com)

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Foodfacts.com can’t ignore the relationship between fast-food sales now back on a steady incline; and reports of the obesity epidemic worsening. Therefore, we would like to deem this day as “Fast-food Friday,” or a day when we try to post the worst of the worst in hopes of steering consumers further away from drive-up windows. Also, we’ll throw in some healthier menu items throughout the day for those who may not have the time or resources to prepare their own meals (we’re not going to judge.)

We know that many of our Foodfacts.com followers are well aware of the health effects fast foods impose on our bodies, however, there are clearly still some people out there who may choose to ignore the facts, or maybe just out of the loop. Share this information and HELP US OUT in hopes of educating others.

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Many health articles have reported in recent months that fish oils, primarily omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, help to prevent depression in women. Before you go purchase a lifetime supply of fish oils, know that these research studies are constantly evolving. Though some may claim new dietary benefits one month, chances are those recommendations could change the next. Currently, researchers are still looking into the link between these fatty acids and depression. Also, they are continuing to look into fish oil consumption and diabetes in women. Make sure you conduct your own research or consult with a physician before initiating any supplementation.

Eating fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids doesn’t appear to stave off the blues in women, U.S. researchers have found.

Their study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adds to the conflicting evidence on the benefits of fish oil, which some research has hinted might help certain people with depression.

“We know that omega-3s are important in brain function,” study researcher Dr. Alberto Ascherio, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, told Reuters Health.

“We approached this work thinking that when it comes to preventing depression, it’s conceivable that you are what you eat,” he said.

But the researchers’ findings didn’t bear out that prediction.

The team followed nearly 55,000 nurses over 10 years. All the women, between 50 and 77 years old, were free of depression when the study began in 1996.

Over the next decade, five percent of them eventually developed clinical depression. But the risk was the same regardless of how much DHA and EPA — two omega-3 fatty acids — women got from eating fish.

Fish rich in omega-3s include salmon, trout, sardines and herring.

The researchers did find preliminary signs that a plant-based omega-3 called alpha-linolenic acid could play a role in mood.

For every increase of half a gram in daily intake of the substance –common in walnuts and canola oil, for instance — there was an 18-percent reduction in the risk of depression.

A study like the current one can’t prove cause-and-effect, and Ascherio said the area needs further research before any recommendations can be made.

His team also examined omega-6 fatty acids, but was unable to come up with conclusive findings on its impact on depression. Omega-6s are found in refined vegetable oils and are ubiquitous in snack foods, sweets and fast foods.

Depression strikes twice as many women as men, with one in five U.S. women experiencing the problem at some point.

Dr. Teodore Postolache, who directs the mood and anxiety program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, told Reuters Health he is not yet ready to give up on fish oil.

“There are inherent limitations on studies about depression, including determining with certainty what exactly depression is for patients,” Postolache said.

Using data from nurses, for example, can skew results because nurses are more educated in matters of health and diet than the general population.

“If groups who may have underlying deficits in fish oil were studied, like lower socioeconomic groups, we might have seen a more powerful effect of the omega-3s in preventing depression,” he said.

He also noted that the study excluded women who had previous episodes of depression, although this group is one of “the most important targets for intervention because they are at high risk for a repeat episode.”

He called for more research on animals and in broader swaths of the population.

(Yahoo Health)

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/kmB4rn American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, April 2011.

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Foodfacts.com notices many of our followers struggle with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder which affects the small intestine after consuming gluten. We’ve come across on article that describes the possibly reasoning behind the rise of this disease. Check it out below!

(Yahoo Health) Nearly five times as many Americans have celiac disease today than in the 1950s, a recent study of 9,133 young adults at Warren Air Force Base found. Another recent report found that the rates of celiac disease have doubled every 15 years since 1974. The debilitating digestive disease is now estimated to afflict about 1 in 100 Americans. Why is exposure to gluten–a protein in found in barley, wheat, rye, and possibly oats, as well as other everyday products, including some brands of lipstick, vitamins and lip balms—making more people sick than ever before?

To find out more about celiac disease and the health effects of gluten-free diets, I talked to Christina Tennyson, MD of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University in New York City.

What is celiac disease? A debilitating digestive disorder, celiac disease is a chronic autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten. When people with the disease eat foods that contain gluten, a damaging reaction occurs in the lining of the small intestines, blocking its ability to absorb certain nutrients. This can lead to vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition, even if the person is eating a seemingly healthy diet.

What are the symptoms? One reason why this autoimmune disease often goes undiagnosed for as long as 10 years is that symptoms can vary from person to person. Among the more common warning signs of celiac disease are abdominal pain, bloating, gassiness, diarrhea, constipation, lactose intolerance, nausea and fatigue.

How serious is it? Because celiac disease robs the body of vital nutrients, people who have it are at increased risk for anemia and osteoporosis. People who have celiac disease and don’t eat a gluten-free diet also face a higher threat of bowel cancer and intestinal lymphoma. The Air Force Base study found that during 45 years of follow-up, those with undiagnosed celiac disease were four times more likely to die.

