Food Sampler

Here are some interesting food related news items that I came across:

1. Super Bowl is coming up. That means lots of chips and dips. A microbiology professor at Clemson University has performed a neat study and found that "double-dipping" results in the transfer of approximately 10,000 bacteria from each person's mouth to dip. That's pretty disgusting. Don't double-dip on Sunday!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dining/30curious.html?em&ex=1201842000&en=456f62e1339d9bd5&ei=5087%0A

2. My mom always used to tell me to use cold water, even when planning to boil it. I used to wonder why not use hot water from the tap...it should boil quicker since its already hot. Well, it appears that hot water allows more contaminants to dissolve in the water. Boiling doesn't help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/health/29real.html?em&ex=1201842000&en=ab43b4a602dc318b&ei=5087%0A

3. More abuse of animals...this time cows (see my piece on Tyson Chickens a few weeks ago). Downed cows were administered repeated electric shocks. Workers were kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up their noses to force them to their feet for slaughter. There is a short video of the cruelity in this link along with the full story.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/30/undercover.slaughter.video/index.html

4. OK, I know this isn't really "food" (although some people do eat kidneys), but this story is just amazing, shocking, and sad. There are a ring of surgeons, nurses, and paramedics at 4 hospitals in India who are running an illegal transplant ring. Basically, they lure in poor Indians for "job interviews", drug them up, operate on them and take out one kidney. The poor unsuspecting soul wakes up sans a kidney. It's estimated they've stolen about 500 kidneys and sold them to rich Indians. Unbelievable. We have a shortage of kidney donors, but this is not the way to remedy the situation!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/world/asia/30kidney.html?ref=health