Lucid Nutrition

Not the Tomatoes!!

The FDA is alerting consumers nationwide, a move that ups the alert from just Texas and New Mexico, that a salmonellosis outbreak appears to be linked to consumption of certain types of raw red tomatoes and products containing raw red tomatoes. The bacteria causing the illnesses are Salmonella serotype Saintpaul, an uncommon type of Salmonella.

The specific type and source of tomatoes are under investigation. However, preliminary data suggest that raw red plum, raw red Roma, or raw round red tomatoes are the cause. At this time, FDA is advising U.S. consumers to limit their tomato consumption to those that are not the likely source of this outbreak.

Still deemed safe for consumption are cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, and tomatoes grown at home. (Yay! We have some growing in our garden)

Customers everywhere are advised to: Refrigerate within 2 hours or discard cut, peeled, or cooked tomatoes. Avoid purchasing bruised or damaged tomatoes and discard any that appear spoiled. Thoroughly wash all tomatoes under running water. Keep tomatoes that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, raw seafood, and raw produce items. Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot water and soap when switching between types of food products.

Consumers should also be aware that raw tomatoes are often used in the preparation of fresh salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo, are part of fillings for tortillas, and are used in other dishes.                                    

Restaurants, grocery stores, and food service operators have been advised by the FDA not to offer for sale or service raw red plum, Roma, or red tomatoes and products made from these types of tomatoes unless they are certainly NOT contaminated.

Since mid April, there have been 145 reported cases of salmonellosis nationwide caused by Salmonella Saintpaul, this uncommon form of Salmonella.  At least 23 hospitalizations have been reported. Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections particularly in young children, frail or elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems. Healthy people often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, the organism can get into the bloodstream and produce more severe illnesses.

Since mid-April, 145 persons infected with Salmonella
Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 16 states: Arizona (12 persons), California (1), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Idaho (2), Illinois (17), Indiana (1), Kansas (3), New Mexico (39), Oklahoma (3), Oregon (2), Texas (56 persons), Utah (1), Virginia (2), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (3). These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization. Among the 73 persons who have been interviewed, illnesses began between April 16 and May 27, 2008. Patients range in age from 1 to 82 years; 49% are female. At least 23 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Page last modified: June 7, 2008

Content Source: National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (ZVED)

What is salmonella really?? Salmonella is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria, they are microscopic living creatures that pass from the feces of people or animals to other people or other animals. Yuck. Scary. Careful Eating People.

 

Magic in Eating

excerpt from Bob Makransky’s book Magical Living

We all know that "you are what you eat"; and many of us are becoming aware that this maxim has a spiritual as well as a physical dimension. We know we feel better when we eat well – when our bodies, rather than our minds, dictate what we should or should not eat. Many of us have experienced a complete change in attitudes and outlook on life by simply changing our diets. Whole bodies of thought, such as the Jewish kosher laws and macrobiotics, have evolved to stress the spirituality of food, to emphasize its sacredness.

The "spiritual quality of food" is not a metaphor: food contains a light fiber energy which is as important to our sustenance as vitamins and proteins, but which is not susceptible to chemical analysis. And just as the vitamin and protein content of food can be diminished by processing or overcooking, so too can the light fiber content (energy) of food be diminished by disrespect.

Light fibers can be thought of as good feelings. When we feel good, we can literally glow. When a food plant or animal feels good, it glows.

Love from the Roots

Not all cultures have been so cut off from their true feelings about food as ours is today. Many Native American tribes had a deep awareness that they were a part of what they ate – e.g., the buffalo. They lived with the buffalo, followed the buffalo, prayed to the buffalo. They were one with the buffalo, and thus to them eating was a sacrament. Many modern Native Americans maintain this same attitude of reverence towards maize.

But in America today, we mine food, extract the nutrients out of it, strip it, rape it, and throw it away. What little nourishment for the spirit is left in food, by modern agricultural and processing methods, is completely destroyed by the way we eat it. We use food in a most disrespectful manner – stuffing it in gluttonously whether we are hungry or not, whether it tastes good or not, whether we really want it or not; and then we waste food as if to piss on it. Like sex, we have turned the sacredness of eating from a joyous, spiritual act -- into a source of great shame.

Eat for Nourishment, Gently

An infant doesn’t conceive of his food or his mother as something separate from himself; he doesn’t feel more important than his food, and therefore doesn’t feel disconnected from it. When an infant eats, he mingles with his food: he touches it, he gets to know how it feels. It’s pretty, it satisfies his hunger, it makes him happy. But when an infant first sees adults eat, it makes him feel shame. This is because we adults don’t identify with our food. It’s as if our food is not a part of us, like what we are putting into our mouths is something foreign to ourselves. We attack our food as if it is separate from us, and it is the act of eating which allows us to use it. We bite it off in huge mouthfuls like ravenous hyenas, chew it and swallow it with gulps of contempt. We come together in great rituals like Thanksgiving and Christmas in which we engage in orgies of gluttony and wastefulness to jointly validate our shame, all the while calling it glory. And that lie makes us even more ashamed; so we lie about that one too, and call it glory. And so on. And nobody will look at what they are really feeling, because if being pigs has brought us glory, why look at what pigs we are?

Respect your Food

While it is true that the original light fiber energy in food can be vitiated by disrespect anywhere along the line – in handling, processing, cooking, or eating – it is also true that light fiber energy, being more flexible than vitamins or proteins, can be restored to food by respecting it and treating it as sacred – by sort of ritualizing the activities connected with it.

First of all, it’s important that you try to grow some of your own food, even if it is only a couple of pots of herbs or jars of sprouts grown on a window shelf. Try to throw in at least a pinch of homegrown herbs or sprouts into every meal you cook (not necessarily into every dish, but every meal). Can you visualize yourself casting fibers of light (positive energy) into the food as you add your home-grown herbs or produce? Can you, in your own way, bless your key, staple ingredients – salt, flour, sugar, honey, etc?

Be a Happy Cook

Observe that you should never be in a bad mood when you cook, nor must you eat food cooked by someone who is in a bad mood, or even an indifferent one. A burger from a McDonald’s where the employees are a light, happy bunch can actually be better for you than a plate of organic brown rice from a vegetarian restaurant where the cook is bored or is angry at the manager.

You can easily tell when food has bad vibes. It’s not that it tastes bad per se; rather, it feels wrong or out of place in your mouth – there’s no incentive to chew it and swallow it. Whenever you get a feeling like this about something you are eating, spit it out. Don’t swallow it, not even to be polite. Much processed, convenience food tastes like this – bland, insipid, effete, enervated – but people get so used to this kind of food that they can’t tell the difference any more. They just assume that feeling lousy all the time is how you’re supposed to feel, and they cease to notice that it's their food which is bringing them down.

Finally, talk to your food. Thank it as if it were alive and could understand you. Not a long conversation, just a simple acknowledgment that you are aware you are in the presence of something that is worthy of your respect, and from whom you wish a favor. You wouldn’t ask a human being for a favor in a surly, disrespectful manner. On the contrary, you would ask humbly and respectfully, and feel gratitude for the favor when granted.

And this is how you must address your food: take small bites, chew it slowly and mindfully, eat in silence paying attention to the act of eating, and never eat until you are full.

Barack Obama on Food

Read the interview of Barack Obama by Ari LeVaux. Discussion includes why he voted for the Farm Bill, his thoughts on child obesity, the documentary film The Real Dirt on Farmer John (which Obama has yet to see), the farm-to-school program, switchgrass, and how he plans to direct the EPA when he is elected president. Plus, Obama's Family Chili Recipe. Yum.