Newsday

Hiya!!! Happy Summer to all. I am neglecting SMACK! just a wee bit in an effort to be more present and enjoy whatever my summer days bring my way. Like sinus infections.

Anyhoo, pretty big article in today's Washington Post about phthalates in the American diet. It's an interesting read b/c it notes how alarmed parents and politicians were a few years back when the chemicals were found in toddler toys made overseas (isn't EVERYTHING made overseas?!?!?!) so swift action was taken and everyone promptly went on with their lives.

Some researchers have since found crazy too-high levels of phthalates in poultry and high fat dairy products. So much for that chicken alfredo I had last night for dinner.

The recommendations, of course, are to avoid eating too much of these offensive food stuffs in your diet. But don't toddlers need high fat dairy for brain development? Full fat yogurt and whole milk for the under-2 set were a real thing a while back, as were omega-3s in pregnancy, because all that fat would make you pop out a genius. 

But oops, the pollutants are hormone disruptors and our oceans are nothing but a toxic soup so no more eating because there really is no such thing as a healthy diet.

Hope you are all having a GREAT summer!! Anyone try a new mineral sunscreen that they love??? Do tell! I will try to get some posts going, so if you need a break from all that grilling and drinking and swimming and FUN, come visit!!

Later gator,
Jazzy

Playing catch up

Another unexplained absence, another post spent groveling...I'm realizing that I just may not be that blogger who can churn out content in a smooth, seemingly effortless frequency. That's not me. At least not right now. And that's ok. Summer's bearing down, and I am fighting the urge to just completely check out. It's a condition of growing up in a place where summer is THE season. Long days, warm nights, freedom to go and do and spend as you please. Right, I'm not a teenager anymore. But I am a person, doing the best she can with this wonderfully imperfect thing called a blog, and that other wonderfully imperfect thing called life. Thanks for understanding.

Back to it...Panera has been making big headlines -- and lots of them -- this week with its announcement to dump all food additives from its menu by 2016. That includes artificial colorants, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives. And that yoga mat stuff that, months later, still has Subway eating sh*t.

The news was picked up nationally by CBS Moneywatch, "Good Morning America", USA TODAY and even across the pond by The Guardian. More than one piece highlighted the announcement as part of the company's larger 'Food Policy' or vision for menu transparency and responsible corporate citizenship.

From a PR perspective, the whole thing is pretty win-win for Panera. The company gets a lot of good press and positions itself proactively, instead of waiting for some Internet whistle-blower to point out the junky ingredients in its menu items. The company avoids befalling the same public opinion fate as Subway while simultaneously being aligned with the consumer movement to improve the quality of faster-food chain restaurant menus.

It's good play, and I commend whichever big agency is in charge of Panera's PR game. That being said, what are we missing? What ISN'T Panera telling us? I'm too jaded and cynical a person to take any corporate messaging on its face anymore. So what gives, Panera, huh? What are you trying to clean up with this little campaign here?

Always reading between the lines,
Jazzy

Trust issues

Subway. Yesterday the company announced that it was eliminating a chemical from its bread recipe that also appears in shoe soles and yoga mats. Here's the news story on ABC.com.

Stories like these are why I have trust issues. Seriously, what the EFF is in our food?? 

The FDA calls azodicarbonamide, the chemical in question, a 'dough strengthener and conditioner' that's used as an additive in breads and other baked goods. Apparently it's also what gives your sneakers their swish or zig.

Why, Subway, WHY? 

I am curious to know what other companies regularly use azodicarbonamide in their baked goods. A little scared, too. I mean, who knows? Where else is this chemical -- and others like it -- hiding in our pantries? I don't make a lot of bread. In fact, I've never made bread without the aid of a bread maker. And I certainly have never made bread with recipes that include SHOE RUBBER.

What do you make of the Subway announcement, or the effort of consumer activism behind it?

Happy Friday,
Jazzy

From the tap

Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert had a field day last night with the drinking water contamination in West Virginia. If you missed their opening bits, enjoy them here:






Huh. We're not doing any gloating here, though, not with 300,000 people in and around Charleston going without clean drinking water. Because Freedom Industries built their chemical storage tanks upstream from a major water treatment plant. And then decided that regular inspections weren't really worthwhile. What were you doing in 1991? That's the last time these tanks were inspected. TWENTY THREE years ago. Jesus I'm old.

