healthy school lunches
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cafeteria food in schools
"School Food Environments and Practices Affect Dietary Behaviors of US Public School Children" in Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2009)
"To improve children's diet and reduce obesity continued changes to school food environments and practices are essential. Removing sugar-sweetened beverages from school food stores and snack bars, improving à la carte choices, and reducing the frequency of offering french fries merit testing as strategies to reduce energy from low-nutrient, energy-dense foods at school."
Free for all: fixing school food in America by Janet Poppendieck
"What about the toxic burden from pesticides and fertilizers used in the production of the preponderance of fruits and vegetables served in schools that are not organically grown? What about the hormones in the milk and meat? What about the unknown consequences of ingesting modeified organisms (GMOs)?" (p. 132)
Lunch Wars: How to Start a School Food Revolution and Win the Battle for Our Children's Health,
Amy Kalafa (2011) [preview with no page numbers]
"I hadn't actually been in a public school lunchroom in years, so one of the first places I filmed was my daughter-s middle school cafeteria. Reading the labels on the many packaged products for sale confirmed my worst suspicons: the school cfeteria was a microcosm of American fake food culture. Healthy-sounding products like Nutri-Grain bars had high fructose corn syrup listed as one of the first ingredients (well hidden under a foil flap that you had to fold down to read the tiny print!). The low-fat yogurt also had high fructose corn syrup, aspartame (artifical sweetener), artificial flavoring, and coloring. ... I was truly shocked to discover that she had been purchasing fries, Rice Krispies Treats, Pop-Tarts, and soft drinks on a daily basis."
"For years, I lived in denial, thinking that my kids were immune to all the advertising and promotion because we ate well at home. When I went to the middle school cafeteria to film there and learned that my daughter had been eating junk food nearly every day, I realized that the school was actually encouraging this behavior, making junk food socially acceptable. Although they were teaching so-called proper nutrition in health class, the message in the cafeteria was 'anything goes'. A conversation with the school's then-superintendent confirmed that indeed, he found no contradiction in the messaging because, he insisted, it was not the school district's responsibility to feed the kids, just to educate them."
"Case Study: Aphthous Ulcers in a 14-Year-Old Girl" in Continuing Nursing Education (2011)
"Briana is unable to associate any particular foods with abdominal discomfort or diarrhea. She usually enjoys a varied diet. She has not been treated with antibiotics in the past year. Her mother denies any foreign travel. The family usually eats at a restaurant once every 2 weeks, and Briana eats lunch prepared by the school cafeteria." [Italics mind.]
Showing posts with label processed foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label processed foods. Show all posts
12.6.11
Does carrageenan worsen Crohn's?
Carageenan explained in Wikipedia- extracted from red seaweed (Rhodophyceae family)
- sulphated
- oligosaccharide (polymeric carbohydrate)
- in the food industry, carrageenans are used as stabilizers, thickners, texturizers, emulsifiers, gelation, suspension, water binding, texture enhancers
- processed foods with carrageenan include: deli meat, hams, chocolate milk, ice cream, sour cream, butter milk, cottage cheese, egg nog, evaporated milk, soy milk, infant formula, water gel, puddings, flan, pie fillings, toaster pastries, fruit toppings, frust syrups, fruit strips, cheese sauces, cake glazes, batters, frozen dough (see Ingredients Solutions for more info)
- kappa-carrageenan has properties of gel and is used in breading and batter
- kappa2-carrageenan has properties of gelling and thickening and is used primarily for milk
- lambda carrageenan has binding properties, helps to retain moisture, and contributes to viscosity and is used in sweet doughs and to thicken dairy products
- iota carrageenan has gel properties and is used in fruit products
- carrageenan degrades with high heat and acidity
- degraded carrageenan is called polygeenan
" Review of these data demonstrated that exposure to undegraded as well as to degraded carrageenan was associated with the occurrence of intestinal ulcerations and neoplasms. This association may be attributed to contamination of undegraded carrageenan by components of low molecular weight, spontaneous metabolism of undegraded carrageenan by acid hydrolysis under conditions of normal digestion, or the interactions with intestinal bacteria. ... Because of the acknowledged carcinogenic properties of degraded carrageenan in animal models and the cancer-promoting effects of undegraded carrageenan in experimental models, the widespread use of carrageenan in the Western diet should be reconsidered." [emphases mine]
c.f. "A critical review of the toxicological effects of carrageenan and processed eucheuma seaweed on the gastrointestinal tract", Cohen in Crit Rev Toxicol (2002)
"Carrageenan is not degraded to any extent in the gastrointestinal tract and is not absorbed from it in species examined, such as rodents, dogs, and non-human primates. Systemically administered carrageenan has been reported to have a variety of effects, particularly on the immune system, but these are not pertinent to orally administered carrageenan. The substance poligeenan (formerly referred to as degraded carrageenan) is not a food additive. It exhibits toxicological properties at high doses that do not occur with the food additive carrageenan. In-long term bioassays, carrageenan has not been found to be carcinogenic, and there is no credible evidence supporting a carcinogenic effect or a tumor-promoting effect on the colon in rodents. Also, like many dietary fibers, there is significant cecal enlargement in rodents when it is administered at high doses, but this does not appear to be associated with any toxicological consequences to the rodent. Many toxicological studies on carrageenan have involved administration at doses in excess of today's standards for dietary feeding levels in bioassays, and they are orders of magnitude in excess of those to which humans are exposed."
