Saturday November 21st, 2009
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Food Myths Debunked
Posted by Jessica Harlan on January 10, 2008 - 7:23am.
When I was a kid, my mother wouldn't let me eat raw cookie dough. She said it would give me worms. (Mind you, this is from a woman who would nosh on a gob of raw ground beef, liberally sprinkled with salt, any time she made spaghetti with meatballs)The millions of people who now eat Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream seem to be doing just fine, but I know my mom must've had a point, when it came to the homemade version. When my fellow blogger, Belinda Miller, wondered to me about the evils of eating raw cookie dough, I thought I'd do some investigating for myself, about this myth, as well as a few others.
Read on for my findings...
Myth #1: Eating raw cookie dough is bad for you.
Truth: The harmful ingredient in uncooked dough or cake batter is eggs. In their raw state, they can contain bacteria that can cause salmonella. If you're dead-set on eating your cookies straight from the batter bowl—or if you want to try your hand at making a homemade version of Ben & Jerry's famous flavor—buy pasteurized eggs, which is what is used in commercial cookie doughs meant to be eaten raw. Or, try your hand at making an eggless version.
Myth #2: Eating the crusts on your bread makes your hair curly/makes you see in the dark better/is better for you.
Truth: Well, it may not cause your hair to curl, but finicky sandwich-eaters everywhere should know that bread crusts really do have some nutritional benefit that the doughy, soft center of the loaf lacks. Several years ago, German researchers discovered that baked bread crusts contained a high concentration of an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine, which plays a role in cancer prevention. This antioxidant is formed as a byproduct of the effect of heat on the amino acids, starch and sugars in the dough. The scientists found that the concentration of pronyl-lysine is eight times more abundant in the crust than in the crumb. Darker-colored breads, like pumpernickel and wheat, contain more of the antioxidants than white bread.
Myth #3: The fumes from a too-hot nonstick pan can kill birds.
Truth: The jury's out on this one. When it comes to Teflon and other nonstick coatings, the issue is PFOA, an agent used in the manufacture of the coatings. PFOA has been known to cause health problems in laboratory animals, and is very persistent in the environment and even in the blood of the U.S. population. Manufacturers like DuPont insist that PFOA cannot be detected in the finished product of a nonstick pan. But consumer watchdog groups, such as the Environmental Working Group advise against using these pans, and the Environmental Protection Agency is working with manufacturers to eliminate the use of PFOA in manufacturing pans. And yes, according to some, Teflon has been suspected to kill birds.
Myth #4: You need to drink 8 glasses of water a day to avoid dehydration.
Truth: Not necessarily. Several unrelated members of the medical community have disproved this belief, saying that a person's average intake of fruits, vegetables and other liquids likely provides us with more than our share of H20. The best news? Even coffee and other caffeinated beverages count. No word on whether booze does, however.
Got a foodie myth you've always wondered about? If so, let me know and I'll start working on a sequel.
Maybe I'll just let G eat the vegan cookie dough from now on...
Hey thanks for doing the investigating. Funny how when Mom says something like this, we take it for granted that she's just over protective or something.
To this day, when ever I make anything with pork, I boil it for an hour first, then cook it. But never in a teflon pan.
It is interesting how we pick and choose which "myths" to check into, and how many choices we just live in denial about the consequences with.
Here's one for the sequel. As noted on the National Cancer Society's web site, there is a correlation between chlorine and cancer, yet to my knowledge there isn't one community that processes their water by any other means. Same goes for community swimming pools, chlorine is the way that the keep the water clean. Why?
I guess that if it costs too much to change the situation, then we just use denial, and eventually forget about it.
Anyway, I always wondered why I had never heard about anyone having died from eating raw cookie dough as a kid. Thanks for providing the science behind the myth.
I agree, it's a great article, this investigation sure is useful. I guess our moms want to protect us, making sure we're in top health. But cookie dough is something i love, so i'll start making homemade one for sure! Great article and comment, very informative!
Mike at http://www.pastarecipes.org
We discussed this in college. Chlorine reacts with organic matter in the water to form components which are known to cause cancer. It is a risk managment problem. It is deemed by the government that an appropriate cancer risk is 1/1,000,000. It's actually quite impressive we have these odds considering dirty water is the main cause of deaths worldwide. It's not perfect but it sure beats Malaria.
The swimming pool is an entirely different story. Google childhood asthma and chlorine in swimming pools. I had childhood asthma which reacted mostly when I was at the pool. Now it's a known fact that the chemicals close the breathing ways. Fortunately there are many alternatives to chlorine pools which are gaining popularity.
The food myth I don't understand is the myth that if you don't eat meat you won't get enough protein.
There is really no need to boil pork for an hour before cooking it unless you're making ribs and you want the meat very tender. Incidences of trichinosis in commercial pork are extremely low (something like .7%) If you purchase pork from a small farm that raises heritage pigs, they are likely to be fed an appropriate (meat free) diet, reducing the infection rate even further.
If you choose to eat meat, be a conscious consumer and just cook it appropriately (for pork: to an internal temp of 160 and let it rest for 15 minutes).
This was a favorite bugaboo of my mom's, and was her justification for cooking pork until it had the consistency of a used hockey puck. I grew up hating pork chops.
Living in Atlanta, of course, I've learned about barbecue and the wonderful processes of "low and slow" cooking, both for pork and beef.
The FDA, within the last few years, downgraded their recommendation for cooking pork. They used to recommend that all pork be at least well-done - now they recommend at least medium-well, so that there can be a bit of pink. This is due, as you point out, to the ever-declining incidence of trichnosis.
I looked into this myself not too long ago. Apparently, when they were doing heart studies in the sixties, it was determined that we do need about eight cups of water a day - however, most of that comes included in our regular diet. We don't need eight cups of water in addition to our regular diet.
What happend was that someone skimmed the research and misinterpreted it (sound familiar?) and published the "eight glasses" myth in the popular press. It pretty much took on a life of its own after that, and since the underlying research was the foundation of much of today's conventional wisdom about heart health and medication, it was decided not to correct it, since that might lead to questions about the validity of the rest of the research.