CNN has a pretty decent piece about the whole fiasco here. My favorite parts? This line: "Two U.S. congressmen say the spill exposes regulatory gaps in the country's chemical control laws." Ya think? But thank you, Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) for pointing it out anyway. Because sometimes, recognizing what's terribly obvious can be the hardest thing of all.

And the bit where the head of WV Department of Environmental Protection (hahahahahaha) Randy Huffman says, "The materials they were storing there is not a hazardous material." Pathetic grammatical errors aside, I think the residents of the Charleston area who are puking and sh*tting their guts out would disagree.

I'm going to watch the fallout of this disaster. We'll see what change comes of it, since there are chemical AND energy companies with interests here. If nothing else, John Grisham's next novel just wrote itself.

Yours,
Jazzy

SMACK! Reviews: PaperStone & Epicurean cutting boards

I'm trying to reduce the amount of plastic in my life. Some of it's non-negotiable, like my appliances and my vehicle, and some of it I can't control, like nearly all the packaging of everything, but some of it I can kick to the curb.

The kitchen's a great place to start. About a month ago I wrote this post about my cutlery and the Boos Block maple cutting board that I decided was a good investment. Since then I've been on the prowl for new cutting boards, checking out what looks good to replace my cheap plastic ones.

This is by no means a new pursuit; Beth Terry over at My Plastic Free Life wrote about this very thing back in 2007. And you know what? Not a whole lot has changed in 6 years. 

My local HomeGoods had a decent selection of boards from Epicurean and PaperStone boards. I hadn't yet read Beth's post, so I bought into the idea of a dishwasher-safe product that was made from recycled paper and decided to give each one a try. 

(Remember that we don't grade things anymore here at SMACK! but I will stay true to my opinionated, judgmental roots to give you the dish. Here we go.)

Epicurean has been around for about 10 years, making cutting boards and other food prep tools for residential and commercial kitchens. They market their home kitchen items as sustainably sourced, made in the USA. Here's some other language from the website:

"Our signature materials is made with multiple layers of Forest stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood fibers, compressed with a food-safe resign. We also have introduced a line of Eco Plastic products that utilize 100% post-consumer recycled milk jugs. All of our products are made in the USA."

I like that the company has found a use for old milk jugs, but the fact that they've added plastic cutting boards to their product lineup feels like selling out to me. I thought the whole point was to make professional-grade tools for the home cook using natural materials?

Anyway, I picked up a non-slip board in natural with removable silicone corners. I'm thinking it's an older version, since I didn't see the exact one on the website, but no matter. The size and heft of the board are nice; easy to lift and move around the kitchen, whether for food transfer or during cleanup. The board is smooth and does seemingly well under a sharp knife. The board will take scratches (my knives are freshly sharpened) but they aren't super noticeable, perhaps because it's a solid material (as opposed to veneers). 

The same more or less goes for the PaperStone Yellowstone Gripper board that I picked out, this one a smaller size (like a cheese board) in a darker "Pine Cone" brown. Instead of silicone corners, PaperStone uses rubberized feet. The board would be reversible, for use on both sides, if not for the really annoying sticker that won't come off! 

Seriously, it's going to take a lot of elbow grease to get this thing off. Again, I'm thinking it's because the board has probably been sitting in a warehouse somewhere for years upon years, giving the adhesive time to really set. I can't believe PaperStone would purposefully label a product that renders half of it useless. (Perhaps not. Apparently there are a slew of complaints on Amazon about the sticker.)

PaperStone markets its boards similarly to Epicurean: recycled materials, FSC certified, petroleum-free. I thought the petro-free was a good choice, until I read some of the more informative comments in Beth Terry's post. In super fine print, PaperStone divulges that the boards are made with engineered phenolic resins. A quick Google or Wikipedia search will point you to the fact that phenolic resins are actually formaldehyde-based. Yuk.

All in all, I like my wood-fiber cutting boards. I like the idea of them, I like how they work, I like the low maintenance. But the presence of formaldehyde is disconcerting. My search for chemical-free prep surface clearly isn't over.

