There are so many fake foods in our supermarkets, our restaurants and in our kitchen cabinets that it's hard to know what we're eating anymore.
My goal is to educate and inform all those who desire to eat more nutritiously and live long and healthy lives. “Una vita senza buon cibo, non e vita” (A life without good food, is not life)
Please take the time to read the following and oversee your life’s eating habits.
Real Food vs. Fake Food, written by Larry Olmsted, . https://minacones.com/real-food-fake-food-larry-olmsted/
He brings readers into the unregulated food industry, revealing the shocking deception that extends from high end foods like olive oil, wine, and everyday staples such as coffee, honey, juice, and cheese. It's a massive bait and switch in which counterfeiting is rampant and in which the consumer ultimately pays the price.
FISHY FISH
(the following are excerpts from the book Real Food vs. Fake Food)
A study of New York City seafood done by scientists found fraud in 58% of retail outlets and 39% of restaurants.
70% of seafood consumed in this country is eaten in restaurants, which consistently perform worse than retailers, especially with sushi. Unless you eat at the nation's very best and most expensive sushi eateries, assume the worst, and you'll almost certainly be right. Example: If you order white tuna or red snapper you will almost always get something fake. Most sushi is of such low quality and is often fake that unless you're eating in a restaurant called Nobu or Massa, where world class fish comes with equally lofty prices, simply do not eat in any other type of establishment that serves sushi. But this fraud is not only a sushi problem, it's a seafood problem. And it is a bad one.
It was discovered that every sushi restaurant from which samples were collected, 100% of them served fake fish. Obviously, researchers did not test every New York City restaurant, but they tested enough to make it worrisome. Consumers ordering white tuna get a completely different animal, no kind of tuna at all. 94% of the time they were served the single most common substitute for tuna is Escola; one of the most dangerous seafood products you can buy. In the seafood industry, Escola is named EXLAX fish, which can give people digestive distress and diarrhea for days. It was responsible for a wave of 600 illnesses in Hong Kong and has been banned completely in Japan for nearly 40 years. When people get sick after eating sushi or sashimi, they often blame the rawness for their stomach distress, saying something like “I must have had bad tuna”. It's more likely their problems were caused by the fact that they never had tuna at all
Found everywhere from coast-to-coast fake fish swim in every direction, from the sushi bar to the seafood market to the frozen food section, the supermarkets and across restaurant menus at every price point, from fast food eateries to five-star restaurants. Bluntly, the seafood industry is rife with fraud, substitution, and adulteration. While sushi is statistically the worst offender, there is good reason to be dubious about seafood of almost every description.
Fish is labeled for financial gain, and seafood fraud can result in food safety Problems.
The more insidious way to get money out of consumer pockets is adulterating scallops. This is done by adding water and phosphates and inorganic chemicals to boost their weight since seafood is typically sold by the pound causing consumers to pay $15-$18 per lb. for water. Of course, this practice also lowers the quality of the scallops. These are typically known as wet scallops. Phosphates help them absorb more water than they could naturally and as much as 25% of the total weight. But you will not find phosphates, water, or any ingredients on the label.
The practice affects most scallops sold in this country and is so common that when you shop at better specialty stores you will find so-called dry scallops. The term means normal scallops and usually sold at a very high premium. The results when sauteed, are that they brown well, hold their shape and size and are delicious and have a creamy ivory interior. By comparison, when you cook wet scallops, which means most scallops, some of the extra absorbed water seeps out during cooking so the scallop cannot brown. You see this whitish liquid like skim milk pool in the pan and the scallops are uniformly white throughout causing them to shrink and rendering them utterly tasteless.
Most all red snapper sold in this country is fake.
The most common fake for pricey fish is red snapper which are actually tilefish and tilapia, often farmed and drug laden. When tilapia is not posing as red snapper, it is often dressed up as catfish. Steelhead trout has been a stand in for salmon and expensive fish. And it has many different imitators including the mercury rich, tilefish, which is on the FDA's do not eat list for children and pregnant women as mercury causes birth defects. Tilefish is also used to fake pricey halibut.
IN CONCLUSION
So, what can you do? The answer is twofold - shop better and cook at home more. And of course, read labels. You have more control over the final product if you make it at home than if you buy it. In this book, REAL FOOD VS FAKE FOOD, https://minacones.com/real-food-fake-food-larry-olmsted/ they've laid out specific shopping details at the end of each chapter. In general, I suggest shopping at better stores, whether it be Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, or at the local fishmonger you trust.
For this Italian Diva, who rarely eats out, cooking at home is the easiest solution to eating more real food. Despite the extra labor and time, and in many cases, cooking it yourself pays off. The single biggest shopping rule is to read ingredient labels carefully and remember that any ingredient that is in a “category”, like artificial colors, natural flavors, rather than labeling a specific thing, is probably hiding something. The sheer number of components in heavily processed foods (over 10,000) is a problem, as each can hide unsavory things, as well as where they came from. To me, there is just something intrinsically wrong about eating a lot of unnecessary chemicals which can and does cause cancer-related diseases and other life-threatening illnesses. Knowledge is power!
ABOUT FROZEN PIZZA OR PIZZA DOUGH:
Pizza is America’s most popular food and so accessible in your grocer’s freezer. Fast and an easy fix for your family . But let’s examine most pizzas available in your supermarket. (Name withheld) Not only does this frozen pie have at least 52 separate ingredients, but these include lots of things I wouldn't eat, like butylated hydroxytoluene, which is banned in Italy and England. And the FDA has said for years, should be investigated. This additive owes to the possibility of turning other ingredients toxic or cancer causing.
And what about the dough? In most frozen pizzas, the dough itself is likely made with highly processed and bleached flour, plus artificial flavors and colors not listed on the label. There's also the sauce, laced with potential residues of pesticides, and chemical fertilizers probably made from unripe tomatoes colored red with gas. Even if the manufacturer uses actual mozzarella cheese versus some other “cheese like” substance, it's still almost certainly came from cows loaded with steroids, growth hormones, and antibiotics that have been fed animal byproducts. And what about the pepperoni that is most suspect? Most consumers do not know that the USDA allows two grades of pork: acceptable and non-acceptable. Consumers are only allowed to buy “acceptable”. So, who buys the not acceptable pork, if we can't? You guessed it -. Producers of processed foods. And that's assuming the pepperoni on your pizza or pork on it even came from the United States. It might well be made in a factory in China.
But you'll never know….
NOTE: Please comment and when you do, add your email and I’ll send you my “no fail” pizza recipe…FREE!
TheItalianDiva.com – Ciao! Chef Dedee Royale
“How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from? -----Michael Pollan “The Omnivores Dilemma’. Click or copy and paste in your search bar for more information on how to stay young and healthy.
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