What causes it? Although the cause isn’t fully understood, two genes are known to play a role, says Dr. Tennyson.
Why are rates rising? One theory is that today’s grain-based foods contain more gluten than they did in the past. Another is that kids are exposed to gluten at an earlier age, contributing to increased risk. A frequently proposed explanation is the “hygiene hypothesis,” the theory that we are too clean for our own good, resulting in weaker immune systems because we’re not exposed to as many diseases.

Does a gluten-free diet help people lose weight? Many gluten-free foods are actually higher in calories than their gluten-containing counterparts and therefore lead to weight gain, reports Dr. Tennyson. “One of the pitfalls is that these foods are often highly processed and high in fat. Some ingredients that are used are low in fiber, such as white rice flour, tapioca and corn starch, causing constipation.” To avoid these problems, people with celiac disease should work with a nutritionist, she advises.

Does a gluten-free diet have any health benefits if you don’t have celiac disease? Possibly. In a randomized study in which neither the researchers nor the participants knew if the foods they were eating contained gluten or not, 68 percent of people who thought that a gluten-free diet improved their GI symptoms reported worsening of their symptoms when they were fed gluten-containing foods without their knowledge. However, the study only looked at 34 patients. Use of gluten-free diets for other conditions, such as autism, is highly controversial.

How trustworthy is gluten-free labeling? While products as diverse as lipstick brands to chocolate and many types of groceries carry gluten-free labeling, right now, there are no legal standards that have to be met in the US. In 27 other countries, food labeled as gluten-free food can’t have more than 20 parts of gluten per million. Nearly three years after the FDA’s deadline for a rule to define “gluten-free,” the agency is finally getting serious about tackling the dangerous risks people with celiac disease can face due to misleading labeling.

What’s the treatment? Although there’s no cure, symptoms can be effectively controlled through dietary changes to avoid all foods with gluten. However, if you think you might have celiac disease, don’t start a gluten-free diet until you’ve been tested for the condition, since eliminating gluten can cause misleading test results, cautions Dr. Tennyson. Because the disease can also spark vitamin and mineral deficiencies, patients may also need supplements. For people with severe small intestine inflammation, doctors sometimes prescribe steroids.

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In the US alone, approximately 15 million people currently live with a food allergy. Of the 15 million, 6 million are children. Peanut allergies in children alone have tripled between 1997 and 2008; and more children are being diagnosed with life-threatening allergies. These numbers have been drastically increasing over recent decades for reasons which are poorly understood.

There are eight major foods that account for approximately 90% of all food-allergy reactions in the U.S.: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (e.g., walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, pecans), wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish. Even the smallest trace of these foods can trigger a reaction for someone with a food allergy. If you don’t understand the biological mechanism, we can help summarize it:

• All foods contain proteins. Proteins are normally the component that trigger an allergic reaction.
• Some proteins are resistant to digestion in the digestive tract.
• When these undigested proteins pass through the body, Immunoglobulin IgE (an allergy related antibody), targets the protein as harmful to alert the immune system of its presence.
• The immune system then triggers a reaction to help rid/destroy the protein, which can range from a mild to severe reaction.

Currently, there is no cure for food allergies. Most people with a food allergy must stick to a lifelong avoidance of food allergens. Also, they must learn the signs and symptoms of reactions before a potentially dangerous situation. Early recognition and management of allergic reactions to foods are critical steps that must be taken to avoid serious health-related complications.

How to avoid potential reactions:

Read Food Labels. Carefully go through all ingredients on the nutrition panel to search for any signs of a potential food allergen. Under the Food Allergen Labeling and consumer Protection Act of 2004, it is required that all nutrition labels list specific sources of ingredients if derived from the major 8 food allergens.
Also, many products are manufactured in one common factory. Most labels will list information pertaining to possible cross-contamination for various foods.

Choose Restaurants Wisely. Many public food establishments cook with the major 8 food allergens on a daily basis. However, there are some restaurants that cater to those with food allergies. Do your research to find an eating spot you find safe. Read reviews, call managers, talk to friends; get the information on the establishment.

Prepare your own foods. Whether you’re going to school, attending a party, or holding a business meeting, bring your own foods. It’s reassuring to have control of the ingredients in the foods you eat. Also, don’t be embarrassed to provide your own snacks, because there are millions of people with food allergies that do the same thing! Many people are very understanding of these circumstances.

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FDA reopens comment period on proposed ‘gluten-free’ food labeling rule
Rule would help by creating a uniform and enforceable definition

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today reopened the comment period for its 2007 proposal on labeling foods as “gluten-free.” The agency is also making available a safety assessment of exposure to gluten for people with celiac disease (CD) and invites comment on these additional data.

One of the criteria proposed is that foods bearing the claim cannot contain 20 parts per million (ppm) or more gluten. The agency based the proposal, in part, on the available methods for gluten detection. The validated methods could not reliably detect the amount of gluten in a food when the level was less than 20 ppm. The threshold of less than 20 ppm also is similar to “gluten-free” labeling standards used by many other countries.