Back to the drawing board,
Jazzy

Trick or Treat

Halloween already seems like ages ago, doesn't it? Did you dress up? I will say that I did not, since popping on a light-up devil headband for passing out candy doesn't really count. But last year, a couple rounds into chemo, hubs dragged me out of the house to a friend's annual bash, and we dressed up as...each other. It was a riot. I was already bald at that point, so I only had to put on one of his fave hats and ratty sweatshirt and his work ID and was good to go. His getup was a little more effort, what with wearing my wig and a pair of my capris and enduring the added torture of being accessorized. But he was such a good sport and we had a well-deserved, much-needed, long-overdue laugh with our friends about the whole thing.

I threw around the idea of posting something about the toxic hazards of face paint and Halloween makeup, but didn't get any research done and last week was a fiasco and it seemed really party-pooper to sh*t on a fun holiday like Halloween. Then I saw a segment aired last week on the Today Show about artificial dyes in candy and didn't feel so bad. 

(the embed video feature was being a jerk, so click on the photo for the link)

Whether or not you agree with this mom, there is no denying that artificial dyes have no place in our food or our bodies. Seriously, Skittles? Now I just wonder if she knows to lay off the blusher. Yours in holiday Grinchy-ness, Jazzy

You are what you eat

Was freaking out a little as I had nothing lined up for today's post, but then last night's dinner came to the rescue!

USA Today ran this story Wednesday, as part of their breast cancer awareness coverage, about BPA in canned food. It was SO timely, as I had just pencilled in a great homemade soup for Wednesday's dinner and, yep, it's chock full of canned ingredients.

The recipe for this great Tuscan white bean and sausage soup came from Pinterest, of course, and I made it for the first time a few weeks ago. It was WONDERFUL. Tasty, hearty, just perfect for Fall. Super easy to make, too, so it got a quick spot on my list of go-to dinner recipes.

In light of the USA Today piece and last week's NYT article about arsenic in poultry, I was determined to make this batch of soup WITHOUT the side of toxic. So I paid nearly $10 for about a pound of two kinds of organic Italian sausage (chicken and pork, as opposed to the Italian-seasoned turkey sausage I'd used the first time around). I also decided to spring for BPA-free packaging for the canned tomatoes and found just the size I needed from Muir Glen. The tomatoes cost $1.99 -- about double their non-organic counterpart (in what is presumably a BPA-lined can). 

A couple things that I can't stand here. First, I can't shake the feeling like I can't trust where my food comes from. Second, there is no value in buying food that is tainted. Gone are the days of buying a case of tomatoes at my local warehouse club because they seemed to be such a good value. The message here is that you can pay with your wallet or you can pay with your health.

My second take on the Tuscan Autumn Soup was definitely cleaner than the first time around, but sadly (or ironically?), we preferred the first version.

In the meantime, consumers need to take it upon themselves to pressure food companies to use BPA alternatives in their packaging. And pressure supermarkets to price better, healthier options in a more consumer-friendly manner. There's no such thing as cheap food anymore.

-- Jazzy

Arsenic & Old Lace

Have you seen this news from the FDA, that it's finally decided arsenic ISN'T such a good thing in our food supply? The New York Times reported last week that the FDA has pulled approval for 3 of 4 drugs (all containing arsenic) commonly used in poultry and pig feeds. Mmm, mmm, mmm!!

There almost are no words...but don't worry, I'll find some and use them.

It may take a few minutes.

Or a bit longer...

Actually, I am just at a total loss here. Arsenic. In my chicken. Here I am, trying to make good choices, to eat healthier, leaner proteins to go with my colorful veggies, and...arsenic.

Needless to say, this story is just a field day for conspiracy theorists (so few in number that they are on the Internet). An article from NPR back in May framed out a lot of the context to the issue, the pharma companies involved, why it matters. I found it very helpful to learning  how all this came to be. But I'm still pretty much dumbfounded by the whole thing.

So naive, Jazzy. So. Naive.

There was a line about organic chicken not being an issue, I guess because organic poultry farms don't use poison in their animal feeds. What a wild idea!!

Suffice it to say that I will be buying organic meats whenever possible for now on. Arsenic is NOT welcome at my dinner table.

Yours in better eating,
Jazzy

Fizzy Friday

Y'all have a SodaStream out there? I got one as a birthday gift a few years back, and I pretty well love the thing. I started drinking seltzer as an adult, only flavored, but now freshly carbonated plain seltzer from my SodaStream is easily one of my favorite refreshing drinks.