"Carrageenan: Response", Tobacman, Environmental Health Perspectives (2002)
"It is difficult to recognize a wolf in sheep's clothing. This seems to be the situation with regard to carrageenan. ... Extensive experimental data have demonstrated that a) degraded carrageenan produces neoplasms and ulcerations in animal models; b) acid hydrolysis, such as occurs in the stomach, leads to the production of degraded carrageenan from food-grade carrageenan; and c) food-grade carrageenan contains significant amounts of degraded carrageenan. Human consumption of carrageenan has been increasing steadily in the United States in the 20th century."
"A 90-day dietary study on kappa carrageenan with emphasis on the gastrointestinal tract", Weiner et al. in Food Chem Toxicol (2007)
"Clinical signs were limited to soft feces in high dose rats and to a lesser extent in low dose rats. There were no treatment-related effects on body weights, urinalysis, hematology or clinical chemistry parameters, or on organ weights or ophthalmic, macroscopic or microscopic findings."
"Degraded carrageenan causing colitis in rats induces TNF secretion and ICAM-1 upregulation in monocytes through NF-kappaB activation" in PLoS One (2010)
From Abstract: "Carrageenan (CGN) is a high molecular weight sulphated polysaccharide derived from red seaweeds. In rodents, its degraded forms (dCGN) can induce intestinal inflammation associated with macrophage recruitment and activation. ... These data strongly suggest that the degraded forms of CGN have a pronounced effect on monocytes, characteristic of an inflammatory phenotype." [emphasis mine]
"All rats developed diarrhea during degraded carrageenan administration and gross evidence of blood was frequently detected in the stools. ... Histological examination revealed various degrees of mucosal inflammation. ... More severe mucosal injuries including ulceration, hyperplastic epithelium, crypt distortion and a strong macrophage infiltration, were observed in the 40 kDa dCGN-treated rats. ... Treatment with dCGN also induced a strong aggregation of monocytes, detected by phase contrast inverse microscopy (Fig. 5). Although this effect was easily observed in monocytes incubated with the 10 kDa dCGN (Fig. 5B), a more robust cell aggregation was observed in monocytes incubated with the 40 kDa dCGN. ... Although native form CGN (200–800 kDa) has been declared harmless to humans [8], its degraded forms (<50 kDa), also known as poligeenan, are widely used to induce colitis in rodents [3]–[5]. These degraded CGN may also have a possible carcinogenic effect [4], [6]–[8]; however this is still controversial. ... it is probable that some dCGN are produced by acid hydrolysis during gastric digestion [9], [10] or interaction with intestinal bacteria [11], [12]. Thus, understanding the mechanisms of dCGN-induced bowel inflammation is of great importance. In this report, we have analyzed the role of human monocytes (PBM and THP-1) in dCGN-induced inflammation. ... Preliminary in vivo studies in rats treated with dCGN revealed significant shortening of the large intestine associated with an inflammatory state, i.e. strong infiltration of macrophages to the intestinal mucosa similar to DSS-induced inflammation. ... These results suggest that monocytes might produce cytokines associated with activation into macrophages in response to dCGN. ... [I]t is possible that TLR4 is activated by dCGN to induce cytokine secretion by monocytes. ... Thus, degraded CGN clearly can activate monocytes to express an increased number of ICAM-1 adhesion molecules, therefore being capable of creating the conditions characteristic of Crohn's disease symptomatology, i.e. PBM accumulation and MGC formation. ... We presume that the differential effects of 10 and 40 kDa dCGN to induce these effects on monocytes are tightly linked to their capacity to induce inflammation in vivo. However, in vivo, macrophages do not come in direct contact with the intestinal lumen and are separated by the epithelial barrier. The way by which dCGN may leave the intestinal lumen and cross the epithelial barrier to reach the macrophages is an intriguing open question. One possible explanation resides in the potential of dCGN to “induce” cellular and paracellular injurious effects at the intestinal epithelial cell monolayer. ... These results suggest that, although CGN is widely used as a food additive, its degraded forms have an important effect on monocytes characteristic of an inflammatory phenotype." [emphases mine]
Carrageenan and the Acceptance of Food Additive Toxicity, 1950-2000 by Mariel Wolfson (2008), published on SCD Recipes
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