People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Celiac disease damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. About 1 percent of the United States population is estimated to have the disease.

“Before finalizing our gluten-free definition, we want up-to-date input from affected consumers, the food industry, and others to help assure that the label strikes the right balance,” said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods. “We must take into account the need to protect individuals with celiac disease from adverse health consequences while ensuring that food manufacturers can meet the needs of consumers by producing a wide variety of gluten-free foods.”

The proposed rule conforms to the standard set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2008, which requires that foods labeled as “gluten-free” not contain more than 20 ppm gluten. This standard has been adopted in regulations by the 27 countries composing the Commission of European Communities.

The FDA encourages members of the food industry, state and local governments, consumers, and other interested parties to offer comments and suggestions about gluten-free labeling in docket number FDA-2005-N-0404 at www.regulations.gov1. The docket will officially open for comments after noon on Aug 3, 2011 and will remain open for 60 days.

(Food and Drug Administration)

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Foodfacts.com helps the general public to learn the facts about the foods we eat. We live in an era of genetically modified foods, chemical additives, and various types of food allergies. Due to this, we feel it’s best that everyone looks closely at nutrition labels and ingredients to make sure our health and well-being are top priorities.

We appreciate it when we receive stories from our followers regarding situations with certain foods; asking us to share it with the rest of our audience to protect other consumers. Recently, we received an e-mail from a concerned parent:

Kari has a young 3 yr. old daughter that was diagnosed with a nightshade allergy just a few months ago. (For those who may not be familiar with nightshade produce, they include: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.) Kari’s daughter attended a birthday party and took just one gulp of a Diet Dr. Pepper. What they noticed is that the little girl was experiencing a reaction thereafter, with her throat closing. Luckily, Kari is a smart mom and always carries medicine in case of a reaction, and her daughter was okay.

The next day, Kari called the Dr. Pepper Corporation to see if she could speak to anyone and get more information on the product. Knowing if nightshades are in the product would help Kari find out if this is just another product to avoid, or if there is possibly a new allergy they are unaware of. However, the Dr. Pepper Corp. was not very helpful. They told this concerned mother that before they could disclose any information, her story would have to be presented to a board to get approval. A little over a month after her story was “reviewed” by the board, Kari received the verdict that her situation is not reason enough to give her the information as to whether this product contains nightshades.

Side Note: No one knows the exact flavor of Dr. Pepper. It is apparently a blend of 23 top-secret artificial and natural flavors. This formula is apparently SO top-secret, that not even a life-threatening situation could allow the company to answer one single question in regards to a child’s health.

When we learned about Kari’s situation, we decided to call Dr. Pepper ourselves. After a few minutes of being on hold, we received the same information as Kari, that the Dr. Pepper recipe is proprietary and we are unlikely to receive any information in regards to the ingredients. They suggested that anyone with a food allergen may want to avoid the products.

What does this mean for Kari’s daughter? This small 3 yr. old now has to undergo more series of scratch tests and blood drawls just to figure out if she has a new allergy. This easily could have been avoided if Dr. Pepper would have simply given her the information she needed. She’s not asking for a recipe, just if the product may or may not contain nightshades.

** If anyone does have a nightshade allergen, be sure to watch out for a variety of colas. Paprika, a common nightshade, is normally used for flavor in many soda products. This may cause a potential reaction. **

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Today’s blog at Foodfacts.com features a video that has stressed the importance of eating organic. Without the harmful pesticides, chemicals, hormones, and toxins, you are reducing the risk of certain cancers and improving your overall health. Various doctors, scientists, researchers, and even some government officials, have been promoting the health benefits of eating organic items for many years now. However, most consumers continue to purchase what they are more familiar with, processed and chemically-treated foods. This may not be due solely to stubborn ways, but rather higher costs, lack of information, and even lack of access to these resources. Though we don’t believe anyone should be punished for not choosing organic, we do believe consumers should become more familiar and educated on healthier options before they make their decisions.

If you have read all the information; listened to all the scientists; and even read all the research, and still nothing… watch what Elise has to say.

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Here at Foodfacts.com, we like to keep viewers aware of possible health implications from a variety of products and ingredients. Today we feature Polysorbate 80.

Polysorbate 80, also known as polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate, is a common food additive used as an emulsifier in a wide variety of products, mostly different ice creams. What it does is help make frozen treats smoother and more resistant to melting. Why do we classify this ingredient as controversial? Many studies have been done showing possible links to infertility, bladder cancer, negative interactions with Crohn’s disease, and in some cases anaphylactic shock.

Most humans in US and Canada consume approximately 0.1g of polysorbate 80 in their foods each day. In addition to foods, polysorbate 80 is now also an additive in H1N1 flu shots, and other vaccinations. With the increasing incidence of influenza in recent years, polysorbate 80 consumption is expected to rise even more.

Although polysorbate 80 is currently deemed safe for consumption, it’s wise for consumers to make their own judgments over these different types of additives. Check back to Foodfacts.com to see what other products contain this ingredient!

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