We still use the original bottles that came with the carbonator, each of which carry this warning: "UNSAFE IF CLEANED IN DISHWASHER." And "Not Dishwasher Safe! Do Not Use After 9/2013."

Why is that? The cynic/skeptic that I am these days needed to find out.

Here's what the SodaStream website says about the bottles:

"SodaStream produces and markets specially designed, high pressure-resistant bottles for use with our drink makers. Our long-life reusable bottles have a lifespan of 3 years. The bottle’s hermetically sealed cap keeps carbonated soft drinks fresh and fizzy longer than store-bought carbonated beverages. Our latest SodaStream bottle developments include the dishwasher-proof PEN bottles and an attractive glass carafe.SodaStream bottles are BPA-free and do not use any polycarbonate materials or materials that produce phthalates or PCBs, ensuring an eco friendly drinks maker."

Sooooo, by 'specially designed' you mean a gimic, right? Maybe not, since the bottles withstand repeated pressure from the carbonator. BUT! What is it that makes the bottles unsuitable for dishwasher cleaning?

Alicia over at TheSoftLanding looked into the very same issue, and it turns out that the bottles are made from PET. Yup, the same plastic as single-use water and soda bottles. And Lipton's stupid pyramid tea bags. Huh?

Pretty ironic for a company that does a lot of plastic bashing. Right at the top of the SodaStream website is this wonky ticker thing that counts off how many bottles from which the company is saving the world. As of this writing it was claiming to have saved the equivalent of more than 3 billion plastic bottles. Where do they come up with this stuff?

SodaStream's anti-plastic bottle message isn't well-received everywhere. Earlier this year, the company caught some heat from none other than PlasticsNews.com, which was all too happy to throw SodaStream under the bus for knocking its plastic bros. Drama!

SodaStream now offers dishwasher-safe plastic bottles and glass carafes. I'll check them out next week, since my bottles will turn into pumpkins at 11:59 on Sept 30.

Have a GREAT weekend!!

-- Jazzy

Lipton's Canned Response

Last week I decided to open up a can of whoop-ass on Lipton for making tea bags out of plastic. If you didn't see it yesterday, you can read the text of my complaint here.

So whaddya know, Lipton got back to me very promptly. On the weekend no less! Here's what they said:

"Thank you for contacting us. 

We do apologize for the experience you reported concerning our Lipton Tea Tea Pyramid.  

When developing our packaging, many factors are taken into consideration, including ease of use as well as overall economic and environmental benefits. We design our packages to provide safe, convenient and attractive protection.

Our goal is to create all of our packages to meet or exceed consumer expectations for both performance and quality. Any changes in our packaging are based on extensive consumer research.

Please be assured that we value your comments and will pass them along to the appropriate staff. We sincerely appreciate your taking the time to contact us and we are sending a complimentary coupon flyer to you via US Postal Mail which you should receive within 7-10 business days. 

Sincerely,
Your friends at Lipton"

First, does anyone else feel like they've just had a lobotomy, or is it just me? That corporate verbiage is just awful. Second, what's with the line about "...safe, convenient and attractive protection." Protection from what, exactly? The tea?!?!?! Sounds like something you'd hear from Trojan, not Lipton.

And, uh, last time I checked, there were absolutely ZERO environmental benefits to converting a previously biodegradable product into a plastic one.

I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no tolerance for this kind of bullish*t. Lipton is STUPID.

But you know what? It's hump day! Halfway to the weekend!
-- Jazzy

Complaint Dept

If you haven't checked it out, the 'Smack Back!' tab lists consumer relations contacts and links for many major retail brands. I encourage all SMACK! readers to, at one point or another, pen a letter of complaint or support to a business about their products or services. Even if you never send the letter, it's a great exercise in putting a voice to your solid instincts and opinions.

So I took my own advice! Friday's column was heavy on the 'tude over these stupid little tea pyramid things that Lipton makes out of PLASTIC. I decided to channel my anger -- the pen is mightier than the sword, as they say.

Frustrated Friday

Sorry for the late post. A little tense today. I could really use an hour of yoga, high dose of dark chocolate, a roll in the hay? all of the above? Something, ANYTHING for stress relief.